Arizona Diamondbacks 20th Anniversary Team: Shortstop

The sixth installment of the Snake Pit fan vote for the Diamondbacks 20th anniversary team will be the shortstop position. Two players will be up for a vote: one was a homegrown player that was a solid bat and one of the smoothest defenders I’ve seen at shortstop and the other was a speedster who had a knack for big hits.

Stephen Drew: Drafted by the Diamondbacks in 2004, Drew quickly rose up the farm system and debuted in 2006. Drew wasn’t flashy but he was consistently good with the Diamondbacks with the glove and some years struggled with the bat. Overall he was one of the best players in franchise history despite a very rocky exit in 2012. Every now and then Drew would flash game breaking ability, but overall would eventually drop to being a solid contributor in every phase of the game.

Tony Womack: I think Womack will end up getting more votes than he should due to the sheer number of big hits in his Dbacks career. The Diamondbacks picked up Womack from Pittsburgh in a trade in 1999 and he immediately made his impact on the bases that year, setting the franchise record in steals. Womack’s list of big hits includes an inside the park grand slam, a grand slam on Father’s Day in 2001 after his father passed away, and the game-tying hit of Game 7 of the World Series off Mariano Rivera.

Nick Ahmed: The Diamondbacks picked up Ahmed in a trade after the 2013 season and he got his first cup of coffee in 2014. Ahmed is a slick-fielding shortstop that doesn’t have much value in the bat but almost daily made a jaw-dropping play to help the Dbacks try to win a game. Unfortunately Ahmed seems to be prone to catastrophic injury, as he’s suffered two hip injuries that required surgery and broke a hand in his short career.

Chris Owings: Owings was a sandwich round pick in 2009 and debuted in 2013. Owings had won the SS job in 2014, but a shoulder injury that lingered for another season ended up in him losing the job to Ahmed. Owings wasn’t much for patience, but always possessed solid batted ball skills when he did make contact. Like Ahmed, Owings has had his run of injuries with the shoulder injury, plantar fasciitis, and a broken finger.