Snake Bytes, 2/22: It’s so delicious and moist...

Team news

[Arizona Sports] Diamondbacks' David Peralta embracing leadership role - It’s easy to see why Peralta embraces each and every day he has playing baseball at this level. And he clearly loves being in the Valley. “I’m glad that I’m still here,” he said. “And I want to be here for the rest of my career. I mean, I have to control what I can control, but for sure I’m going to do my best to help everybody else to feel like a family. Because this is who we are. We’re a big family and we have to make everybody – all the new people that are here – feel the same way.”

[The Athletic] Diamondbacks president Derrick Hall on Manny Machado, Paul Goldschmidt and Chase Field - “I think the teams that are in on certain free agents have the ability to do so. We just wouldn’t at this time be able to because of the commitments that we already have. When you have a young team, you just have to plan accordingly, knowing that you’re going to end up paying gradually more for those players as they get more and more service time... We just have to budget differently than a team that has a very low payroll or one that’s in a larger market. It would not have been appropriate for us to focus on free-agent players who are going to demand a very high or long-term deal right now.”

[dbacks.com] Marte showing he’s got tools to play outfield - Ask [Dave] McKay about his work this week with Ketel Marte, whom the D-backs are transitioning from second base/shortstop to center field, and his enthusiasm for the project is obvious. “He looks like he’s going to be fun to work with,” McKay said. “I get real excited about this guy because there’s a lot to work with. He’s got good speed, he’s smart, he listens. We need some time to where he gets real comfortable. No one could just jump into something like that and feel real comfortable.”

[Arizona Sports] Hall: D-backs focused on Chase Field, far from determining future home - While the agreement also gave the Diamondbacks the ability to begin searching for future stadium options around the county without penalty, the team has yet to ramp up the process of looking at alternatives, president Derrick Hall said Thursday. “Way too early, in its infancy,” he told Doug & Wolf. “We haven’t even really focused on anything other than Chase Field because we’ve been so focused on getting the stadium ready for the season, with the new surface, making sure we know what we’re doing from a booking standpoint. So it’s all new to us.”

[dbacks.com] D-backs CEO talks Goldy trade, ballpark options - On season ticket sales for this year: “I’d say right now they’re about even to where we were last year. But again, I give a lot of that credit to the schedule. It’s a very impressive schedule and anytime you can announce that you’re going to have Yankees and Red Sox here along with weekends with Cubs and Dodgers that’s going to keep your retention up higher and it’s also going generate a lot of single-game sales, which we haven’t even gotten to yet. I could see single game’s going at a much faster pace than last year.”

[AZ Central] Diamondbacks say new Chase Field surface could play slower - “Just being on it for one day, I felt like it may have been a little slower (than grass),” shortstop Nick Ahmed said. “It was less bouncy than I expected it to be. Just playing on a bunch of other turf fields in the past, which have been very bouncy, it felt like the hops were fairly normalized compared to grass. It just felt a little slower.” Said first baseman Jake Lamb: “The ball doesn’t come up as much as you’d expect. I’ve never played on that kind of turf. I grew up playing on turf — my college field is turf, any field in Seattle is turf — but that’s like that rubber turf or the AstroTurf. There’s not a big difference between (the new surface and) grass. … (If anything) it’s a tick slower.”

[Eventbrite] ARCHIEPALOOZA Tickets, Sun, Mar 17, 2019 at 5:00 PM - Come join Arizona Diamondback's Pitcher, Archie Bradley, on St. Patrick's Day at Lumber Jaxes in Tempe, as he hosts his inaugural community fundraising event - ArchiePalooza! A midst all the Spring Training festivities, ArchiePalooza is a can't miss event! At ArchiePalooza you can enjoy a street festival, games, food, drinks, music, prizes, appearances by MLB players and other local celebrities, plus much much more! ArchiePalooza is a FREE event for anyone 21+ years of age to attend, but is limited to 400 spots (RSVP required)

And, elsewhere...

[AZ Central] Rain spoils Cactus League spring training opener Mariners Athletics - The spring training season started with a splash. Just not the kind fans hoped for. In the first major league exhibition game of the year, the Seattle Mariners and Oakland Athletics were rained out Thursday. The Mariners roughed up Jerry Blevins and led 5-0 in the middle of the second inning when it was called — so in a game where the stats don’t count, they really won’t count. “We have our feet wet now, literally,” Athletics manager Bob Melvin said.

[InsideTheGame] Breakdancing among four sports proposed for Olympic Games inclusion by Paris 2024 - Breakdancing, sport climbing, skateboarding and surfing have been put forward for inclusion as additional sports on the programme for the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, it was announced today. The four sports are all set to feature at the Games in the French capital pending final approval from the International Olympic Committee (IOC)... Today's announcement from Paris 2024 deals a blow to sports such as baseball/softball and karate - the other two extra sports on the Tokyo 2020 programme

[Reddit] 2019 Baseball Movie March Madness Challenge - This is a tournament pitting the 32 greatest baseball movies of all time against each other. Polls are open now to decide the winners of the first-round match-ups, who will progress into the sweet 16. Further knockouts will determine... Well, if there’s any justice in this world, which film comes second to ‘The Natural’ #FightMe