Team news

[MLB Trade Rumors] D-Backs Outlook Chat - "Where should I look for another starter, 3B, and the pen?" Yeah I think Miami’s a decent fit if they want to go back to that well. They have some surplus starting pitching, could use outfield help (particularly someone who could play CF) I don’t think either of Thomas or McCarthy is headlining a deal for Pablo, but I could see something like swapping McCarthy for Braxton Garrett As far as third base goes, the free agent market is terrible. There are going to be some non-tenders, probably Jeimer Candelario for instance.

[AP] Varsho, Arozarena, Gonsolin make MLB arbitration cutoff - Arizona catcher Daulton Varsho was the last of 30 players who made the cutoff for salary arbitration, which was set at 2 years, 128 days of major league service, up from 2 years, 116 days last offseason. Varsho hit .235 with 27 homers and 74 RBIs this year and made $721,700. By becoming eligible for arbitation, he likely will get a salary of more than $2 million rather than about $750,000.

[Arizona Sports] Arizona Diamondbacks’ RHP Zac Gallen named finalist for NL Outstanding Pitcher - Gallen was voted a finalist for the National League Outstanding Pitcher Award by fellow MLB players. The 27-year-old D-backs ace joins Miami Marlins right-hander Sandy Alcantara and Los Angeles Dodgers southpaw Julio Urias as the three finalists. Across 31 starts, the righty Gallen posted career bests with a 2.54 ERA, 4.3 FanGraphs’ wins above replacement and a .185 batting average against. While he struck out nearly one fewer hitter per nine innings compared to 2021, he struck out a career best 4.1 per walk.

[SI] Diamondbacks in the Fourth Week of the Arizona Fall League - The biggest change is Jordan Lawlar being replaced on the roster by Camden Duzenack. Duzenack, 27, is a career .240/.305/.404 hitter in 431 minor league games since being drafted by the Diamondbacks out of Dallas Baptist in the ninth round of the 2017 MLB Draft. In 2022 he played 95 games with the organization’s Triple-A affiliate in Reno, hitting .261/.308/.465 with 13 home runs. The utility infielder’s claim to fame is once playing all nine positions in a game on September 27th, which Reno won 7-2.

And, elsewhere...

[MLB.com] Game 3 PPD, affecting rest of Series schedule - A potential Game 6 would be played on Nov. 5, making it the latest World Series game in terms of date. The final games of the 2001 and ‘09 Fall Classics (Yankees at D-backs and Phillies at Yankees, respectively) were played on Nov. 4. In 2008, rain forced the Phillies to wait three days before completing a World Series victory over the Rays, with play suspended in the clinching Game 5. Philadelphia also won this year’s National League Championship Series over the Padres in rainy, gusty conditions in Game 5 on Oct. 23.

[Yahoo] MLB Gross Revenue Back to Nearly $11 Billion, Manfred Says - Major League Baseball’s gross revenue was back to pre-pandemic levels this season, Commissioner Rob Manfred told reporters after Monday night’s Game 3 of the World Series was postponed by rain at Citizens Bank Park. “We’re going to be just shy of $11 [billion],” Manfred said when asked if revenues would be back over $10 billion. The figure reached $10.7 billion in 2019, the last full season played without the COVID-19 restrictions that began in in March 2020.

[The Athletic] My eye over yours’: Ball-and-strike challenges, possibly coming to an MLB game near you - One team in the fall league — the Salt River Rafters, who play every home game with the ability to challenge — has prohibited pitchers from challenging. “Because of emotion,” said Salt River pitching coach Shane Loux, a Diamondbacks staffer. “We don’t need them getting pissed and challenging 2-0 pitches in the second inning.” The three-challenge limit is designed to prevent frivolous uses, incentivizing teams to save them for the most consequential calls. Thus, situational awareness is key.

There are two movies whose watching has become an annual tradition in SnakePit Towers: Die Hard on Christmas Eve and this one, last night on Halloween.

The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)

Rating: A-

Dir: Tim Bur… No, dammit: Henry Selick

Star: Chris Sarandon, Danny Elfman, Catherine O’Hara, William Hickey

It is a kitschy and rather banal story, to be honest. There are other characters, such as Sally (O’Hara), the artificial girl who holds a distant candle for Jack, or Oogie Boogie, the closest the film has to an antagonist. Both feel kinda like afterthoughts, as if Disney sent over production notes requiring the makers to include one (1) romantic interest and one (1) villain. However, the execution of everything else more than counters these weaknesses. It’s the finest stop-motion animated feature of all-time: Selick couldn’t recapture the same magic in James and the Giant Peach, and nor could producer/creator Tim Burton, when he independently went back to the same well for The Corpse Bride.

This offers a near-perfect mix of design, animation and performance, all backed by Elfman’s score, which has become as close to an official soundtrack for Halloween as you could wish. Like the best animation, it creates a fantastical world, beyond anything live-action could hope to imitate. The stop-motion here then succeeds in making it “real” [it’s a method which may be particularly appropriate for the surreal and bizarre: Jan Švankmajer’s Alice is another example], to such a degree it renders the subsequent 3-D re-release, largely superfluous. It’s a film for children that, like all the best children’s films, is not aimed at them, so much as the kid in everyone.

The only question left is the thorny one of whether this is a Christmas film or a Halloween one. It takes place almost entirely after Halloween, in the period leading up to Christmas, making the latter its climax. Yet save for Santa, all the significant characters are clearly Halloween ones. I propose a simple solution: it’s both, and and as such, can and should be enjoyed on any occasion from the September equinox through Twelfth Night.