AZ Snake Pit

Diamondbacks 8, Brewers 5: So, this is what a win feels like?

2012-05-27T06:35:39Z

Record: 21-26. Pace: 72-90. Change on last year: -2.

Well, we did it, guys. I had to recap a game, and we won it. It wasn't the standard, slow-paced, three-run affair that one might expect from a Major League Baseball game. It wasn't the sparkling Zack Greinke start that many may have looked for; however, it wasn't a continuation of awesomeness from Wade Miley. Both starters entered the game 5-1, and the pitcher's duel was a duel in the sense that the two "dueled" to see who could suck less and stop hemorrhaging runs quicker. Wade Miley won the affair, and the Diamondbacks won the game, marking just the second home Saturday game that we've actually taken, the first being the second game of the season; we beat San Francisco 5-4. Hit the jump to see how this one played out - and, for once, I'm excited to hit the jump to type out the rest.

Final - 5.26.2012	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Milwaukee Brewers	1	0	4	0	0	0	0	0	0	5	8	0
Arizona Diamondbacks	2	0	5	0	0	0	1	0	X	8	15	1
WP: Wade Miley (6 - 1) SV: J.J. Putz (10) LP: Zack Greinke (5 - 2)

Complete Coverage >

It started off exactly as I had so negatively and pessimistically predicted: poorly. Cory Hart immediately doubled batting leadoff, and three batters later Jonathan Lucroy batted him home to put Milwaukee out front with a one-run lead early on. Yet, even more quickly than Milwaukee had struck, the Diamondbacks struck back. Greinke did not look like the Greinke that had that magical run a few seasons back (though, few pitchers will) - the first four Diamondbacks got on base with singles, scoring two and giving Arizona - gasp - a lead. Then, Zack Greinke remembered the name on the back of his jersey, and struck out the next three batters swinging to end the inning. But, hey, a lead's a lead. Surely we can hold one of them things, yeah?

It worked well until the third, where the Brewers doubled twice and tripled to give themselves a 5-2 lead. And it almost happened as quickly as that sentence. Wade Miley wasn't the same Wade Miley that so many of us have grown to love over the past few weeks, and the score evidenced that. Fortunately, the offense that we grew to love over the first two innings decided to stick around, and by inning's end, we had ourselves a 7-5 lead. Yeah, the teams swapped leads for the first three innings. I guess it's better than the last three innings, as that would pretty much bring about heart attacks in nearly every SnakePitter. Greinke was pulled before recording the second out in the third, and check out his line: 2.1 IP, 10H, 7R (all earned), 3BB, 3K and a three-run home run from Johnny Mac, a laser into the left field bleachers in the third. I think it's safe to say we learned our lesson, though, right? We can't expect this game to calm down; we'll go through the next six innings exchanging leads, changing pitchers, and biting our nails until the final out!

Yeah, no. Looking at my notepad here, there was actually very, very little that happened that I feel deserves noting; Justin Upton was plunked in the third, and it'll be fun seeing how we retaliate (the pitch that hit Justin was pretty much directed at him from the second it left the pitcher's hand). Or, er, how erratic our staff's command can be. In the fourth, Goldschmidt doubled and the Brewers seemed pretty mad that Goldy wasn't called out (it was pretty close, but I had the stream muted so I couldn't hear the commentators' calls), so that gave me a pretty big smile. A Brewer also tried to make the Top Ten in the fifth, except his dive for a Parra ball just left him look sorta silly. And... that's it. I'm looking for something worth noting, but I'm coming up short. Nothing happened, save for a run in the seventh, for the rest of the game, really, and JJ Putz came in to shut the door in the ninth and did so successfully. It was a nice 1-2-3 inning, too. Good to see no one overreacted by saying the closer situation was up in the air. It was a bit of a wild game early on, but Wade Miley recovered from it while Greinke did not. It was weird, contorted way, it was a pitcher's duel for survival, and that's what Miley won. Next, though, I'd prefer if you won the one where you just pitch really well and own the other team. If possible. Thanks, Wade.

Doubleplusgood: John MacDonald, +22.8%
Plusgood: Jason Kubel, +11.1%
Doubleplusungood: Wade Miley, -18.9%

I apologize if this recap hasn't been up to par. I can't help but feel that's it's lacking quite a bit of substance, but I've been feeling sickish for a bit and I'm under the influence of cough medicine that's doing its darnedest to drag me to bed. Anyway, the GDT was far more boisterous than last week's, which is only logical considering that we won. Who wants to leave a GDT where the Diamondbacks are, like, winning? Crazy stuff, and certainly an event that stands as cause for celebration. Luckycc led the party with 165 comments, with perennial chart-topper imstillhungry95 sitting in second with a hair over 100. Also present tonight were: asteroid, Jim McLennan, piratedan7, txzona, AzDbackfanInDc, edbigghead, dbacks79, shoewizard, blank_38, hotclaws, marionette, snakecharmer, Zavada's Moustache, BattleMoses, Counsellmember, rfffr, Fangdango, Ridster09, 4 Corners Fan, egboyz, CaptainCanuck, Augdogs, Circa4life, SenSurround, and Bryan J. Boltik.

Comment of the Night goes to the one that could stand without context, as a few were tied with three recs. I'm pretty sure this is one we can all rally around, too:

There is nothing I love more

Than watching Nyjer Morgan lose.

2012: The year of Wagner Mateo

by Bryan J. Boltik on May 26, 2012 10:13 PM PDT 3 recs

So, that's a win. We'll try to make it two in a row tomorrow, as Daniel Hudson makes his return to face Randy Wolf and his ERA north of six. Ok, so Huddy's is six as well, but if we win by 0.02 runs, I'll be the one laughing about semantics. See you guys there.

Gameday Thread, #47: 5/26 vs. Brewers

2012-05-27T01:29:24Z

Zack Greinke
RHP, 5-1, 2.70

Wade Miley
LHP, 5-1, 2.14

The Diamondbacks need to win tonight and tomorrow afternoon in order to aboid losing a seventh consecutive series at home. Wailord will certainly be hoping they do, so he can break his unimpressive losing streak of recaps, which stretches back to last season. Saturday has not be Arizona's friend this year. Hopefully we can buck that particular trend tonight. Otherwise, I'll be bailing early to watch another movie. Not much of a threat, but it's all I've got, I'm afraid.

Line-up and other stuff after the jump.

No Chris Young tonight, and still no Miggy either - word is that he'll not be back catching until Monday, though would be available for pinch-hitting duties this evening, if necessary. Schmidt will only making the third major-league start of his career. Here's another bit of news from Nick Piecoro which will likely bring dancing in the SnakePit aisles - meanwhile, Cody Ransom is in the starting line-up for the Brewers tonight.

Gibson's so day-to-day with his thinking, but this could mean that, as of today, the Josh Bell experimenting is fizzling.
— Nick Piecoro (@nickpiecoro) May 26, 2012

This Day in Diamondbacks History: May 26

2012-05-27T00:30:13Z

Overall: 8-5 - Home: 6-2 - Road: 2-3

1975: Travis Lee born. Ah, I remember Mrs. SnakePit (to be, as she was back then) excitedly sending me his rookie card before the 1998 season. We paid some obscene amount of signing bonus! He had three hits in our opening game, including the first homer in team history! He was going to be awesome! But after coming third in that season's Rookie of the Year...not so much. He hit .237 and .232 before being part of the package sent to the Phillies for Curt Schilling. Still got the card, somewhere....

2006: Brandon Webb tossed his second shutout in the 3-0 win at Cincinnati against the Reds. He scattered seven hits and a walk, striking out five and his 8-0 start was the best season-opening stretch in franchise history. Well, until his 9-0 stretch the following year. Johnny Estrada drove in the first Diamondbacks run in the third, and Shawn Green the other two with his fourth home-run of the year in the ninth, the first and only Arizona extra-base hit of the night. Green had two of our five hits.
2009: Max Scherzer earned the 6-5 win vs.Padres, taking a shutout into the eighth innings before settling for two runs over seven frames, on six hits with ten strikeouts. Arizona had a six-run lead after seven, Scherzer himself having driven in two runs with a pair of hits, while Ryan Roberts got three knocks. But the Padres scored four in the eighth and loaded the bases with no outs in the ninth, before Juan Gutierrez settled down to secure his first-career save, stranding the tying run at third.
2011: The Diamondbacks completed the sweep over the Rockies in Colorado, Micah Owings getting the decision in a 6-3 victory at Coors. He allowed one run over five innings, on four hits and a walk, with three strikeouts. Miguel Montero hit a three-run homer in the fourth inning off Clayton Mortenesen, and Kelly Johnson added a two-run shot in the ninth to give Arizona some breathing room. David Hernandez got a five-out save; Montero and Chris Young each had two hits for the Diamondbacks.

Miguel Montero Press Conference on FSAZ at 5:30pm

2012-05-27T00:05:04Z

You can watch the #Dbacks Miguel Montero press conference live on FOXSportsArizona.com at 5:30 pm
— FOX Sports Arizona (@FOXSPORTSAZ) May 26, 2012

The Diamondbacks And Large Contracts: Boon Or Bust?

2012-05-26T21:00:28Z

As will be officially announced by the Diamondbacks later today, catcher Miguel Montero has signed the biggest contract in the history of the franchise. The deal, running through 2017, is reported to be for $60m, which breaks the previous mark of $52.4, set by Randy Johnson when he signed for Arizona, as a free agent, before the 1999 season. What has the team's track record been with regard to large contracts like this one? Have they worked out to the benefit of the Diamondbacks? Or have the risks associated with such a large gamble not paid off?

After the jump, we'll look at the big contracts signed in the desert, and see whether they turned out, in hindsight, to be justified.

Here is a list of all the Diamondbacks' contract for $30 million or more which I could find. It's possible there may be one or two missing, let me know if so - I certainly stumbled across a couple in the course of my research that I would not have remembered! Only guaranteed years are included in the total cost, not options such as the Randy Johnson one for 2003. Figures are from a variety of sources, mostly through frantic Googling. Upton's contract is tagged with a star because it's less than half-way through at the time of writing.

Player	Length	Cost	Years	bWAR
Miguel Montero	5	$60m	2013-2017	???
Randy Johnson	4	$52.4m	1999-2002	29,9
Justin Upton	6	$51.25m	2010-2015	8.1*
Troy Glaus	4	$45m	2005-2008	14.3
Matt Williams	5	$45m	1998-2002	7.9
Jay Bell	5	$34m	1998-2002	8.7
Randy Johnson	2	$33m	2004-2005	13.6
Russ Ortiz	4	$33m	2005-2008	-5.4
Todd Stottlemyre	4	$32m	1999-2002	1.1
Eric Byrnes	3	$30m	2008-2010	-1.9
Luis Gonzalez	3	$30m	2004-2006	4.4

If there's a trend to be found here, it's that overall, the more expensive the contract, the more likely it is to pan out for the team, which would give some cause for optimism about the Montero extension. The previous record-holder, our first signing of the Big Unit, turned out to be a phenomenal steal, with Johnson providing the team with almost thirty WAR. Even allowing for inflation over the intervening years, the $1.75 million per WAR cost is an extremely decent investment. Similarly, Upton's contract looks good: if he simply continues at his current rate, he'll produce 21.3 WAR over its term, easily a good return on its price.

Hands up all those who'd forgotten that we originally signed Troy Glaus for four years? Yep, me too. Of course, it didn't work out, Glaus being shipped off to Toronto after just one season. The subsequent details concerning Glaus's use of steroids make me suspect this might have been a factor in the decision to sever the long-term commitment. However, all told, it wouldn't have been a terrible deal at all: over those four years, Glaus averaged 142 games, 30 homers, 90 RBI and a 123 OPS+, justifying the cost.. However, that's largely where the good news ends. With the exception of Johnson's extension, the rest of the list range from borderline to very, very ugly.

However, the problem is mostly that they were given to players on the far side of the aging curve. None of the players concerned were younger than 31 for the first season. The deal Matt Williams and Jay Bell signed, for example, covered both their seasons from age 32 through 36; for Todd Stottlemyre, the contract covered ages 34-37, and Luis Gonzalez was even older, at 36 on Opening Day 2004, the first game covered by his extension. [That deal was likely one of Jeryy Colangelo's charitable contributionss, Gonzo having been seriously underpaid previously] Those are all a lot older than Montero, who'll be 29 when his extension begins.

On the other hand, catcher is a position perhaps subject to more wear and tear than any other, and this is also a long extension. It'll be Montero's age 35 season by the time it finishes, and no catcher that age appeared even in 100 games in the majors last season, Rod Barajas's 98 being the highest total. But the year prior to that, four such mature players reached 110 games - Ivan Rodriguez, Bengie Molina, Jorge Posada and Jason Kendall - so it is not impossible. Health is the key, and is largely a crap-shoot.

I haven't yet seen the breakdown of the amounts to be paid out, but if we assume an average cost per WAR of $5 million over the life of the deal, it would mean that Montero would need to produce 2.4 WAR per year for it to be a break-even scenario. He reached that mark in 2009 (3.1) and 2011 (3.8), and is on course to do so again this year, being at a 2.8 WAR pace thus far. As others have noted, replacing Montero with a catcher of comparable ability on the free-agent market would probably be as expensive, if not more so given the likely competition this winter, from markets far larger than Phoenix.

Piecoro also points out that if the team had been more aggressive over the winter, they could probably have got the deal done cheaper. But then contracts like the ones signed by Victor Martinez (4/$50m) and Yadier Molina ((6/$75m) went down, and the market changed in Montero's favor. Still, it's further evidence that the team feels they are heading towards a sweet-spot of pitching excellence that should help them compete in the coming seasons, and the time is now. We'll just have to keep our fingers crossed that the decision pays off more like the Johnson and Upton contracts, rather than some of the others.

Finally, worth noting that the team are certainly beginning to stack up the commitments going forward: in addition to whatever Montero gets, here are the numbers for the next couple of seasons:
2013: Justin Upton $9.75m; Chris Young $8.5m; Jason Kubel $7.5m; Trevor Cahill $5.5m; Aaron Hill $5.5m; Willie Bloomquist $1.9m; John McDonald $1.5m = $40.15m total
2014: Upton $14.25m, Young $11.5m team option, Cahill $7.7m, Kubel $7.5m team option = $40.95m total.
Add in Miggy, and you're likely looking at fifty million in money already on the books for both years, if those team options for 2014 are exercised.

Poll

The five-year $60 million extension for Miguel Montero is:

Down on the Farm: Minor League Recap, 5/25

2012-05-26T18:53:46Z

Forgive us as we try our hand at the minor leagues! It's impossible to replace Dan's analysis right off the bat, but if we all work at it, maybe we'll rack up a decent VORP (Value Over Replacement Poster).

Snakelet of the Day:
Adam Eaton (Triple-A) - 4-for-5, 4R, 1RBI

Triple-A: Reno 13, River Cats 3 - It's hard to think of a 13-3 win as a "rally", but that's indeed what it was. The Aces trailed 3-1 going into the 7th, tied it then, and in the 8th they score six runs on only two hits. Plenty of fun offensive stats from that one: Adam Eaton with four hits, and Ryan Wheeler had five RBIs. Charles Brewer got the start and no decision, Zach Kroenke earned the win in relief. Patrick Corbin gets his first AAA start tonight.

Also, you can vote online for the AAA All-Stars, so dooooo iiiiiiit.

Double-A: Mobile 3, Tennessee 4 - The Bay Bears were apparently on a 3-game winning streak, which ended last night at the hands of the Smokies behind pitcher Eric Jokisch. The Bay Bears managed only two hits the entire game, yet scored three runs, two of those coming from an Alfredo Marte home run.

High-A: Visalia 2, Stockton 6 - Ports pitcher Jake Brown owned the Rawhide for the first six innings last night, as he allowed only one hit and one walk and retired his last 12 in a row. Bobby Borchering hit a 2-run home run in the 7th, but it made little difference.

A: South Bend 4, Fort Wayne 3 - This one went into extras, and it ended when Ender Inciarte scored on a wild pitch by the TinCaps's pitcher. (Seriously, the names of some of these teams....) The Silver Hawks trailed 3-0 and rallied in the 7th inning to tie it. Archie Bradley started this one, allowing three runs on four hits in five innings of work.

Brewers 7, Diamondbacks 1 - The Odds Were Not In Our Favor

2012-05-26T05:53:21Z

Record: 20-26; Pace: 70-92; Change on 2011: -3

Alright everybody, let's do this. It's the first time the Diamondbacks have faced the Brewers since last October, and we all remember how that turned out. But, c'mon, we're back in our home ballpark, where we won our two games in the NLDS. Plus, we're riding a one-game win streak, and we've got our Opening Day starter, Ian Kennedy, on the mound! Let's go!

... Hey, where'd everybody go? In particular, where did our offense go? Ohhh, right, they all remembered how killer Yovani Gallardo is in his career against the Diamondbacks. So they all decided to go hide in the woods, then, that's it? Huh. Well, somebody better climb over the electric fence and bring them back, because we're going to need them the rest of the weekend.

The two teams traded zeros in the first inning, with both pitchers throwing fewer than 10 pitches apiece. Rickie Weeks took care of that in the 2nd inning, as he knocked a solo home run to the left-center bleachers. Still, Ian Kennedy was looking good, he even had four strikeouts through the first three innings.

Then came the 4th inning. Nyjer Morgan singled to lead off the frame, and advanced to second on Kennedy's fourth balk of the season. That ended up not mattering much though, because he was brought home by a two-run home run by Ryan Braun. Aramis Ramirez singled, and two outs later Travis Ishikawa was hit by a pitch to move Ramirez to second, who scored on a single by Cesar Izturis. Just like that, the Brewers' 1-0 lead was a 4-0 lead.

And that 4-0 Brewers lead was insurmountable, especially with Yovani Gallardo on the mound. Pay no attention to the 4.62 ERA, folks, Gallardo owns the Diamondbacks. In five regular season starts and two 2011 NLDS games, he has a 6-0 record and a 1.23 ERA, and that ERA will surely go down after tonight's matchup. Jason Kubel led off the 2nd inning with a walk, but Chris Young ground into a double play, and Kennedy singled to lead off the 3rd inning but Willie Bloomquist ground into a double play. Finally in the 4th inning, our leadoff runner did score, but that was only because Kubel took matters into his own hands and hit a home run to center as a birthday present to himself.

Ian Kennedy, unfortunately, continued to struggle. He bases were loaded with two outs in the 5th on an error by Bloomquist, but Willie got another chance to end the inning and this time did so successfully. The base runners kept coming in the 6th with a double, a single to left (which didn't score the runner), and a walk. Kennedy was replaced by Brad Ziegler, who got Ryan Braun to harmlessly ground out.

Josh Collmenter came in for the 7th inning and did fine, but had his first problematic outing as a reliever in the 8th inning. Former Diamondback and new waiver-wire-acquisition Brewer Cody Ransom singled to lead it off, and Corey Hart followed shortly thereafter with a two-run home run. Collmenter also gave up a single to Nyjer Morgan, and was then pulled for Bryan Shaw, who got two outs via the strike-em-out, throw-em-out double play. Craig Breslow made a mess of the 9th inning by loading the bases with nobody out, but thankfully allowed only a sacrifice fly to make it 7-1. Still, when you say "Oh good, it's only 7-1," you know it hasn't been a good evening.

Yet hope remains while company is true, and a few of us stuck it out for the sad attempts at comebacks. They were such sad attempts though, I'm not even sure you can call them attempted comebacks. In the 7th, 8th, and 9th innings, the Diamondbacks had two runners reach base; in the 7th and 9th, it was even the first two batters reaching base. In the 7th, Chris Young ground into his second double play of the evening, followed by a Lyle Overbay strikeout. In the 8th inning, after Francisco Rodriguez walked Willie Bloomquist, Ryan Roberts went first-pitch fishing and ground into an inning-ending double play. At least there were no double plays in the 9th inning, where we faced a seriously struggling reliever named Jose Veras - after walking Upton and Kubel, CY struck out looking, Overbay almost got a hit to center but it was caught, and Josh Bell struck out swinging.

Source: FanGraphs

30 Going on 31: J Kubel, +19.6%
Not Elektric: I Kennedy, -17.3%
Needs An Alias: C Young, -25.9%

As you can see, our hopes never really got off the ground tonight, which is too bad because the fans were pretty into the game, especially the ones mercilessly booing Braun all night long. The fans around here, meanwhile, were a mix of downtrodden and sardonic, aka the usual. Twenty eight people stopped by, and ish95 led the way. Dc came in second and Rockstarr was third. All present were: Clefo, imstillhungry95, txzona, snakecharmer, Jim McLennan, Rockkstarr12, hotclaws, AzDbackfanInDc, rd33, BattleMoses, Muu, luckycc, Ridster09, CaptainCanuck, Stupendous Man, dbacks79, Bryn21, AZDBACKR, G.O.B., ackbartehtrap, piratedan7, 4 Corners Fan, Marc Fournier, leemellon, rfffr, dbacks25, Wimb, and shoewizard.

Wimb wins Comment of the Day in a landslide victory, and he did so on his first comment in over a week! The lucky chum.

Excuse me!

Waiter, what’s today’s Diamondbacks special?
"why sir today we have gargling vortex of suck, vintage 2008-2010"
Jolly good, put that on my tab next to Russ Ortiz and that dead horse that been flogged since the 2007 offseason.
"very good sir"

Time for another drink then?

http://www.thetilehurstend.co.uk

by Wimb on May 25, 2012 9:09 PM PDT reply actions 9 recs

Tomorrow is making-a-case-to-be-the-ace Wade Miley against Zach Greinke. Don't forget to put on your black jerseys! And if you find any Diamondbacks hanging in your closet attached to said jerseys, kindly return them to Chase Field at your earliest convenience.

Gameday Thread, #46: 5/25 vs. Brewers

2012-05-26T01:00:10Z

Yovani Gallardo
RHP, 2-4, 4.62

Ian Kennedy
RHP, 3-4, 4.47

Last time these two met, the same two pitchers were facing off in Game 5 of the 2011 NLDS, which ended up being a pretty epic confrontation, albeit one which the bad guys won. As ZM pointed out, neither side has exactly set the baseball world on fire in their quests to repeat as champions of the NL Central and West. Both teams will see this as a chance to right the ship and head in the intended direction. Only one will be right.

Line-up - but no Sixty Million Dollar Man - after the jump.

Yeah, Miggy's groin has been deemed worthy of one more day on the bench, though he seems quite chipper today, for some inexplicable reason. :) Hopefully, it'll relax him a bit - I get the feeling it may have been weighing on his mind, which is why the negotiations got re-started, because he didn't want it to hang on over the rest of the season. Now, let's just get Henry Blanco locked up for five years as well, and we'll be gol... Hey! Where you going?