Record: 64-59. Pace: 84-78. Change on last season: -6

The Diamondbacks pounded the Astros once again, using two grand slams, by Chris Young and Miguel Montero to cruise to another easy victory. It's the first time the team have scored 10+ runs in back-to-back road games for over eight years: the last time, coincidentally, was also in Houston, back in July 2000, when they won 10-4 and 12-9.

Tonight's game opened in much the same way as yesterday's, with our starting pitcher once again getting to bat before he took the mound. However, Petit was the beneficiary of even more run support, as the Diamondbacks scored five runs in the first - they've now out-scored the opposition 86-58 over the opening frame [it's not quite their best inning: in the fifth, the split is 89-51 in our favor. The ninth is our Achilles' heel; there, we've been outscored 56-30]. And, once again, Arizona were helped by wildness from the opposing starter: Backe walked three of the nine batters he faced, two of them coming round to score.

The big blow was courtesy of Miguel Montero, who came up with the bases loaded and two men out, and Arizona already one run ahead, thanks to an RBI single from Dunn. After working the count to 3-1, our catcher hit his second home-run of the year to right-field, for the first grand-slam of his career. It was also only the second of the year for the Diamondbacks, the other being by Eric Byrnes [remember him?] in Atlanta on May 25. Despite having one long-ball in his first 132 at-bats, Montero's second and third came in consecutive plate-appearances - he followed his salami with a smaller slice of power, scoring our next run with another homer, this time a solo shot: in the fourth.

Arizona continued to pull away, as Reynolds made the score 7-1, with his 82nd RBI of the season. Any faint chance the Astros had of coming back, was then removed when Chris Young came up with the bases loaded in the sixth - I note that Young was batting #2 against a right-handed starter... Montero had just missed going yard for the third time, settling for a double. CY promptly unloaded the bags, taking advantage of the short porch in left for his seventeenth homer of the year, and giving Arizona the first two slam game in franchise history. We're also the first National League team to double-dip our bats in El Salsa Grande, since the New York Mets on July 16, 2006 [they did it twice in the same inning, part of an eleven-run sixth!]

The team pounded out twelve hits - as noted previously, we've reached double figures there in every game since the arrival of our new slugger, and we added eight walks too. Dunn himself led the way, getting on base five times in five plate-appearances, with two hits and three walks. He may not be as flashy as Manny - we're still awaiting his first homer in an Arizona uniform - but we will happily settle for an on-base percentage of .520, based on Dunn going 6-for-18 with seven walks thus far. Montero and Young had three hits apiece, while Chris Burke continued his renaissance, extending his hitting streak to a season-high four games, along with two walks. The only downside was the end of Stephen Drew's streak at seventeen games, though even he walked twice.

Meanwhile, Yusmeiro Petit was outperforming most expectations, restricting Houston to two runs in seven innings on four hits and a walk, with five strikeouts. Some discussion on the Gameday Thread as to whether he may end up in the rotation next season, Certainly, his five starts this season have generally been very solid and effective outings - here's his combined line to date:
    Petit: 28 IP, 18 H, 9 R, 9 ER, 6 BB, 19 K, 2.89 ERA
While the usual small sample-size warnings apply, he's doing a better job of keeping the ball in the park [three homers] and simply allowing fewer base-runners. At the very worst, it seems he'll be a good sixth starter to have tucked away, either in the bullpen or down in Tucson next season.

The Astros did restore some respectability to the score late on in the game. They got their second run off Petit in the seventh, and Tony Pena then pitched a scoreless eighth. However, Leo Rosales allowed three hits to the first three batters he faced, and all of them came round to score, making the final score 11-5. Still, having outscored the Astros 23-7 over the first two games of the series, we have to feel very, very good about the way the offense has been hitting of late. Now, if the Damn Dodgers would stop winning for a bit, that'd be helpful. :-)

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Master of his domain: Miguel Montero, +29.5%
Honorable mention: Yusmeiro Petit, +11.6%
God-emperor of suck: Chad Tracy, -7.1%

In the time since the last sentence, JJ Hardy has uncorked a two-run homer, to give the Brewers a 3-2 lead in Los Angeles. However, we've seen the Dodgers come back late before, so I'm not counting this one until it's over.  Over 800 comments in the Gameday Threads tonight; another fun time, with conversation that occasionally sailed off-topic [sodas? Sir David Attenborough? Marathon runners' belly-buttons?], yet was no less entertaining for it. Present were ZonaBacks10, DbacksSkins, soco, emilylovesthedbacks, Muu, 4 Corners Fan, unnamedDBacksfan, njjohn [who gets credit for the 'SuperMon' label], DiamondbacksWIn, Zephon, foulpole, TwinnerA, hotclaws, Wimb, kishi, Turambar, Scrbl, AZWILDCATS, Azreous and BleedingSedonaRed.

So, just hanging round now, waiting for the Dodgers game to finish. Oh, if you want to hear my dulcet tones, I was interviewed on Baseball Digest Daily Live today. You can check it out, through their website - I'm on the most recent show, dated August 16th: I enjoyed the experience - it was nice to rant to someone who hadn't heard me complain about the Quentin trade for the past four months. And, with that, the Dodgers have tied it up in the ninth, and the game is going into extras. No idea how long that might go on, so I'll post this now. 11am first pitch tomorrow, with Johnson facing Oswalt as we go for the sweep.

Record; 57-53. Pace: 84-78. Change on last season: -3.

I guess it was inevitable, but I'd rather Ramirez had waited until we left town to hit his first home-run, simply so we wouldn't have to see the pants-wetting reaction at Dodger Stadium. Judging by that, it would appear LA fans had never seen a home-run before. Mind you, given their non-Manny leader in that category has a bare dozen, and LA are dead last in the league overall, I guess they are something of a rare event. The Dodgers were also the beneficiaries of an umpiring error - Juan Pierre's bunt rolled foul but was called fair by the home-plate umpire, Darryl Cousins. That led to Ramirez coming up with a man on and an additional run for Los Angeles.

Yeah: paging Bitter, party of one. Two long balls and the continued ineffectiveness of the offense, held to two runs for the third straight game, were what ended our four-game winning streak. Can't win 'em all, that's true: but the offensive faucet has been cut off at the source in this series, with a combined line in the past three games of just 200/.223/.330. When you face someone like Kuroda, who came in with an ERA of 9.82 over his last four starts, you certainly expect to be able to do better than four hits and one run over 7.1 innings.

However, that is all we managed: the lone run came on Montero's first long-ball of the year, and we only had one other man reach scoring position against him, until the last batter Kuroda faced, with one out in the eighth inning. That brought the tying run to the plate, and it also reached there in the ninth inning; we couldn't do anything with this late flurry of offensive activity, and took our foot off the Dodgers' neck, spurning a golden - or, at least, gold-plated - opportunity to send them four games back. We've been able to do nothing against the Dodgers' starters at all this series:
    LA starters: 19.1 IP, 15 H, 3 ER, 3 BB, 11 K, 1.40 ERA
Admittedly, not that they've done much better against ours:
    AZ starters: 19 IP, 16 H, 4 ER, 2 BB, 13 K, 1.89 ERA

The Petit Unit took the loss, because of the home-runs to Ramirez and Blake, though you'll generally be happy to take three runs over five innings from your #5 starter. [That's a higher Game Score than Micah has averaged over his last 14 starts since April 26] He'd only thrown 58 pitches, so I was somewhat surprised to see him pinch-hit for in the sixth, but I guess the aim was to try and kick-start the offense. It didn't work, Ojeda grounding out, and the replacement pitcher, Rosales, allowed three hits and a run in the sixth, ending our bullpen's scoreless streak.

Good to see Juan Cruz back [Peguero was sent back down, despite not having appeared in a game - so if you didn't notice his presence, that's fine!], though his first batter faced was somewhat shaky, taking ten pitches to walk Kuroda. After that, he settled down, though did allow a bloop single to Martin, which brought you-know-who to the plate with two men aboard. Cruz finished the inning off by striking Ramirez out - which is exactly the same way all of the previous four encounters between the two ended. As Grace and Sutton pointed out, we might well be seeing this encounter a few more times before the end of the season. Peña finished off with a scoreless eighth.

We were held to only five hits and a walk, our lowest figure since getting shut out 2-0 by the Cubs on July 21. Jackson was the only player to reach safely more than once, with a hit and a walk. Chris Young was 0-for-4 with a pair of strikeouts, leaving him 0-for-12 with five K's in this series. He looks increasingly to be suffering from a case of Quentinitis, the main symptom of which is swinging wildly at sliders down and away, out of the strikezone. While not incurable - Quentin seems to have recovered nicely, damnhimtohell - while Young is infected, it will remain a major hole, that opposing pitchers can easily exploit.

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Master of his domain: Miguel Montero, +9.6%
God-emperor of suck: Chad Tracy, -12.8%

A solid Gameday Thread, though unfortunately, we have to implement a new rule due to abuse: non-mods [basically, anyone whose name is not listed at the bottom of the site] are limited to one picture per thread, and any subsequent ones will be deleted. This is because the posting of the same, large picture on multiple occasions brings everything to a grinding halt - and, personally, I find it tiresome, like seeing the word "Sweet!" every single time a Diamondbacks player gets a hit. Present were: DbacksSkins, AF DBacks Fanatic, soco, Azreous, kishi, Wimb, hotclaws, snakecharmer, utahdbacksfan, DiamondbacksWIn, foulpole, TwinnerA, Scrbl, luckycc, unnamedDBacksfan, garyho and 4 Corners Fan.

Coming into the series, I would have been happy to settle for a spliy, but after the first two wins, I now feel greedy, and if we "only" get those two victories, I'll feel that this was a lost opportunity. Davis takes the mound today, and it is, of course, the Mark Reynolds party over at the socos, so that should be a lot of fun! A victory would make it all the more sweet enjoyable. :-)

Record: 53-52. Pace: 82-80. Change on last season: -4.

"No wireless networks were found in range." Are there any more depressing words in the English language? Well, nowadays, it's right up there with "Time, gentlemen, please," ["Last call" to you Americans...] and "Yankees win! Yankees win!" As is usual for Mondays, I'm watching the game in my isolation pod, able to experience, but unable to share the joys and frustrations of Diamondbacks fandom. So, here's my inning-by-inning diary of this contest.

1st inning. Arrived about the same point as last week, and see the Diamondbacks go down in order in the first. Scott Hairston is leading off for the Padres: seems a bit insensitive of them to do that to us. Have San Diego no compassion? Owings gets him to go down swinging at ball four, so it seems some things have not changed all that much. No problems for Micah in the first, and he matches Maddux, by retiring the opposition in order.

2nd inning. Maddux is looking a good deal better than he was when we saw him in Arizona. Not even the newly-anointed NL Player of the Week, Conor Jackson, is able to do much with him, and the Diamondbacks are retired 1-2-3 once more, with Mark Reynolds staring at strike three to end the inning. Owings starts off well, getting the first two Padres, but then walks Gerut on four straight pitches. Control has been an issue for him of late - you know what they say about two-out walks [I wonder if there is any statistical evidence to prove that?]. And, just as I type those words, Hippy Anime Character launches a two-run homer to give San Diego the lead. The third out follows, but the damage is done.

3rd inning. A leadoff single to Montero gets things going, and Owings moves him over to third with a nice-single to left-center. Drew brings him home with a sacrifice fly to get us on the board. Young, however, has the big blow with his first homer since Jun e 18, and we're back on top 3-2. Hudson singles, and Maddux is looking ropey, if not on the ropes. The inning ends, but our comedy host just lent me the Wanted comic-book, and we discuss The Dark Knight, so I'm vague on the details.

A very, very long flyball is off Owings, who did not fool E.Gonzalez. There is another two-out walk, so I have a sense of *deja-vu*, which Gonzalez heartily endorses with a double down the right-field line. What are Owings' split with no outs and two outs? [This year, not much difference: though tonight will have hurt the latter a lot] A single gives the Padres the lead, and I'm wondering why we brough Owings back into the rotation. He's all over the place - the only pitches over the plate are fastballs down the pipe - and another double gives San Diego a two-run cushion. Oh, look: Petit is up and throwing in the 'pen. Owings now hits Hippy Anime Character, who is not impressed. Still, he gets to trot home after a three-run blast by Hundley.

That makes it 8-3 Padres, before Owings finally, mercifully, gets the third out. Anyone reckon Maddux's winless streak is going to continue? Time to insert a brief rant here, since I am about to break my self-imposed quota of one beer at this show. There has been some debate over whether Owings or Petit should be in the rotation, with understandable questionmarks over Petit's peripherals, in particular his long-ball liability. Frankly, I no longer care. Owings has been rank beyond belief over the past couple of months: he has had more than his fair share of chances of late, and has failed to deliver. Including tonight, their lines since the start of June are:
  Owings: 35.2 IP, 42 H, 21 BB, 26 K, 39 R, 37 ER, 9,34 ERA
  Petit: 17 IP, 8 H, 4 BB, 14 K, 3 R, 3 ER, 1.59 ERA
If the Petit Unit does not start on Saturday, I'll want to know why.

Fourth inning. Rant over. Back at the game [with another Stella Artois now located comfortingly in front of me] - I am pleased to see that the Dodgers are being similarly smacked about by the Giants, and are also five runs down in the fourth there. So, all things being equal, looks like we'll still be alone in first tomorrow. We do get a man on, thanks to another Montero single, but a fine snag of a Romero smash down the first-base line ends the inning. Petit is in for us in the fourth: he retires the Padres in order, with two K's. Any questions?

Fifth inning. After our first two go quietly, back-to-back singles to Young and Hudson give Arizona some hope of a late rally. Jackson puts a charge into the ball, but Hairston makes a leaping grab of the ball in left to rob him of extra-bases. I'm not sure if it was a good play or a bad read, but the end result is a zero for Maddux, who has now qualified for the win, even if a meteor now takes out the Padres dugout. Which is likely our best hope here. Petit out again, and allows a two-out chopper - but then, unlike certain recent starting pitchers I could mention, then gets the third out.

Sixth inning. Maddux looking flaky again. Tracy singles, then advances to second on a balk, and another single puts men on first and third with no outs. That will be it for Mad Dog, having done the very bare minimum required for a win - and if you've seen Office Space, you'll know what we think of someone who only does the bare minimum. :-) Not an auspicious beginning for the Padres bullpen, as the first pitch goes to the backstop, scoring a run and moving another one back into scoring position.

Montero strikes out, to his obvious discontent, but a nice piece of slap-hitting from Romero puts men back on the corners. Time for another call to the pen, and also for Tony the Tiger to step to the plate... He weakly grounds into a double-play, killing the rally. Really, whatever he brings to the locker-room, he's not bringing much to the plate. Two hit in sixteen at-bats now. Rosales is called out to replace Petit, and gets through the inning despite another walk.

Seventh inning. We need to start scoring more runs. Welcome to this week's edition of Stating the Bleedin' Obvious, with your host, Jim McLennan. We get a man on, but he doesn't get anywhere past first, and it looks like our chances of pulling this one out are getting slim to the point of non-existent. I am somewhat worried to discover that the Dodgers have come back and are now only a couple of runs down. Rosales out again for the seventh, and the SnakePitette serves me another Stella. The Arizona bullpen continues to kick ass, with Rosales working around a one-out walk. Dodgers have pulled to within one of the Giants. Make it stop.

Eighth inning. An unusual play here, as Montero tried to reach first on a dropped third strike: except, with a guy on first, you can't. Still, the Padres catcher throws to first anyway, the ball gets away, and Reynolds goes to second on the play. An infield single puts men on the corners, and a walk to Ojeda loads the bases and brings the tying run to the plate, in the shape of Drew. He works the count full, but then grounds out. My fantasy team - which includes Bell - thanks you. My real team - the Arizona Diamondbacks - don't. Giants still holding on. Pena in for us. Jackson goes fo an acrobatic slide in foul territory: unharmed, fortunately. The third Stella is kicking in. That's why my sentences are short. Nice catch by Romero. 1-2-3 inning. Yey! [This paragraph was last seen vanishing into a grammatical singularity, and has now relocated somewhere near the Crab Nebula]

Ninth inning. Leadoff double by Young - good to see him getting on base a bit more regularly. One out later, Jackson doubles him home to extend his hitting streak. That makes it a save situation and in comes the all-time saves leader, or whatever he is these days. Chad Tracy, your mission is to get on base, by any means necessary. Chad Tracy, you fail: while Hoffman may be past his best, his change is still lethal. Reynolds swings at the first pitch. Game over. Now, how did the Dodgers do?

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Master of his domain: Chris Young, +19.8%
God-emperor of suck: Micah Owings, -58.7%

Looked like a fun and lively Gameday Thread, so sorry to have missed it. Much discussion of the rumored ongoing Teixeira trade [see the link for the latest updates] and - in better news - the potential upcoming contract extension for Dan Haren. "I'm pretty confident something will get done sooner rather than later," Haren said, and that would be a great boost for the team, even though they already have him under control (including the team option) through 2010. Getting him and Webb locked down for the long-term would be an extremely positive step. Anyway: present tonight were utahdbacksfan, kishi, soco, Azreous, mrssoco, Scrbl, unnamedDBacksfan, Muu, AF DBacks Fanatic, hotclaws, emilylovesthedbacks, Zephon, thetomcat87 [welcome!], TwinnerA, 4 Corners Fan, srdmad, AJforAZ, luckycc,  and friendly visitors TuLoRocks2008 and victor frankenstein.

There endeth the streak, at three. So, what did we learn tonight? Not much, except that Owings needs to go back to the bullpen. After a promising start, his sequence of disastrous outings has reached the stage where he no longer even qualifies as a back of the rotation starter. In contrast to yesterday, I note that he gave up two walks and a HBP tonight, all three of whom came round to score, giving the Padres their margin of victory. Petit will be a better option, until the anticipated return of Max Scherzer - though reports suggest this may not happen until the rosters expand in September. Good outing by the bullpen, who gave us five scoreless innings. Shame about the first three. Now, we need to regroup tomorrow, get a strong outing from Davis, and then turn the ball over to Haren on Wednesday for the series win.

Hey, at least the Dodgers lost...

Record: 50-50. Pace: 81-81. Change on last season: -2

That was, all told, a damn fine evening. Dinner, followed by two and a half hours exploring the surreal universe which springs from the mind of Eddie Izzard - he spent the first 30 minutes alone riffing on Phoenix and its Wikipedia entry, which he pulled up on his iPhone. The city is, of course, named after the mythical bird which came here, died in flames, and was resurrected - only to discover it was still actually on fire. Anyone who can slide seamlessly from giraffes to the noises made by tennis players inside five minutes is...someone who shares my mental wiring.

And then I come home to find out that the Dodgers lost (Kershaw got slapped about something awful) - and, more importantly, that the D-backs were doing their best Davey Crockett impression, and hunting bear at Chase. I did manage to catch a little bit of the game at dinner, as Yusmeiro Petit got Ramirez to fly out to the warning track, ending the third inning. It looked like the batter thought that one was out of here, as he trotted out of the box casually. Nothing better than seeing the shock on an opposing hitter's face as his home-run trot has to take a sharp right-turn towards his dugout. At that stage, we were only 1-0 up, thanks to Jackson's tenth homer of the year, so this was by no means over.

Jackson also scored our second run in the bottom of third, sliding home from second after a single by Reynolds. The Cubs got a run back in the next frame, after their #8 hitter tripled, but that was the only damage they managed off Petit, despite a few hard-hit balls and four free passes. Still, as far as spot-starts go, on less than 24 hours notice, we'll be more than happy with five innings of one-run ball, on three hits and with four strikeouts. Melvin after the game said that Petit may get another start, with Owings going full-time to the pen, presumably tiding us over until Max Scherzer is ready to return to the rotation. Said Petit, "This year I feel a little more comfortable. It's easier to make adjustments, and so far I've been feeling good about what I've done."

The game stayed close until the bottom of the seventh, when Hudson got his eighth homer of the year, a shot that made it a 5-1 game, after Drew scored on one of three Cubs wild pitches [they were also charged with three errors - so it is not just us!]. While the Cubs pulled one back immediately, Arizona poured it on in the eighth. They sent ten men to the plate on four hits and three walks, with the key blow a two-run double by Clark - after the Cubs had intentionally loaded the bases by giving Drew a free pass, in order to get to Jackson. CoJack continues to be on fire, with three hits and three RBI this evening: Drew, Hudson, Tracy and Reynolds all reached safely twice with a hit and a walk. We had five walks and only four strikeouts, a good ratio

After Petit left the game, he was followed by Rosales, Qualls, Peña and Rauch, with the only tally a solo HR off Peña. Rauch was one of two debuts for the Diamondbacks in tonight's game, and both proved to be successful. Jon Rauch, acquired from the Nationals in exchange for Emilio Bonifacio, pitched a scoreless ninth inning, though by that point, it was no longer a save situation, thanks to the four we scored in the eighth. He struck out the first two batters he faced, and though a single and wild pitch followed, he got Fukudome to ground out, clinching the game. connor Robertson was sent down to Tucson to make room for Rauch in the pen, and the departure of Bonifacio meant Jamie D'Antona made his debut, pinch-hitting for Qualls in the seventh. He promptly singled to left-field, in his first ever major-league at-bat. Here's to many more.

The chance for that might come sooner rather than later, thanks to a scary moment in the eighth, as our hottest hitter this month, Hudson, was hit on the ankle by Hart, dropping O-Dawg like a sack of potatoes. The fortunate thing is, there appears to be no permanent damage, with X-rays proving negative. I wouldn't be surprised to see him sitting out tomorrow, so he'll have a couple of days to rest thanks to the off-day on Thursday. Much discussion at BCB at to whether someone - possibly Micah 'Up & In' Owings, second in the majors for hit batters - will exact retribution tomorrow at some point. Romero was also plunked earlier in the game, though as noted, given the general wildness of the Cubs' pitchers, maybe they just sucked. :-) Sweeping them out of Arizona would, however, be far sweeter than engaging in pseudo-macho nonsense, much as I really want to see Chris Snyder in a brawl some day!

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Master of his domain: Yusmeiro Petit, +18.0%
God-Emperor of suck: Miguel Montero, -6.1%

Very busy Gameday Thread(s), with over 900 comments, even with the Chat Room operating [how did that go? I popped in when I came home, but there was just Emily and Phil left at that stage]. Present in the "formal" thread were DbacksSkins, soco, Scrbl, snakecharmer, Zephon, mrssoco, emilylovesthedbacks, TwinnerA, 4 Corners Fan, foulpole, AF DBacks Fanatic, Muu, kishi, hotclaws, DiamondbacksWIn, dahlian, AJforAZ and unnamedDBacksfan.

These have been a pair of very impressive performances, shutting down the most productive offense in the National League to only two runs in eighteen innings - games started by our #4 pitcher and a spot-replacement, to boot. Now, let's go for the jugular tomorrow and finish off the reeling and demoralized Cubs: they swept us at Wrigley earlier in the season, so turnabout will be very fair play.

Arizona completed their spring training with a 9-4 victory over the Monterrey Sultanes last night at Chase. The visitors took the lead in the top of the first, but after Arizona scored three times in the second, they largely rolled from there on. These stats don't count overall, but Upton and Young each had two hits, including a homer; Reynolds added a three-run shot, a monster bomb which cannoned off the facade of the second deck in left.; Hudson two hits and a walk; and Chris Snyder two walks. The roof at Chase was closed during the seventh inning, in observance of "Earth Hour, but on a worrying note, Jackson was sent home after batting practice, with the dreaded 'flu-like symptoms'.

Perhaps the most encouraging thing, was Micah Owings pitching five innings without allowing a walk and throwing 52 strikes in 71 pitches. He did allow nine hits and three earned runs, but it still looks like his best performance of the pre-season. "Now the real stuff is about to begin. I'm going to key in on this and take it as a positive going forward," he said afterwards. i certainly hope so: with the anticipated loss of Davis, Owings would be our #4 starter, rather than the #5, while we wait for DD and Johnson to return. His Cactus League outings have not been what we wanted to see.

It has certainly been a better month for our hitters than our pitchers. Obviously, it's hard to compare stats with the Grapefruit League, which is generally less hitter-friendly, but we led all National League franchises with a .297 batting average this spring, and had an overall line of .297/.372/.476. On the other hand, our team ERA ended up at 6.15, ahead of only the Giants and Astros, and allowed more homers than anyone else. One bright point there, however, is that we also struck-out more opposing hitters than anyone, save the Mets.

Think it turned out to be less predictable a month than we expected. Going in to spring training, about the only questions were whether Tracy and Johnson would be ready for Opening Day. But, while the Opening Day lineup looks to be exactly as anticipated, we end up with four men on the Opening Day roster whom I didn't expect to be there: Robby Hammock, Brandon Medders, Yusmeiro Petit and Alex Romero. Let's take a look at each of them, and see how they got there.

Robby Hammock Though it was known that Miguel Montero had broken his right index finger playing winter ball in Venezuela, as late as the end of February, Melvin was saying "I couldn’t say I would rule out ‘Miggy’ right now." However, the healing was much slower than anticipated, and he will now go in to extended spring training before heading to Tucson on rehab. The current estimate is he "might rejoin the D-backs before May 1." As a result, Hammock, who turns 31 six weeks, will start his fifth season in the majors, though he has yet to reach 200 at-bats in any of them - and probably won't get there in 2008. Melvin said Hammock will play once a week, to give Snyder a day off, but having hit .208/.283/.292 in spring, isn't likely to see much more action.

Brandon Medders Out of options and dispatched to Triple-A in the middle of last season, Medders looked likely to be waived or traded before Opening Day. However, the Vegas hotel-like implosion of Dustin Nippert opened the door, and Medders had a quietly effective Cactus campaign, allowing 13 hits in 12 innings, with four walks and nine strikeouts. Here's hoping he returns to the form shown in 2006, when he had a 3.64 ERA in 71.2 innings - he did okay after returning from Tucson late last season, allowing two runs in seven innings, on seven hits. Let's have no more first-pitch grand-slams, please.

Yusmeiro Petit He gets his chance because of the promotion of Edgar Gonzalez to the rotation, as replacement for Johnson and Davis - the Petit Unit will take over EdGon's role as long relief, and may end up with a spot-start or two, it there's a need for any additional arm in the rotation. He had an excellent spring, with a sub-three ERA in 12.1 innings, and an outstanding K:BB ratio of 17:3. Still on 23, he will be continuing to develop, and produced a very credible ERA+ of 103 last season, making ten starts. To quote one scout, "He doesn't have a power arm but has a plan and the ability to execute." He has to be good. We sponsor his Baseball-Reference.com page. :-)

Alex Romero Battling for the left-handed bench spot were Romero and Trot Nixon - the latter an 11-year veteran, the former without a major-league at-bat to his name. But it's the rookie who won out, after hitting .345 in spring, and even the fact he can't play first-base couldn't stop him. Don't expect power from Romero; in 202 career games at Triple-A, he has just five homers, but good contact skills, with a K:BB ratio of 75:52 over that time. He's still only 24, so as a waiver-wire pickup, claimed by us in January 2007, he's proving quite acceptable. Loved his reaction on hearing the news he was on the roster: "I have to go buy a phone card right now."

Time for the final recap of Heroes and Villains from Spring Training. As always, the sample size here makes this almost as meaningless as the games themselves - that said, isn't it better to have a good pre-season than a bad one? Our hitters were generally very productive, with six of our starting eight batting .300 or better [Stephen Drew got there right at the end!]. For some reason, those named "Chris" appeared to do particularly well...

• Chris Snyder: .395/.490/.884, 5 HR
• Chris Burke: .371/.437/.710
• Chris Young: .333/.429/.636
• -------------------------------------
• Eric Byrnes: .246/.306/.404
• Trot Nixon: .214/.297/.411
• Robby Hammock: .208/.283/.292

• Jailen Peguero: 11 IP, 9 H, 3 ER, 13 K
• Yusmeiro Petit: 12.1 IP, 13 H, 4 ER, 17 K
• Chad Qualls: 9 IP, 7 H, 2 ER, 5 K
• -----------------------------------
• Micah Owings: 15.2 IP, 22 H, 17 ER, 12 K
• Brandon Lyon: 8.2 IP, 19 H, 13 ER, 3 K
• Dustin Nippert: 10 IP, 24 H, 16 ER, 8 K

With that, we end the dress-rehearsals. There's now less than 24 hours to go before the curtain goes up on our first pitch of the 2008 major-league season. I can almost taste it now, though the weather forecast for Cincinnati is questionable, with a 40% chance of rain tomorrow. I really hope they get the game in, not least because I have taken the day off work for the occasion. [Actually, I'd maxed out the hours in my vacation bank, and if I didn't take time out, would have stopped accruing them. Opening Day seemed like as good a time as any to do it!]

I hope you're all enjoying SnakePit v2.0. I want to thank Trei and his team for making it such a smooth changeover, and for answering all our questions and my bug reports - whether they were for actual bugs or not! There are some really kick-ass features here, such as the new Gameday Threads which automatically refresh and alert you of new posts. I'm in awe of the work that's gone into this. It is still a project in progress, but it promises to be quite phenomenal.

Couple of things to point out; the 'rec' button you see can be used to recommend good posts - if enough people do so for, say, a FanPost, it will eventually be boosted to a special section. If you read something you like, feel free to use it, as a virtual round of applause for the creator. If you find a quick link, video, etc. of interest and want to post that here, without writing up a full story, you can now do that using the FanShots area - Azreous has already done a couple of them.

Today's talking point. Over at Bleed Cubbie Blue, Al has published his 2008 predictions, picking us to finish fourth in the division. Do you think he's still bitter about the whuppin' we inflicted on the Cubs in the playoffs? ;-) But the real question is: what do you think the order of finish will be in the 2008 NL West.

I'll see you all tomorrow morning, for the first game of the year. The winter is over; the spring has gone; it's time for the boys of summer to take over once again. How sweet a thought that is. I think I'll watch The Natural this afternoon.

Play ball!