Hale-frickin-luia.

The Arizona Diamondbacks have won a series.

Kinda sad that I had to wait 17 days into the season to say that, but hey, I’ll take what I can get right now. It was a nail biter of a game, as many of them have been this season, as Dan Haren continued to look like the best pitcher in the National League right now throwing seven shut onut innings. His ERA is now at 1.38. Calling that good is like saying DaVinci was a decent artist.

While Haren’s performance was stellar, and the meager offense was enough to secure him his first win this season, I think the big story is the fact that the bull pen managed to not throw the game away. I hate to be one of those negative fans, but the bullpen really does emphasize “bull”. Jon Rauch needs to change his name to Jon Rout, because that’s what the other team does to us when he comes in. I can’t even say for sure that he’s had a game where he didn’t give up a run.

He’s just one several guys that have been bad. Slaten and Schoenweiss are all but guaranteed to give up a run or two as well. Qualls has been alright, Gutierrez decent. The truth is we need a solid, dependable  bullpen.

To their credit, they have shown signs of improvement over the past week. Not where they need to be yet, but they’ve had games where they’ve held the lead, such as today.

The hitting has also improved, but still not where it needs to be. Hopefully we’ll keep moving up in the arena as well. I mean honestly, we can’t let the Nationals do better than us. 

Tonight the D’backs will face the most important series of the season.

Yes, I know, not too difficult when it’s only the second series. But they take on the Dodgers and we need to come out and show them we’re not going to be taken lightly this year. Most sources have the Dodgers winning the division, and with the apparently unstoppable Manny Ramirez playing at his peak again since he’s happy now, they could be right. But we can’t just roll over and die. We need to play smart and we need to play hard.

Playing hard isn’t too difficult for this group. One thing I have never criticized is their heart, as I have never really felt that their heart wasn’t in it. Smart, well that will be tough. I continue to rail on the fact that the concentration sometimes seems lax, as does their plate discipline. They tend to have the focus of a drunk monkey with ADD behind the plate sometimes. I could say “But hey, they’re young.” That’s not really a valid excuse anymore. These guys aren’t rookies anymore. They’re players with some time under their belts. It’s time to display some patience behind the plate, choose their pitches, and really come out and play smart ball.

Join me in cheering for them today. I’ll be supporting them whole heartedly, and hopefully my next entry will be talking about a team that has shown they are big league all the way.

I’m going to look at it this way…we don’t have to worry about a phenomenal April deceiving us into high hopes while a mediocre at best rest of the season bitch slaps us back into reality.

SO…after the first series, we’re down. From the Rockies. While I guess it was foolish to expect the domination of our division foes which we’ve enjoyed over the past year to continue, it would have at least been nice if our bats showed up.

Honestly, I don’t know where to begin. What do I complain more about? Our bullpen continuing to be a weak spot, or our bats once again proving to be consistently inconsistent. I wish I had the answers. If I did, you probably wouldn’t be reading this, but instead writing about how big a tool I was on here. But here are my thoughts.

Making the opposing pitcher work.Melvin referenced this in today’s wrapup article on the website. We don’t give pitchers a chance to make a mistake. Our batters aren’t patient enough behind the plate. League leading strikeouts last year is a big indication of this. Strikeouts are going to happen, but when you have guys like Mark Reynolds getting over 200, and not being ashamed of this, you have a problem.

I think our guys tend to overswing a lot too. Miguel Montero did that Tuesday night. He swang so hard that he caused a change in the weather forcast. We have some gret athletes, they don’t need to swing that hard. And when you do, you just end up screwing up.

Our bullpen….I just don’t know. The only idea I have is getting rid of a lot of them, namely Slaten, Rauche Schowenweis and while we’re at it Petite. Our bullpen just doesn’t have the ability to hold a lead, let alone keep a close game from getting out of hand. I’d love these guys to prove me wrong, I really would. But I just don’t see it happening. As such, our offense is really going to have to step it up, and keep it up to give us any change. Especially with the scary prospect of and injured Webb. Let’s hope this is minor.  

The other day I picked up the 2009 Baseball Yearbook issue of the Sporting News. I eagerly read the reviews of the other teams, scarcely containing my anticipation of what was thought about the 2009 Diamondbacks. The article was honest, mentioning some positives, delicately pointing out some negatives. Then I read the “View From the Other Dugout” review, a piece written by an opposing scout. It was mostly negative, almost harsh at some points. While I don’t agree with parts of it, I wish I could argue more. I’ll dissect it here, because my opinion matters to one or two people, and because my wife is working late and I’m bored.

Right from the get go, the piece starts swinging, as the unnamed scout says “I keep trying to figure out what this franchise is trying to do. They say they want to give their young players a chance (and) then they give away Carlos Quentin and waste $30 million on Eric Byrnes for three years.”

First off, Carlos Quentin was given many many chances. He started out on a tear, then quickly cooled off like a desert night. (Desert outside of a city where you don’t that concrete heat shield thing going on.) I  think Carlos was given ample chance, but this really is an objective issue.

Now, as for “wasting” the money, I think that remains to be seen. While I will not hide my disappointment in his performance last year, I also understand it was the result of an injury that continued to get worse. Let’s be honest, he tore the hamstring from the bone at the end, that sounds painful as watching the Lifetime Channel. Maybe even more so. So let’s see how he does this season after he has had a chance to heal before we go calling the money spent on him a waste. When he’s on, he’s a game changer, and a true benefit to have on the field.

The writer went on to criticize the mortgaging of the farm system for Dan Haren, saying they wanted to built a rotation and then traded Micah Owings for Adam Dunn. First off, Haren was a great acquisition, and I don’t regret that trade. (I’m sure management is glad to hear I don’t regret their actions. lol) On the second one, I agree completely. Micah was a tremendous asset for the D’backs. Not only did he pitch well (most of the time), he wasn’t the guaranteed out in the ninth spot that most other pitchers are. He’s a ball player, not just a pitcher, a rare thing in today’s diva-rich world of professional sports.

The next point of contention was the letting go of Randy Johnson. I can honestly say I’m not sure on this one. On the one hand, I wanted to see him get his 300th win in a D’backs uniform. And while the money he asked for was possible to pull off, the entire sport is in such financial turmoil, like the rest of our country, they really didn’t know what would happen. I think it was a mistake, but it really was an honest one, born of unsure times. And while he WAS willing to take a 50 percent pay cut, let’s be honest, he still would have made millions. It’s not as if he was going from a decent salary to not much more than minimum wage.

The writer then went on to describe our lineup as devoid of big pop, and striking out way too much. That one is inarguable. Our strikeouts were obscene, and Mark Reynolds led that charge unabashedly. The team has said they are working on lessening their strikeouts, thankfully. I asked Josh Byrnes that during an online chat, and while he admitted that the strikeouts were a bit high, he understandably also went on the PR attack and pointed out some positives. I’m glad to see he was just putting a positive spin on things and didn’t actually think that.  I work in the PR field, and I understand having to walk that line, fortunately they do too. Let’s see if their work on that front pays off, or if we just end up swatting more air than a person afraid of mosquitoes in the midst of a swarm of ‘em.

So as I’ve said before, there are a lot of things to see this coming year. I still have some optimistic thoughts, but we’ll see if that is empty or not. Do D’backs.

There is a time of year that is dark, bleak and dismal. The trees are brown, the grass isn’t green, and baseball fields lie empty as professional ball players enjoy the money they made the prior season. Fortunately that time is over, and not a moment too soon. I don’t know how to spend my evenings when I don’t have to make deals with my wife on what I’ll let her watch if I can just watch tonight’s game.

So Spring Training has finally started. It’s like the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel. Okay, perhaps that metaphor is a touch trite, but it’s the case as I know soon I’ll be serenaded by the crack of the bat, the roar of the fans, and the increasingly poor officiating.

So with the start of the season on it’s way, I do have one gripe. Opening day this year is at 12:40. All this waiting, this interminable period of non baseballness, and if I’m lucky, I’ll get to hear it on the radio. What the hell were they thinking? Not about me, that’s for sure. Again. Sigh.

In all seriousness, I’m curious to see what will happen with our lineup this year. While some teams have gone out and made some big moves and acquired big names (or in the case of A-rod, who should be acquiring a big lawyer), all our acquisitions have sent me scrambling for google trying to see just who the hell they’ve gotten. I know I’ve blogged about this before, and all one of you who read this are thinking you’ve gotten a case of deja vu, but the fact remains that we haven’t really done anything I think that will really put is in contention.

I could be overly pessimistic. Perhaps some of our young players will live up to the interminable hype and praise that has been heaped on them (I’m looking at you, Justin Upton), and maybe Eric Byrnes will be back to all out self (I really hope so, makes the games fun.) But if we’re mired in another unproductive slump of inactive batting that our players seem so capable of being in, it will be another disappointing season.

But, I am a true fan. Regardless of what happens I’ll still be there cheering them on. It’s just more fun to cheer during the playoffs. And in the mean time, I’ll fear the worst and hope for the best. Let’s go D’backs. Sigh…it’s going to be a long month.