The Arizona Diamondbacks have lost a big piece of their offense for an indefinite period after placing second baseman Aaron Hill on the 15-day disabled list with a broken hand.
Kirk Gibson says 4-6 weeks for Aaron Hill.
— Nick Piecoro (@nickpiecoro) April 16, 2013
Aaron Hill will be replaced by rookie Didi Gregorius, acquired from the #Indians in the Trevor Bauer trade, for #Dbacks
— Bob Nightengale (@BNightengale) April 16, 2013
Miguel Montero off to nice toilets twitter.com/Eric_Yeomans/s…
— Eric Yeomans (@Eric_Yeomans) April 12, 2013
They have all those crazy toilets in Japan. Heated seats, multiple bidet settings, the works. Miguel Montero is a man of discerning taste, obviously he appreciates the finer things in life. Like nice toilets. Probably from Japan. Maybe a squatter or two, you never know. Once you get hooked on the squatter, there is no going back. It just seems so natural, once you get over the initial weirdness.
How’s that for a Good Friday? Jim Bowden of ESPN and other things first reports the Arizona Diamondbacks signing Paul Goldschmidt to a five-year, $32 million deal which buys up one of the big first baseman’s free agent years. Ken Rosenthal adds that the deal includes an option for 2019, keeping Goldy in the Snakes fray for a long, long time.
The photo of Daniel Hudson above was taken on June 26th, 2012. This was the last baseball game in which Hudson appeared. The expression on his face could be interpreted many ways, but in essence, it says “my elbow has exploded and I ain’t pitching for 12-18 months”.
It was on the June day that Hudson exited a game versus the Atlanta Braves after struggling through 1.2 innings of work. The right-hander tore the ulnar collateral ligament in his throwing arm, and it’s probably not a day he needs to be reminded of via a heavily circulated cardboard representation of himself. Alas, this is what Topps has done by plunking a headshot from that afternoon on Daniel Hudson’s baseball card.
Thank @toppscards for using a close up of me right after my elbow blew out! Card will be around forever as areminder! twitter.com/DHuddy41/statu…
— Daniel Hudson (@DHuddy41) March 24, 2013
Via Big League Stew
The San Francisco Giants quest for back-to-back National West Division crowns will be no easy task this year with the Dodgers fielding a lineup with five potential All-Stars and a re-vamped D’Backs lineup that will look to continue their offensive success of last season without outfielder Justin Upton. The Rockies don’t have the pitching, but may still be able to win some ball games with a lineup featuring a healthy Troy Tulowitzki, while the Padres may be in for a long season, especially if they deal Chase Headley.
Over the next week, we will take a look at how each team’s lineups looked to start the season in 2012 compared to the projected look for 2013 (all ZiPS projections courtesy of Fangraphs.)
You know what this video is? Damn cool, that’s what this video is. A four-hour cactus league contest between the Arizona Diamondbacks and the Chicago White Sox becomes a highly entertaining four minute time-lapse video, featuring the requisite elevator jazz and rolling cloud shots expected in such an endeavour.
Come for the snappy editing, stay for the lolling blue hairs found at any and all spring games.
Hat tip to Nick Piecoro on Twitter
2012 Record: 81-81, 3rd NL West
2012 Pythagorean Record: 86-76
Impact Player: C Miguel Montero
Impact Pitcher: RHP Ian Kennedy
Top Prospect: LHP Tyler Skaggs
Significant Acquisitions: 3B Martin Prado, RHP Brandon McCarthy, OF Cody Ross, SS Cliff Pennington, RHP Heath Bell, LHP Tony Sipp, LHP Matt Reynolds, 3B/1B Eric Chavez, 1B/OF Eric Hinske, RHP Randall Delgado, SS Didi Gregorius
Significant Departures: RF Justin Upton, CF Chris Young, RHP Trevor Bauer, RHP Bryan Shaw, 3B Chris Johnson, 3B Ryan Wheeler, RHP Matt Albers, RHP Matt Lindstrom
Going into the offseason, forward-thinking baseball people seemed to have a decent opinion of Arizona Diamondbacks’ General Manager Kevin Towers. Sure, he’s an old school guy, but going back to his time as the GM of the Padres, he seemed to have a decent grasp on how to intelligently run a baseball team. Then, in a matter of a few wintery months, that opinion changed.
Right from the beginning of the offseason, Towers and his crew made questionable decision after questionable decision. First he acquired overpaid and overrated reliever Heath Bell from the Marlins in a three-team trade that saw him jettison talented centerfielder Chris Young; then he dealt another high-upside player in former third-overall pick Trevor Bauer. The right-hander had been in the organization for only a little over a year and had already skyrocketed to the Majors, but he apparently didn’t gel with the coaching staff and he was sent to Cleveland in another three-way trade that brought shortstop prospect Didi Gregorius over from Cincinnati.
Finally, Towers capped off his talent-purge by trading his most talented player in rightfielder Justin Upton to Atlanta for a package of players centered around third baseman Martin Prado.
Towers and his brass ostensibly acquired an overpaid reliever, two middling glove-first shortstops, a decent pitching prospect and Martin Prado for one of the game’s most talented outfielders, one of the game’s most highly-touted pitching prospects and an above-average centerfielder. He told the media that he wanted to build a team in manager Kirk Gibson’s image—tough, gritty and leadershippy. That means fans in Arizona are going to see a lot more Willie Bloomquist-types than Justin Upton-types from here on out.
Having said all that, the D’Backs are still a very good team. You could make the argument that even if they made themselves worse in the long run by trading away Bauer and Upton, et al, they might still have made themselves better for 2013. Whether or not you think that’s a good strategy is up to your philosophy on contention.
