Diamondbacks starter Micah Owings is just about the best hitting pitcher you or I have ever seen.

How good is he? Well, last year he led the entire Diamondbacks squad with a 1.033 OPS, including a .333 batting average, 4 homers, and a .683 slugging percentage. In one incredible game against the Pirates on September 27, he went 4 for 4 with 3 doubles and 3 RBI while pitching 6 1/3 innings of shutout ball, en route to an 8-0 victory.

And this season, having gone 2-3 with a run scored in his victory yesterday, his batting average now is up to .308.

Of course, pitchers don’t get too many at bats, so these are some pretty small sample sizes we are talking about, but you can be sure that Owings is for real. For one thing, he was a star two-way pitcher/first baseman at Division-I Tulane, and would certainly have been draftable as a hitter if he hadn’t been drafted as a pitcher. There is also the fact that in his two minor-league seasons, he put up a combined line of .377 /.381/.525.

By my reckoning, Owings is presently the 5th best hitter on the entire Diamondbacks team. He is certainly better than catcher Chris Snyder, shortstop Stephen Drew, or second baseman Orlando Hudson. Which is why it is so odd that the Diamondbacks are still batting him in the traditional 9th spot. He should at least be batting 7th, and maybe even higher.

Of course, there is always the fact that as a pitcher, Owings usually does not play the full game. But this is the good ol’ National League, and that is precisely what the double-switch is made for.

The point is that the Diamondbacks have a rare two-way player on their hands, and if they are smart the should do everything in their power to get him as many at-bats as they can. One way to do that is to put him higher in the lineup, which is so obviously a smart move that it is baffling they haven’t done it already. In addition, they should also probably be pinch hitting him just about every game, and should maybe even consider sneaking him in at first base from time to time. And he should almost certainly be their DH in interleague games.

Obviously they don’t want to risk injury to him by making him play a demanding position in the field, because oh yeah he is also a pretty good pitcher, off to a 4-0 start this year with a 2.42 ERA.

But batting him 9th just because that is where all other pitchers bat is just stupid.

They say laws are like sausages: you never want to see them being made.

Allow me to add a third item to that list: mustaches.

Granted, there is no facial hairstyle that rivals the mustache for pure machismo or sex appeal (see: Selleck, Brimley, Daulerio). But while a fully-formed mustache is a thing of beauty, a mustache in the works is a scary and unnerving phenomenon.

Take Eric Byrnes new ’stache, for example. It is truly Unfortunate Facial Hair.

As you can see, the mustache is still in development and is rather awkward. Simply put, this fruit is not yet ripe.

Why would anybody do this to his face?

“I have not shaved since we started peeling off those wins,” Byrnes said. “And, coincidentally, I started hitting, so put the two of them together and the mustache isn’t going anywhere. As long as we keep winning or I keep getting hits, this mustache is staying.”

Ok, that’s legit. As Crash Davis would say, “you have to respect the streak.” But let me submit that the proper way to grow a mustache is to first grow a beard and then shave off all of one’s facial hair, excepting the hair above the upper lip. Ladies love the five o’clock shadow. And the full beard is a look that says, “I’m ready for the playoffs, even in April.”

What Byrnes has done – growing only the mustache and shaving the rest of his face hair – is just wrong. Fans shouldn’t have to endure this in-between period. We’ll be ready to embrace the ’stache when it is really and truly ready for prime time, but we shouldn’t have to see how the sausage is made.

This is one of a series of posts in which we grade each team’s wily hot stove maneuvers and tragic offseason blunders.

Concluding last year’s HOA for the Diamondbacks, I wrote:

Yes, they’re young; yes, they have the O-Dog at second and a promising shortstop, not to mention, promising outfielders, but these D’backs are one or two full seasons away from truly measuring up and contending for the NL West crown as previous generations of Snakes did.

Little did I know, the D’backs were ready then! I guess I need to learn to make bolder predictions! At any rate, I honestly can’t say nobody saw it coming. Banking on the performance of young players like Justin Upton, Chris Young, Stephen Drew and Connor Jackson, Arizona managed to reach the NLCS only a year after finishing 4th with a .469 winning percentage. It could be said, then, that with a few strategic moves in the offseason, the Diamondbacks would be poised to return to the postseason and make a run at a World Series berth. It helps that GM Josh Byrnes has been working the phones (and working the league); not only has he solidified the farm system, he’s recently acquired tons of major-league-ready talent.

Last year’s motto was simple: let the young players play and they’ll show results soon enough, while at the same time purge the payroll of overpriced veterans that had already produced all they could for the championship clubs of yesteryear.

This time around, Byrnes’ approach is the natural evolution of last year’s plan of attack. Once you weed out the talent that never materialized, you can make shrewd moves to bring in proven stars. And there is no better example than the Dan Haren trade. Byrnes beefed up his team’s rotation, sending a crop of minor league talent that became expendable in exchange for the young Oakland ace. With Brandon Webb anchoring the starters, Byrnes has put together one of the best one-two punches in the league.

But to top it all off, and in what may be considered his most controversial move, Byrnes shipped closer Jose Valverde to the Astros for Chad Qualls, Juan Gutierrez and outfielder Chris Burke.

Sure this last move may seem puzzling to some, but as Nick discussed in his post back in December after the trade had been announced, Valverde was becoming too cost-prohibited to keep around. As soon as closers compile huge save numbers, their stock rises just as quick. With Chad Qualls, manager Doug Melvin has a proven reliever that may be up to the challenge and assume the closer’s role, or he may let a dark horse emerge from his other bullpen arms.

The Diamondbacks’ infield was set last year, even more so with the emergence of Connor Jackson. And as far as the outfield is concerned, last year’s pleasant dilemma of an outfielder surplus allowed Byrnes to make the necessary moves to land Haren.

He traded Carlos Quentin to the White Sox for minor leaguer Chris Carter and quickly turned him around, including him in the package he sent Oakland, along with two outfield prospects, Carlos Gonzalez and Aaron Cunningham, and three other pitchers. (The D’backs also received right hander Connor Robertson along with Haren). Keep in mind that the Valverde trade also brought in Burke who’ll likely come off the bench, with Eric Byrnes, Young and Upton set as starters. Rotation wise, the return of Randy Johnson solidifies a strong squad anchored by Webb and Haren.

It’s clear that Josh Byrnes is quickly and quietly becoming one of the best in the league and with the moves he’s pulled off this offseason the Diamondbacks could be set for 2008.

Additions: Dan Haren, Chris Burke, Chad Qualls, Billy Buckner, Connor Robertson, Juan Gutierrez.

Losses: Jose Valverde, Carlos Quentin, Brett Anderson, Greg Smith, Dana Eveland, Carlos Gonzalez, Aaron Cunningham, Chris Carter, Alberto Callaspo, Tony Clark, Livan Hernandez, Jeff Cirillo, Bob Wickman

Lineup

CF Chris Young -
2B Orlando Hudson
LF Eric Byrnes
1B Connor Jackson
3B Mark Reynolds
SS Stephen Drew
C Chris Snyder
RF Justin Upton
P Brandon Webb

Rotation

SP - Brandon Webb
SP - Dan Haren
SP - Randy Johnson
SP - Doug Davis
SP - Micah Owings

Closer

Qualls/Lyon/Pena

Grade: A–

Generally, a team that makes it deep into the playoffs only needs to upgrade (if at all) at few positions. The Diamondbacks added one of the best pitchers in the game to a staff that possesses former Cy Young winner Brandon Webb and that’ll feature a healthy (albeit old) Randy Johnson. However, the Valverde deal has enough of a risk involved to prevent that A- from being a solid A.

- Hot Offseason Action Index -

San Diego Padres - a left fielder

To say left field was a revolving door for the Friars last season would be generous. It was more like there was no door at all, and anyone could just walk through and play. After trying all manner of flotsam there last year, including castoffs like Jose Cruz, Jr., Paul McAnulty, Russ Branyan, Terrmel Sledge, Rob Mackowiak, the Padres have still not found a solution.

Although Scott Hairston did hit like a man on fire after coming over from the D-Backs in a late season trade (.981 OPS in 87 AB), and is the putative starter if the season were to start today, before coming to the Pads he had an awful .659 OPS in 176 at-bats with the Snakes, so it’s hard to have any confidence in him.

Another reason it would be useful for the Padres to add at least one more capable player to their outfield mix is that their starting centerfielder is the aging and injury prone Jim Edmonds, who is highly unlikely to make it through a whole season without several trips to the DL.

Arizona Diamondbacks - a fourth outfielder

After an offseason in which they did just about everything right, the team’s only discernable hole is in the outfield. The Snakes seem committed to going with youngster Justin Upton as their everyday rightfielder, despite his unsightly .221/.283/.364 line last season. But now that Arizona has traded away its two best outfield prospects in Carlos Quentin and Carlos Gonzalez, if Upton falters or if either of the other two guys go down for any extended period, the D-Backs’ only replacement option off the bench is some 28-year-old 4-A dude named Jeff Salazar, a guy who nobody would want to see playing in the outfield every day.

Colorado Rockies - a left-handed reliever

Like the Diamondbacks, the Rockies are another team with very few holes left, having fulfilled their promise to the fans to return last year’s World Series squad virtually intact. They did “lose” Kazuo Matsui to the Astros, but that may well be a blessing, as it opens up a spot for top infield prospect and purported defensive wizard Jayson Nix, and even if Nix falters, the Rocks still have several other options to choose from at the keystone, including prospects Omar Quintanilla, Jeff Baker, and Ian Stewart, and former Braves star Marcus Giles, whom they just inked to a minor-league deal.

The Rockies are set to turn over half their bullpen, however, with LaTroy Hawkins having already bolted for the Yankees and free agents Jorge Julio and Jeremy Affeldt set to depart as well. Although the Rockies were able to sign Luis Vizcaino to fill Hawkins’ shoes, they probably need to sign at least one more reliever, especially a left-hander to fill the situational lefty role Affeldt handled last season, as they have no particularly appealing internal options to replace him.

Los Angeles Dodgers - continue resisting the temptation to trade away their young guns

A good argument could be made that the Dodgers could have improved their team dramatically by making no moves whatsoever this offseason, and just letting their highly touted, major-league ready prospects have a chance to show what they can do.

Of course, Ned Colletti being Ned Colletti, he had to go out and sign at least a few big names, giving fairly outrageous contracts to outfielder Andrew Jones and Japanese import Hiroki Kuroda. But so far he has resisted the deluge of trade offers for coveted young players like Matt Kemp, Clayton Kershaw, and James Loney, and if he can keep on resisting those offers, as well as the temptation to block them any further with free agent signings, the Dodgers should be in pretty good shape to make a run at the playoffs this season.

San Francisco Giants - EVERYTHING

Here is a short list of the things the Giants need: a first baseman, a second baseman, a third baseman, a starting pitcher, a closer, and three other relievers of any ability. Outside of the outfield (Rowand, Roberts, Randy Winn), and the young arms in the rotation (Cain, Lowry, Lincecum), this team is going to be absolutely terrible, and they have no promising prospects of any real note on the way either. The Giants are well nigh a stone cold lock to have the worst offense in the National League this year.

Josh Byrnes of the Diamondbacks is quickly establishing his credentials as the best general manager in the game today. Has this guy made a bad move yet since he took over as D-Backs GM after the 2005 season?

First, he deserves huge credit for putting his faith in his highly talented young prospects last year rather than signing at least a few big-name “experienced veterans” like almost every other GM would have done if handed a similar squad so inexperienced across the board.

This put the D-Backs in a position to win last year, and while it is true that the D-Backs were a “fluke” last year in terms of run differential, it was Byrnes who got them to a place where they could be such a fluke if a few bounces went there way, and this in only his second full season as GM after taking over a team that was one of the worst in baseball only a few years prior.

Now comes the news that Byrnes has just pulled off two stunning trades that markedly and clearly improve his team, acquiring bonified ace Dan Haren from the A’s for six prospects and getting Chris Burke, Chad Qualls, and triple-A starting pitcher Juan Gutierrez from the Astros for closer Jose Valverde.

I am especially shocked by the Dan Haren trade, because it was made with Billy Beane, and normally we are used to seeing Beane be the one fleecing the other team. In Beane’s defense, all six players can be reasonably projected to become major leaguers someday, but all six are grade-B prospects who are projected to be fourth starter or fourth outfielder types.

So while Beane did acquire a significant quantity of talent for his ace, and can be credited with spreading out his risk over 6 prospects rather than getting one mega-prospect who might get hurt or flame out while taking a bunch of flyers on a bunch of grade-C players, I’m just surprised that Beane felt this was the absolute max he could get for Dan Haren.

I mean, this is Dan Haren! The one player I would actually have rather my team traded for more than Johan Santana. Consider that Dan Haren 15-9 with a 3.07 ERA last hear and hurled 222.2 innings. Those are numbers you can put right up there with Santana’s and moving that guy into a much weaker league and a much weaker division is just downright scary.

But most of all, whereas Santana is going to be a free agent, and is due for a ginormous payout, Dan Haren is locked up for the next three full seasons, at the ridiculously reasonable price of just over $5 million per season!

So with Santana attracting big-league names like Jacoby Ellsbury, Jon Lester, Phil Hughes, and Melky Cabrerra as possible return values, it amazes me that in exchange for Dan Haren Billy Beane didn’t even get one name that anyone has ever heard of, and Josh Byrnes didn’t even have to give up one player that had any chance of appearing on the D-Backs’ major league roster next season.

I am almost as impressed by the trade Byrnes pulled off with the Astros, who continue to get themselves torn to shreds by Ed Wade’s overwhelming incompetence. In this case, Byrnes shrewdly leveraged the overvalued stat of the Save to sell Valverde and his 47 saves to Houston for two very useful major league players and a 24-year old pitching prospect already on the verge of contributing in the big leagues.

Burke had a down year last season, but is just hitting his peak years at age 27 and still has the potential to become the player the Astros thought could replace Craig Biggio at second base, and Gutierrez was ranked by Baseball America as the #4 prospect in the Astros system last season, praised for his plus fastball and promising changeup.

But the key to this deal is Qualls. Byrnes is clearly gambling that Qualls is the equal, or near equal of Valverde, only minus the bling of a 40-save season to his name. Qualls has quietly racked up a fine career ERA of 3.39 in 284 major-league innings while pitching half his games in a hitter’s ballpark, and had outstanding strikeout and groundball rates last season, which bodes well for his future.

But even more importantly, Qualls has three years left before free agency to Valverde’s two, so Qualls could make this trade even out all by himself, even if he only provided 70 percent of the value that Valverde does per season over the next three years.

With the Padres and Dodgers treading water and the Giants and Rockies backsliding, I think these trades have to instantly catapult the D-Backs to the status of favorites in the NL West by a large margin. The D-Backs’ pitching was already pretty strong last season, but now they have a second ace to pair with Brandon Webb, giving them a one-two punch similar to the one they had with Randy Johnson and Curt Schilling back when they won it all in 2001.

And with a team full of still developing young players with big upside up and down the lineup, Byrnes appears to be building the Diamondbacks into a perennial powerhouse that will put together strong playoff runs for years to come.

I live in Tucson. I just moved here about three months ago. Recently, I told you that the local minor league team was leaving town.

Now it looks like spring training might be leaving for the sucktastic shores of the Phoenix metro area. The White Sox, the Diamondbacks and the Rockies all play their March games in Tucson.

Here’s why they might leave:

• Goodyear, a Phoenix suburb, is building a stadium for the Cleveland Indians for 2009 and is in talks with the Rockies about the team moving its spring training home there.
• The White Sox have already announced plans to move to Glendale for the 2009 season. BUT, they are contractually obligated to find a replacement team in order to break their lease at Tucson Electric Park, which runs through 2012.
• If the White Sox move to Glendale and spring training in Tucson is reduced to two teams, the Rockies and the Arizona Diamondbacks can also break their leases.

So you can see how Tucson’s days of spring training baseball may be numbered.

Why does this matter? Because Tucson is a real place with real people and real buildings. This town has culture. I tell people lots of towns have lots of kitschy bars. But Tucson’s bars are kitschy by virtue of the fact that they just haven’t changed anything in the last 50 years. And I think that’s awesome.

The Phoenix suburbs are a monument to all that is soulless in America. They are shoddy modern construction. They are chain restaurants. They are sprawl.

Don’t let Tucson baseball die. If you’re a Tucson resident, write your local elected official. If you’re a Rockies, White Sox or Diamondbacks fan, call or email the team and tell them that Phoenix sucks and you don’t ever want to go there to watch a baseball game.

And if you’re smart, you’ll buy a plane ticket to Tucson right now and come watch baseball in Tucson this spring, while you still can.

Here comes a fresh look at stadium design, via j-walkblog.com.

In response to Nick’s complaint that all the new baseball stadiums look the same, I present Liz Hickok, an artist who works with Jello.

Behold her rendering of the ballpark in Scottsdale, AZ.

Baseball stadiums have survived a few trends. First there was the “cement donut” phase. Now there is the “retro” phase. Could the jello phase be next?Check out more of Liz Hickok’s art at lizhickok.com.

I just have some questions for you.

Why is your mascot a bobcat?

Don’t bobcats eat snakes?

Isn’t a diamondback a snake?

Why does your mascot eat you?

Isn’t this kind of like the Mariners creating a mascot named Scurvy the Liver Spot?

Just asking.

This post will serve as the preview to the NLCS; I’ll live blog the thing after the jump.

So when Kaz matsui hit that Grand Slam in game 2 of the NLDS, I could only think of this:

When Donald Trump appeared on a sponsored segment of ESPN’s ”SportsCenter” on June 30, Matsui was hitting .254, appearing anemic at the plate, committing errors at a rapid rate. He was the easiest target imaginable.

The host, Dan Patrick, asked Trump to name the athlete or manager he would most like to fire. Trump stalled for a moment, tried to give a diplomatic answer, then could not help but fire away. ”I would certainly say Kaz Matsui of the Mets has been a bust,” he said. ”There’s no doubt about that.”

I bet Matsui has a clipping of this article in his locker. I would. It goes to show that Trump is just a dick, and he doesn’t know baseball any better than he knows how to run a company with profits with out declaring for bankruptcy (sue me Donald!).

But really, It makes for great baseball blogging to see Matsui come through for one the biggest surprises this off season.

Incidentally, the Dimondbacks capitalized on the amazing pool of talent they have, and they surprised many by reaching the NLCS. In fact, back before the season started, my fellow umpbumpers and I engaged in a little game called “Hot Off-season Action,” where we all scrutinized each team’s off-season moves with an eye on 2007.

One of the teams I wrote about was the D-backs. But before I go dig the Umpbump archives (with our newly-redesigned search function - give it a try!) to find out what I really wrote, I will go out on a limb and say I envisioned the young Rattlesnakers making it this far.

<opens a new tab, goes to the site, searches for “hot offseason action: dimobbacks,” returns>

OK. I was cautious. I praised the team for allowing their young and talented ball-players to develop while trading away costly veterans:

Gone is cult-hero Luis Gonzalez to make room for two promising outfielders, Chris Young and Carlos Quentin. With Quentin’s flashy leather, he’ll take over center field, while local spaz Eric Byrnes shifts to left field.

Out is Craig Counsell at short in favor of Stephen Drew.

But I shied away from making a bold prediction:

Yes, they’re young; yes, they have the O-Dog at second and a promising shortstop, not to mention, promising outfielders, but these D’backs are one or two full seasons away from truly measuring up and contending for the NL West crown as previous generations of Snakes did.

All in all, I have to say I feel good about my pre-season write-up. The Dimondbacks are a good team and they deserve to be in the NLCS.

On to the live blog!

Read the rest of this entry »

I have a special kind of respect for a good leadoff hitter. I think this stems from the fact that ever since I started playing tee ball at the age of seven, I knew I wasn’t a power hitter. I was short then and am short now (barely 5′6). But I always had a knack for getting on base. In tee ball, I’d always make sure to hit the ball to third, knowing that 99% of kids that age couldn’t throw the ball across the diamond. A year later during my first season of live-pitch baseball, my coach made me bunt most of the time, which I hated doing but also knew worked because no eight-year old really practiced fielding bunts. And for the rest of my baseball career, I walked. A lot. I always had a small strike zone and I took advantage, knowing that I never was big enough to hit that homerun. I took some pride in this self-awareness though I never deluded myself into thinking that this mundane skill would ever receive much attention or praise. But I wanted to give the team a chance to score some runs.

So it seems odd to me looking at the Diamondbacks-Cubs matchup and seeing Chris Young and Alfonso Soriano atop their respective batting orders. They may be able to steal some bases but neither are good candidates to be in that spot.

Taking into account all plate-appearances in the regular season, Major League hitters in 2007 batted .268 and  got on base at a .336 clip (this is including pitchers batting, mind you). Soriano hit a well-above average .299, but barely reached the MLB average in OBP (he had a .337). It’s even worse for Chris Young, who batted a pretty pathetic .237 and had an even uglier OBP of .295. These guys don’t seem to have any business batting leadoff for division champs facing off in the playoffs.

So why are they?

Despite their lack of patience at the plate, both Soriano and Young are candidates to join the 30-30 club in 2008. Young fell three SBs shy (hit 32 dingers) in 2007 while Soriano hit 33 HRs but still failed to meet fantasy owners’ expectations by swiping only 19 bags, probably due to an early season hamstring injury combined with his quad injury in August. And for some reason, this becomes the first bulletpoint in the resume for those applying to become a leadoff hitter (yeah, I’m still looking at you, Jimmy Rollins). I simply don’t see the benefit of having a leadoff hitter who cannot get on base at a decent clip. And funny enough, it’s not like either the Cubs and DBacks have so many prolific power hitters that they can’t find room for them in prime RBI spots. Both Young and Soriano led their respective teams in homeruns. This all just seems incredibly backwards to me.

Don’t get me wrong, I am always thrilled to see managers and players trying new things. If teams wanted to hit their best hitter first to give him more at-bats, I’d be all for it. But neither Soriano nor Young fit that mold either (I’d argue in favor or Connor Jackson and Aramis Ramirez personally).

I’m stumped.