Arizona Diamondbacks

Justin Upton and the Arizona Diamondbacks had a rough go in 2010. Plagued by a historic case of strikeout fever—the batters whiffed 144 times more than any other club in the National League and the pitchers struck out the third-fewest opponents on the senior circuit—and a poor defense, the team lost 97 games.

Manager A.J. Hinch and GM Josh Byrnes got the axe, and have been replaced by Kirk Gibson (in the dugout) and Kevin Towers (in the front office).

This month, I’ll be providing insights on all 15 games in the Cactus Leagues in Arizona, telling you who looks good and who does not and what to look for this upcoming 2011 campaign.

Colorado 6, Arizona 5

Salt River Fields, Scottsdale

This is actually the home for both teams, with the Diamondbacks the home team this day.

9 Innings Blog will be bringing you previews of every Major League Baseball team for the next 30 days. This is in accordance with out 30 teams in 30 days series. Today, we will preview the 2011 Arizona Diamondbacks who are managed by Kirk Gibson. Gibson is entering his first full season with the team.

While there’s some question as to who’s better between Carl Crawford and Carlos Gonzalez or between Ryan Braun and Matt Holliday, the

Justin Upton is one of the brightest young stars in baseball—at least, that’s what we are supposed to believe. 

We all know he has the talent, as we’ve seen it at times, but given what he’s shown recently, should we be rolling the dice on him in the late third or early fourth round of fantasy drafts (since his current ADP, according to Mock Draft Central. is 40.27)?

Justin Upton is coming off a year in which he took a considerable step backwards. Through his first 3 seasons in the big leagues, he had consistently improved his statistics as his playing time increased:

The Arizona Diamondbacks 2011 Major League Baseball Season couldn't be any worse than their 2010 season, could it?

The 2010 MLB Season marked the second consecutive year the Arizona Diamondbacks finished with a losing record (65-97) and in last place in the National League (NL) West.

The team's slow start resulted in manager AJ Hinch and general manager Josh Byrnes losing their jobs midway through the season on July 1st.

Our 2011 fantasy baseball projections will be released one-by-one until the top 100 players have been revealed. These rankings consider past achievements, current performance and expected future results based on standard 5×5 H2H settings.

The other day, we wrote a post looking at the “10 Breakout Candidates for 2011.” Today, we are going to look at five players who potentially could bounce back from relatively poor seasons in 2010.

These are guys who looked like they were headed for fantasy stardom after the 2009 season, but for some reason or another, had a down 2010. These are also guys that you might be able to get later in the draft because some of the other owners in your league are down on them. But you shouldn’t be.

We here at Baseball Professor think about our readers first and ourselves second—albeit a close second. That’s why we decided to reach out to other bloggers (who follow their respective teams more closely than we do) to give you a deeper look into the important issues every fantasy owner has to come to grips with this season.