Arizona Diamondbacks

New Arizona Diamondbacks GM Kevin Towers had one goal this offseason. That was to somehow improve the worst bullpen in baseball last season.

When Kevin Towers took over the job as general manager of the Arizona Diamondbacks he had several items on his to-do list to make this team more competitive. The top of that list included rebuilding the worst bullpen in all of Major League Baseball and cut down the number of strikeouts by the offense.

Both of these items were addressed when Arizona sent starting third baseman Mark Reynolds and either a player to be named later or cash to Baltimore for right-handed pitchers David Hernandez and Kam Mickolio.

They say that just before Mother Nature unleashes her wrath of bitter weather on the unsuspecting, it gets extremely calm and quiet. Leading up to a large tsunami, the waters become calm and recede away from the shore.

Over the course of the next week we will feel a similar quiet, almost uneasy, feeling. Beginning next week, all of baseball will turn its attention to the Swan and Dolphin Resorts in Orlando, Florida.

Major League Baseball announced the National League Most Valuable Player selection and, for the first time in three years, the winner is not someone named Albert Pujols.

The 2010 NL MVP was Cincinnati Reds first baseman Joey Votto. Votto’s win was not that surprising given the type of year he had but the degree with which he won was shocking. Votto received 31 out of a possible 32 first place votes and that one vote was a second place.

Over the last week, the Arizona Diamondbacks have began tweaking their roster--- not in a wholesale massive way, but rather by adjusting the player mix one small step at a time. Many Diamondbacks fans will look at each of these moves and question whether they are actually making the team better or just shuffling like a three-card Monte game.

The Arizona Diamondbacks continued to rebuild their baseball operations staff under new General Manager Kevin Towers. Towers recently relieved scouting director Tom Allison of his duties as Director of Scouting.

After Interim General Manager Jerry Dipoto was named Senior Vice President of Player Development and Scouting he has been looking for a replacement for Allison. Today the Diamondbacks announced the hiring of Ray Montgomery as the Director of Amateur Scouting.

With all of the changes to the Arizona Diamondbacks over the past two years, several good resources that have been made available to pursue other opportunities. Now it seems other teams are in a position to make changes themselves and are reaching out to these former Diamondbacks employees. I thought it might be interesting to see who is interviewing where.

Although there are only four games remaining in the 2010 regular season, things are active with regards to the Arizona Diamondbacks pitching staff. This news covers not only those on the major league staff but also pitchers in Tucson attending Instructional League.

Let’s begin with the major league roster. Starter Ian Kennedy made his final start of the season last night against the San Francisco Giants. Kennedy pitched well going five innings allowing just five hits.

When I die, I want to come back and be Dr. James Andrews for a day. How unbelievable must it be to be the preferred doctor of every team and every athlete in North America? I would put his wall of fame up against anyone on the planet.

When the Arizona Diamondbacks returned home from a disastrous road trip where they went just 2-8, there didn’t seem to be anything to look forward to for the final six home games of the season.

The Diamondbacks must have sensed the malaise of its fan base. The team took the 10-game road trip to do a little housekeeping at Chase Field to begin to build excitement to 2011 and especially the fact that Phoenix will be hosting the 2011 Major League Baseball All-Star game.