Arizona Diamondbacks

For all intents and purposes, the 2010 Arizona Diamondbacks have been a disappointment. There have been high points such as the no-hitter by Edwin Jackson on June 25, 2010 and the emergence of young pitching such as Ian Kennedy and Barry Enright, but overall, the team has failed to live up to expectations.

No one expected that the 2010 team would not only fail to be competitive for the National League West, but would actually be worse than the 2009 team that finished in last place, 25 games behind the Los Angeles Dodgers.

September 1st represents the date that rosters expand from 25 to 40 men. Teams fall into two categories when contemplating who should be called up. Teams going to the postseason use these call-ups to give their players, especially pitchers, a break to keep them fresh for the playoffs.

With the final out of a classic pitching duel between the Arizona Diamondbacks against the Colorado Rockies, where the Diamondbacks lost 1-0, the team gathered their things for a difficult road trip beginning in San Diego with a three-game series against the Padres, after which they will travel up the coast to San Francisco for a three-game series with the Giants.

Just a day after the latest Diamondbacks bullpen implosion, the team was back on the field trying to avoid being swept by the red hot Cincinnati Reds.

With the Diamondbacks facing a left-handed pitcher, everyone expected changes to Arizona’s line-up.

Left-handed hitting catcher Miguel Montero was replaced by the right-handed hitting John Hester.

Many casual baseball fans unsafely assume that once the July 31st Trade Deadline has passed that players cannot be traded. This is of course false. I know you are asking yourself, “Well why do they have a trade deadline then if it really isn’t a deadline for making trades?”

Before the 2010 season began, the Arizona Diamondbacks' player development staff got together to create a plan for managing the team's pitching staff. One of the items on their agenda was to determine the workload for their young starting pitching.

At the time, they were talking about Ian Kennedy, whom they traded for along with Edwin Jackson. Kennedy was coming off an injury and the team hoped to limit his total innings to 180. This limit allowed him to extend himself but also made sure he was not overworked to a point that could cause future injury.

With the final out of a very long game against the San Diego Padres where the Diamondbacks were drummed 10-1, the team gathered their things and headed to the airport to make the trip to Milwaukee for a three-game series with the Brewers after which they will travel to the nation’s capital for a three-game series with the Nationals.

The NL Wire – A look into some worthy roster additions

No, this is not about a pitcher that gets better with age. This is simply about how a fan favorite and team ace can, in just a couple of years, become forgotten and seemingly disappear.

Brandon Webb’s career started with a bang, debuting in New York in 2003 and out-dueling Tom Glavine with seven scoreless innings and ten strikeouts. He finished his rookie season 10-9 with an ERA of 2.84. He was spectacular.

When the Arizona Diamondbacks returned to town to begin a four game series against the Washington Nationals, I was pretty excited. Not only had it been a week since the last Diamondbacks game I had attended, but it was the beginning of a full week of games at Chase Field.

In all my excitement I went down to the ballpark early to catch batting practice and to try and put some names with all of the new faces that were now on the roster as a result of the deals made at the trade deadline.