Arizona Diamondbacks

When the fans and media talk about the Arizona Diamondbacks 2009 season they typically point to the loss of Brandon Webb on Opening Day as the key reason why the team went from being a contender to a pretender.

While losing your staff ace is never a recipe for success, losing a single player should not result in a team completely collapsing like the Diamondbacks did this season. Looking back it was a combination of events that led to the downfall.

Since the end of the regular season, there has been a veritable carousel of coaching changes that have occurred around baseball. Now with the offseason just a couple of weeks old, we’re beginning to hear names associated with various jobs around the league.

The Arizona Diamondbacks are heavily involved having placed several coaches on the carousel themselves. I thought it might be interesting to look at what we know right now.

I have been so busy with the baseball playoffs that I nearly missed the press release by the Arizona Diamondbacks announcing the selection of a contractor for the new Spring Training home of the Diamondbacks and Colorado Rockies.

What a great day for Opening Day! No I did not find a good price on a used DeLorean and I didn’t hit my head in the bathroom and awaken with a vision of the plans for a flux capacitor. Major League Baseball Opening Day is still 173 days 3 hours and 25 minutes away. But for residents in Arizona, yesterday was Opening Day for the Arizona Fall League.

When the Arizona Diamondbacks traded Jon Garland to the Los Angeles Dodgers the deal was for the proverbial “player to be named later”. Within hours of the announced deal, there were rumors that the Diamondbacks would receive infielder Tony Abreu. This would potentially fulfill the Diamondbacks need for a second baseman.

Abreu is a highly touted 25-year-old second baseman that has had a lot of success at the minor league level similar to some of the other Diamondbacks young core players such as Chris Young, Chris Snyder, and Gerardo Parra.

Arizona Diamondbacks’ seat relocation is an awful lot like the water-powered torture machine built by Count Rugen in the movie The Princess Bride. That machine was built to rob men of years of their life. It came with a lever that would allow the torturer to select how many years they wanted to take away from their victim.

I am often asked, "Why do you buy season tickets to the Arizona Diamondbacks?"

The question usually results in me staring at the asker with the same incredulous look that I gave the guy who asked me why I thought it necessary to constantly breathe.

I am not suggesting that baseball tickets are as necessary as breathing.

Baseball tickets are much more important that that.

I've briefly considered having a bumper sticker created that simply states, "You can have my Diamondbacks tickets when you pry them from my cold dead fingers."

With the smell of jet fuel still lingering from their trip back from Chicago, Arizona Diamondbacks manager A.J. Hinch had already set in motion his plans for next season.

Shortly after returning on Sunday night, Hinch met with third base coach Chip Hale and first base coach Lorenzo Bundy. Each coach was told he would not be returning for the 2010 season. And so began the rebuilding project that will ultimately become the Arizona Diamondbacks.

Over the past few weeks, we’ve talked a lot about the emergence of Miguel Montero. 

We’ve talked about how he’s helped to save many fantasy owners, especially those in two catcher formats, as top level catchers have either missed time or fallen flat in 2009.  What we haven’t done is dig into his success and determine if he has a chance to repeat it for the final few weeks of this season and into 2010.

First, let’s take a look at his line so far: