July 3 — Through the first three months of the season, 15 Diamondbacks had spent time on the disabled list including pitching aces Randy Johnson and Curt Schilling. Yet, in what is probably the most amazing story of the year in baseball, Arizona is a contender in the NL West.
SAVING THE SEASON
Early in the year when I saw the Diamondbacks play, I thought they were an old team and they couldn’t contend with divisional rivals the Giants and Dodgers unless Johnson and Schilling pitched lights out.
But Johnson got hurt and at the end of May, Schilling joined him on the disabled list.
Season over for Arizona, right?
Wrong.
Dipping into the minor leagues, the Diamondbacks called up a slew of players and each one has proved worthy of promotion.
They stepped in for a host of injured veterans and the newcomers keyed a franchise-record 12-game winning streak that ended July 2 in Colorado, but not before Arizona had closed ground on San Francisco and Los Angeles.
It’s astounding, but manager Bob Brenly’s team — thought to be an also-ran when it stood 9 1/2 games out of the NL West lead in early June — is now in the race in the division.
ROOKIES ANSWER THE CALL
Starting the fourth month of the season, Arizona had 10 rookies on its roster and had used the disabled list 17 times.
Among the players the Diamondbacks have disabled this season year are their top four starting pitchers, Johnson, Schilling, Brandon Webb and Byung-Hyun Kim, who was dealt to the Red Sox at the end of May for third baseman Shea Hillenbrand, who also got hurt.
Closer Matt Mantei was also lost.
But the wounded haven’t just been pitchers.
Third baseman Craig Counsell, shortstop Tony Womack, second baseman Junior Spivey, outfielder Danny Bautista, catcher Rod Barajas and key reserve David Dellucci have also been sidelined.
In their places came the youngsters, names such as Alex Cintron, Matt Kata, Robby Hammock, Andrew Good, Jose Valverde and John Patterson.
All these players are in their mid 20’s and all have made an impact.
CREDIT MANAGEMENT
To me what this has demonstrated is that while Jerry Colangelo, who runs the club, took a lot of heat for spending money up front to build a team that won a championship in just its fourth year, he also built a farm system with the help of his top baseball people like general manager Joe Garagiola Jr. and assistant general manager Sandy Johnson.
And that farm system gave the Diamondbacks a place to turn when a rash of injuries hit the team.
Manager Bob Brenly must also be given credit as he and his coaches have had to teach the game to the rookies and they’re doing an excellent job of it.
HEALING AND RETURNING
The Diamondbacks will get many of their injured players back and that should make them an even stronger team.
Some of the rookies will be sent back down to the minors, even though they have played well enough to stick.
But given their talents, it shouldn’t be too long before they are back with Arizona.
The two players the team needs most to return are Johnson and Schilling.
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Johnson went on the DL April 28 following arthroscopic surgery on his right knee and the team says it wants him to spend more time doing agility work before returning to the mound.
Schilling has begun rehab assignments with Triple-A Tucson.
Even if the Diamondbacks don’t make the playoffs this year, they now know they have a young base they can build upon for the future.
They discovered it out of necessity, but they are sure happy they did.
http://msnbc.com/news/934569.asp
SAVING THE SEASON
Early in the year when I saw the Diamondbacks play, I thought they were an old team and they couldn’t contend with divisional rivals the Giants and Dodgers unless Johnson and Schilling pitched lights out.
But Johnson got hurt and at the end of May, Schilling joined him on the disabled list.
Season over for Arizona, right?
Wrong.
Dipping into the minor leagues, the Diamondbacks called up a slew of players and each one has proved worthy of promotion.
They stepped in for a host of injured veterans and the newcomers keyed a franchise-record 12-game winning streak that ended July 2 in Colorado, but not before Arizona had closed ground on San Francisco and Los Angeles.
It’s astounding, but manager Bob Brenly’s team — thought to be an also-ran when it stood 9 1/2 games out of the NL West lead in early June — is now in the race in the division.
ROOKIES ANSWER THE CALL
Starting the fourth month of the season, Arizona had 10 rookies on its roster and had used the disabled list 17 times.
Among the players the Diamondbacks have disabled this season year are their top four starting pitchers, Johnson, Schilling, Brandon Webb and Byung-Hyun Kim, who was dealt to the Red Sox at the end of May for third baseman Shea Hillenbrand, who also got hurt.
Closer Matt Mantei was also lost.
But the wounded haven’t just been pitchers.
Third baseman Craig Counsell, shortstop Tony Womack, second baseman Junior Spivey, outfielder Danny Bautista, catcher Rod Barajas and key reserve David Dellucci have also been sidelined.
In their places came the youngsters, names such as Alex Cintron, Matt Kata, Robby Hammock, Andrew Good, Jose Valverde and John Patterson.
All these players are in their mid 20’s and all have made an impact.
CREDIT MANAGEMENT
To me what this has demonstrated is that while Jerry Colangelo, who runs the club, took a lot of heat for spending money up front to build a team that won a championship in just its fourth year, he also built a farm system with the help of his top baseball people like general manager Joe Garagiola Jr. and assistant general manager Sandy Johnson.
And that farm system gave the Diamondbacks a place to turn when a rash of injuries hit the team.
Manager Bob Brenly must also be given credit as he and his coaches have had to teach the game to the rookies and they’re doing an excellent job of it.
HEALING AND RETURNING
The Diamondbacks will get many of their injured players back and that should make them an even stronger team.
Some of the rookies will be sent back down to the minors, even though they have played well enough to stick.
But given their talents, it shouldn’t be too long before they are back with Arizona.
The two players the team needs most to return are Johnson and Schilling.
Advertisement
Johnson went on the DL April 28 following arthroscopic surgery on his right knee and the team says it wants him to spend more time doing agility work before returning to the mound.
Schilling has begun rehab assignments with Triple-A Tucson.
Even if the Diamondbacks don’t make the playoffs this year, they now know they have a young base they can build upon for the future.
They discovered it out of necessity, but they are sure happy they did.
http://msnbc.com/news/934569.asp
