Yeah, I know…he’s been having a poor year. But I don’t want to hear anything about his salary being a waste because he is missing so much time due to injuries. This wasn’t even a matter of his foolishly trying to play through an injury like last year’s hammies. This is just a (pun intended) bad break. Anyone can and does get hit by a pitch. With all those small bones in the hand, it is a wonder that fractures don’t happen more often.

Get well soon, Byrnesie!

ByrnesBlogger1

Randy Johnson was a vital part of the 2001 Arizona DIamondbacks World Championship team, co-MVP of the World Series (with Curt Schilling) that year. He also tossed a perfect game in 2004 as a Diamondback.   But Johnson did not win #300 in a Diamondbacks uniform. The Front Office made him an insultingly low offer, even though they knew he was just 5 wins away from 300 entering this season, he offered to take a 50% pay cut to stay in Arizona, and his quest for 300 would put some extra fans in the seats, at least until he got the red-letter win. Johnson, who grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area then signed with the Giants.

Now there is word that the Diamondbacks management is planning to honor Johnson when the Giants visit Arizona this week.  After the lowball contract offer, a videotaped summary of his career played on the scoreboard, and a probable standing ovation by the fans just doesn’t cut it as an honor.

Byrnesblogger1

Cynical journalist’s first reaction is that this is another example of dissing Byrnesie! I could be wrong, but that is what it looks like to me.

What do you think?

Byrnesblogger1

ByrnesBlogger1

It was good to see the Diamondbacks’ bullpen get a rest, even as it has gotten a couple of new faces recently: Tom Gordon was activated and Esmerling Vasquez was brought up from the minors.

The Diamondbacks also showed some unusual speed on the bases, stealing five bases.  It was only the 12th time in the franchise’s history that the team has stolen for more bases in one game.  And actually they got away with six steals because Mark Reynolds was caught at third but managed to knee the ball out of the third baseman’s glove after the umpire had initially called him out.  Ted Lilly, the Chicago Cubs starter, has a reputation for being below average in holding runners on and the Snakes advantage of it.

But the night really belongs to Dan Haren.  As one fan put it in the commentary on MLB.com, he finished stronger than he started.  Way to go, Danny!  I just hope the offense doesn’t go back to giving you one run every three starts.  With Webby gone for six weeks, the team needs to take advantage of every strong start you have.

Byrnesblogger1

Part of the problem was Snake Starter Max Scherzer being gone before the end of the fifth.  But only a little part. The lion’s share of the problem was the team going 0-12 with Runners In Scoring Position.

The three runs were accounted for by homers. Justin Upton hit his first of the year with a runner on first. Eric Byrnes hit a solo shot, his third of the young season. He also hit a double, making it two games in a row that he’s had multiple hits. But he left 6 guys on base, including 3 in scoring position with two out. He could have chased Johnson in the THIRD inning, but he grounded out with two out and the bases loaded.

Byrnesie (and the rest of the team): This isn’t going to get it done! We needed that homer, or at least a single, when you had the bases loaded.  THAT is how you amass 120 RBI in a year. You come through when there’s RISP. A solo shot is rather meaningless in the context of 6 LOB. (Reynolds also left 6. Ojeda and Upton left 3).

What is the matter, Byrnesie? A guy with the talent to NOT strike out against Tim Lincecum should be an RBI machine! Step your game up with RISP! Someone on the team has to.

Byrnesblogger1

Haren had been due up to bat in the bottom of the seventh, and he had his batting glove on.  He was ready.  But he was removed for a pinch-hitter, one Ryan Roberts, the 25th man on the roster.  Roberts leased the first pitch he saw over the second baseman’s head, driving in Chris Young from second base.  Chris Snyder, who had been at first base, made it all the way to third, and eventually scored the second run.

Thus we were treated to one of the most beautiful things about the game of baseball: in the long season, everyone is needed.  Dan Haren is All-Star.  You watch him pitch as he has pitched the first four starts of the season and you know there is a Cy Young Award in his future — at least one.  But on this day, it took the last guy to get a place on the roster this spring to get Haren a victory.  This reminds me of the postseason is 2005.  In the fifth game of the National League Championship Series, the Cardinals were facing elimination and Brad Lidge of the Houston Astros, one of the premier closers in major league baseball, was looking to shut them down.  The Cardinals kept scratching and clawing until they got their big hitter, Albert Poujols, to the plate.  And Albert hit a three-run homer that did not come down until three years later, when Lidge, now with the Philadelphia Phillies, capped a perfect season with the world’s championship.  The showdown between two All-Stars in the postseason is the kind of thing that fans pay for.

But in the World Series that same year, the Chicago White Sox and the Houston Astros went to extra innings in Game 3.  And I mean extra innings.  In the top of the 14th inning, the White Sox sent up to their best sluggers, Jermaine Dye and Paul Konerko.  Both of them made outs.  Up came Geoff Blum, who was a late inning replacement at second base for the Sox.  He was number 25 on their roster all season and had the least playing time of anyone on the team.  He hit a home run and the White Sox went on to win that game and also the next one for a Series sweep.  So you never know who’s going to come up big in a baseball game, even an important one like a World Series game.  Given the pitching rotation, your ace doesn’t always start.  Given the batting order, your slugger doesn’t always get a chance to hit when you need him most.  And since being successful 3 times out of 10 is good in baseball, whereas in any other business you’d be fired (unless you’re a banking CEO).  You can’t even count on the sluggers to come through half the time.  So guys like Blum and Roberts do get opportunities to shine. You don’t see this in football or basketball as often because the last-second shot or the desperation pass is a design to play meant for certain players to execute.

Roberts made the most of his opportunity.  And for that, Dan Haren can be grateful.

Byrnesblogger 1

Byrnesie, on that homer you looked like you were a step closer to the plate than usual. See what I’ve been telling you? Brandi AZ22 and I were discussing your batting stance on Facebook this morning.

Kellia: I saw the replay. Do my eyes deceive me or has EB taken a step closer to the plate?

Brandi: The official answer is yes…and no! He is inconsistent right now. When he moves closer to the plate his hand speed is correct and he isn’t overcompensating so he ends up with results like the HR. Then, the very next AB he goes back a step in the box and he struggles with his bat speed and ends up in front of the ball and pops up or fouls it down the LF line. So frustrating to watch him do this stuff!

Check the tapes, EB! You can afford to move in even more. You have a good ability to tell when a ball is too far inside. If you move in more, the angle will change and you will have to adjust. But your raw ability reading inside pitches will still be there.

2 homers down, 28 to go; 1 stolen base down, 29 more to go. 4 RBI down, 116 more to go.

The bullpen blew the lead, which accounts for the loss.

Tonight Dan Haren tries again. C’mon guys! Dan has been doing his job and you keep letting him down. Pick him up!

Byrnesblogger1

Eric Byrnes went 0-2 with a sac bunt in the 2-hole. Felipe Lopez, the only Diamondback who is hitting decently, was dropped from lead-off to the run-producing 3-hole, where he promptly went 0-3 with 2 Ks. (The one good thing I can say about Byrnesie today is that he did not account for any of the 9 K’s that Giants pitchers logged.)

D’Backs starter Max Scherzer gave up only 1 run in 5 innings. But it was one run too many. Choose your adjective for the D’Backs offense right now: anemic, anorexic, non-existent, or $#@*!$^%. Bad as Byrnesie looks right now with his .115 batting average, Chris Snyder is worse at .087. And Justin Upton at .167, Tony Clark at .176, and  Chris Young at .222 aren’t much better.

The bad hitting is like a virus that has spread through the club. We have seen this before. Eventually most of the lineup will get hot together, and then things will be fun for a while. I just hope they won’t be 20 games behind when that happens.

Byrnesblogger1