Is Cole Hamels just getting unlucky? Or is it something else?

Unlucky.  Cole has had plenty of issues with run support before, and with bad luck, so combined with a slow start, he’s been pretty ineffective.  Especially for a guy we made such a big deal about signing for six more years.

The stuff’s in there.  We could just really use some more blatant examples of it recently, with so much less potent of a rotation backing him up.

Should Ryan Howard scare opposing fans anymore?

Absolutely.  Have you seen that contract?  They tell stories about it around the bonfire at training camp.

What’s the upside of this team? The downside?

The upside is that we have Cole locked up, Freddy Galvis is youthful and full of vigor, Chase seems to be hitting okay, and Cliff Lee is here.  The downside is that Chooch, Doc, and Chase are all up for reassignment, the team in general is not very good, Ben Revere looks more and more like a complete bust, the parts of the bullpen that work are wastes of money if the other parts of the bullpen that aren’t working continue to not work, and everybody’s only getting older.

Also, it’s all Charlie Manuel or Ruben Amaro‘s fault, depending on the day.

Why do the Phillies’ brass seem perplexed as to why their lineup doesn’t take walks? 

Related, have they heard of baseball reference before?

I’d say probably no.  Ruben Amaro shows a staggering absence of intelligence at times, for a guy who seems to have it all figured out.  His lack of belief in walks and the organizations disbelief in modern stats is sickening at times, and probably why some players (AHEM Dom Brown) have been mishandled in the recent past.

How mad are you at Kevin Towers for giving your divisional rival a christmas present of Justin Upton?

I would be pretty mad, but honestly, we’ve got about 1,000 problems to worry about before we can fathom taking on the Braves, let alone Upton.  Then again, he is an individual example of the Braves as a whole – lot of home runs, lot of strike outs.  They’re gonna hack.  And it’s already bringing them back down to earth.

Is Michael Young as classy as everyone says he is?

I’ll say sure.  But I was never worried about that.

If he could convince a ground ball to hop into his glove using that keen sense of clubhouse leadership, that’d be great.  But they’re usually moving too fast.

His questions and my answers:

So is Ian Kennedy going to be a problem or can we depend on his location sputtering out again?

This, sadly, is what we can expect from Kennedy. He’s been pretty mediocre for the past 12 months. And that’s mostly been tied to his lack of command with the fastball. While he isn’t walking a ton of people, he also grooves way too many to be effective.

J.J. Putz has decided to take some time off to be injured.  How reliable is the Dbacks bullpen now?  Express in terms of Chad Durbins.

I believe I saw that Putz was heading to the Dominican for a couple of months. I can’t confirm that, but nonetheless, it’s a weird time to take a vaca. However, I believe the bullpen should still be (just a tad) better than one Chad Durbin. David Hernandez has had a couple of shaky outings but has been pretty good and should get better. And outside of Heath Bell‘s first appearance, he’s been (stunningly) pretty good. Combined with Brad Ziegler and Matt Reynolds, the pen should be in decent shape still.

Is it correct to say Paul Goldschmidt is “becoming a star?”  And if so, what kind of a star; one that shines brightly for a long time, or when that grows too big and kills a lot of people?

He’s a star that’s going to kill a lot of people. Just not in the way you were meaning. I think he singlehandedly murdered Tim Lincecum‘s career and is in the process of burying the corpse of Chris Capuano now. He’s been a revelation. He’s improved his walk and strikeout rate, chase percentage and his fielding immensely over the past couple of seasons. He’s approaching top three first baseman in the league quickly.

Lie to me.  What do you think of this team without Roy Halladay?

They’re great. One of the best staffs that can’t pitch and one of the best lineups that can’t walk (or score) I’ve ever seen.

Is there a young prospect with a better name than “Didi Gregorius” in baseball right now?

Xander Bogaerts is a pretty dang good name. Adeiny Hechavarria? Basically all shortstops in baseball it looks like.

Matt Reynolds, with his 0.00 ERA has been the best D’back reliever. Image: Jennifer Hilderbrand-USA TODAY Sports

I admit it, I didn’t know much about the 28-year old Reynolds when the D’backs acquired him last November from the Colorado Rockies in exchange for 3rd base prospect Ryan Wheeler.  It certainly was not of the magnitude of the deals involving Justin Upton and Trevor Bauer.   His numbers, particularly his two full seasons in Denver and skewed by Coors Field, were about average.  Reynolds appeared to be falling under the category of the dreaded “lefty specialist” as his 165 career appearances covered only 126 innings.  However, it is obvious General Manager Kevin Towers saw something in him other than a needed lefty in the bullpen.  The strikeout to walk ratio with the Rockies indicated he was a guy that would at least not be issuing many free passes.  Also, he was durable in Colorado appearing in over 70 games the previous two seasons.  Finally, Rockies’ pitching has been bad so that while the ERA was over 4.00, it could be attributed to his other ‘pen mates failing to pick him up.  With Wheeler in still in Triple A Colorado Springs, this trade has turned out to be a steal for Arizona right now.

Matt Reynolds has proven to be more than just a situational guy.  He is the Snakes’ most reliable member of the bullpen who should be getting into more setup situations instead of David Hernandez.  Maybe if J.J. Putz continues to struggle, Kirk Gibson could call on Reynolds to record the final three outs.  I only hope that by writing this piece that I did not jinx the rest of Reynolds’s season.

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Recently acquired relief pitcher Matt Reynolds looks to bolster Dbacks bullpen in 2013 . Image: Jeff Curry-US PRESSWIRE

The 24 year old Wheeler was called up July 20^th last season and remained with the club for the remainder of the season playing in 50 games. It appeared at the time of Wheeler’s call-up that we were going to see what the club’s fifth round draft pick in 2009 could do as an everyday player. However, just nine days after Wheeler’s call-up, Towers acquired third baseman Chris Johnson from the Astros and Wheeler’s playing time was diminished to that of a platoon player.

Generally, the rookie would start one or two games a week and pinch hit in late innings, never really taking off like he had in AAA Reno. After driving in 90 runs in 93 games and batting .351 with an on base percentage of .388 with the Reno Aces, Wheeler hit .239 with an OBP of .294 in 109 at bats at the big league level. Still, Wheeler has had an above average minor league career and showed a heck of a lot of promise for the D’backs organization. In his first season with the organization (2009) he was named position player of the year for the D’backs. He was named a Double-A all-star in 2011 as well as appearing in the Rising Stars game in the Arizona Fall League on the heels of his AA Mobile season. In 2012, before his call-up, Wheeler was again named a mid season all-star, this time at the AAA Reno level.

In adding a left-handed reliever to the bullpen, Towers completed yet another off season goal as the club was stuck with (insert expletive) Mike Zagurski as their lone lefty for most of 2012 and needed an upgrade. Reynolds finished 2012 with an ERA of 4.40, throwing 57 1/3 innings. It was the second straight year the 28 year old appeared in 70+ games and threw 50+ innings, tying him for the third most innings pitched by a left-handed reliever over the last two seasons. He’s not an overpowering lefty averaging right around the 90 mph mark with his fastball and big sweeping curveball that averages right around 80mph. For his career the 6’ 5” Tennessee native has averaged 8.4 K/9 innings.

When you look at Reynolds’ overall stats you won’t be impressed. His career ERA as a reliever sits a hair under 4 at 3.93. In 2012 he surrendered an average of 10.2 hits per 9 innings as well suggesting he struggles at times. He really struggled in the second half of 2012 posting a hideous 6.30 ERA and a 1.75 WHIP. Worth mentioning obviously is that he has played all three of his big league seasons at Coors Field which has seen inflated numbers historically. His home ERA this past season sat at 4.71 with his road ERA nearly a full run lower at 3.86. The young lefty has promise though and a change of scenery can do wonders for a player- see Aaron Hill.

The move by Towers seems to be similar to last off seasons move to ship unproven prospect Jarrod Parker to the Athletics in order to acquire a proven ‘innings eater’ in 24 year old Trevor Cahill. Both Parker and Wheeler had brilliant minor league careers but lacked the big league experience that Towers wants to ‘win now.’ Hopefully in Reynolds’ third full season- and first away from Coors Field- we will see an uptick in his performance and be the lefty reliever the club was searching for.

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