Image: Don McPeak-USA TODAY Sports

But that can also be a perk. If I was a fan of another team with a long history, there would be specific teams I wouldn’t remember, players I didn’t know and managers I was ambivalent about. With the Diamondbacks though, I can remember something about every year since their inception. I can remember the highest of highs, a cutter to the hands fought off and deposited behind Derek Jeter in 2001, and the lowest of the lows, which brings me to something I saw earlier this week.For those that follow the ultra-funny “Diamondbacks Memes” on Facebook or Twitter, you might have seen the discussion on the best managers in Diamondbacks’ history.

There has been six managers in the 15 year history of the Snakes. Well, actually seven if you count Wally Backman‘s four-day stint in 2004.

Diamondbacks Memes ranked the managers in the following order:

1. Bob Melvin, 2. Bob Brenly, 3. Kirk Gibson, 4. Buck Showalter, 5. A.J. Hinch, 6. Al Pedrique.

This led to a pretty spirited discussion on the correct order, but one thing that stood out among many was the Brenly should be ranked #1 for winning the World Series.

And that’s where I vehimently disagree. Here’s my order:

1. Buck Showalter – Showalter was the D’backs first ever manager as he manned the helm of an expansion franchise and almost immediately turned the team into a contender. The Diamondbacks won the NL West in 1999 with a team-record 100 wins and Showalter held a 250-236 record over three seasons before being fired.

2. Bob Melvin – Melvin oversaw my second-favorite D’backs’ team of all time in 2007 as he led the Diamondbacks to 90 wins, a NL West pennant and an appearance in the NLCS. He had his struggles at the end of 2008 as the D’backs faltered down the stretch and was let go early in 2009 after a 12-17 start but he was a tactically smart manager and one that let his players shine.

3. Kirk Gibson – This is where the list gets difficult in my mind. I fought over whether this should be Brenly or Gibson here. Yes, Brenly is a World Series champion manager but realistically, the 2001 team won despite Brenly instead of because of him. It is really early to place Gibson really anywhere on this list. He helped the Diamondbacks go from last to first in 2011 as he established a well respected and experience-ridden coaching staff. But in 2012, there were several instances that he handled poorly and his insistence on keeping the green light on the basepaths, where runners were constantly running into outs, was questionable at best.

4. Bob Brenly – Brenly really goes here by default because of the managers behind him. Yes, I have great memories from the Brenly era, but it was really almost all because of the players he had on the field instead of Brenly’s managerial style. Brenly nearly cost the Diamondbacks’ the 2001 World Series, in which they were clearly the better team. One of the biggest mistakes Brenly kept making was putting light-hitting Tony Womack in the leadoff spot with his .308 OBP in 2001. Counsell hit behind Womack, which was a smart choice with his .350 OBP, but when Womack did reach base, Brenly would have Counsell bunt Womack over to second with Luis Gonzalez, a 57-home run hitter, on deck. And don’t get me started on how badly Brenly messed up the Byung-Hyun Kim situation in game 5. Long story short, Brenly had the best players on the field and almost messed it up.

5. Al Pedrique – He was only an interim manager for 83 games in 2004. However, he managed an awful .265 winning percentage with a 22-61 record.

6. Wally Backman – Yup, I’m including Backman. He was a manager for a total of four days and still was able to get fired. “How you gonna get fired on your day off?”

7. A.J. Hinch – This is how bad Hinch was. He was awful tactically, he never gained the respect of his players and couldn’t last even 1.5 years with the club. He was fired with a 89-123 record and a bad taste in every fans’ mouth.

I know this list is very different than many will be, what would you change and why?

Jul. 6, 2012; Phoenix, AZ, USA: Diamondbacks pitcher Wade Miley (left) is congratulated by manager Kirk Gibson during a ceremony honoring him as an all star prior to the game against the Dodgers at Chase Field. Image: Mark J. Rebilas-US PRESSWIRE

Cockiness, particularly for a young pitcher, can be a good thing.  The ability to bounce back after a demoralizing performance and focus on the next start is essential for a rookie hurler.  However, cockiness, mixed with indifference and sprinkled with stubbornness can result in a quick return to AAA.  If not harnessed properly, it could put a screeching halt to a promising career.  At the moment, this appears to be the case with Trevor Bauer.

According to a story on Azcentral.com, it seems Bauer does not want to change his pitching style in order to retire Major League hitters.   “My approach is really hitter independent; it doesn’t matter who is at the plate. I’m going to throw to my strengths”, Bauer stated.  It is one thing to have a great belief in your stuff.  That certainly is admirable.  However, Bauer will also need to realize that you have to be able to exploit even the average hitter’s’ weaknesses in order to succeed at the Big League level.  Does anyone think that Randy Johnson is going to the Hall of Fame because he just blew people away without a plan?  Bauer will find out quickly he will need to rely on his catcher, no matter who it is, to help guide him through the early part of his career. 

Speaking of catchers, Miguel Montero seems to be a little teed off at the attitude of the recent call-up.  After Thursday’s game, he was told Bauer would want a meeting with him to sort out any differences.  “I don’t know anything about it,” he said.  “He knows where my locker is if he wants to come talk to me. … I’m not in the mood right now to talk about Bauer.”   Yikes.  Maybe it was frustration with both Bauer and the fact his team just dropped their sixth game in a row.  It is clear pitcher and catcher definitely need a meeting of the minds.

In all likelihood, Bauer’s start on Sunday will determine if he is with the club after the All Star break.  Joe Saunders will be scheduled to come off the Disabled List and Josh Collmenter  had a strong outing Friday night.   Manager Kirk Gibson has no problem sending Bauer down if he implodes again.  Maybe then he will take a bite out of some humble pie.

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*The Rockies may be in fourth place in the N.L. West but when they shutout the Dbacks in Phoenix on Monday they had won seven of their last eight and were on a roll. Enter the Dbacks ace Ian Kennedy who always seems to be called on to pick the team back up- something he hadn’t really been able to do until Tuesday.

GOOD: Starting Pitching. For the third consecutive series the starting pitching was great. On Monday, Joe Saunders got hit around early-giving up three runs in the first two innings-but settled down to pitch into the seventh. Saunders continues to struggle to put together a complete start but does a great job of battling and burns through innings allowing the bullpen to rest. Still, with Kennedy and Miley throwing exceptionally well, it appears the starting rotation is back in control and this is evident in how the team has been playing lately.

*Ian Kennedy is rolling right now. The right hander tied a career high in strikeouts mowing down twelve Rockies through six innings of work on Tuesday. It was only the second time in Dbacks history a pitcher tallied 12 or more K’s in six innings. The other? Randy Johnson who did it twice. After losing five consecutive starts Kennedy has bounced back with two strong outings allowing just one earned run over his last 13 2/3 innings. He has also struck out seven or more hitters in three consecutive starts for the first time in his career.

*Wade Miley has come out of nowhere to make a serious name for himself in major league baseball. The rookie left hander is now tied with Yu Darvish for the major league lead in wins by a rookie (7) and has the lowest ERA of rookie starters by nearly a run (2.53). Miley worked eight innings of three hit ball on Wednesday to help the Dbacks win their second straight series. He didn’t allow a base runner until the fifth inning when he surrendered a double to Jason Giambi who would eventually score Colorado’s only run.

*Team Offense. Following their abysmal effort on Monday, the offense exploded for 16 runs over the next two games and posted a season high 17 hits in Tuesday’s 10-0 win. It was fun to watch guys up and down the lineup contributing and encouraging to see multiple guys getting hot at the same time. Jason Kubel, Aaron Hill and Paul Goldschmidt all tore up the Rockies’ pitchers. It was also nice to see A.J. Pollock make a spot start and be able to contribute with an RBI single and record his first career stolen base.

*Paul Goldschmidt is on an absolute tear right now. Quite the turn of events from what we were all saying about the second year player just four weeks ago. During the series he extended his career long hit streak to 14 games. He is hitting .451 with a .492 OBP, 11 runs, 5 homeruns, and 8 RBI’s during the streak and raised his season average to .288. In the Rockies series he was 4 for 8 with a homerun and three doubles. Play this kid every-single-day.

*Aaron Hill & Jason Kubel each finished a double away from the cycle on Tuesday and combined for nine hits in the series- seven of those for extra bases and knocked in eight runs. And this was with Kubel getting the day off on Wednesday- following a five RBI day-why? ‘You just never know around this place…’

BAD: RISP. It seems weird that after all of the positives this offense put forward during this series that they could still be struggling here but they were just 7 for 31(.226) with runners in scoring position.  This was punctuated by an 0 for 8 effort in Monday’s shutout but the offense did have three 2-out RBI’s in Wednesday’s finale.

*Miguel Montero is quietly going through a little slump and is now 7 for his last 35 (.200) with three extra base hits. He was just 1 for 7 against the Rockies and is 4 for 17 in June. While he has allowed a few stolen bases in the last two series, he still has the best ‘stolen base percentage against’ in the N.L. with a .486- he is the only catcher in all of baseball to have more runners ‘caught stealing’ than stolen bases allowed.

UGLY: Chris Young continues to struggle to find his swing that had him on such a tear before heading to the DL. Since coming off the disabled list he is just 8 for 52 (.154) with no homeruns and two doubles. He has been held hitless in five of his last six games. In the series he was just 2 for 9 with a run scored and one RBI. He did contribute four walks as well which means he is still having good at bats at least part of the time.

*Opening Games of Series. This is a bit of an enigma at this point. In the last eight series openers the Diamondbacks are 1-7. They’ve been held to one run or fewer in six of those eight games and were outscored 41-13. Something is happening with this team in the first games lately that clearly shows they’re unprepared and lacking in energy.

NOTES: At 27-30 it is the closest the Dbacks have been to .500 since May 11^th when they were 15-18.

*When Friedrich and his bullpen completed the 4-0 shutout on Monday it was the first time the team was shutout all year. It was the first time being shutout at home since September 6^th, 2010.

*Just about everyone knows by now, but Upton was benched both Tuesday and Wednesday to allow him to ‘find himself’ and to hopefully get him on a roll. The slugger has been struggling mightily lately but seems to have taken the move professionally and sounds as if he just found a little extra motivation to produce for the organization.

*On that same note, general managing partner Ken Kendrick sounded off on XTRA 910 AM before Tuesday’s game calling out both Upton and Stephen Drew stating he was disappointed with the team’s performance thus far. Personally, this type of passion is nice to see an owner and hopefully is the spark the team needed to string together some wins. You can read the transcripts for his interview here….

*Saturday’s matchup at Chase Field includes Trevor Cahill and Jarrod Parker. The two were traded for each other in the offseason and are both coming off their best starts of the young season with Cahill throwing a complete game shutout and Parker taking a no-hitter into the eighth inning against the Texas Rangers.

Now bring on the A’s!!

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