This week in Diamondbacks: A quick rundown of last week’s headlines

Last week was the first full week of spring training, one that was very uneventful for the Diamondbacks. The cliche “no news is good news” is probably true for all teams at this stage of the calendar, because typically the major headlines this time of year revolve around Tommy John surgery or some other injury to a star player. That has not transpired yet, so the Diamondbacks are in the clear for now.

While very little happened last week, there were a few important headlines that fans should keep in mind as the season inches closer:

Josh Collmenter made national news when he taught the team physics on Tuesday. Several players, mostly pitchers, gathered around a dry-erase board in the locker room to hear about gravitational pulls and the time-space continuum. Collmenter had quite the academic record before becoming a baseball player, which can be found here.

Chip Hale said that he wants to bat the Diamondbacks’ pitchers eighth. This would move Hale into a growing trend of managers batting pitchers eighth. This strategy was first championed by Diamondbacks Chief Baseball Executive Tony La Russa, who was the first modern manager to do this in 1998.

GM Dave Stewart is not a fan of PECOTA’s 78-84 projection for the Diamondbacks. “They think we only win 78 games? That’s a joke,” Stewart said in a Washington Post article out on Thursday.

Andrew Chafin is living in an R.V. despite making about half-a-million bucks this season. Chafin said he’s paying about half as much on the RV as he did for rent last season, and is reluctant to buy a house in Arizona. The simple life Chafin leads has made him this spring’s anti-Yoenis Cespedes.

The Diamondbacks signed former Brewers second baseman Rickie Weeks to a minor league deal on Saturday. The former second-overall pick played last season with the Mariners, where he batted .167/.263/.25o before being released in June. Weeks’ pursuit for the final roster spot will be one of the major position battles to watch in Arizona this spring.

That was really it for last week. This week should be busier, as we see the Diamondbacks take the field for the first time this spring. They will have an exhibition with the University of Arizona on Tuesday and will play the Rockies the following day. The games may count for nothing, but hey– it’s baseball.

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