Lineup Juggling

In thinking about this year's 2008 squad, it's the first spring in many years where the team's starting position players are basically set. Snyder behind the dish, Jackson at first, O-Dog at second, Drew at short, Reynolds at third, Byrnes in left, Young in center, and Upton in right. What could be interesting is the batting order. Bob Melvin has never been one to be shy about juggling the order around on a day-to-day basis, and there probably won't be any reason he'll change that approach this year. However, I have come up with a batting order that is a bit unconventional, but one that could bring a different dynamic. Here goes...

1. Stephen Drew
2. Chris Young
3. Conor Jackson
4. Chris Snyder
5. Eric Byrnes
6. Orlando Hudson
7. Justin Upton
8. Mark Reynolds

Jackson and Snyder really came into their own in the second half of last year and putting them in the middle of the lineup will keep their confidence up and may allow them to continue improving. Hitting Reynolds 8th...well...he strikes out at such a pace that pitchers may be more inclined to throw to him in that slot knowing the pitcher is next. Having O-dog hit so far down may seem ludicrous, but he brings stability to the latter half of the order and allows Upton to have many RBI chances with he and Byrnes behind him.

Who's on First.....Micah??

Beyond the Box Score (focused on sabermetrics) had their preview of the D-backs last week. One comment that stood out was "Micah Owings will pitch in between playing first base; apparently he's decent at it". Hmm....there were some rumblings last year that Micah playing first base was a remote possibility. But, unless Micah becomes worthless on the hill (which I see no sign of happening), the D-backs would be foolish to put him out there in the field on any regular basis. I see more pinch hitting appearances..possibly even a DH role in inter-league action.

2008 D-backs ZiPS Projections

The Baseball Think Factory announced their 2008 predictions for the Diamondbacks yesterday. ZiPS projections are computer-based projections of performance. Here is their view of the D-backs this year:

As obvious as one of the main storylines of 2007 was, the pitching being top-notch and the offense being, well, otherwise, the park made these actually more extreme, masking to some degree just how good the pitching was and just how bad the hitting was. After all, the surges of the Rockies and Phillies, bringing Jimmy Rollins and Matt Holliday to the front of the pack, might have saved us from Eric Byrnes of the 104 OPS+ in left being taken seriously as an MVP candidate (as he was at times in the middle of the season).

The offense should be better but the pitching shouldn't drop off too much, which makes the Diamondbacks yet another contender in a crowded NL field. What makes the Diamondbacks especially dangerous is those little twos in the age column - the major league squad is chock-full of players that are at ages they can improve. Counting on an individual young player to improve is generally not as good a bet as most people think. However, when massed as they are in Arizona, they act almost as an index stock - it doesn't really matter if it's Mark Reynolds or Conor Jackson or Chris Young or Stephen Drew or Justin Upton make a huge step forward so long as some of them do, which the odds do favor. I don't know if it will be Conor Jackson hitting 25 homers or Chris Young rebounding from a weak rookie season or Justin Upton making huge adjustments carefully, but I know that there are going to be some player on this team that are going to move over a bunch of those dashed lines below.

There are a few interesting prognostications:

• Justin Upton hitting only .248
• Dan Haren going 14-11 with a 3.92 ERA
• Eric Byrnes only playing 134 games
• No surprise here...nobody predicted to hit .300....O-dog best at .295

Pitchers & Catchers

Pitchers and catchers report Feb. 15, with the rest of the squad scheduled to come in on the 20th. Woohoo! Anyone heading to Tucson to check 'em out??