Spring Training Wrap
The Arizona Diamondbacks closed out the Cactus League season with a dramatic 12-8 victory over the San Diego Padres courtesy of a walkoff grand slam by top prospect Justin Upton, at Chase Field. Upton now has the memory of the grand slam hit in a major league park to fuel his next season in the minors.
The Diamondbacks ended up with a 20-12 record in the spring. That was the best in the Cactus League and the best among National League teams. We remember that last year a strong spring record did not translate into a winning regular season. But we’ll enjoy it and hope for the best at least for a few days.
Congratulations to Robby Hammock, who completed his comeback from near career-ending injuries and was named to the Opening Day roster by manager Bob Melvin on Sunday. Congratulations also to Brian Barden, who captured the last bench position, and to Micah Owings, who was named the fifth starter a few days ago.
Eric Byrnes had an even stronger spring than he had last year, hitting .300. (He hit .286 last spring). This year, he was 18-60 and 9 of his 18 hits were for extra bases: 4 homers and 5 doubles. He struck out 10 times, but also took 6 walks, for a K/BB ratio of 1.666. We’ll gladly take that ratio for the whole year! My one concern coming out of the spring is that he had only 7 RBI. He needs to get a faster start on RBI and homers this year. But all in all, Eric had an encouraging spring.
Now play ball for real!
ByrnesBlogger1
mlblogsbyrnesblog
Opening Day!! Like you said, let’s “play ball for real.” I am certainly ready.
By the way, are you completely used to this new D-back red?
Tiffany
http://redbirdfever.mlblogs.com/
Sure I’m used to it! The Houston Astros have had it for a while now!
So who saw his first show on Saturday?
He never heard of oversharing, that’s for sure . .. I just wish he’d worn a bit less in the gym sequence, but I noticed that his top fit very, very tight.
show us what ya got, Eric.
Oh, on the colors . .. . well, I do like them but AFAIK, the actual diamondback snake is NOT black and red.
Really, I think they didn’t spend enough time coming up with a name for the team.
I missed his show. That was on Fox, correct. Bummer.
I am so upset that I won’t be able to kick back and watch the games this year. Stupid MLB and it’s contract with the Dish people. Bud is going to pay for this, if not in this life then the next.
Good luck, D-backs, for as long as Eric is playing with you.
The show is on the Arizona Fox Sports Network, Saturdays at 5. It’s channel 649 on Direct TV.