It’s been a while since I have been here and I’m absolutely positive you’ve missed me.

Where have been? Between migrating back to the midwest and hitting up a few Twins games, I have been on the hunt for the next best thing in life. Coincidentally, the Diamondbacks are doing the same. No, they aren’t selling the farm just yet. They are, however, looking at making a second half run. So far Josh Byrnes has been weighing his options, possibly shopping around Garland and Davis as well as dumping Tony Pena for a minor league first basemen from the Sox (Good riddance). The only thing I’m still skeptical about is why Arizona still has Juan Gutierrez and Blaine Boyer: They’re terrible. It’s time to say good by and bring up some newbs from the minors. Great options lie in Jarrod Parker and Bryan Augenstein who are destined to be starters but right now it can’t hurt to bring them up to get comfortable in the big show.

But seriously, Arizona will make a run in this last half of the season. No, they will not make the playoffs but I can guarantee they’ll turn some heads (as long as Gutierrez is cut). Stop laughing and don’t try to act like you’re not. The hitting is coming around and the pitching is definitely improved. All things considered, I think in the end their record will be around or just under .500 and you will probably be in disbelief. Care to weigh in?

On a final note: 1 of my 2 preseason predictions are holding true: San Francisco is for real and they are a strong contender for the wild card (since they’re leading it). There was some doubt on my original post and now has come to be semi-hilarious now that the Giants are contenders, while Arizona sits in the dust. Will the Giants overtake the Dodgers? I sure hope so because I cannot stand seeing Manny Ramirez happy. Go Giants.

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Listen close, Arizona Front Office:

No more saying our current bullpen will come around because it’s not going to happen. Why? Because a few, er, a majority of the pitchers need to go to the minors and work on control or just are unable to handle the pressure.

After witnessing it in person in Seattle tonight, I will be EXTREMELY upset if Arizona does not move at least five or six people from their bullpen. “But that’s such a high number!” Yes, but that is what it’s going to take to help Arizona from blowing games.

To give Seattle credit, Griffey’s two-run home run sent chills down my back, especially since his entrance song was that old Chicago Bulls warmup theme. But still, after being annoyed by Seattle sports talk radio claiming “Griffey changed our season,”  I feel it was Tony Pena screwing up more than anything. He’s a mental case and was probably thinking, “Oh Gawd, it’s Ken Griffey Jr. What am I suppose to do?”

If I were the GM of the team, here’s what I *think* I would do:

1. Give Schoenweiss more time to work mechanics. Yeah, he’s old and he hasn’t been that reliable, but his wife just died (I’m weak, I know). Just need to drill in his head that he needs to pitch for her.

2. Send Esmerling Vasquez and Dan Schlereth to the Minors. They both have crazy speed and potential, but horrible command. They are not ready for the big league level.

3. Trade Qualls, Gutierrez, and Pena for José Valverde. Wait, didn’t we trade FOR two of these three guys two years ago, sending Valverde to the Astros? Yes, but there is a need for an intense and flashy closer on the team. Even though he blows a few saves he makes things exciting.

4. Even if we don’t get Valverde, we need some bullpen guys. Clay Zavada can be our new closer and Leo Rosales can be our setup man. No one is more consistent in the pen than these guys.

Super Stache: Zavada Can Save the DBacks Pen Whoas, One Mustache at a Time.

5. Cut Byrnes. Who cares if Arizona owes him money; they’re paying for little to nothing as is, so why not get him off the team and let someone more deserving help them win.

If Arizona’s bullpen blows another game, which with the current setup they will, I may have to send Josh Byrnes an email asking why he won’t make moves in his bullpen and hope to God I get a response.

It’s been a while since I’ve been on here.

Life’s been a whirlwind: graduated from college, move to Washington, started a new job and then quit a week later. Very exciting stuff.

What’s even more exciting is that Arizona isn’t the worst team in baseball. Yay. But the bullpen struggles continue.

If you didn’t hear of their outing against the Padres that went 18 innings, I’m telling you now. It was bittersweet for the bullpen, blowing a 5 run lead and then continued to pitch 9 innings of no hit baseball. Clay Zavada and Leo Rosales are legit. If only we had more like them.

We can also blame the hitting since it’s been absolutely terrible. Chris Young has been struggling for a lot of the year but seems to be turning it around. I like the fact that Chad Tracy has been on the bench because he’s been terrible.

What’s Arizona’s next move? Trade Tracy and Byrnes for pitching or hitting prospects; it’s needed. Horribly.

I’ll admit it: off-days feel like an eternity. Lucky for me, the DBacks are one of the few teams that do not have today off. They’ll be kicking off their series against the Cinnicnati Reds tonight with John Garland taking to mound. But wait, who’s pitching tomorrow for the Reds? Micah Owings.

Crap.

If you’re not familiar with Micah Owings, let me introduce you: he’s a pitcher with a big stick. When Micah was with the DBacks the last few years, Bob Melvin

Spring Loaded: Pitcher Micah Owings Also Features a Big Bat.

would use him as a pinch-hitter so he wouldn’t have to deplete his bench. When was the last time you’ve ever heard of a pitcher being used to pinch hit?

Either way, it brings the Reds an actual 9th batter to the lineup. I will point out that Owings ERA has steadily been climbing the last few years, ultimately leading to his trade last September: 4.30, 5.93, and currently 5.08. Sure, he can hit. But once he begins to struggle in a game there’s no getting out of that funk. In the back of my mind, anytime he issued two consecutive walks, you knew it was time to get a guy up in the bullpen (Bob Melvin never necessarily thought so).

Speaking of changes, AJ Hinch seems to slowly be finding his groove within this team. I will admit that I don’t think he’ll bring enough firepower to the table to help the “Struggle Backs” make the post-season (let alone a winning season). I’ll just start acting like a typical Cubs fan: there’s always next year!

Press release from dbacks.com can be found here. It’s official: Bob Melvin is Out. A.J. Hinch, the Arizona Diamondbacks farm director, is in.

Remember this Face: Rick Schu, You Led the Dbacks to the Worst Average in Baseball. Kudos.

You know how I said I’d like for Rick Schu to be cut?

“The club also dismissed Rick Schu as hitting coach and announced that Bryan Price resigned as pitching coach. “

Wow. Talk about getting my wishes. Hopefully the Dodgers hire him as their hitting coach.

After reading the news of Man Ram I wasn’t sure if I was having one crazy dream or if it was some big hoax. I’ll admit I was pretty ecstatic when I read the headlines because I absolutely hate the Dodgers. When anything bad (minus death) happens to them, deep down I’m filled with glee. But tonight, karma came back and bit me in the face with a little more serious news than I would have liked to have seen: Bob Melvin to be Dismissed as Manager.

Bob Melvin is a great manager and I feel as if the DBacks failure is not his alone. The front office should do a shakeup of the coaching staff altogether. Go ahead, cut off Rick Schu (hitting coach) and Glenn Sherlock (bullpen coach). Then again, the DBacks were hesitant to land a few big bats during the off-season. Sure, we signed John Garland and Felipe Lopez, but those two alone do not compensate for the poor play for the rest of the team (minus Haren).

R.I.P., Bob Melvin: DBacks Fire Melvin.

On the flip side, if firing only Bob Melvin is what the front office believes to be the best way to win more games, I support it 100%. However, if they are going into rebuilding mode I will rant and rave for all you to read on regular basis until something is done. This blog is big enough (with the ESPN appearance and all) to generate enough public outcry for the DBacks to appease the masses. I will not support a team that stoops to the level of the Pirates (in years past).

To the Diamondbacks front office: Get us a GOOD Manager and let’s win the WEST (please?!?!)!

After dropping two straight to the Giants, it feels pretty good getting a victory in extras. Is anyone else as surprised as I am to see Justin Upton have a GOOD game? He had 2 RBI’s, 2 walks and 1 HR. Hopefully we see more of this in the next few games with the Cubbies in town.

On another note, Arizona is hurting. Webb is going to be out for at least 6 weeks and Stephen Drew was placed on the 15-day DL for a hamstring issue. While I think we can survive without Drew, it’s going to be kind of rough not having Brandon Webb in the rotation. Sure, we have Haren, Davis and Scherzer, but Garland’s ERA is high and Petit isn’t consistent.

And one final thing: If I see more blue in the stands than sedona red tonight, I might puke. DBack fans need to get to the game and get rowdy; don’t let Chase Field become Wrigley South.

The latest advertising campaign up on dbacks.com states: “Make sure D-backs start Midsummer Classic.”

Are you kidding me? I know that every team is going to have advertising like this from now until July, but how in the heck can we get anyone starting, let alone on the bench, with poor play? Arizona finally won their first series of the year against the Rockies! That doesn’t mean we have all-stars ready to go! Outside of the Diamondbacks’ community, many people don’t think of our players (excluding pitchers) as big time players. My friends refer to Mark Reynolds as “Mr. Whiff” and Justin Upton as being “never has been,” meaning he’s been talked up so much but will never come through. Otherwise, Stephen Drew is often only referred to as JD’s brother, Conor Jackson is the big man that can’t hit home runs, and Eric Byrnes is that goofy guy that looks like Steve Prefontaine. Perhaps the best bet would be Felipe Lopez; he played for St Louis (a larger market team) and had a decent career there. Who knows: maybe we’ll get a boost of votes from the St. Louis fans?

Anyway, looking forward to the next series against the Giants, I’m looking forward to the rematch between Doug Davis and Tim Lincecum. Last time, it was an awesome pitcher’s duel and the only runs that were given up was due it part to the Giants bullpen. Can I get any “Beat Lincecum” cheers here?

Woo hoo! A win! After the bats were silent with a stellar outing from Dan Haren, they came alive in game two against the San Francisco Giants. It was only two runs but hey, it proved to be enough.

Did you see the box score for this game? If you didn’t, take a gander at the pitching totals. Both Lincecum and Davis pitched 8 solid innings, giving up 0 earned runs. On top of that, “The Freak” struck out 13, while Big D only shot down 6. The only flaw in the game seemed to be the Giants bullpen, surrendering the 2 wins that ultimately lead to a DBacks victory.

Looking forward, tomorrow’s game is going to be a hard one to watch: Randy Johnson takes the mound for the Giants against the multi-eye colored

Randy's Grin: You see the excitment on his face? Bring him back. He's going to be our first hall of famer.

phenom Max Scherzer. I want Arizona to win but I don’t want Randy to do bad. Why, Arizona, why?! If it wasn’t to win ball games, you should have kept Randy Johnson on board to sell tickets! Look what happened with Seattle and Ken Griffey Jr: Higher ticket sales and they’re WINNING. Don’t make me cheer against the guy that won four Cy Young awards with the team! Make a trade or something; you guys got Tony Clark back last year, why can’t you get Randy back? He needs to win his 300th game as a DBacks, as well as help guide Max Scherzer: the guy he’s dueling against tomorrow.

Time to put up or shut up, Josh Byrnes!

Pinch me, please. Is this really happening? Are the Padres really leading the division? Is Arizona REALLY at the bottom half?

Yes, all of it is true.

What is a disgruntled Dbacks fan suppose to do? Have faith and practice some patience.

If there is anything that I’ve learned from this great sport is that there is plenty of time to turn things around. Sure, the first 9 games are a bit infuriating when you feel like all the advantages are in Arizona’s cornern, but you’ve got to remember this number: 153, the number of games left to play. Arizona is in a slump, but it doesn’t mean they can’t pull out of it. If you remember back to the 2007 season it was all up and down. It wasn’t until after the Brew Crew beat Arizona 10-1 in July of that year that the “Men in Sedona Red” went on a tear, winning 9 games in a row, stealing the NL West from the Dodgers and Padres (with help from the Rockies). I know that’s a lot of time but keep your hopes up and get to the ballpark; nothing gets the team going more than fans being loud for their team.

Whiffing in Multiple Areas: It's safe to say Mark Reynolds is struggling, not only at the plate but also with the glove.

With that being said, my patience isn’t sitting too well with Mark Reynolds. He REALLY needs to learn how to field (this is the second time I mention this in blog posts not because I’m running out of material, rather the fact that he is still bad!). I probably couldn’t do a better job than him but I bet you there are more talented fielders in the minors that commit less errors in a season than he does in half that. He’s let a ball run through his legs more than once already in 9 games. It just happened against the Cards and I think that’s absolutely ridiculous. I can understand that many times over the course of the year, not in 9 games. At this rate, he’s on track to let 36 balls go through his legs this season. Someone get Tom Emanski on the phone to teach this guy how to field.

On a lighter note: going on the road may be a good thing on the Dbacks. It’s a change of scenery, plus they’re off to the ever exciting Bay area. What’s not to love? Alcatraz, the Golden Gate Bridge, and Randy Johnson… oh, crap! Not that guy!