» Josh Byrnes

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!

According to MLB.com reporter Steve Gilbert, 11 players and 1 coach were out from practice today because of the flu. Is it just me, or does it seem like this thing is hitting all over the place? I have had 15 friends and teammates come down with a nasty flu bug over the past week and I’m hope I’m not next!

Beyond that, the Dbacks certainly have interesting news lately when it comes to the bullpen.

Pre-spring training, Arizona had a two spots to fill in the bullpen. With the signing of Tom Gordon, it was then the impression that there was only one spot left(which reminded me of The Dark Knight, when the Joker says something along the lines of, “I have a position open on my team. There are three of you, but only one spot available. The one who doesn’t die, gets the spot.”). News has now come out that “Flash” Gordon is not ready to pitch because of his elbow, and has been reported there are now THREE spots in the ‘pen being fought for (including Tom Gordon). I thought I was following the whole situation pretty well, but I can’t get my head around there are 2 additional spots to fight for after only one player being injured.

How the fight for the bullpen looks... metaphorically.

Also making news is good ol’ Juan Cruz. There have been rumors that Cruz may be part of a “sign and trade” deal, which ends up sending him to the Twins. If you aren’t sure what’s going on, let me take the time to explain:

Juan Cruz is considered to be a Class A free agent, which means he’s a higher commodity, and if a team signs him Arizona gets a compensation draft pick in return. Being as no team seemingly wanted to give up a pick (making it hard for players to find a home), there is a “sign and trade deal”, which means that the team the player was playing for signs them to a contract and then trades them to their team of choice (who have already agreed to terms with both the team and the player… there is no backing out of a deal like this once struck). In this case, Arizona would get a player instead of a draft pick. However, I feel like Josh Byrnes is going to be extremely picky because he’s giving up a compensation pick here and I know he won’t want any Joe Shmo (or Joe Smith, right Mets Fans just kidding I guess I should say Indians fans now!).

Anyway, it now seems like the Twins haven’t offered Juan Cruz a deal and Byrnes is playing the “I’m not doing any thing until there is a deal with Juan” card. Good Move! Personally, I think Arizona should resign him and NOT trade (but I guess Arizona isn’t wanting to pay the salary he wants).

And finally, the Dbacks claimed Bobby Korecky off waivers… from the Twins, of all people. He just reported to camp and is also fighting for one of the three available bullpen spots. I was worried for a while from November on that our bullpen would be depleted, but it’s looking like we’re going to be SOLID! Now how about the hitting aspect…  We’ll see!