Last night, September 25, 2012, was my final chance of seeing the Diamondbacks in person this year. Although they are currently 5.5 games back in the wildcard race and have no hope of climbing over 3 other teams to grab the final wildcar slot, I was still excited to see the D-Backs take on the home town Giants. What most excited me was the opportinity to see who I believe will be the Diamondbacks future ace, Tyler Skaggs. Sadly, at the last minute, they replaced Skaggs for Josh Collmenter. I have no problem with Collmenter, overall he is a decent pitcher, but I was looking forward to seeing the 21 year old throw in only his 7th major league start. Sadly, those first 6 starts have not been what most people would consider "impressive." He has infact gone 1-3 with a 5.83 ERA. But like I said, he is 21 and although the D-Backs have lost 5 of his 6 starts, I think he has shown a lot of pottential and could infact become a great starter for Arizona. Hopefully next year he is able to have a season similar to Rookie of the Year candidate Wade Miley. This article I am writing was going to be my in-person review of Tyler Skaggs and the future of Arziona, but since I did not get to see him pitch, I had to shake things up. Yet still, the season may be all but over for the Diamondbacks, but I think they are showing signs of a promising future.
As I was waiting for my friend Eddie, a huge Giants fan, to get off the train last night so we could head over to the game, I started texting one of my best friends, Ed Rothlisberger, with whom I grew up with in Tucson. For any of my readers who do not know Ed, he knows more about sports than anyone I have ever met. He can pull facts and stats out of the his brain as if he were a computer. He knows the names of the most obscure players and can referce games as if he were a participant in the game itself. Ed is the real Arizona Sports Guy and I will be the first to say it, he needs to have a job in sports. He needs to be working as a scout, analyst, reporter, ticket taker, Corn Dog vendor, or a team's General Manager, it doesn't matter, he belongs in sports.
As Ed and I began our conversation last night, after discussing for a few minutes the best show on TV, The Walking Dead (Season 3 begins October 14), we soon began to discuss the Diamondbacks' future and a few of our other Arizona sports teams. Below is the transcript of our conversation:
Me: Well man, off to another dbacks game. Too bad I gave up hope on them 3 weeks ago.
Ed: Yeah, their chances are pretty much slim to none now
Me: I was so stoked to see Tyler Skaggs pitch tonight, I think he'll be their future ace, but last minute they replaced him for Collmeter. He throws like a tomahawk.
Ed: Yeah Collmenter has a weird throwing motion. I wish Stephen Drew would have been healthy
Me: The whole reason I wanted to go was to see Skaggs. I was gonna write about him in my article. Trading Drew may not have been good. He's not bad for the A's and he's much better than John McDonald or whoever else their putting out at short.
Ed: Yeah McDonald and Bloomquist weren't that good. Getting Johnson from the Astros was a good deal but yeah trading Drew wasn't
Me: Yeah I like Johnson. I think The dbacks are one good acquisition away from winning the NL West next year. The Dodgers are gonna implode just like the Red Sox.
Ed: Yeah they are, that trade hasn't really worked out for them
Me: I like the Diamondbacls 40 man roster. I love Adam eaton. They have lots of guys that'll be good next year, including Skaggs.
Ed: Yeah Eaton has been a good surprise, as was Miley and Skaggs...and to an extent Hill was too. I just think they need to get a good shortstop and better pitching and they are World Series bound
Me: I agree 100%. Well at least playoff bound. I don't know if I wanna keep Upton or not, he's been good lately, but he's not playing up to his contract. He'll be making like 10 mil next year and 15 mil in 2 years. I feel like all he ever does is pop out to the infield.
Ed: True...with Young coming back along with Kubel, Eaton and Parra, Upton can be traded to get us a quality player.
Me: I agree. Dude, if we could just get the Suns good, then the AZ future would be looking bright. What do you think of the Cards so far? 3-0!
Ed: I knew the Cardinals defense was good, I just didn't know it was this good. Having a great defense plus having an offense just putting enough points on the board to win...I'd say look out!
Me: I feel like they're the type of team that will not lose if they get a lead, but I worry about them having to come back after falling behind early.
Ed: Yeah I'd agree with you on that too!
Me: But I think they'll win almost every turnover battle. Any chance the Cats beat Oregon State? You gonna be at that game?
Ed: I don't have plans but I do have work off so I think I'll look in to going. I think it's going to be a defensive shoot out really. I think it's going to be close.
3 Hours later after the Diamondbacks beat the Giants 7-2
Me: Well, nice win, but just too far out to make a run now. I got to see the dbacks 3 times this year and they won all 3, so at least I can take that away from this season.
Ed: That's awesome! Yeah they need lots of stuff to happen in order to get the wild card. I want them to have a winning record at least to end the season
Me: Not that it really matters, but I think they could easily overtake the dodgers for second place. They should have a winning record they finish with 6 games at home against the Cubs and Rockies.
Ed: True but they are 6 games back in the wild card
Me:Yeah, they have no shot at the playoffs.
Ed: Yeah :-/
Me: I'm still hoping for 7 U of A wins and a bowl in Rich Rod's first year.
Ed: I am hoping it happens man!! I think it will
Ed: True. I think they'll win at least half
Me: I hope so, I just wanna see progress this year. Same thing I hope to see from the Suns. Not expecting too much.
Then I went to bed.
As mentioned above in the conversation, I am truly excited for the future of Arziona sports. I did not mention all sports teams, so I wanted to touch up quickly on a few of the teams I did not go into depth on wtih Ed.
Arizona Wildcat Football:
The Cats have started out 3-1 beating then #18 Oklahoma State in an exciting shootout with a total of 97 points being scored and then 2 weeks later, losing to #3 Oregon 49-0. It is hard to know what to expect from Arizona this year. In the first half of that Oregon game they could have easily been leading 14-13 at the half, but instead they were down 13-0 and then got dismantled in the second half. As I look through their remaining schedule, as I mentioned above, Arizona could win all or none of them. But here are my picks for the rest of their season.
Sept 29 vs Oregon State: Loss
Oct 6 at Stanford: Loss
Oct 20 vs Washington: Win
Oct 27 vs USC: Loss
Nov 3: at UCLA: Loss
Nov 12: vs Colorado: Win Big
Nov 17: at Utah: Win
Nov 23: vs ASU: Win!!!
Final Record: 7-5 heading to the Maaco Bowl Las Vegas.
I personally think a 7 win season by the Cats would be impressive in Rich Rodriguez's first season as the head coach. Last season after firing Mike Stoops, Arziona finished with 4 wins, but I believe they are on the way up, they are making progress. I do not expect them to be contending for the Pac 12 title any time soon, but hopefully year after year they keep moving forward. If Rich Rod can have a few good seasons and build a decent reputation, recruits will start to come to Tucson. But it will either take a miracle season or another USC suspension to get U of A in the Rose Bowl.
Last season was nothing short of a disappointment. In Tucson, anything short of the tournament is a disappointment. After making it to the elite 8 in 2011, the NIT in 2012 just didn't cut it. But with the return of Soloman Hill for his senior year, an exciting group of Sophomores who now have experience, and 4 ESPN top 100 recruits, Arizona should be the class of the Pac 12 and should without a doubt improve upon last season's lackluster performance. Under the direction of Sean Miller in his 4th season, the Cats are prepped and ready for a Pac 12 title. UCLA may have the #1 recruiting class in the nation, but I trust Sean Miller to coach his #4 recruiting class better than Ben Howland.
Who will even be their starting 5 this season? I am guessing that Alvin Gentry will put out a dozen or more starting line ups this year before he finally figures out which 5 players make up the best B level team the Suns can possibly become. Phoenix has one of the worst front office's in the league and I fear they will soon fall below the Warriors and the Kings in the Pacific division. The Suns have lost their only good player and were unable to sign a future All Star, Eric Gordon. Last season the Suns put on the floor Steve Nash and 4 other players that would be back ups on most other teams in the league. I personally love Goran Dragic, who returns to Phoenix after 1.5 years with the Rockets. It was dumb that the Suns ever traded him, but I am glad that they have repented of their mistake and that Dragic was humble enough to return to the team that traded him.
I am not coach Gentry, but just looking at their roster, I am thinking the Suns day one starting lineup will look something like this:
PG: Goran Dragic
SG: Jared Dudley (But maybe Wesley Johnson)
SF: Michael Beasley
PF: Luis Scola
C: Marcin Gortat
Looks to me like a team that will be 5 to10 games under .500 and finish 3rd in their division behind the obvious division leaders, the LA Lakers and Clippers.
I have no idea. They are 3-0 and I thought they would be 0-3 at this point. They are playing in a division that may be the best in the league this year. I have no idea if the Cardinals will continue to play this way or if they will begin to look more like everyone predicted they would look.
Phoenix Mercury:
They won the WNBA lottery and will de drafting Brittney Griner!!! Oh wait, I still don't care about the WNBA, never mind.
Phoenix Mercury:
They won the WNBA lottery and will de drafting Brittney Griner!!! Oh wait, I still don't care about the WNBA, never mind.
