Arizona Diamondbacks-Preview

2008 Record 82-80

Projected Lineup
C-Chris Synder 16-64-237

1B-Chad Tracy 8-39-267

2B-Felipe Lopez 2-25-234

SS-Stephen Drew 21-67-291

3B-Mark Reynolds 28-97-239

LF-Conor Jackson 12-75-300

CF-Chris Young 22-85-248

RF-Justin Upton 15-42-250

Rotation

Brandon Webb 22-7 3.30

Dan Haren 16-8 3.33

Doug Davis 6-8 4.32

Jon Garland 14-8 4.90

Max Scherzer 0-4 3.05

Bullpen Saves

Chad Qualls 4-8 2.51 9

Tony Pena 3-2 4.33 3

Jon Raush 0-6 6.56 1 - these stats just with Arizona

Whats to Like
1.The core of the offense is all young-Young, Drew, Upton, Jackson and Reynolds should all be improving.
2.Webb and Haren are about as good and risk free as any 1-2 in all of baseball.

Whats Not to Like
1.Strikeouts-Arizona was second in the NL in Ks last season. Mark Reynolds fanned 204 times
2.Losing O-Dogg- Orlando Hudson was a stabilizing force both on defense and in the locker room. He will be missed more than they anticipate. After Hudson went down on Aug.10 the D-Backs were a sub .500 team

Fantasy Focus
Conor Jackson-Jackson is eligible for both 1B and OF. While alot of the young Snakes hitters have awful K/BB ratio Jackson walked almost as many times as he struck out. Also his 22% line drive rate makes his .300 BA something we can expect year after year. Also he is still in the growth phase of his career development arc. The only downside is his HR/FB ratio was only 9%. If he can up that by a few points he can have a nice season.

Fun Fact
The Diamondbacks have cost me more sleep than any other team thanks to their very informative and extremely entertaining broadcasts. Darren Sutton and Mark Grace make baseball fun to watch. While not speaking down to knowledgeable fans.

Outlook
I like this team alot. The NL West is the weakest division in the NL by far. While I fully expect Manny to sign with the Dodgers I still think Arizona will be the class of the division. I see about 90 wins and a division title.