2009 record: 70-92, fifth in NL West
Manager: A.J. Hinch
Key additions: SP Edwin Jackson, SP Ian Kennedy, RP Bobby Howry, RP Aaron Heilman, 2B Kelly Johnson, 1B Adam LaRoche
Key losses: SP Max Scherzer, SP Doug Davis, OF Eric Byrnes, IF Chad Tracy, RP Daniel Schlereth
Outlook: The Diamondbacks have been among the most up-and-down franchises in baseball since their inception in 1998. That first year, they won 65 games, only to take 100 the next year and the World Series in their fourth season, 2001.
Within three years of winning it all, they produced an abysmal 51-win campaign. Three years after that, they were in the National League Championship Series.
It’s been a wild ride that has prompted second-year manager A.J. Hinch to preach fundamentals and execution in an effort to help establish some sort of normalcy this season.
Arizona, which had one of its youngest teams on record last year, ranked among the league leaders in errors with 124, giving a pitching staff — which lost its leader, Brandon Webb, after just one start — very little help. Only two teams in the National League had more unearned runs than the Diamondbacks' 71.
"If we're going to preach pounding the strike zone to our pitching staff, we need to have a defense behind it that can catch the baseball," Hinch said earlier this spring.
Two new members of the staff are hopeful the ’09 team got such sloppiness out of its system.
In a three-team trade with Detroit and the New York Yankees, Arizona acquired 2009 All-Star Edwin Jackson and one-time Yankees upstart Ian Kennedy. They will fill in behind star Dan Haren, who has led the NL in strikeouts-to-walks ratio the last two years and topped the Senior Circuit in 2009 with a minuscule 1.003 WHIP.
If and when Webb, the 2006 NL Cy Young Award winner and a 22-game winner in 2008, returns from shoulder surgery (he had yet to face live hitting as of Tuesday) and provides some of the form that made him an ace, it could be a pretty solid staff in the desert.
Two of the new faces the arms will rely on to catch the ball are on the right side of the infield. First baseman Adam LaRoche brings a steady, improving glove and one of the more consistent offensive approaches in the game. Over his last four seasons, LaRoche has hit between .270 and .278, with between 21 and 25 home runs and 80-88 RBIs. New second baseman Kelly Johnson is looking to shake off a down year in Atlanta, where he hit .282 with 109 extra-base hits between 2007 and 2008.
LaRoche’s signing represents another step toward consistency. He will team up with third-base power threat Mark Reynolds to provide plenty of support in the lineup for budding star Justin Upton, who broke out last year in the No. 3 hole.
Like the rotation, there’s a chance for some pretty good production if a few things go right. Stephen Drew must get on base from the leadoff spot. Outfielder Chris Young needs to rebound from a .212 campaign. And catcher Miguel Montero has to show that his breakout 2009 campaign was not a fluke.
Above all, there needs to be consistency and improved play on defense for the Diamondbacks to contend. With how their history has gone, it could either way.
What it means to the Red Sox: Arizona comes to Fenway Park for three games in mid-June. The teams have played a total of just nine games, with the D-Backs winning five.
