azdad1978
Championship!!!!
Bob McManaman
The Arizona Republic
Feb. 21, 2005 12:00 AM
TUCSON - Of all the young faces back from last season's disappointing Diamondbacks team that finished with the worst record by a National League club in nearly 40 years, Brandon Webb was among the most excited to report to spring training.
He's getting something the majority of them aren't: a do-over.
Forget about the 16 losses, the 119 walks and the 17 wild pitches, all of which led the NL. Webb and the Diamondbacks are simply chalking that up to the dreaded sophomore jinx and, more accurately, the lack of a supporting cast and an error-prone infield that would have made the Keystone Kops look like Gold Glove winners.
A clean slate arrived for Webb in the form of three trusty new additions to the starting rotation in Javier Vazquez, Russ Ortiz and Shawn Estes. Last year, it was basically just Randy Johnson and Webb. Now, he's got more help than even the Big Unit could provide.
"I love how deep the rotation is," Webb said. "From 1 to 5, it's going to give our team a chance to win a ballgame every time out. It's not just one or two guys you have to rely on now."
But the sigh of relief only gets better for Webb. The Diamondbacks should be much better offensively with the return of a healthy Luis Gonzalez back from elbow surgery and two big new bats behind him in Troy Glaus and Shawn Green.
Bigger still, are the new dependable gloves up the middle of the infield belonging to shortstop Royce Clayton and second baseman Craig Counsell. They are proven gems defensively, something a sinkerball pitcher like Webb can't put a price on because of his groundball-to-flyball ratio (3.55), which led the majors among starters in 2004.
Don't think Clayton and Counsell are that much of an improvement? Well, their career fielding percentages are a healthy .974 and .984, respectively. Two of the all-time greats at their positions, Hall of Famers Ozzie Smith and Joe Morgan, had career fielding percentages of .978 and .981.
"Brandon's a guy that really needs a strong defense in the infield just because he's going to get as many ground balls as any starter in the league," manager Bob Melvin said. "So it can be demoralizing when you get a ground ball and you're saying to yourself, 'Yeah, it's going to be a double play,' and then you turn around and it's (runners on) first and third."
Last season, the Diamondbacks committed a club-record 139 errors, which led the National League. With each booted ball and off-target throw behind him, Webb began pitching away from contact far too often. That's what led to so many walks.
"Three-quarters of it probably was my fault, the other quarter the defense," Webb said. "But the defense now is going to be excellent. That's going to allow me to do what I do best."
He'll throw strikes, especially early in the count, and infuriate hitters with his sinker, a pitch Braves manager Bobby Cox called in 2003 one of the best he's ever seen in the game. Melvin saw it last spring, when he was managing the Mariners, and was just as impressed.
"He dominated us," Melvin said. "We had guys coming back to the bench shaking their heads saying, 'You can tell me that sinker's coming and you still can't get it in the air.' "
But the season wound up being a big blur and a bad memory, even if Webb's respectable 3.59 ERA was more indicative of the way he pitched overall. There was the 0-4 streak in May, when his ERA was 6.55 during six starts in the month. There were the two losses and three no-decisions in September.
There were the unfair expectations of trying to fill Curt Schilling's shoes all the way back in March. Webb still contends he didn't feel much pressure pitching in the No. 2 spot behind Johnson, but what do you expect him to say?
"I know he had a difficult season last year, but with this team, if he's got the same ERA he had last year, he's going to win a lot more games than he did last year," Vazquez said. "I know he can pitch. I've seen him.
"He's going to be a real key for us."
Webb is slated to be the No. 3 starter behind Vazquez and Ortiz (Melvin has yet to announce his Opening Day starter), but if a left-hander emerges as the fifth starter (Michael Gosling or Brad Halsey), Webb could slide to No. 4 behind lefty Estes to break up the lefties.
"He knows that, too, and we've talked about it," Melvin said. "But with these four guys . . . I could pitch Estes (No.) 1 and it wouldn't matter. We have four guys we are very confident in. We could pitch Webb (No.) 1 if we wanted to. We're going to feel very good about those four guys and we're hoping our fifth guy runs along the same line."
Melvin had that feeling about his rotation in Seattle two years ago. He used the same five starters for the entire season in 2003, which has been done only five times in major league history. The Mariners went 93-69.
Stability and familiarity can breed success. So can a do-over.
http://www.azcentral.com/sports/diamondbacks/articles/0221webb0221.html
The Arizona Republic
Feb. 21, 2005 12:00 AM
TUCSON - Of all the young faces back from last season's disappointing Diamondbacks team that finished with the worst record by a National League club in nearly 40 years, Brandon Webb was among the most excited to report to spring training.
He's getting something the majority of them aren't: a do-over.
Forget about the 16 losses, the 119 walks and the 17 wild pitches, all of which led the NL. Webb and the Diamondbacks are simply chalking that up to the dreaded sophomore jinx and, more accurately, the lack of a supporting cast and an error-prone infield that would have made the Keystone Kops look like Gold Glove winners.
A clean slate arrived for Webb in the form of three trusty new additions to the starting rotation in Javier Vazquez, Russ Ortiz and Shawn Estes. Last year, it was basically just Randy Johnson and Webb. Now, he's got more help than even the Big Unit could provide.
"I love how deep the rotation is," Webb said. "From 1 to 5, it's going to give our team a chance to win a ballgame every time out. It's not just one or two guys you have to rely on now."
But the sigh of relief only gets better for Webb. The Diamondbacks should be much better offensively with the return of a healthy Luis Gonzalez back from elbow surgery and two big new bats behind him in Troy Glaus and Shawn Green.
Bigger still, are the new dependable gloves up the middle of the infield belonging to shortstop Royce Clayton and second baseman Craig Counsell. They are proven gems defensively, something a sinkerball pitcher like Webb can't put a price on because of his groundball-to-flyball ratio (3.55), which led the majors among starters in 2004.
Don't think Clayton and Counsell are that much of an improvement? Well, their career fielding percentages are a healthy .974 and .984, respectively. Two of the all-time greats at their positions, Hall of Famers Ozzie Smith and Joe Morgan, had career fielding percentages of .978 and .981.
"Brandon's a guy that really needs a strong defense in the infield just because he's going to get as many ground balls as any starter in the league," manager Bob Melvin said. "So it can be demoralizing when you get a ground ball and you're saying to yourself, 'Yeah, it's going to be a double play,' and then you turn around and it's (runners on) first and third."
Last season, the Diamondbacks committed a club-record 139 errors, which led the National League. With each booted ball and off-target throw behind him, Webb began pitching away from contact far too often. That's what led to so many walks.
"Three-quarters of it probably was my fault, the other quarter the defense," Webb said. "But the defense now is going to be excellent. That's going to allow me to do what I do best."
He'll throw strikes, especially early in the count, and infuriate hitters with his sinker, a pitch Braves manager Bobby Cox called in 2003 one of the best he's ever seen in the game. Melvin saw it last spring, when he was managing the Mariners, and was just as impressed.
"He dominated us," Melvin said. "We had guys coming back to the bench shaking their heads saying, 'You can tell me that sinker's coming and you still can't get it in the air.' "
But the season wound up being a big blur and a bad memory, even if Webb's respectable 3.59 ERA was more indicative of the way he pitched overall. There was the 0-4 streak in May, when his ERA was 6.55 during six starts in the month. There were the two losses and three no-decisions in September.
There were the unfair expectations of trying to fill Curt Schilling's shoes all the way back in March. Webb still contends he didn't feel much pressure pitching in the No. 2 spot behind Johnson, but what do you expect him to say?
"I know he had a difficult season last year, but with this team, if he's got the same ERA he had last year, he's going to win a lot more games than he did last year," Vazquez said. "I know he can pitch. I've seen him.
"He's going to be a real key for us."
Webb is slated to be the No. 3 starter behind Vazquez and Ortiz (Melvin has yet to announce his Opening Day starter), but if a left-hander emerges as the fifth starter (Michael Gosling or Brad Halsey), Webb could slide to No. 4 behind lefty Estes to break up the lefties.
"He knows that, too, and we've talked about it," Melvin said. "But with these four guys . . . I could pitch Estes (No.) 1 and it wouldn't matter. We have four guys we are very confident in. We could pitch Webb (No.) 1 if we wanted to. We're going to feel very good about those four guys and we're hoping our fifth guy runs along the same line."
Melvin had that feeling about his rotation in Seattle two years ago. He used the same five starters for the entire season in 2003, which has been done only five times in major league history. The Mariners went 93-69.
Stability and familiarity can breed success. So can a do-over.
http://www.azcentral.com/sports/diamondbacks/articles/0221webb0221.html
