Arizona D-Backs preview. 2/12/09
The D-Backs started their 2008 season(their 11th as a team) going 20-8 in the months of March and April and were way ahead in the NL West race. Brandon Webb won his first 9 starts and looked like he would be the key to their success. Then the offense went dead. They had to get Adam Dunn from the Cincinnati Reds for Micah Owings, Dallas Buck, and another prospect. With only two bat(Mark Reynolds and Adam Dunn) bringing in the runs even with the great start they fell short of the playoffs. They came second in the lowly NL West by 2 games losing to the LA Dodgers. They hope 09 will be better.

With Adam Dunn leaving via free agency the offense for Arizona will need to step-up so Brandon Webb, Dan Haren, and Jon Garland don't have to try and allow zero or one runs every night they pitch. The D-backs havent made any major transactions to help their offense. They have though for their pitching to keep them in games. They signed SP Jon Garland and RP Tom Gordon. They should help their starting rotation and bullpen. Other than that nothing much for them this year so far.

Here are some of my projections this year for D-Back players:

Brandon Webb: 19-9 with a 3.34 ERA and 186 strikeouts. He will compete for another CY Young.

Dan Haren: 17-8 with a 3.51 ERA and 197 strikeouts. No matter how good he does he will always be playing second fiddle to Webb.

Jon Garland: 14-10 with a 5.11 ERA and 83 strikeouts. Arizona will want more from him.

Chad Tracy: .270 average with 12 homeruns and 47 RBI's. Will improve from last year.

Stephen Drew: .301 average with 25 homeruns and 71 RBI's. He will only get better through the next years.

Mark Reynolds: .240 average with 26 homeruns and 90 RBI's. He needs to produce to help Arizona win the divsion.

Conor Jackson: .291 average with 15 homeruns and 75 RBI's. Will be another key to Arizona success.

Justin Upton: .285 average with 20 homeruns and 68 RBI's. Needs to stay healthy so he can contribute.

I predict the D-Backs will go 88-74 and finish 1st in the NL West. LA's loss of pitching hurts them. Unless Arizona chokes they should win.

What do you guys think of this article? Tell me the truth so I can make my articles alot better.

Any comments on this?

WOW ..

OK I admire the passion .. not real excited about the couple of paragraphs.. BUT i did enjoy your opinion of how the players would fare this year .. Keep writing, its the only way to become the next BOC...

I think your idea here is great and that this is a very solid first effort. I would like to see a little more detail about the players. If you can go back and add some analysis of the individual players - maybe 4 to 5 sentance each - then we can def. get that posted.

A good site to help you with player analyses is fangraph. Get familiar with BABIP, wOBP, LD%. Each of those will help you with player projections. Abnormaly high BABIP will lead you to expect a decrease in batting average and obp, the opposite being true as well.

Very nice first attempt.

I will do that on my next one. Thanks for the input.