The Arizona Diamondbacks got off to a fairly impressive start to the season. The team was 8-8 on April 20th and had put together some impressive series wins over the Cincinnati Reds and the Cincinnati Reds.
Then there was a slightly less impressive sweep by the Mets, a split with the Cubs and series wins over the Phillies and Rockies. 14-16 on May 5 before heading out on the California road trip and coming home in a not-so-nice place. After dropping Game 1 to the Padres behind Armanda Galarraga's home run derby pitching, the team can now tie a season-worst seven games under .500.
It will be up to Daniel Hudson (3-5, 4.41 ERA) to restore the honor of the beleaguered pitching staff. He faces Tim Stauffer (0-1, 3.47 ERA) who's had his own issues recently. He gave up six runs to the Brewers in his last start.
In other D-backs news, Kirk Gibson will be a coach on the NL All-Star team and our old friend Bob Melvin is rejoining the organization as a Special Baseball Advisor. Unlike the title implies, Melvin will not be advising the team on baseballs but will be working with the minor league coaching staffs and do some scouting.
Game 2 vs. the Padres starts at 6:40 p.m. on Fox Sports Arizona with the live game thread on AZ Snake Pit.
The Diamondbacks and Saves: A Blast From the Past - AZ Snake Pit
So I got bored again and started to think about how awesome J.J. Putz is. He's already a perfect 9/9 in save opportunities and, barring an injury, will probably be our first full-time closer in over three years. Thinking about that, I decided to investigate into just how well our "closers" have fared up to the leagues best throughout our franchise's history. Needless to say, we're very lucky to have J.J. Putz right now...