Read More: Jorge De La Rosa (P – COL), Troy Tulowitzki (SS – COL), Carlos Gonzalez (LF – COL), Greg Reynolds (P – COL), Colorado Rockies, Arizona Diamondbacks

The Colorado Rockies picked up a 12-4 victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks in the first game of a doubleheader on Tuesday, but will it eventually prove to be a Pyrrhic victory? Rockies starter Jorge De La Rosa left the game with left elbow soreness.

After holding the D’Backs off the board for the first two innings, De La Rosa put two men on through a double and a walk. Then in the middle of a Chris Young at-bat, De La Rosa felt something and catcher Chris Iannetta called for the coaching staff to come out to the field. After a lengthy wait, the Rockies announced De La Rosa’s elbow issues and said he would continue to be evaluated.

So the Rockies turned to Greg Reynolds, recalled after Felipe Paulino was designated for assignment over the weekend. Reynolds then allowed both base runners to score on a ground out, which was immediately followed by an RBI single for a 3-0 Arizona lead. But Reynolds did a bang up job after that by completing 3.2 innings and not allowing any other runs. He walked one and struck out two. His status for Saturday is not yet known, but he threw just 48 pitches.

After the third inning, the Rockies offense clicked and put runs on the board for the next four innings. Among the highlights: Carlos Gonzalez hit two home runs (8), a solo in the fourth and two-run in the seventh, and Seth Smith hit his fifth of the season in the fourth as well (and added an RBI double in the fifth inning). Troy Tulowitzki drew a bases loaded walk in the fifth inning and drove in a run on a single in the sixth. Dexter Fowler dropped a two-run triple off Aaron Heilman in the seventh.

The Rockies (24-22, 12-10 home) begin the second game of the doubleheader at 6:40 p.m. MT. Jhoulys Chacin and Joe Saunders pitch.

For more on the Rockies, check out Purple Row. Visit AZ Snakepit and SB Nation Arizona for more on the Diamondbacks.

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By Tim Dierkes [March 29, 2011 at 7:27am CST]

The Diamondbacks are next in our Offseason In Review series.

Major League Signings

• J.J. Putz, RP: two years, $10MM.  $6.5MM club option for 2013 with a $1.5MM buyout.
• Geoff Blum, 3B: two years, $2.7MM.
• Aaron Heilman, RP: one year, $2MM.
• Melvin Mora, 3B: one year, $2MM.
• Xavier Nady, 1B/LF: one year, $1.75MM.
• Willie Bloomquist, OF: one year, $1.05MM.  $1.1MM mutual option for 2012 with a $150K buyout.
• Henry Blanco, C: one year, $1MM.  $1.15MM mutual option for 2012 with a $250K buyout.
• Total spend: $20.5MM.

Notable Minor League Signings

Extensions

Trades and Claims

Notable Losses

Summary

In hiring Kevin Towers as GM, the Diamondbacks brought in a veteran dealmaker to right the ship after a 97 loss season.  However, don’t forget that interim GM Jerry Dipoto was behind the summer trades that brought in Dan Hudson, Joe Saunders, Tyler Skaggs, Pat Corbin, David Holmberg, and Rafael Rodriguez.  Towers furthered the makeover during the offseason, revamping the Majors’ worst bullpen, adding a couple of starting pitchers, and signing a half-dozen veteran role players to big league deals.

For each of the 2008-10 seasons, Diamondbacks hitters finished first or second in baseball in strikeouts.  Reynolds was public enemy number one in that regard, though he was also the team’s biggest power threat.  LaRoche was allowed to leave, though I don’t think the D’Backs had the payroll space for him regardless of his strikeout total.  With .320 OBPs and SLGs under .500, Reynolds and LaRoche weren’t all that productive in 2010.  Nonetheless, Mora and Blum represent a downgrade at the hot corner.  Over at first, Branyan is a less healthy, poor man’s Reynolds.  The team has a more interesting candidate in Brandon Allen, so hopefully Branyan doesn’t steal too many plate appearances. 

Towers’ return for Reynolds was nothing special, and I wonder if the new regime should have waited for him to rebuild some value in a healthier 2011 season.  Still, Hernandez is a sleeper who may end up filling in for Putz in the ninth inning this year.  Putz (pictured) represented Towers’ big free agent splash; the team had vowed to import a closer.  Putz is coming off a strong season and $5MM a year is the going rate, but he’s a 34-year-old who must be handled carefully.  Why not just let Hernandez run with the job?  The Putz signing seems like an overreaction to last year’s awful bullpen, a risky luxury the team didn’t need at this stage.  I’d been expecting Towers to show off his shrewd bargain basement bullpen-building skills.

Towers used free agency to assemble a veteran bench.  No one was particularly expensive, but the main benefit seems to be leadership and other intangible qualities.  The Bloomquists of the world become a concern only if they start taking plate appearances from younger, better players.

The D’Backs acquired Duke and Galarraga to round out their rotation, though Duke is out until late April with a broken hand.  They amount to $6.55MM worth of rotation filler.  More interesting is a potential 2013 rotation fronted by Jarrod Parker, Tyler Skaggs, Dan Hudson, and Ian Kennedy.

The 2011 Diamondbacks are in an uncomfortable spot – right fielder Justin Upton is in his prime and shortstop Stephen Drew is only under contract for two more seasons.  They also spent over $25MM on short-term additions this offseason.  However, the team does not appear to have the talent to reach the playoffs this year or next.  Perhaps Towers should focus on restocking the cupboard to begin a sustained period of contending around 2013, starting with the #3 and #7 picks in the ’11 draft.  Though Towers flirted with the prospect of trading Upton, the 23-year-old is under contract through ’15 and should be a big part of the next good Arizona team.

Photo courtesy of Icon SMI.

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Read more: Colorado Rockies, Arizona Diamondbacks, Rockies Beat Diamondbacks, Greg Reynolds, Reynolds Five Innings, Todd Helton, Pro, MLB

SCOTTSDALE, ARIZ. (AP) — Greg Reynolds pitched five strong innings, Todd Helton drove in a run for the third consecutive game and a Colorado Rockies split-squad beat an Arizona Diamondbacks split-squad 5-3 Saturday night.

Ben Paulsen drove in two runs and Dexter Fowler and Matt Pagnozzi each had an RBI for the Rockies, who won their sixth straight.

Chris Young had two hits and drove in two runs for the Diamondbacks, who lost their fifth straight. Henry Blanco hit a home run.

Diamondbacks starter Zach Duke left the game after getting hit on his left hand by a line drive off the bat of Charlie Blackmon in the second inning. He said he didn’t think it will be much of a setback. Duke gave up an unearned run in his inning of work, walking one and striking out one.

Reynolds became the first Rockies pitcher to complete five innings. The right-hander gave up two runs on two hits, did not walk a batter and struck out three.

(Copyright ©2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

The process started when Towers let first baseman Adam LaRoche depart via free agency. LaRoche struck out in 30.7% of his at-bats in 2010 (172 times total), and will be replaced by either Brandon Allen or the recently acquired Juan Miranda. Allen has struck out in 26.1% of his minor league at-bats, Miranda 23.2%. Neither player has much experience in the big leagues, fewer than 300 plate appearances combined. LaRoche was offered arbitration and Arizona did receive a supplemental first round pick when he signed with the Nationals earlier this week.

The second move will have more impact in the strikeout department. Mark Reynolds is the only player in the history of the game to strikeout 200 or more times in a season, and he’s done it in each of the last three years. In 2010, he ended a stunning 42.3% of his at-bats with strike three, 6.6% more than second place Adam Dunn. Reynolds was traded to the Orioles for a pair of relievers, so Towers addressed two of the team’s biggest weaknesses with that one move. Stepping in at third base could be a number of people. Tony Abreu (19.1% strikeouts in his career) appears to be the front runner, but Melvin Mora (17.5%), Geoff Blum (16.7%), and perhaps even Sean Burroughs (13.3%) are in the mix. 

Arizona will still feature the strikeout ways of Justin Upton, Chris Young, and Kelly Johnson, but the LaRoche and Reynolds moves will help quite a bit in that department. What’s the cost to the offense, though?

LaRoche has hit 25 homers on the nose in each of the last three seasons, and is a safe bet for another 20+ in 2011. Although his OBP was a career-low .320, it had not been lower than .340 in the four seasons prior, so there are reasons to expect a rebound. Reynolds had a down year by his standards but still clubbed 32 homers. He’s alternated .349 and .320 OBP’s in his four full big league seasons, and is due for the high end of that range in 2011. That’s a loss of 57 homers between the two players, 31.7% of the team’s total output in 2010.

Allen has hit 20+ homers in his last three minor league seasons while Miranda has hit 18 and 20 homers in the last two years, most of which was spent in Triple-A. Both players have strong minor league OBP’s, .370 or better in recent years. Carrying that level of production from the minors into the show is another matter, but at least the D’Backs have options at first base.

Third base is different story. Abreu, Blum, Mora, and Burroughs have hit 28 homers combined over the last two seasons, still four shy of what Reynolds did by himself in 2010. In fairness, that quartet of third base candidates have played primarily part-time during those last two years (or less, in Burroughs’ case). Mora is the high man of the group with a .353 career OBP, though Abreu matches that mark in his minor league career. Neither Blum nor Burroughs will make much of a dent in that column.

Towers certainly addressed the team’s 2010 strikeout issues by parting ways with the two biggest offenders, but he did so at the cost of power. Allen and Miranda appear capable of approximating if not outright replacing LaRoche’s offense, but it’s far from a sure thing. The league average third baseman hit 19 homeruns last season, and it looks like Arizona will have trouble reaching that modest output in 2011, nevermind replacing what Reynolds was capable of. First and third base are traditional power spots, so the D’Backs will have to hope for repeat performances from Johnson, Young, and Stephen Drew at up-the-middle positions.

The correlation between strikeout rate and overall OPS is not a strong one, and in fact it shows that even the game’s most productive hitters whiff quite a bit. That’s the power-strikeout trade off, it’s very hard to have the former without the latter. Despite all the strikeouts, Arizona had the 12th best OPS in the game last season (.740) and were middle of the pack in runs scored (713), so they weren’t that much of a drain on the offense. Towers achieved his goal of cutting down on the K’s this offseason, but don’t be surprised if the team’s overall offense takes a hit in 2011 as a result. 

Photo courtesy of Icon SMI.

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. – Diamondbacks General Manager Kevin Towers arrived here Saturday anticipating a trade of third baseman Mark Reynolds and expecting the rest of the dominos to fall after that.

He left Thursday, the final day of baseball’s winter meetings, with what he believed was a better team. A team that, with a couple of more additions, he thinks should contend in the National League West.

Towers flipped Reynolds to the Baltimore Orioles for two relief pitchers; signed Reynolds’ replacement, Melvin Mora; added an established closer by signing J.J. Putz; and re-signed left-hander Mike Hampton to a minor-league contract.

Last week, the Diamondbacks rounded out their rotation by finalizing a one-year contract with Zach Duke, a move that came within weeks of signing veteran infielder Geoff Blum and trading for young first baseman Juan Miranda.

That, in two paragraphs, has been Towers’ off-season, not including a failed run at free-agent first baseman Paul Konerko, who took $37.5 million to return to the White Sox on Wednesday.

“The starting pitching is better, the bullpen is better, the character I think will be better,” Towers said. “Experience is better. Versatility is better. Maybe less power.

“We scored runs last year. We scored enough runs; we just didn’t hold leads. We were above league average in offense, but they just scored too many runs on us.”

They also have drastically reduced their propensity to strike out with the departures of Reynolds and Adam LaRoche, a pair that combined for 383 strikeouts last season.

The changes likely will lead to a decline in the club’s power production, but Towers and manager Kirk Gibson believe it also will beget a more-versatile lineup capable of exerting pressure on opponents. Gibson hopes the Diamondbacks will steal bases and get runners going more often.

“Last year it was virtually impossible to do,” he said, referring to the lack of contact hitters in the lineup. “We’ll be able to, I think, do a little more of that. We’ll put the ball in play more. Try to put more pressure on people.”

Towers said he expects 50-plus homers from outfielders Justin Upton and Chris Young and 40-50 homers from middle infielders Stephen Drew and Kelly Johnson. With Miguel Montero behind the plate and veterans Mora and Blum splitting time at third, Towers likes the predictability of his group.

“We know pretty much what everyone is going to do on our ballclub other than left field or first base,” said Towers, who earlier in the week called Miranda a player who “needs an opportunity” and likely has the upper hand to be the first baseman.

He said left field likely will be filled by a free-agent acquisition. The club is known to have interest in free agent Xavier Nady, who is two years removed from his last productive season in the majors.

Nady, who came up with the Padres when Towers was their GM, hit just .256 with a .306 on-base percentage and .353 slugging percentage for the Cubs last season. He was an above-average offensive player from 2005-2008.

The Diamondbacks drafted left-hander Joe Paterson in the Rule 5 draft and say he will compete for a spot in their bullpen in spring training.

Paterson, selected out of the Giants organization, had a 3.03 ERA in 65 1/3 innings combined in Double-A and Triple-A this season. The club views him as a left-handed specialist.

Immediately after the draft, the club shipped right-hander Cesar Valdez to the Pittsburgh Pirates to complete the Duke trade. Valdez posted a 5.90 ERA in 97 2/3 innings for Triple-A Reno and a 7.65 ERA in 20 innings in the majors.

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. — Mark Reynolds is taking his big swings to Baltimore.

The Orioles acquired the strikeout-prone slugger from the Arizona Diamondbacks on Monday for right-handed relievers David Hernandez and Kam Mickolio in a trade between last-place teams trying to upgrade in different ways.

“We needed to improve our offense,” Orioles president of baseball operations Andy MacPhail said. “We think Mark Reynolds very much represents that.”

There is no doubt that Reynolds can hit the ball a long way — when he hits it, that is.

Reynolds has averaged nearly 35 homers for the last three years. He’s also struck out over 200 times in each of those seasons — those are the three highest strikeout totals in major league history.

“He brings some things we don’t have,” Orioles manager Buck Showalter said. “You can find negatives on any player. We certainly like his contact-to-damage ratio. We’re going to dwell on all the positive things he does.”

The Diamondbacks moved quickly to fill the hole at third base the 27-year-old Reynolds left, agreeing to a $2 million, one-year contract with free agent Melvin Mora. The 38-year-old Mora hit .285 with seven homers and 45 RBIs for Colorado last season. He’ll probably platoon with Geoff Blum at third base.

“Happy to have him,” Arizona general manager Kevin Towers said.

Towers came to the baseball winter meetings looking for relievers and was willing to swap a power bat for a power arm or two.

“Over the last couple of years, the organizations that are getting into postseason play are doing it with pitching,” Towers said.

“Tampa got better once their pitching got in line. Texas got better once they got their pitching in line. Cincinnati, the same thing. We’ve seen the success that San Francisco had. I think people are willing to trade offense for pitching. It’s how you build championship teams.”

The 25-year-old Hernandez went 8-8 with a 4.31 ERA last season for the Orioles in 41 games, including eight starts.

The 26-year-old Mickolio was 0-3 with a 4.32 ERA in parts of three seasons with the Orioles. He excelled at Triple-A this year, striking out 48 in 35 1/3 innings.

Towers said he envisioned Hernandez and Mickolio working in the late innings.

“It’s the start of rebuilding this bullpen,” Towers said. “We’re still out looking for more relief help.”

Arizona managed to add one more reliever, agreeing to a two-year deal with free agent reliever J.J. Putz, according to multiple reports.

The focus of the day, however, was on the departure of the free-swinging third baseman.

Reynolds’ value often depends on who’s evaluating him. He hit .198 with 32 homers and 85 RBIs last season, coming off a year in which he set career highs with 44 home runs and 102 RBIs.

“It was borderline embarrassing,” Reynolds said of his 2010 season while on a conference call Monday night. “As far as my average goes, I know I am a much better hitter than that. I think I pushed myself a little too hard. I am pretty stubborn when it comes to injuries and things like that.”

“I think I have learned a lot in that area as far as how to listen to my body and know when I need to maybe take some time off. Looking back, I wish I had done that, but it’s past and you move forward, and I think I’ll have a lot better chance for success knowing what I went through this past year.”

Reynolds has homered every 16.4 at-bats in the big leagues. Plus, his walk total has increased all four years he’s been in the majors.

But oh, those strikeouts.

Reynolds set the major league record when he fanned 204 times in 2008, then struck out 223 times the next year. He fanned 211 times last season.

“That’s the tradeoff sometimes,” MacPhail said.

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.