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Tuesday, April.09, 2013

The Diamondbacks have started the 2013 season off great at 5 – 2 – including a great kickoff series versus the St . Louis Cardinals at home – before sauntering into Milwaukee and brutalizing that club for a 3 game stanza. The Starting Pitching looks a lit like it did in 2011 – and the Bullpen has been good in playing at two hitter friendly parks thus far for full series.  They club has received contributions from everyone in their line up. The biggest impacts have been by Gerardo Parra, Martin Prado, and Paul Goldschmidt. The team lost the opener of the 3 game series vs Pittsburgh last night 5 – 3.

By Chris Lacey (Baseball Writer) Follow @aecanada12

The Arizona Diamondbacks had a very good start to their 2013 baseball season. The Diamondbacks have managed to start the season 5-1, and they are tied for first in the National League West division with the Colorado Rockies.

The Diamondbacks just finished a series sweep of the Milwaukee Brewers at Miller Park. This is also the first time they have swept their opening road series in team history.

The Brewers did not have Ryan Braun play at all in the series, and the Brewers slugging Third Baseman Aramis Ramirez was injured in the first game. The Brewers still played very well without their two best offensive players unavailable.

2011 NL West Champion Arizona Diamondbacks. Mature Lyrics – Parental Guidance Is Advised:

Wade Miley has started the season out great pitching out of the four spot in the rotation. Miley could be the Diamondbacks ace by the end of the season.

The Diamondbacks played a great all-round series versus the Brewers and earned the sweep. The Diamondbacks in this series showed the various ways that they can win. Arizona won one game by playing small ball, and moving runners into scoring position.

The next game they showed that their lineup can use the long ball to hit Home Runs, and they have many players that can get extra base hits as well.

The starting pitching for the Diamondbacks was solid in the first week of the new season. The only concern that I have with the rotation was the start coming from Brandon McCarthy, he was hit hard in the first start facing the St. Louis Cardinals. McCarthy will look to rebound in his second start this week.

The best pitching performances came from the bottom of the Diamondbacks rotation with Wade Miley and Patrick Corbin doing a stellar job in the games that they pitched. Miley showed in his start there was no effects from him going through a dead arm period in the spring. Miley had his velocity higher in his first start, than any start that he had in the spring.

Corbin did a great job in his first start by pitching out of jams. Corbin has a chance to make the fifth spot in Arizona’s rotation a strength for the club.

Corbin pitched good and showed some maturity in his first start by dealing with adversity in his game. The Brewers were able to get plenty of hits off Corbin, but he managed to work around that, and still pitch a quality game.

The Bullpen was solid except for the Blown Save by J.J. Putz in the last game against the Brewers. The one game that the relief core did great in – was the marathon game they played at Chase Field, where the game lasted 16 Innings.

The Diamondbacks leaned heavily on their long relief pitcher Josh Collmenter. He was their MVP of the game along with Shortstop Cliff Pennington who game the game winning hit.

The offense for Arizona has been very strong, and this has one of the reasons for their fast start. The surprise of the offense has been the play of Gerardo Parra, as indicated by his .400/.438./1.138 triple-slash. Parra has been the spark that Arizona needed to start the season off right.

The other reason that the Diamondbacks offense has performed well is because of the newest addition to the team. The new player who has played tremendous is Martin Prado.

Prado has fit in perfectly into the line up being the number two hitter. The Diamondbacks lost power with Justin Upton, but gained a great team player in Prado.  He leads the NL in AB (36) and PA (37) so far – while Scoring 9 Runs and clubbing out 10 base knocks through 7 games.

Prado has been everything the Diamondbacks could have wanted. He is the perfect number two hitter for the team, and does all the little things that can help a team win. 

Prado has been a great addition to the Diamondbacks. The man has thrived particularly  when placed in the two hole for his Career. Prado has hit for a .300+ Avg. in 4 of the last 5 years. His Career 3 Slash Line is .295/.345/.780. Prado last made an ALL-Star team with the Braves in 2010 – when he hit .307, and scored 100 runs in just 140 Games. He also finished in the top 10 for NL MVP voting that year.  Prado is also a great contact hitter  -only fanning 69 times in 617 times at the plate in 2012.

*** The views and opinions expressed in this report are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of mlbreports.com or their partners.***

A big thank-you goes out to our ”Diamondbacks Correspondent’ Chris Lacey. Chris has been a fan of watching baseball since the age of 13. Now he does like all sports – but his favorites after baseball are  hockey and basketball.  Chris is very good with computers and is a college graduate.  

Chris is very active on Twitter and especially during the baseball season chatting with other Diamondbacks fans. Be sure to follow him and talk about the great game of baseball. Follow @aecanada12

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