Diamondbacks Notes: April 14, 2009

* DO SNAKES HAVE BUTTS? - If they do, they're getting sore from yet another spanking by a visiting opponent. On Monday night it was the Cardinals who opened a three-game series by beating the Diamondbacks 2-1 at Chase Field. Starter Doug Davis pitched well and deep into the contest to finish with a line of 8 IP, 7 H, 2 ER, BB, 5 K. He took his second loss of the season despite surrendering only a pair of runs on solo homers, including a blast by monster slugger Albert Pujols.

As you can tell from the final score, pitching was not the problem for the Diamondbacks yesterday. Rather, it was the offense that failed to do its part. Arizona's bats scratched out a single run on Chad Tracy's RBI double in the fourth. Conor Jackson, who doesn't get a lot of attention for his base-running, raced around from 1B for the run. (It was the second such tally by Jackson on the season; he scored from 1B on a Chris Snyder double on Opening Day.) Monday's weak out-put continues a troubling pattern...

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Tags: Albert Pujols, Brian Barden, Carlos Quentin, Chad Tracy, Chris B. Young, Chris Snyder, Colorado Rockies, Conor Jackson, Dan Uggla, Dennys Reyes, Doug Davis, Emilio Bonifacio, Felipe Lopez, Kyle McClellan, Max Scherzer, Micah Owings, Miguel Montero, Paul Maholm, Pittsburgh Pirates, Ryan Franklin, Ryan Ludwick, Skip Schumaker, St. Louis Cardinals, Todd Wellemeyer, Tony Clark, Tucson Sidewinders, Visalia Rawhide

Major Chords: Bonifacio has Speed to Burn

One-time Diamondbacks prospect Emilio Bonifacio has always had wheels. In a minor league career spanning 656 games (2841 plate appearances), Bonifacio swiped a total of 233 bags. On a per-game basis, that would translate to more than 50 SB over a full ML season. His 77.7% success rate suggests Bonifacio was picking his spots well, too.

But speed on the base paths is only valuable if a runner can in fact get on base. And in that department, Bonifacio was found lacking. As a farmhand, he posted a combined line of .285 / .341 / .362 with 212 BB against 532 K. Considering that much of Bonifacio's time was spent in the hitter-happy environments at A+ Lancaster and AAA Tucson, the numbers are pretty underwhelming.

Here are the raw and adjusted statistics (source: Baseball Prospectus) from his last three stops in the Arizona system.

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YEAR

LVL

TEAM

PA

BA

OBP

SLG

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Tags: Dan Uggla, Emilio Bonifacio, Felipe Lopez, Florida Marlins, Hanley Ramirez, Jon Rauch, Lancaster JetHawks, Mobile BayBears, Tucson Sidewinders, Washington Nationals