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In case you forgot, baseball has started …

April 13th, 2008 Posted by: Dust Devil

… and judging by the attendance at Chase Field thus far, I think a lot of you have forgotten that.

The Diamondbacks are defending National League West Champs and did advance to the National League Championship Series last season. With such a young squad, many “critics” questioned whether they were capable of duplicating that type of play.

So far, so good! Yeah I know, it’s early, but let’s take a look at what has happened the first two weeks! While teams that were supposed to crush everyone this season, like the Tigers and the Rockies, have stumbled out the gate, the Dbacks have played quality, fundamental baseball. Their pitching has been stellar and the offense has been simply ridiculous!

Going into action Sunday, April 13, the Diamondbacks are tied with the Cardinals for the most wins in the Majors, have a current 8 game winning streak and have the highest winning percentage.

Individually on offense, Justin Upton is third in the Majors and second in the National League with a .415 batting average, both Upton and Mark Reynolds are tied for second in the Majors and top the NL with 5 home runs and Reynolds leads the Majors with 15 RBI’s. By the way, both players are in their FIRST FULL SEASON in the Majors.

Pitching wise, Brandon Webb is 3-0 and tied with a number of pitchers for the league lead there, with Micah Owings and new Dback Dan Haren just a win behind at 2-0, Webb is 7th and Haren 8th in the National League in K’s with 17 and 16 respectively and all three pitchers have an ERA under 3.00: Webb 15th in the NL at 2.14; Haren 20th in the NL at 2.50 and Owings 21st in the NL at 2.63.

Again, I agree, it’s early, but this team seems to have the type of chemistry that the 2001 World Series Champions had, which is key in a race like this. The encouraging thing is the team is playing together well and individually, not everyone is dialed in yet.

Folks, get to the yard! This town got spoiled so fast with the team making it to the playoffs in only their second season and winning it all in their fourth. Last year the team was in contention all season and we consistently had a hard time breaking 35,000 in attendance in a park that holds over 49,000. It is tragic, but as a native here I have seen this for a long time now. Part of the reason is Phoenix does have an awful lot of transplants and I cannot blame those people. This is a great place to live! But come on people, I am tired of going to games and seeing so many Dodgers, Cubs, Red Sox, etc., fans in the stands. Support this squad and make this truly a place where the top players in the league want to play so as fans we can be this fortunate for years to come!

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