2014 Quarry Unlimited - #30 Arizona Diamondbacks Part 1

Here we are at the bottom of the barrel on the 2014 Quarry Unlimited countdown.  This year's resident in the ignominious #30 position is the Arizona Diamondbacks.  The Diamondbacks have always been hovering near the bottom of the rankings, but several different things pushed them further down in 2014.  The first infraction was during the opening series in Australia with the Dodgers.  The Diamondbacks added former prospect Ryan Rowland-Smith to their roster as a pitcher.  It was a surprising addition since the 31 year old hadn't played in the majors since a 1-10 season in Seattle in 2010.  But there he was on the plane to Australia.  Why?  Because he is from Australia.  That was the only reason, because he was cut before the "real" regular season started in the US.  It was completely shameless, but by itself not really worthy of moving them down the list. 

However, this is the Diamondbacks and they gave plenty more opportunities to hate them.  The next major incident was in August, after the Diamondbacks were already making their offseason plans of not participating in the postseason.  It involved Arizona and the Pittsburgh Pirates.  The Pirates have had a propensity for hitting batters for the past several years, so it wasn't much of a surprise when Paul Goldschmidt was hit by a pitch, ending his season.  It did not appear to be malicious, just a pitcher pitching inside.  Manager Kirk Gibson decided to "get even" the next day by ordering Randall Delgado to hit Pirates star Andrew McCutchen square in the spine with a 95 MPH fastball.   Basically trying to injure their best player because our best player got injured yesterday.  It was bush league at best and downright assault and battery at worst.

But the worst was yet to come.  Apparently even the Diamondback front office got tired of Kirk Gibson acting like a caveman and decided to get rid of him and his staff, including Alan Trammell.  But they decided to do it with 3 games left in the season.  And then they had the gall to ask Trammell to manage the final three games of the season AFTER he had been fired.  That is a very low class move, but my biggest problem is the timing.  Why in the world would anyone EVER fire a coach in any sport (even the NFL) with 3 games left in the season?  Did the front office expect a miraculous turnaround?  They couldn't really make up 30 games in those last three.  Could Gibson really screw it up worse?  They were already the worst team in baseball.  I'm not a big fan of Gibson, but he didn't deserve that treatment and neither did Trammell for that matter.  If I was him, I would have told Tony LaRussa to kiss my ass when he asked me to manage the last three games. 

There was actually more stuff that ticked me off about Arizona, but I didn't want to write a book about it, so I just stuck to the main plot points.  I don't know if they will stay at the bottom forever, but one thing is for sure, they definitely deserved the spot in 2014.

DIAMONDBACKS TEAM TRIVIA

Total # of Diamondbacks in 2014 - 52

# of new Diamondbacks in 2014 - 25

Best score in 2014 - May 17 vs. Dodgers 18-7

Worst score in 2014 - September 19 at Rockies 15-3

Border color that worked best with this team - Purple

Border color that worked least with this team - Blue

Position on last year's list - #28 = DOWN 2

Let's take a look at the first half of the 2014 Arizona Diamondbacks with the two manager cards leading the way.

PURPLE

GREEN

BLUE

I'll be back tomorrow with Part 2.  As usual, your thoughts are always welcome and encouraged.

Thanx for reading.