Q and A with Nick Piecoro (Part One)

Nick Piecoro is the Diamondbacks beat writer for the Arizona Republic. I frequently link you to his blog. A little bit ago, I sent him some questions about the Diamondbacks, and also about the Minor League system. Since these are somewhat lengthy, I decided to break it into two parts.

Today's focus is on the Diamondbacks, and tomorrow, we'll focus on the minors.

And away we go....

1) Can the Diamondbacks turn it around in one season and compete for a playoff spot next season? Or are they looking at a multi-year rebuilding process?

Nick Piecoro: Can they? Sure. Will they? We’ll see. You can say what you want about the moves they made this off-season, but nothing approaches the importance of having a healthy Brandon Webb. Before 2009, he had been among the top two or three best pitchers in baseball for three years running. There’s no understating the importance of having a pitcher of that caliber make 33-34 starts for a team. If he’s close to the Webb of old, they probably contend.
Edwin Jackson is probably an upgrade over Max Scherzer in the rotation. A healthy Conor Jackson (and his .370ish on-base percentage) will be a huge lift. And if guys like Stephen Drew and Chris Young and the recently acquired Kelly Johnson can have some form of bounceback seasons, they’re going to be much improved offensively.

That’s a lot of ifs, but if some of them come in – most importantly Webb, of course – then, yeah, they can contend.

2) Did you see a lot of growth in A.J. Hinch as a manager throughout the season? Is he the right guy for the job?

NP: I think Hinch’s comfort level increased with every game. It seemed like he was able to develop a better relationship with his players as the year went on and after an off-season in which he put a lot of energy into building relationships, things should be even stronger there. Is he the right guy for the job? Again, we’ll see. He’s certainly more on the same page with General Manager Josh Byrnes than the previous manager, Bob Melvin. It’s pretty hard to judge Hinch based on the club he was running out there last season, but if everyone’s healthy we should get a better understanding of his capabilities.

3) I was greatly impressed with Gerardo Parra when he played for South Bend in 2007. What were your overall impressions of Parra this season? Are we looking at a future MVP? A future All-Star? Or just a solid player that fills out a roster?

NP: My guess is he’s closer to just a solid player who fills out a roster, but there are people in the organization who feel otherwise. I’m going to need to see Parra hit left-handed pitching better, something he was never able to do even in the minor leagues, before I’m willing to call him anything more than a nice fourth outfielder/platoon partner type. I will say this: He plays a very good left field and has an excellent arm and I like the skills he brings -- like hitting for average and putting the ball in play – particularly in how it compares to his teammates. He’s a nice fit for the roster.

4) How important was it for the young pitchers (Zavada, Gutierrez, Vasquez, Augenstein) to get big league experience this year?

NP: Pretty important. We’ll see what kind of roles those guys end up with this season, but it’s good for the organization – and for the pitchers themselves – to know they can get big league hitters out. It’s not out of the question for any of those guys above not named Gutierrez to start the season in the minor leagues. The additions of Bob Howry and Aaron Heilman give the Diamondbacks better depth than they enjoyed last season. But it wouldn’t surprise me if Gutierrez ends up being the most important pitcher in the bullpen in 2010.

Again, we'll have part two for you tomorrow with the focus more on the minor leagues. My thanks to Nick for taking the time out of his busy schedule to answer these questions and provide some great content for this blog.