Peguero, picked up from Houston in the offseason, might be this year’s version of Tony Pena (the D’backs pitcher, not the former catcher/manager or his son the SS) - someone who comes out of near-anonymity to pitch his way to the major league bullpen.

Well, Tony Pena didn't come out of near-anonymity, unless you meant that no one knew his real name. When he was called Adriano Rosario and was thought to be three years younger, he actually was a rather highly thought of prospect. Then age-gate hit him. Even as Tony Pena, however, he wasn't nearly as anonymous as Peguero; the latter, ironically, chose the Dbacks because they promised him a 40 man roster and because of his friendship with Junior Noboa. Junior's brother, Ivan Noboa, was involved in the Adriano Rosario-to-Tony Pena conversion.

Krynzel left the team for unspecified personal reasons; he was supposed to be gone for about 10 days, but it’s been nearly three weeks now.

You gotta feel bad for Krynzel. Once, he was thought of as another Johnny Damon. Then, he gets DFAed for the "Real Deal", who in turns gets DFAed 2/3 of an inning later. At this point of time, I don't see Krynzel reaching the majors with AZ again, and he hasn't done anything in AAA to even remotely accumulate some trade value. Am afraid he's done.

SP Matt Green (2.65 ERA, 37/8 K/BB ratio in 34 IP)

It's great to see Green to well in AA this year. I was having flashbacks to Garret Mock, who really never made the transition to AA after a tough year in high A. I won't be surprised to see Green in AAA the second half of the season. Brooks Brown is doing well in high A, which makes him the rare pitching prospect not named Bed or Breakfast to succeed there so far this year. Matt Torra hasn't taken to life in high A much, and that's a shame. I had hopes for him, but the Dbacks might need to send him down to low A to salvage anything left of that $1m bonus. And Dallas Buck is actually doing OK in high A, despite not pitching last year after refusing to have a TJ surgery and rehabbing instead. His fastball is in the high 80s now, however, and he's relying more on sink than velocity to get his outs. Maybe one day he'll regain his sophomore year velocity, but I'm not holding my breath.

SP Brett Anderson (2.10 ERA, 40/5 K/BB in 34 1/3 IP)

Man, the kid is good. If the Dbacks sign Scherzer, their 2006 draft will look pretty damn good.

Neighborgall’s pitching line: 1 IP, 3 H, 12 ER, 12 BB, 2 K, 108.00 ERA in five games.

That's 18 K/G. Not too shabby. The latest is that the Dbacks are trying to see if he drop his arm and throw sidearm, and improve his control that way. At least that's what the word out of extended spring training is. One day, he'll be AZ's BH Kim the 2nd. And then AZ will trade him to the Red Sox for Kevin Youkilis. Neighborgall was drafted two picks ahead of Micah Owings, fwiw.

OF Carlos Gonzalez (.209/.236/.313)
OF Justin Upton (.349/.438/.550)

The kids will be all right. See them both in Arizona in 2009.

Why did Doherty go to EST?

Schierholtz ran into a wall and banged himself up just as it was announced that Dave Roberts is going to need elbow surgery. If he is ok, he will probably be called up when Roberts goes on the DL. If he does well, he may take Linden's spot when Roberts comes back. Actually, as poorly as Linden is playing he may not have to do that well to take Linden's spot.

OK, so the Giants released Todd Linden. Fred Lewis and Dan Ortmeier up. Man we have a lot of questionable OF prospects.

Why did Doherty go to EST?

I heard it was a medical condition (not related to pitching) which may even force him to retire. Not sure what it is, but I wish Ryan the best.

Is Fred Lewis worth picking up in an NL only league?

Brett Anderson pitched another gem today: 7 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 10K.

On the season, he has 50K/5BB ration in 41 1/3 IP, zero homers and 1.74 ERA. And about 2.5 GO/FO ratio. He's ready for the majors, coach.

Ugh... "ratio", not "ration"...

Is Fred Lewis worth picking up in an NL only league?

I am not a big Lewis fan. He has shown an ability to get on base in the minors, and if he gets playing time he will probably put up a .330-.350 OBP. He hasn't shown much power at all, although he seems to be swinging for power this year in Fresno, to the detriment of his OBP and average. He is supposedly a crappy fielder. He can recover from bad routes with his speed, but he has been playing LF in the minors because he sucks in CF. That isn't a good sign. His SB% isn't terribly impressive either. Lewis is 26 and not a real prospect.

The Giants will mix it up in the OF, but it will mostly be Bonds in LF, Winn in CF, and some combination of Lewis, Ortmeier, and Sweeney (yeah) in RF. Lewis will pick up some time when Winn is off (sore back right now?) and when Bonds gets a day off. Lewis will pinch-run a lot because the Giants are slow and Bonds usually comes out after his last walk of the night.

Schierholtz would have come up if he hadn't crashed into the wall the other night, but I suspect Lewis would have too, with Ortmeier staying in Fresno. Schierholtz is the best prospect of the bunch, as he has some legitimate power, is only 23, and apparently has a real RF arm. When he is ok, he will likely come up and get the bulk of the playing time, unless someone else catches fire.

I would say "no" to picking up Lewis. Obviously, this means he will hit .400/.500/.600 with 18 SB next month, but he just isn't that good.

Justin Upton promoted

The Diamondbacks said all along they would be more aggressive with top prospect Justin Upton in his second year as a pro. So it should come as no surprise that Upton is being promoted today to Double-A Mobile after a blistering start to the season for Class A Visalia.

Upton, 19, was hitting .352 with five home runs, a .442 on-base percentage and a .557 slugging percentage entering his last game with Visalia Saturday night.

"Things were coming together quickly for him," farm director A.J. Hinch said. "He's performing at a high level, and it's time for a new challenge."

So, uhh... Fred Lewis is 5-6 today with 4 RBI and 3 runs. He hit for the cycle.

Upton hits two home runs in his second game in AA

Justin Upton continued his torrid hitting since venturing up to Double-A, belting a pair of three-run homers as Mobile thumped visiting Jacksonville, 13-0, on Tuesday.

Upton, the top pick in the 2005 First-Year Players Draft playing his second game since being called up from Class A Advanced Visalia on Sunday, went 3-for-5 with six RBIs.

In his first game with the BayBears on Monday, Upton cracked a two-run homer in his initial Double-A at-bat. He has three homers and is hitting .500 since being promoted.

Mr. Kevin Goldstein, say hello to my little friend.

In other news, I heard from a very reliable source that Mark Reynolds, who had been playing 3b in AA, but has seen time around the infield and in the outfield last year, got the message that he's joining the Dbacks tomorrow in Colorado.

Since he's not on the 40 man roster, the Dbacks will have to make a corresponding move. One option is releasing or trading Callaspo; another option is trading or DFAing a AAA reliever of the Daigle variety. Curious to see what happens.

Mark Reynolds officially added to the 40 man roster; he's starting at 3b in COL tonight.

The Dbacks made several other moves today: DFAed Casey Daigle aka Mr. Jennie Finch (about time); transferred Jeff DaVanon to the 60 day DL; claimed INF Jason Smith from Toronto. Smith will join the Dbacks tomorrow in Denver, at which time I assume they'll DFA Sadler, potentially adding Callaspo back to the 40 man roster and sending him to AAA (unless they trade him).

Justin Upton his his 4th home run in his 3rd game in AA last night. Coming into tonight, his line in AA stood at .500/.583/1.700. Yup, that's 2.283 OPS for those of you at home. In tonight's game, he's 1-3 with a rocket line drive that barely failed to clear the wall...

Also, from Kevin Goldstein's chat today:

poldytow (Boston): Nice to see Justin Upton get it going...3 HRs in 2 games at AA. Where does he end up this year? Does he make it to AAA or do they wait until the end of the season and bring him up to the 40 man?

Kevin Goldstein: I think you just might see him in the big leagues by September at this point. I totally screwed up his ranking in the Top 100, no doubt about it. I just couldn't seperate the performance from the talent, and had no way of knowing that things, including the effort-level, would just click.

Kevin, apology accepted.

Justin Upton update, after 14 games in AA:

.358/.404/.868 (1.271 OPS), with 5 doubles, 2 triples, 6 homers in 53 at bats. His OPS would be the best in the Southern league if he had enough at bats to qualify (former Dback Josh Kroeger has an 1.012 OPS; he's trying to right himself up after a couple of disastrous years)

I'd like to see him improve on his 3BB/15K ratio, but the AA pitchers will stop throwing him strikes soon enough, so the kid will start taking a free pass to first base

Only a single in four trips tonight, Lev. Drops his OPS to 1.228. I share your optimism w/r/t Upton but am worried about Gonzalez. Carlos was 3-5 tonight with a double, but that still only puts him at 13-44 in his past ten games with only three XBHs (all 2Bs). Despite all the hoopla about Upton's arrival having rejuvinated CarGo, the latter is still only OPSing at a .617 rate for the season. His BB/K through 186 ABs is 7/12 - pretty disturbing for a guy we thought might have figured something out in that regard over the winter. Hell, he got 7 walks (and "only" struck out 12 times) in his 61 ABs in Tennessee *last* summer.

BTW - only one walk against 7 Ks in CarGo's last ten games. . . and LHPs are carving him up.

I don't want to go all shoewizard on you, but I am officially skeptical w/r/t Gonzalez. I was thinking Upton, on the other hand, may just be in Phoenix this September. Your quote from Goldstein all but guarantees that won't happen - he's been dead wrong on this kid.

Gonzalez has been heating up. Give him time. The dbacks aren't going to rush him, and with Young and Quentin already in the majors, and Upton on the fast track, they can take their time with Carlos. I'm not really that worried about him... he'll come around eventually.

Nick Piecoro interviews AJ Hinch.

For all of you Jason Neighborgall fans, AJ's got the latest:

There was talk about Jason Neighborgall, who continued to struggle in his limited appearances in South Bend, retooling his delivery. What’s the latest on him? (Background reading: Jeff Passan's story on Yahoo; stats.)

He’s in extended, working on dropping his arm angle and throwing sidearm. He’s had decent reviews from the beginning. I’m going to go watch him today. He’s throwing 94 (mph) from there. I’m anxious to see how low they put him. I wanted an extreme change, not just move it six inches. We’re going to tweak and try every possibility to get the most out of this kid. He’ll go to a short-season club in June (i.e., Yakima or Missoula). But I wouldn’t have a problem sending him back to South Bend if he makes some real strides.

94 mph sidearm? Put him in, coach, he's ready to play...

But I wouldn’t have a problem sending him back to South Bend if he makes some real strides.

And if a frog had wings, he wouldn't bump his butt when he hopped, either.

-- MWE

Mike, Mike, Mike...

You haven't been this down on a Dbacks farm-hand since Bill Murphy made the Team USA roster...

To make room for Scherzer on the 40 man roster, the DBacks DFAed Evan MacLane.

From milb.com:

Scherzer finally takes hill
June 8, 2007

After sitting out the entire 2006 season, Max Scherzer made his long-awaited professional debut for the Visalia Oaks on Thursday.

The 22-year-old right-hander allowed one run on two hits, striking out eight without walking a batter over five innings in Visalia's 4-3 loss to Bakersfield.

Scherzer was the 11th overall pick of the Arizona Diamondbacks in the 2006 First-Year Player Draft, but did not sign with the team until May 31. He spent last season working out in California before signing with the independent Fort Worth Cats in April, and he went 1-0 with an 0.56 ERA in 16 innings.

"I knew the contract negotiations could drag out for a while, so I was prepared to take the summer off last season," Scherzer said. "I just worked on my conditioning, getting my body in shape and developing my pitches."

The University of Missouri product, who is represented by agent Scott Boras, signed a four-year Major League contract thought to be worth between $4 million and $4.5 million.

"I'm relieved that we got it done, and now I can just focus on baseball and not worry about anything else," Scherzer said.

From rotoworld.com

Diamondbacks acquired outfielder Aaron Cunningham from the White Sox for second baseman Danny Richar.

An interesting swap of unexceptional yet legitimate prospects. We think the Diamondbacks did better here, and they also free up some roster room, as Cunningham, a 2005 sixth-round pick, doesn't require a spot on the 40-man yet. The 21-year-old Cunningham was hitting .285/.365/.470 with 21 steals for Single-A Winston Salem. He could have a future as a regular left field, though probably not in Arizona. The Diamondbacks might spin him off in another deal at some point.

I don't know anything about Aaron Cunningham. Emeigh, a penny for your scouting report/thoughts?

I do know that Emeigh isn't very impressed with Richar...

Hmm, kind of surprising sudden deal.
I've heard Cunningham has good all around skills and tools but isn't exceptional in any one area.

I didn't know Nieghborgall is working sidearm now. Interesting, even though its hard to be anything but pessimistic on the kids now