Trevor Cahill looks to improve an already strong Arizona rotation. Photo: Icon SMI

The Arizona Diamondbacks finished 2011 as the NL West Champions, losing to the Milwaukee Brewers in the NLDS. Arizona’s pitching served as the strength of the team, with five pitchers providing a bWAR in excess of two wins, 13.2 total for those five pitchers. The offensive strength concentrated in four position players, all producing bWARs over 3.0, a total of 12.8.

The team added the following players over the winter:

• Jonathan Albaladejo, p
• Craig Breslow, p
• Trevor Cahill, p
• Jason Kubel, of
• Joe Martinez, p
• Takashi Saito, p
• Craig Tatum, c
• Mike Zagurski, p

Once again, the team concentrated mostly on pitching. Trevor Cahill gives them four starters capable of throwing 200 innings. Arizona starters threw 1004 innings in 2011, sixth most in the majors. That’s 60 innings fewer than the first place Phillies, and Cahill may help move them past that in 2012. In addition, this is a very young rotation, with Joe Saunders possibly the only starter over 30. Ian Kennedy, Daniel Hudson, Josh Collmenter, and Cahill are all 27 or younger. That means most of the rotation will be in their prime years for the next three or four seasons.

A deep starting staff means the bullpen becomes less important, but after a total relief breakdown in 2010, the Diamondbacks made a number of moves to deepen the relieve corps in 2012. Craig Breslow will likely see the most action of the relievers acquired in the off season.

On offense, there was only one major move, the acquistion of Jason Kubel. This move was met with some dismay, as Kubel is entering the down phase of his career, while Geraldo Parra posted a decent season in 2011 as a 24-year-old. Kubel’s bWAR for the last two seasons combined does not equal Parra’s bWAR for 2011. The deal for Kubel suggests the Diamonbacks don’t believe Parra’s 2011 season was for real. I will note that the Diamondbacks were weak at first base in 2011. If internal solutions such as Paul Goldschmidt don’t work out, it could be possible to move Kubel to first base. Carrying four outfielders capable of starting also gives the Diamondbacks insurance against a major injury in the outfield. I remember people thinking the Yankees went into the 1975 season with too many outfielders (Eliot Maddux, Bobby Bonds, Roy White, and Lou Piniella), but injuries forced them to use both Thurman Munson and Rick Dempsey in the outfield in the same game.

While the Diamondbacks didn’t stand pat, they did not address two points of weakness, the middle infield and first base. The got away with injuries and poor play there in 2011. Maybe that will work again. The team should be in contention in 2012.