Arizona Diamondbacks Spring Training Tickets - Preseason Outlook

Arizona Diamondbacks fans miss out on the opportunity to ponder their team's past season on the road trip out to spring training. Teams like the Giants, Dodgers, the Rockies, and Mariners- their fans get to drive for hours through the desert thinking about the highlights and the lowlights of the 2008 season as they journey to Arizona to see some spring training action. So for Diamondbacks fans, we offer this article, a chance for you to reflect on the season that was, and gaze with hopeful anticipation at the season that will be. Since the road trip to your spring training location is relatively small, we'll make this preseason outlook short and sweet.

2008 Highlights
The Diamondbacks finished a close second in the NL West behind the Dodgers, going 82-80 overall and failing to make the playoffs. The clear strength of this team was their pitching, although some individual efforts on offense will certainly get fans pumped about buying some Arizona Diamondbacks spring training tickets. Led by Brandon Webb, the D-backs' rotation allowed the fewest walks in the National League, the second fewest home runs, and acquired the third most strikeouts in the NL. As a team the D-backs recorded a 3.99 ERA, well above average in the NL. Webb was better than his typical self, as he finished second in the Cy Young voting behind Tim Lincecum, earned 22 wins (the most in the NL), threw for a 3.33 ERA and went to the All-Star Game. Dan Haren finished with an ERA of 3.33, struck out 206 batters and only walked 40 while winning 16 games. Randy Johnson declined a little with age, but still found a way to deliver 173 Ks. Conor Jackson had a solid season hitting, ending with a .300 average and 12 home runs. Stephen Drew slugged .502.

2008 Lowlights
The Diamondbacks had a good deal of power on offense, but their lack of singles hitting killed them in the end. Arizona only had 1,355 hits all year, the second fewest in the NL, which lead to a sub-par team batting average. Eric Byrnes' season was a forgettable one. Adam Dunn showed up late in the year and added home run power to a team that needed small ball finesse. It's hard not to harp on the Arizona offense, but there's no denying their struggle to produce runs directly led to the team's failure to make the playoffs. The Dodgers found a way to be efficient on defense and still put some points up. That was the difference in the NL West.

The Future
Fans looking around StubHub for Arizona Diamondbacks spring training tickets should be excited about a few things. First off, the D-backs should continue to be a dominant pitching team, despite the loss of both Randy Johnson and Brandon Lyon. They've added Scott Schoenweis, and Jon Garland should fill Johnson's third spot in the rotation nicely. But the inquiring fan wants to know what happened on offense. Well, Arizona said goodbye to David Eckstein (who didn't help out all that much last year anyways) and said hello to Felipe Lopez, who should be a slight improvement from Eckstein or Augie Ojeda at shortstop. The Diamondbacks re-signed Chris Snyder, but they have a few free agents out there, including Adam Dunn and Orlando Hudson. Will the D-backs make a major move before the start of the season? Let's hope they pick up a fielder who can get on base.

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