D-backs bracing for tougher NL West

The Arizona Diamondbacks have a target on their back, and
they know it.

As the team that came out of nowhere to shock their
divisional foes to win the N.L. West last
season, the Diamondbacks know repeating won’t be easy.

“Every organization evaluates what they did last year and
they try to improve upon that, just as
we did,” Arizona manager Kirk Gibson said Thursday.
“We’re well aware that anyone can win the
division, anyone can win the World Series and we’re just
trying to put ourselves in a position
where we give ourselves a chance to go through what we did
last year.”

The San Francisco Giants, who won the World Series just
two seasons ago, added outfielders Melky
Cabrera and Angel Pagan to the their roster and will get
catcher Buster Posey back from a
horrific leg injury suffered last May.

Colorado signed All-Star outfielder Michael Cuddyer and
has a revamped starting rotation. The
Padres are hoping that Carlos Quentin sparks their dormant
offense and the Dodgers should have an
owner, well, soon.

The Diamondbacks, Giants, Dodgers and Padres have all
claimed at least one division crown in the
last six seasons, so the teams are familiar with the cut-
throat nature of life in the National
League West.

“We know there’s no guarantees, we know it’s very hard to
do,” Gibson said. “People didn’t think
we would do what we did last year, but we did, so we’re
certainly not going to be taken lightly,
we know that.”

Three things are working in the Diamondbacks’ favor as
they embark on the 2012 campaign. First,
there has been very little turnover on the roster that
took the Milwaukee Brewers to five games
in the NLDS. In fact, 20 of the 25 players who saw action
in that series are back — and that
doesn’t include shortstop Stephen Drew, who’s returning
from an ankle injury that robbed him of
the second half of the season.

Secondly, the D-backs have bolstered their starting
rotation with the acquisition of Trevor
Cahill from Oakland. Cahill, a sinkerballer who already
has 40 big league wins and an All-Star
game appearance, should see his skill-set mesh well in
hitter-friendly Chase Field.

And finally, the Diamondbacks, according to Gibson, are
using that painful playoff elimination as
a stimulus for this year.

“We failed to do what we wanted to do last year, and
they’re highly motivated to try and
accomplish that this year,” he said. “They have a much
better understanding of how we want to
attack it as an organization. They bought in last year,
and they’re on board this year.”

Arizona Sports’ Kyndra de St. Aubin contributed to this
report

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