The Diamondbacks need 25-year old righty swinging 3B Mark Reynolds to provide power for them in 2009. He played in 152 games for the Diamondbacks last season and he was 129 for 539 (.239 avg, .778 OPS) with 87 runs scored, 28 homers, 97 RBIs and 11 stolen bases. Reynolds whiffed an amazing 204 times last season but the D-Backs likely won’t try to change him much in 2009. He also had a hard time in the field as he made 34 errors in 150 games from the D-Backs while showing poor range. The D-Backs hope Reynolds will improve on defense in the near future.

Augie Ojeda will be Reynolds’ top backup in 2009 at 3B. He played in 28 games at 3B last season for the D-Backs while showing outstanding range and making no errors. If Reynolds goes down with a major injury the D-Backs would likely replace Reynolds because of his bat.

PROJECTED GRADE FOR THE 2009 SEASON: B

26-year old left handed Stephen Drew had a great season in 2008 and the D-Backs hope he has a good encore in 2009. Drew played in 152 games for the D-Backs last season and he was 178 for 611 (.291 avg, .835 OPS) with 91 runs scored, 21 homers, 67 RBIs and 3 stolen bases. Drew does need to improve on defense as he made 14 errors in 151 games at shortstop for the D-Backs last season while showing poor range. The D-Backs have faith in Drew to improve on defense and to stay very solid on offense in 2009 and beyond.

Augie Ojeda will backup Drew in 2009 at shortstop. He played in 22 games for the D-Backs there last season and he made 3 errors while showing poor range. The D-Backs would suffer a huge dropoff if anything happened to Drew as Ojeda is nowhere near the hitter that he is.

PROJECTED GRADE FOR THE 2009 SEASON: B

Long time starting 2B Orlando Hudson signed with the rival L.A. Dodgers over the winter.  Before that happened though the Diamondbacks signed 28-year old switch hitting Felipe Lopez to take his spot.  Lopez played in 143 games for the Nationals & Cardinals last season and he was 136 for 481 (.283 avg, .730 OPS) with 64 runs scored, 6 homers, 46 RBIs and 8 stolen bases.  He has the potential to put up better numbers than that in 2009.  Where the D-Backs will really miss Hudson however is one defense.  Lopez played 101 games at 2B last season and he made 11 errors while showing below average range. 

34-year old switch hitting Augie Ojeda will be Lopez’ caddy in 2009.  He played in 105 games for the D-Backs last season and he was 56 for 231 (.242 avg, .642 OPS) with 27 runs scored and 17 RBIs.  Ojeda’s strength is his defense as he didn’t make any errors in 44 games at 2B last season.

PROJECTED GRADE FOR THE 2009 SEASON:  C