22-year old righty swinging outfielder A.J. Pollock was the D-Backs’ #3 prospect coming into this season according to Baseball America. He was a first round pick (#17 overall) in the 2009 Draft. Pollock has played in 63 games in A-ball so far this season and he is 69 of 255 (.271 avg, .695 OPS) with 36 runs scored, 3 homers, 22 RBIs and 10 stolen bases. He isn’t playing too bad in his first taste of professional baseball. The D-Backs will likely have him on the fast track to the majors as long as he can handle it.

The D-Backs have promoted 53-year old Kirk Gibson to replace A.J. Hinch as the new manager. Gibson has been the Diamondbacks’ bench coach since the 2007 season so a promotion to manager is likely warranted here. He also served as the Tigers’ bench coach in 2003, 2004 and half of the 2005 season (the other half of 2005 he was the batting coach). Gibson always played all out on the field and he will likely require that from all of his player. Gibson played in 1,635 games in his 17 years in the majors and he was 1,553 of 5,798 (.268 avg, .815 OPS) with 985 runs scored, 255 homers, 870 RBIs and 284 stolen bases. He was the N.L. MVP in 1988 with the Los Angeles Dodgers. In 1988, Gibson played in 150 games for the Dodgers in which he was 157 of 542 (.290 avg, .860 OPS) with 106 runs scored, 25 homers, 76 RBIs and 31 stolen bases. Good players usually don’t make good managers so it will be interesting to see how Gibson handles his new gig. He can’t be much worse than A.J. Hinch.

The D-Backs have fired GM Josh Byrnes and manager A.J. Hinch. Byrnes compiled a 349-378 record (48%) in his time as the D-Backs’ GM. With a firesale likely coming soon the D-Backs didn’t want Byrnes to be making these trades which led to his firing. A.J. Hinch led the D-Backs to a 31-48 (39.2%) record this season which has them in last place in the N.L. West, 15 games behind the Padres. Hinch compiled a 89-123 (42%) record as manager of the D-Backs. Byrnes was a decent manager but his decision to go with A.J. Hinch as the manager likely ended his time in Arizona as Hinch often looked overmatched in the dugout.