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Arizona Diamondbacks
By John Donovan, CNNSI.com One of those timeless baseball questions -- Can two pitchers carry a team all the way? -- finally was answered last season by the Arizona Diamondbacks. Now, the Diamondbacks get another great query. Can they do it again? The Diamondbacks, still aging, still cash poor and still with the two most dominant starters around, begin the business of trying to make it back-to-back World Series titlesthis spring with a team that is, essentially, unchanged. That's OK with Arizona, of course, because when you have Randy Johnson and Curt Schilling, there's always a better-than-average chance of success. The two pitchers, who finished 1-2 in the National League Cy Young voting last season, combined to go 43-12 last season with a 2.73 ERA. They notched 665 strikeouts (or an average of 9.6 strikeouts per start) while averaging more than seven innings per start. Johnson (21-6, 2.49 ERA with 372 strikeouts) and Schilling (22-6, 2.98) carried it over into the playoffs, too. Of the team's 11 postseason wins, Johnson and Schilling were credited with nine of them. Johnson was 5-1 with a 1.52 ERA, Schilling 4-0 with a 1.12. In the World Series, they were nothing short of scintillating. Schilling started three Series games, including Game 7 (he was 1-0 overall with a 1.69 ERA), while Johnson started two games and relieved in the Game 7 thriller against the New York Yankees that the Diamondbacks won in the bottom of the ninth. Johnson was 3-0 in the Series with a 1.04 ERA. With all of their cash problems, the Diamondbacks decided to stand pretty much pat after their Series win. Still, general manager Joe Garagiola Jr. pulled off at least one important move in the offseason, signing Texas free agent Rick Helling (after David Wells backed out of a handshake agreement) to play No. 3 to Johnson and Schilling. Helling, like Johnson and Schilling, can churn out the innings, throwing more than 200 innings in each of the past four seasons. Veteran Todd Stottlemyre (138-119 lifetime), healthy after three seasons of shoulder and elbow problems, also is in the Diamondbacks' starting plans. Along with Brian Anderson and Miguel Batista, both of whom pitched solidly in the playoffs (Batista was 1-1 with a 2.49 ERA, Anderson 1-1 with a 2.84), the Diamondbacks have the making of a rotation that may not have to rely so heavily on Johnson and Schilling. The Diamondbacks lost a 33-homer man in Reggie Sanders when he decided to sign with NL West rival San Francisco, so that opens up some questions in right field. There are some who wonder whether 36-year-old third baseman Matt Williams (.275, 16 homers, 65 RBIs) and 37-year-old first baseman Mark Grace (.298, 15, 78) have enough left. Certainly, left fielder Luis Gonzalez can't have the monster season he had in 2001, when he clubbed 57 home runs and drove in 142 runs while hitting .325. Submarine-pitching closer Byung-Hyun Kim (19 saves in 23 chances), who blew up so spectacularly in the World Series, is a walking question mark. One-time closer Matt Mantei, who missed a good chunk of last season after elbow surgery, also is a big "Who knows?" Still, ever since the Diamondbacks burst so haughtily onto the scene as an expansion franchise just four short seasons ago, there have been questions. How much more answering do they have to do? Up for grabs: Sanders was a one-year wonder with the Diamondbacks, with his 33 homers and 90 RBIs. His absence will be felt. Will Danny Bautista (.302, five homers in 100 games) be able to hold back Erubiel Durazo (.269, 12 homers in 92 games) in the battle for Sanders' old job? Bautista has the edge going into camp. But if the power shorts out in the Arizona offense, and Bautista is part of it, he may have to give way to the younger Durazo. Spring chicken: First baseman Lyle Overbay hit .352 with 100 RBIs last season in Class AA. With Grace in the way, he may not make the big team, and there are concerns about Overbay's power. But he is a doubles machine -- he had 49 of those -- and if he can find a little more, he might be worth some closer inspection.
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