The Diamondbacks Didn’t Exist. Then They Won the World Series. | Baseball Bits

[Applause] this video ends here but it begins here and this part is in the middle Major League Baseball held its most recent expansion draft on November 18th 1997 its two newest franchises Arizona and Tampa Bay took turns coming through a pool of players left unprotected by the other 28 teams forming their first big league rosters in the process the only video ever evidence of this draft I can find comes courtesy of Carrie Robinson who was himself yed from the Cardinals by the Devil Rays of course the Devil Rays languished for their first decade of existence while the Diamondback soared but Tampa easily outra Arizona that day they acquired 45 future War Winds above replacement after the draft and trads were settled whereas Arizona acquired players who'd only collectively put up 18 war in the purple and teal the Devil Rays did well to select Randy win with the 58th pick of the draft and acquire future Hall of Famer Fred McGriff via trade but they could have done much better as they actually drafted Bobby Abu from the Astros but traded him to the Phillies for shortstop Kevin stalker oopsie in fact both teams could have really knocked it out of the park which is a baseball expression had they selected Tory Hunter when he was left uncovered in the first round expansion drafts are hard but the Diamondbacks didn't come away completely empty-handed they added future key players like left-handed starters Brian Anderson and Omar D catcher Damen Miller and somewhat surprisingly Karen Garcia who became far more relevant when he was traded after just one season the Diamondbacks closed the gap on the Devil Rays by trading three of their picks for Travis Fryman on draft day then flipping Fryman for Matt Williams two weeks later later both new franchises were active in their first free agency period spending over 60 million each but the Diamondbacks did better adding middle infielder Jay Bell and starting pitcher Andy beness on multi-year contracts while sneakily picking up their first closer Greg Olsen on a minor league deal they also executed a sneaky signing the previous off season the major league roster didn't exist yet but they were able to fill out their Minor League affiliates leading up to their first season of play in MLB first baseman Travis Lee was selected second overall in the 1996 MLB draft by the twins at the time the CBA dictated that teams must present contract offers within 15 days of the player selection but Lee a golden spikes winner at San Diego State was focused on playing in the upcoming 1996 Olympics in Atlanta so the twins postponed negotiations until after he was done competing the 15-day window passed and after a challenge on behalf of all draes not yet offered a contract headed by by yep Scott Boris five players including Lee were declared to be free agents A disastrous turn of events for owners who suddenly had to acquire amateur Talent at their two least favorite words in the dictionary market value after the bidding war Lee ended up signing a 4-year $10 million deal with the Diamondbacks legendary twin scouting director Mike Ratcliff later suggested Lee had been jerked around and led astray by the process but the 10 million he got from the Diamondback sure sounds better than the 1.5 million or so he would have received from Minnesota and although Lee never quite lived up to his draft slot he did collect the first hit and first home run in franchise history in their first year of full existence the Diamondbacks started 2 and 13 and finished 65 and 97 last place in the NL West but still two more wins than the Devil Rays their best pitcher was Omar D their best position player was Jay Bell the Diamondback's leadership including owner and all things Arizona Sports founder Jerry Colangelo and GM Joe gajola Jr decided this wasn't enough and promptly launched the greatest off season in baseball history they had to spend to do it and spend they did acquiring center fielder Steve Finley on a 5-year $21.5 million deal in free agency Finley was productive throughout the entirety of his Diamondbacks career and is just one of eight players in MLB history with 300 home runs and 300 steals but it wasn't just domestic free agents they scoured the globe for talent bringing over future closer byang hang Kim from Korea just after his 20th birthday as well as one of the all-time great baseball names in arubi dzo who is playing professionally in Mexico the next time I mention arubi dzo I'll say his name wrong for comedic effect so pay attention and finally they took advantage of the trade market swapping a prospect for Speedy utility man Tony wac then trading Kareem Garcia I told you he'd be relevant for oh my goodness gracious it's the guy from the end of the video safe to say Luis Gonzalez had a much better stint with the Diamondbacks than Kareem Garcia did with the Tigers it was a brilliant off season so brilliant in fact that I haven't even mentioned the greatest free agent signing of all time [Music] 4 years 52.4 million Randy Johnson it wasn't cheap but it should have been more expensive the big units contract was only the fifth largest handed out that free agency well behind the Dodgers then record signing of Kevin Brown but across the ensuing Four Seasons Randy Johnson averaged 258 Innings 354 strikeouts and one sa Young Award per year before this run in the desert there had only been three seasons of more than 350 strikeouts since 1900 one pitched by Sandy kofax and two by Nolan Ryan Randy Johnson averaged that for four years he won the nlsa Young Award every year it's the most War accumulated by a pitcher in a four-year stretch since the game was integrated in 1947 and he did this for a team that only existed for a year he always had the stuff Johnson dominated batters with with a contradictory pitching style standing in at 6' 10 far taller than any starter who's ever had a prolonged Big League career yet throwing with a relatively low arm slot the height and the long levers that came with it gave him his high 90s fast ball but it was the sarm delivery that allowed him to unleash his devastating slider it also gave him control as he threw from a higher arm slot in his wild days Johnson walked 133% of batters he faced through his age3 season but only walked 7% of them for the rest of his Hall of Fame career you know it's crazy that he's the one that atomized a bird of all the picturers and pitch types in baseball what are the chances it would be a Randy Johnson fastball nobody would have cared if Brian Anderson did it heck Zack gallon did it a few years ago and everyone forgot about it already thankfully The Big Unit has made peace with the fact that he'll be remembered for basically shooting a bird and he still shoots Birds to this day here's him shooting some Cardinals in total the Diamondbacks committed over 120 million in free agency that off season but received over 75 wins above replacement in return the only real misstep was signing right-handed starter Todd stlm to a significant four-year deal as he struggled with injuries and retired at the contract's conclusion they also picked up 30 more future war from the Luis Gonzalez acquisition of course war is just theoretical wins what about actual wins the 19 1999 Diamondbacks went 48 and 41 in the first half trilling the division leading Giants by 2 and A2 heading into the All-Star break they proceeded to go 52 and 21 the rest of the way winning 100 games in total and winning the division by 14 thanks to one of the strongest second half performances by any team in the integration era those 100 wins still represent a franchise record a remarkable achievement for an expansion team in its second season only one other expansion team in league history the Angels put together even a winning record in their second Year everyone else was still pretty Dreadful as if you needed any more evidence this was the greatest offseason a franchise has ever put together the Diamondbacks added 35 wins to their 1998 total this is still the largest year-over-year win Improvement in the divisional era and it came in the franchise's second year following their first real full off seon a remarkable achievement somewhat tainted by the fact they lost the nlds in four games to the New York Mets yes this was a great year but it wasn't the year the Diamondbacks didn't do much the following off season the Rays did splashing cash in the free agency market most notably on Greg vaugh who was coming off 50 homers in 1998 with San Diego and 45 in 1999 with Cincinnati still when the Diamondback spent big the previous off season they paid 1.7 million per win the devil race paid 9.2 Arizona's most notable acquisition heading into 2000 turned out to be Craig councel who they signed to a minor league deal following a disappointing season with the Marlins and Dodgers they LED their division at the All-Star break but went below 500 the rest of the way finishing third and missing the Playoffs on the whole the pitching wasn't as good as the 1999 Squad and some members of the lineup underperformed as well most notably Matt Williams who also missed time with injury perhaps the starkest difference between the 1999 Squad and 2000 Squad was how well the Diamondbacks could withstand those injuries in 1999 they had four of the 10 best part-time bats in the league including the top two overall by Ops plus these are hitters with between 100 and 300 plate appearances in a season players who would have had extended runs in the lineup as injury Replacements served as platoon bats or been deployed as regular pinch hitters in 2000 the best part-time bat was Craig counil who had a slightly above average 105 Ops plus but that wasn't near the standard set by the big four the previous season not all was lost they made a serious deadline deal acquiring Kurt Schilling from the Phillies meaning Council wasn't the only Diamondback known for his controversial stances the trade package in return contained pieces like expansion drafty Omar doll sneaky sign Travis Lee and young righty vente Padilla Padilla turned out to be the best return for Philadelphia he was a 2002 Allstar at the age of 24 but Schilling was of course one of the best pitchers of his generation in terms of his post playing career my opinion is that kingdoms of Amer was actually a pretty good game but it was awkward that his 38 Studios made a single player RPG meant to feel like an MMO but couldn't actually followed up with the MMO set in the same universe following the disappointment of 2000 the Diamondback stocked up on veterans in free agency signing Reggie Sanders another sneaky 300 300 guy to a one-year deal as well as Miguel Batista who apparently just graduated with a masters in criminal procedure law everyone just go ahead and comment congratulations Miguel Batista finally they added pure hitter Mark Grace after 13 great Seasons with the Cubs all three were excellent for the Diamondbacks in 2001 their fourth season as a big league franchise Grace and Sanders were the only two everyday above average hitters in the lineup besides Luis Gonzalez of course who famously hit 57 home runs that year and Miguel Batista excelled as a Swingman Arizona was going back to the playoffs this time Under New Management Buck Showalter had managed the first three years of the Diamondbacks existence but was let go as Bob brenley moved from the broadcast Booth to The Dugout look at that young man in San Francisco I wonder what he's thinking about [Music] the postseason roster was set they were a young franchise but an old team composed of many veterans acquired via free agency or trade still there were remnants of the expansion draft four years prior Randy Johnson faltered a bit in the nlds versus St Louis who holed a two-run homer off him in the first inning and a Miguel Batista error in the ninth allowed the Cardinals to score a crucial Insurance run wait that was Carrie Robinson you bet betrayed me Carrie you betrayed us all but Kurt Schilling was in control hacking and slashing his way through the Cardinals lineup collecting wins in Games 1 and five the latter of which ended on a Tony wac walk-off surely this would be the only floater to the Outfield to end a playoff series right the Diamondbacks went through to the NLCS Craig Council was named MVP of that series versus the Braves but it was certainly a team effort in the deciding game five the Diamondbacks took the lead lead in the fifth thanks to a pinch hit two out two-run Homer by ethereal garbanzo as Randy Johnson outd Tom glavin in a matchup of Hall of Fame lefties yyang Kim collected the save and Arizona had its first pennant they would need to play their best baseball to win their first World Series in their fourth season they were going up against the Yankees the team that had won it all every single year that Diamondbacks had existed to that point the snakes won the first two games in Arizona thanks to Strong starts by Shilling and Johnson but the momentum shifted when the series moved to the Bronx the Yankees won game three a one-run nailbiter and in game four bangan Kim had a chance to collect his fourth save of the postseason but Tino Martinez said no and then he had a chance to push the game to the 11th inning but Derek Jeter said no V and then in game five a game that featured a Ron baras home run no less Kim had another chance to collect a save in the ninth but Scott broches said no no way buddy boy after a 12th inning walk-off by Alfonso Sorano the Yankees had a 3-2 series lead game six was a 15-2 Beatdown started by Randy Johnson meaning game seven would be the decider Schilling took the mound on three days rest versus Roger Clemens through seven Innings they each had aou just one run but Sorano struck again in the top of the eighth homering to give his Yankees a 2 to1 lead after a heroic relief outing from Johnson the day after his start the game went to the bottom of the ninth the Yankees turned to Mariano Rivera you know what happens you know how this ends but let's acknowledge that Mariano Rivera entered the ninth inning of a playoff game with a lead 50 times in his career and only blew that lead twice this would be the first Mark Grace kicked things off with a single to Center expansion drafty David delucci pinch ran for him as fellow expansion drafty Damen Miller hit a grounder back to Rivera who was unable to link up with a slightly hobbled Derek Jeter everyone was safe J Bell attempted to bunt both base runners over but Rivera was able to get the lead runner at third that meant it would be Runners on first and second one out for Tony wac because of his cutter induced reverse splits lefties only had a 524 Ops versus Rivera across his entire career and wac was one of the lightest hitting lefties of his era only earning playing time because of his speed and defensive versatility but there was nothing fluky about the swing he put on Rivera smacking a double to right that tied up the game to this day it's still the third most pivotal hit by Championship win probability added in MLB history after a Craig Council hit by pitch Luis Gonzalez the man of 57 homers and the best position player in franchise history to that point stepped into the Batters box with the bases loaded the Yankees middle infield moved in Rivera Unleashed his cutter bearing in on the hands of lefties I told you from the beginning this video ends here and it will floer Centerfield the Diamondbacks H world [Applause] champions big thank you to my newest patrons to see your name here head on over to patreon.com foolish baseball also thank you to maxo for the music m