D-Backs notebook: Quentin thankful for shot at playing time in Chicago

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - Carlos Quentin is grateful to the Diamondbacks for his opportunity, and he was surprised by the timing of his trade Monday because it came only hours into the winter meetings.

At the same time, he figured it was bound to happen. And, despite losing the friendships he made, it was welcome.

“It will be good, definitely, to go to an organization where I will have the chance to go out and play,” Quentin said. “It’s good to have a team that wants you.”

A year ago, Quentin was the D-Backs’ right fielder and middle-order run producer of the future, but that was then.

A left shoulder injury in mid-March kept Quentin out for a month, and his numbers never recovered. He finished with a .214 batting average in 229 at-bats and lost his job to Justin Upton.

He returned April 16 — his decision — but wonders now if that was too soon, in a rush to reclaim his job and his spot in the lineup on a team that seemed to need his offense.

“If I did make a mistake, it might have been that, trying to come back,” he said.

Quentin’s reputation as a player who is hard on himself might be overblown, he said, although he does not deny an intensity such that he considers “mental coaching” part of his overall conditioning program.

“I’ve taken steps in the past to alleviate any internal stress that the game creates,” said Quentin, whose counseling sessions caught the attention of scouts here who speculated it hurt his trade value.

“I’ve tried to use every advantage to prepare myself. I have certain people I do talk to, mental coaches. I’ve definitely taken steps to develop the physical and the mental.”

Quentin is a top candidate to play left field with the White Sox, although one evaluator thought the Sox would be better served to move Jermaine Dye to left field and play Quentin in right.

Quentin will begin swinging a bat in January after October surgery to repair a left labrum and rotator cuff and hopes to be ready by spring training, although the D-Backs believe he will open the season on the disabled list.

“I’ll get ready for a new experience. It’s a good thing for everybody involved,” he said.

PRICE MAJOR LEAGUE COACH OF YEAR

D-Backs pitching coach Bryan Price was selected the major league coach of the year by Baseball America magazine.

Price oversaw a young staff in which Jose Valverde matured into a dominant closer, Brandon Lyon led the major leagues in holds and Brandon Webb had an even better year than in his 2006 Cy Young season.

The D-Backs bullpen led the major leagues in saves and the starting rotation had 84 quality starts — fourth in the NL despite playing at hitter-friendly Chase Field — without Randy Johnson for two-thirds of the season.

“He is a have-to-have coach,” said D-Backs manager Bob Melvin, who worked with Price for two seasons in Seattle and invited him to join the D-Backs’ staff when he was hired in 2005.

“He makes a significant difference in what he does. He has a great eye for mechanics and a great way about him that enables him to know how to get to certain individuals — a pat on the back or a kick in the butt.

“It’s also the mental preparation. His game plan preparation is second to none. He sees the weaknesses in hitters. He knows how to attack hitters, how to set up hitters. And he’s right. That’s why, for me, he’s a guy I hope to be with for quite a while.”

SHORT HOPS

Left-hander Brian Anderson, the first player taken by the D-Backs in the 1997 expansion draft, is attempting a comeback after missing last season with a second Tommy John ligament replacement surgery. He received a medical OK from Dr. Tim Kremchek and will begin throwing in a week or so before going back on a mound for interested teams in mid-January. “It’s the first time I’ve been without pain in two years,” said Anderson, attending the winter meetings. Anderson, 35, threw the franchise’s first complete game, on April 13, 1998, and won 12 games that year. He was 41-42 in his five seasons with the D-Backs. …

Micah Owings, who was without an agent at the end of last season, has signed with Scott Boras, ESPN reported.