Christian Walker Talks About Jordan Montgomery and New Lights at Chase Field

Christian Walker is particularly excited to have Jordan Montgomery joining the Arizona Diamondbacks this season. The two were college teammates at the University of South Carolina for a year before Walker moved onto professional baseball.

His immediate reaction to the team signing Montgomery was "Excited, I think we just got a solid arm. Maybe one of the best available. I know Jordan a little bit from college. We were teammates from back in the day so super excited to be back in a locker room with him. I know he's a pro and he's going to fit right in with the guys. Obviously the talent and the skill set is there but understanding his mentality, personality too is exciting." [Note: The Diamondbacks have not yet officially announced the signing]

When asked about what the D-backs are getting in Montgomery, he said "You see him on the mound, the stoicism. Everything's calculated. Everything's intentional. His stuff is amazing, it's elite. But at a certain point, it wasn't and he learned how to pitch and be successful in other ways and now on top of it, his stuff is really good too."

Walker is thankful that the team is spending money to improve their roster. He knows that the team is very specific over the players that they pursue or sign which only helps to motivate the team. "Internally, it's like you can feel everybody pulling in the same direction. Everybody wants it really really bad. To go out and make the moves that I feel like it's easy to go out and sign a top guy but to pick personalities and to pick character, it's all intentional. Keeping the group connected. I think it's more than just trying to get the best players, it's something a little bit deeper than that, they've done a great job of that."

Walker knows though that the team can't just get too excited or confident because at the end of the day, those factors and feelings don't win ballgames. That alone won't get them back to the World Series which is their ultimate goal.

"It's a funny thing like it's exciting and it's good to be excited but the day-to-day of winning each day, winning each moment still needs to be the identity of this team and we can be hopeful and excited all we want but if we don't execute then it's all for nothing."

Walker wasn't sure if it was alright to text Montgomery but did it anyway so as to share how excited the team is for him to join their roster, "I hit him up just a little bit ago. I know everything's pending physicals so I didn't know when that right time was but I just wanted to let him know that we're all excited for him to get here and join the team."

While it's somewhat rare for a star player to leave their World Series winning team and join the team that he just defeated in said World Series, it isn't uncommon, it's just the nature of the beat. Walker clarified that it's just "the nature of the business...once the offseason comes and goes and spring starts, it's a fresh slate. There's a lot of guys around the league that are wearing different uniforms."

"I mean I think our staff was great already and then we added another awesome piece to it."

Walker hit a mammoth moonshot during Monday's exhibition game against the Guardians. He thinks it's just because of the energy and getting back into the "routine of the season...This is the lifestyle that we crave and we know is playing games every night. The practicing and the fundamentals are important but we're competitive, we want to play games."

There's been plenty of attention paid to the fact that the D-backs and Chase Field have new LED stadium lights that have gotten rid of the yellow tint and made for a much brighter field. This will allow players and fans to see the ball and action even better.

Walker likes them so far especially for seeing the ball better, "Yeah very much so as far as what I'm trying to do at the plate, I have milliseconds to make a decision and if we can take the glare off the ball or make the light a little bit cleaner, I think that changes everything."

"Seems like the yellow tint is gone. From what I understand, they can turn them up, turn them down a little bit as we go through the year from day games to night games depending on shadows and how much natural light but just the option to be able to make an environment out there as consistent and as opportunistic as possible as far as being able to see."

The team was clearly seeing the ball well in the third inning of Thursday night's season opener in which they scored 14 runs, an MLB record for a single inning on opening day and a franchise single inning record.