Torey Lovullo Discusses the Diamondbacks' Most Valuable Party

Saturday, February 15, the Arizona Diamondbacks held their annual Most Valuable Party, for their Advantage Members who bought some version of a season ticket plan, whether half, full, weekend, etc.

This gave fans the chance to interact with players, experience events, and do a Q&A with players and coaches.

For the members who attended, there was much more than just chances to get photographs and autographs with players.

The event also presented mystery giveaways, promotion reveals, a yard sale, face painting, wiffle-ball, chance to play catch on the field, clubhouse tours, and a Q&A show, aside from much more.

All the star players were out there for the Diamondbacks, including Eugenio Suarez, Corbin Burnes, Zac Gallen, Corbin Carroll, Randal Grichuk, and many more, in addition to GM Mike Hazen and manager Torey Lovullo.

Thousands of fans attended, and lines were reported to be long for some stations, but in the end, some fans left with bags full of merchandise and 14+ players having met with them, not to mention the memories that will last a lifetime.

Lovullo spoke about the MVP party to reporters Sunday, stating, "Oh, I thought it was a great day. I went over there towards the tail end, and the fans were great.

"Fans are very engaged, and it's a lot of fun for us to be around them, answer questions, and sign autographs. Our players are so good and so welcoming to that, and I appreciate that.

"No player is too good to have that type of interaction and they were very responsible. Got over there and had a really good day mixing and matching with every fan and it was a great day overall," Lovullo said.

The majority of the Q&A session went without issue, as fans warmly appreciated the players that were on the stage and asked interesting and thought-provoking questions.

However, once Lovullo was on the stage, a couple of fans took the chance to grill the D-backs' manager, the way baseball reporters might.

Lovullo spoke about the interactions and the questions from the fans below.

"Yeah, the fans are great. Fans have every right to ask those questions and I told one guy that asked me a question about not giving a left-handed hitter a chance to hit against left-handed pitching. I gave him as fast an answer as I could.

"I didn't have a lot of time, but it's definitely a cup of coffee type of answer that I could have given him."

Lovullo spoke about two instances: "There [were] two fans in particular that were really, really targeting a certain space. One was the left-on-left pinch hit thing that I always avoid, and the other one... was on Del Castillo and Herrera. We do the best we can. And I told him, I said, we make mistakes sometimes."

"We do the best we can to make the best of every situation. We try to win every inch of a baseball game that we possibly can and sometimes it doesn't work out. I said, I'm not trying to bring a reliever to give up a two-run home run on the first pitch.

"If that was the case, I would have left the guy in the game because he could have given up the two-run home run and given up his own run."

However, Lovullo did say "I tried to lighten the moment, and it seemed to work," in his attempts to ensure a great experience for everyone as fans got a rare chance to interact with the busy D-backs manager.