TUCSON, Ariz. -- Not even the rain and cooler-than-usual temperatures could temper the optimism surrounding the D-backs on Friday as pitchers and catchers began reporting to Tucson Electric Park.

As far as manager Bob Melvin is concerned, optimism and confidence are good things, up to a point.

"We accomplished a lot of things last year," Melvin said.

Indeed, the D-backs won a National League-best 90 games and advanced to the NL Championship Series before being swept by the Rockies. But as Melvin will remind them when he speaks to them prior to the first full-squad workout Thursday, last year is over and done.

"And that will be addressed," Melvin said. "I don't think you'll see an overconfident bunch, but I think that everybody, based on what we did last year, some of the acquisitions we made this year, we feel pretty good about ourselves."

One of those pickups was pitcher Dan Haren, who has been in the Tucson area the past couple of days trying to get settled. The right-hander started the All-Star Game for the American League last year and has won at least 14 games in each of the past three seasons for Oakland.

It's been a busy offseason for Haren. His wife gave birth to their first child, there was the trade and he recently relocated the family from California to Phoenix.

"I'm just excited to meet the guys and get out on the field," Haren said before going outside to play catch.

Along with Haren, the D-backs added Chad Qualls to the back end of their bullpen. Qualls will pitch the seventh inning with Tony Pena getting the ball in the eighth and Brandon Lyon taking over as the closer after the departure of Jose Valverde and his 47 saves.

The everyday lineup remains unchanged from last year, because it is composed of a core of young players, like Chris Young, Stephen Drew, Conor Jackson, Justin Upton and Mark Reynolds, that the organization feels will continue to get better with experience.

Few, if any, jobs will be open this spring. The rotation is set with Webb, Haren, Randy Johnson, Doug Davis and Micah Owings while the bullpen will consist of Qualls, Lyon, Pena, Dustin Nippert, Juan Cruz, Edgar Gonzalez and, provided he's healthy, Doug Slaten.

The starting lineup is set with Eric Byrnes, Young and Upton in the outfield and Reynolds, Drew, Orlando Hudson and Jackson from third to first in the infield. Throw in catchers Chris Snyder and Miguel Montero along with backups Chris Burke, Jeff Salazar and Augie Ojeda and that leaves one spot open. That will go to infielder Chad Tracy if he's ready to go, or likely Robby Hammock if Tracy's right knee needs more time to heal from microfracture surgery.

While Melvin acknowledges the lack of position battles this spring, he disagreed that there will be a lack of competition.

"In this game of baseball there's always someone looking to take your job," said Melvin, who will remind his team of that in next week's meeting. "We envision this group being together for a while -- they're young, we have them under control for a while -- but the theme of my talk at least on [Thursday] will be take nothing for granted, go out there and prepare the way we did last year. Keep your focus very short term and understand that there's a lot of good young players in this system that are looking to take your job. So you can never get too complacent. You always have to compete hard and try to get better."

The NL West once again looks to be a tough division. Last year, the D-backs, Rockies and Padres all finished within 1 1/2 games of each other. The Dodgers improved this year with the additions of Andruw Jones and Hiroki Kuroda while the Giants can't be taken lightly given the strength of their starting rotation.

"I think we should be favorites," Webb said. "The Dodgers got better, the Rockies got a little bit better, too, the Padres are going to be right there as well, so I think it was a good division last year and it's going to be better this year, but I think we should be favorites."

The pitchers and catchers will have their first workout Saturday at 9:30 a.m. MT at Kino Sports Complex. Position players report Wednesday with the first full-squad workout taking place the following day.

The D-backs will open Cactus League play on Feb. 28 against the Rockies at TEP.