MVN - Most Valuable Network

Ending it on a high note

As seasons go, this one was, obviously, a disappointment for pretty much everyone associated with the Diamondbacks.  Randy Johnson is no exception to that- despite some good pitching, he’s faced the same lack of support from the offense and the bullpen that plagued him in 2004, and he came into today’s game sitting at the same win total he’d reached on August 12th.  Since then, he’d started seven games and been rewarded with 2 losses and 5 no decisions.  Today’s game didn’t look to be too much different than the rest.  A first inning error gave the Rockies a 1-0, and the offense looked like they were willing to keep Randy stuck at career win #294 for the off-season, and possibly the rest of his career.  So what do you do in a situation like that?

Well, if you’re Randy Johnson, you respond by pitching your finest game of the season.  Looking less like a 45 year-old and more like the ace he was four or five years ago, Randy went out and pitched his first complete game start since June of 2005.  9 innings, only allowed 2 hits, 1 unearned run, and struck out 9.  And he needed every inning there, since it took a two-out, bases loaded walk-off walk for the Diamondbacks to notch the win on the last day of the season.  Which, really, seems like a very fitting end to the season for both the Rockies and the Diamondbacks- it was like an immovable object meets another immovable object, and which one accidentally shifts first?

Of course, this highlights one of the big questions of the off-season for the Diamondbacks- what is going to happen with Randy?  His contract is over after this season, and the assumption at the beginning of the year was that this would be his last season.  But with the way he’s pitched this year, especially after the All Star Break (2.41 ERA, 1.05 WHIP) I don’t know we can make that assumption anymore.  Who wouldn’t want him back, with numbers like that?  He might be able to help mentor Scherzer a bit, too- the former fireballer guiding the up-and-coming fireballer.  The idea that Randy would be almost certain to notch career win #300, barring any injuries, doesn’t hurt, either.

Of course, there’s a lot of decisions to be made in the off-season, and a lot of positions to fill.  Money, of course, is also a factor, and we can only hope he’d be willing to give a home town discount.

But if he doesn’t come back?  He sure ended it on a high note.

That’s that

Time and Place of Death: Busch Stadium, St. Louis, MO, Thursday afternoon, 4:25 PM local time
Cause of death: Pitching failure compounded by a distinct deficiency of offense

That was depressing.  Especially in the bottom of the ninth.  Yeah, BoMel, we know there’s little to no chance that we’d stage a comeback, but did you really have to sit Dunn, Reynolds, and Snyder?  Couldn’t you have at least let us pretend we had a chance?

Okay, so we’re not done yet

Woah, what made you think I’m giving up on the season?  We’re still in this, I’m not abandoning all hope.  Me, give up?  Where did you get that perposterous hypothesis?  Did Steve tell you that, perchance?  Steve.

Oh, right, my last post.  Well, okay, when a team loses 15 games out of 19, and blows two consecutive games in extra inning, I think it is perfectly excusable to forsee a little doom and gloom. Especially when you keep checking the results for the Dodgers, and see they’ve notched a W in 14 out of 16 games.  It’s depressing.

Maybe those playoffs plans seemed dead.  But watching Brandon Webb strike out Albert Pujols last night was like someone taking a defibrillator to the hope.

The reason we’re still in this thing at all right now is because of our pitching staff.  In that abysmal stretch of games where we went 4-15, our pitching averaged allowing 5.16 runs per game.  In the past 8 games, where we’ve gone 7-1?  That numbers has dropped to 2.63 runs per game.  Yeah, nearly half.  In particular, our starters have gone 4-1 with a very impressive 2.14 ERA in those 8 games, while the bullpen is a lovely 3-0.  In the Stretch of Doom?  The bullpen went 2-8 during that horrible span, while the starters were 2-7.  So, this sort of turn around is nice to see.  Sure, some of it should be attributed to playing weak offenses, but, hey, we got swept by the Giants during the Stretch of Doom, so I’ll take some joy from sweeping them last week.  Brandon Webb has gotten back on to his Cy Young form, though we’ll still see if his win total- 22 as of yesterday- is enough to make up for his struggles.

Our offense hasn’t necessarily been anything to brag about, but it has done better the past week or so- batting .281/.348/.502 over the past 8 games, which  may not seem too impressive, but it’s a lot better than we’ve been batting so far, and it’s been enough to keep us in the race.  We’ve hit 12 home runs through that stretch, and not necessarily from who you’d expect- David Eckstein hit his second of the year, Josh Whitesell hit his first in the majors, and Stephen Drew has hit three.  Justin Upton’s been pretty hot at the plate lately, too, with two home runs and a triple.

Of course, with all this, we’re still a long shot.  Six left to play, we’re two back, and the Dodgers finish the season off against the Padres and the Giants.  It’ll take some stumbling on their part if we’re to even have a chance, and we’ll need to ride this hot streak all the way to the last game.  But, I’ll admit it- it’s not over yet.

Who’s ready for 2009?

Ugh.  If the Diamondbacks season was to be sketched out, I imagine it would look like a missile launch- a quick blast off the launching pad in April, they turned steady and then started coasting along on momentum through May and June, a little bump in July when the second stage boosters kicked on.  After that, August into September?  Yeah, that’s when gravity’s brought them around and it’s just nose-dive into the ground.  This flaming dive of death is really accentuated by the last two games, where we’ve managed to do barely anything worthwhile with runners on base (36 runners stranded in three games), and wasted some pretty nice pitching by our starters to only manage one win out of this series, and that was nearly botched by Brandon Lyon in the ninth inning.  Our starters combined to allow 2 runs in 20 innings, while our bullpen allowed 5 runs after the eighth inning, and we managed to lose two games in extra innings.

Even our offense was, for the most part, a gift- of the six runs we scored in the series, one came on a bases loaded walk, one on a bases loaded wild pitch, another on a bases loaded HBP, and another only was in scoring position due to a two-base throwing error.  Beyond that, we had a solo home run by Justin Upton today, and ainfield sacrifice grounder by Augie Ojeda.  Those are the only runs we really earned against the Reds, who rank 13 out of 16 in the National League by ERA.  We just couldn’t score, just like we haven’t been able to score for the past few weeks.  We had the opportunity to get Randy career win #295, and get Max Scherzer career win #1, and we blew both chances.  I suppose, really, we should just be grateful that Brandon Webb was lucky enough to get win #20- and that took 8 scoreless innings, and was still nearly lost by the bullpen.

This team is just so frustrating right now.  They are still my team, of course, and I’m going to suffer my way through the rest of the season, but the whole time, I’ll looking forward to 2009.

Welcome aboard, David Eckstein

On Sunday, right before the *actual* trade deadline, the Diamondbacks made one last move for the season.  Eckstein’s best known for his play in the 2006 World Series, where he picked up his second ring and was named MVP.  Not bad credentials.  He plays fairly solid middle infield- usually shortstop, but he was obviously picked up to fill in at second base- and he puts up a pretty good OBP.  Also, it seems that every description of him is legally obliged to include the word scrappy at least once, so there you go.

Eckstein’s done pretty well in his first series- 4 for 11, 2 walks, and 3 RBIs, including the go-ahead run in the come-from-behind win on Labor Day.  Add on to that the four double plays he helped turn, and that’s not a bad introduction to a Diamondbacks uniform.  Burke and Ojeda have both played solid defense at second, but Eckstein is an upgrade at the plate over either one of them.  Eckstein’s not going to be out there hitting home runs this season, and he’s not going to win this division all by himself, but he’s going to give us some help.  And with this division as close as it is, especially with a huge series against the Dodgers this weekend, every little bit might be a deciding factor.

What is wrong with this team?

Now, I know that we, as a fanbase, are not going to get a lot of other fans.  I mean, we’re in the lead in our division, so it can’t be too bad, right?  Okay, I apologize to everyone cheering for a team not leading their division right now- and especially those that aren’t contending.  Well, except Dodgers fans.  Obviously.

But what is wrong with this team?

Losing the series to Florida is one thing- they, at least, are in contention.  But getting swept by the Padres?  Really?  That’s almost as embarrassing as getting swept by the Nationals!  (Note the “almost” there, Manny Worshippers.  Almost.)

Much of our recent problems illustrate what makes me so nervous about this team- every pitcher not on the starting rotation.  We don’t have an arm out there that doesn’t make me nervous when they come out to the mound.  Our bullpen has compiled a very unimpressive 4.23 ERA, and only has 10 wins, least in the league- compare that to last season when they had 30 wins, tied for third in all of baseball.  So even though our starters are putting up better numbers than last year, we don’t have the same confidence we had last year when we went to the bullpen.  It’s very worrying.

Granted, it’s not like our offense has been going great guns either.  Not enough hits, especially against rookie pitchers, too many runners stranded.  We went through a brief burst after the Adam Dunn trade where we were hitting and walking a lot, but that seems to have worn off.  Dunn is still doing pretty well- the guy has an OBP of .485 since he came to Arizona, which means he’s getting on base nearly half the time he comes to the plate, so I’d upgrade that “pretty well” to “really well.”  But, again, there’s no consistency on the offense.  That’s not going to get it done- someone needs to step up.

The last week i’s especially rough because, if things had gone better, and we  had taken, say, one more from Florida and two from San Diego- say the games lost by Qualls and Rauch- there would be so much pressure on the Dodgers.  We’d have a 6.5 game lead, and the Dodgers would need to win the series to avoid being more than 7 games out with just four weeks left in the season.  Instead, a good series from them will mean we’ll be right back in a neck and neck race.  Two teams this weekend (and next) are going to be looking to  stabilize after a rough few series.  It’s imperative that the Diamondbacks do it quicker, and smack the Dodgers around this weekend. I know they can do it- they have the talent, absolutely, to get it done, crush the Dodgers here, and then again next week in Los Angeles.  It’s just a matter of doing it.

Go D-backs!