The 2008 Diamondbacks Season

Now that the season has come to a whimpering end for the 2008 Arizona Diamondbacks, it's time to take a look back at the season that was. This will be part 1, with part 2 coming later this week in which i take a look at the Dbacks going forward.

First things first: No matter how you slice it, this season was a disappointment. Coming off a year when the Dbacks made the 2007 NLCS, this team was expected to compete for the NL West crown and return to the postseason. Contend for the crown they did, firmly planted in first place in the NL West for 136 games of a 162 game season. Unfortunately those other 26 games just happened to be at the most critical time of the season: The end.

Other than a fast start in April, the Dbacks played sub-.500 baseball all season long, though managed to finish 82-80. It just so happened they were in a historically bad division, which allowed them to remain in first place through most of the season. Which became a rallying cry for this team: "We're still in first place". No matter how bad they looked, no matter how many games they lost, no matter how many errors committed and games blown by the bullpen, the answer always became "Hey, at least we're still in first place".

Ultimately, i believe this is what led to the Diamondbacks demise. The Dbacks never took control of their situation. They never showed a will to win the games they needed. They never showed that killer instinct to step on teams throats when they could have. They were content to sit back and just scrape by.

The Dbacks, and admittedly Bob Melvin was behind this, showed an amazing knack this season for giving away games. This manifested itself in many ways, all of which were destructive. In a three-game series, if the Dbacks won the first two they would invariably trot out their b-team for game 3 as if it did not matter. 2007 was all about winning each series. While a good mantra, it just did not work for 2008. This season we needed more wins, more games. This Dbacks team could not afford to start 3 or 4 bench players at a time.

And don't get me started on giving away games by the bullpen. In 2007 this team had one of the best bullpens in the Majors, which is ultimately got them to playoffs and was the difference over the Cubs in the NLDS. With only one move, trading Jose Valverde to the Astros, the Dbacks thought they would be ok. Move Lyon from the 8th to the 9th, move Pena from the 7th to the 8th, and put Chad Qualls, who they received in the Valverde trade, in the 7.

Despite Lyon blowing two saves in the first 5 games, all seemed fine with the bullpen through April. That was, until it completely imploded, a disaster so complete that not only did every pitcher there go through stretches where they couldn't get an out, but you never knew who was going through the stretch and when. Each pitcher had times when they were completely awful, but it would come and go from week to week, game to game. How do you decide which relief pitchers to run out there when you never know which one is gonna suck, just that one of them definitely is going to?

Just so we don't place all the blame on the bullpen, we must also look at the offense. Arizona finished 27 out of 30 teams in Batting Average, with a paltry .251. They finished with the second highest number of strikeouts in the Majors. And for a team that played virtually no small-ball, you would think they would rely on the home run. Problem is, they finished 19 out of 30 in home runs hit this season.

With the exception of Conor Jackson, Orlando Hudson when he was playing, and Stephen Drew in the last month, the rest of the team could be described only as struggling. If you look at our 'core' 13 starters (Snyder, Montero, CoJack, Dunn, O-Dog, Ojeda, Eckstein, Drew, Reynolds, Tracy, Byrnes, Young, and Upton), 8 finished with a .250 BA or below. Only 3 finished above .290. That's not getting done.

Honorable mention goes to Mark Reynolds, who admittedly i am a fan of and will defend to the death, to his season that is a complete and total statistical oddity. Taking away Adam Dun, who played only 44 games with the Dbacks, Reynolds managed to: Lead the team in HR's, lead the team in RBI's, lead the team in Walks, 2nd on the team in Runs Scored, 3rd on the team in Total Bases, 2nd on the team in Stolen Bases, and lead the team (and set a Major League record) in Strikeouts. Oh, and just for good measure, he lead the team (and the Major's) in Errors as well. His season is on par with one of the most bizarre, inexplicable seasons by a single person in MLB history.

And as long as we're talking about fielding, let's not forget that the Diamondbacks finished 26 of 30 in team fielding percentage, and 6th in most Errors committed.

So to review, the Diamondbacks finished in the bottom 10% in team batting, and the bottom 20% in team fielding. At least we have pitching, right? Right?

Well, actually, in this case they are right. The Diamondbacks did have pitching, despite their horrific bullpen. Did you know the Dbacks had more Quality Starts than any other team in baseball? And gave up the fifth-fewest home runs in all of baseball? It helps when you have Brandon Webb (22-7, most wins in the Majors) and Dan Haren (16-8, tied for 7th most wins in NL). Every other person that started a game for the Dbacks went a combined 27-39. The Bullpen went 17-26 in case anyone was wondering. Special mention here goes to Jon Rauch, who the Dbacks traded for to be their closer, and managed to go 0-6 with a 6.56 ERA.

There are many other items i could get into regarding the 2008 season for the Arizona Diamondbacks. For instance the strange, almost complete refusal to attempt a running game (only 2 teams had less stolen bases than the Dbacks), and Bob Melvin's decision on pretty much everything. In 2007 Melvin was dubbed the Mad Scientist because seemingly every decision he made worked perfectly. 2008 was the exact opposite, as seemingly no decision he made worked out and was second-guessed by everyone. He may not be as good as the NL Manager of the year award he won last year, but he can't be as bad as he was in 2008 can he?

Regardless, everything that happened with the Dbacks resulted in one thing: An 82-80 record, and watching the playoffs from home. In the end, it wasn't enough, which amounted to a massive hill of disappointment for the Diamondbacks and their fans. Not to mention an even larger hill of questions going forward into 2009...