Out Of Our Misery: The 2008 Dbacks

When the Arizona Diamondbacks signed Adam Dunn, they had a two game lead over the Dodgers with about 5 weeks of baseball to play.  Exactly one month later, the teams had swapped positions and the Dodgers were about to clinch.  What transpired in those 30 days only exacerbated the crumbling foundation of the Dbacks.  Dunn, a first baseman/outfielder, was defensively poor at both positions.  He was used in right initially, giving the Dbacks two poor-fielding corner outfielders along side Connor Jackson.  When Justin Upton returned, Dunn was moved to first where he was even more of a liability.  The slugger managed a few homeruns and was able to show the Dbacks what a walk looked like but all too often failed to produce in the clutch; the exact opposite of Manny Ramirez.  Bringing Dunn on appeared to upset Jackson, the team's offensive threat all year, and caused him to fall into a horrible hitting slump.  Dunn appeared to make every player on the Dbacks worse.  Even the unstoppable Webb-Haren duo was affected.  Mark Reynolds, Chris Young, Justin Upton, and Adam Dunn helped create a line-up that was horribly strikeout prone. 

The starters faltered at the worst time.  The bullpen collapsed when the starters were good.  The offense was D.O.A. most nights.  The defense was terrible every night.  The Dbacks finish the season 82-80 on a strong finish against the Rockies.  The season that was supposed to watch the Dbacks and Dodgers battle it out for the chance to play in the World Series turned into a season where the Dbacks mortgaged the farm for a chance to watch the Dodgers send the city of Chicago into a depression.

The Dbacks lost their star closer last spring.  This year they lost his replacement.  They will most likely not re-sign Lyon and Qualls and Rauch are both ill equipped.  They lost their second baseman to an injury and will lose him to big bucks this spring.  They sold off his replacement and are looking to fill the gap with the man who made the most errors in the majors; Mark Reynolds.  They lost Eric Byrnes and may never see him back to 2007 form.  His replacements may be of similar caliber but it is unlikely that AZ can afford to do what LA has done with Andruw Jones and bench him.  Connor Jackson may be more suitable for left field but that leaves a gap at first with Tracy.  Chris Young's sophomore slump was painful and his swing shows no signs of improvement.  Justin Upton's growth has been stunted by rapid ascension and he has learned poor hitting habits from guys like Byrnes, Young, Reynolds, and Snyder.  Bob Melvin has abandoned a running game in favor of American League ball, something he failed at in Seattle.  His base coaches, particularly Chip Hale, ran the Dbacks out of too many games with an inability to read the field.  The season was a disaster.  The team is a disaster.

The bightest light from Arizona this spring will be coming from Stephen Drew and Max Scherzer.  Assuming Drew continues to grow and Scherzer doesn't get overworked, the Dbacks will have at least one more year where they can compete.  By 2010, however, when multiple players are set to hit the market, the Dbacks will have trouble replacing them from within the organization.  That does not bode well for the fair-weather fans of Arizona.  The rebuilding years are coming.  Baby Backs Part 3 - 2010.

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