http://www.azcentral.com/members/Blog/NickPiecoro/84816 How the Diamondbacks got here The Diamondbacks are riding a five-game losing streak. They are winless through four games of this road trip through three NL West cities. Though it’ s way too early to call it a make or break trip, it feels like it could be more of the latter than the former, especially with what looks like an impossibly difficult June schedule in front of them. They’re 20-29, 8 1/2 games back in the division. What’s happened? Here’s a rundown. 1) The bullpen has been terrible. No area of the team has received more criticism, and for good reason. The bullpen has a 7.50 ERA – and we’re nearly eight weeks into the season. They have allowed 107 earned runs in 128 1/3 innings. No one expected the bullpen to be a strength, but neither did anyone expect it to be this colossally bad. Let’s say that instead of being the worst in baseball by a long shot it was merely bad, ranking, say, 12th in the league. That would mean it would have allowed 37 fewer earned runs, making the team’ s overall run differential 247 runs scored/261 runs allowed. With those numbers, the team’s expected record would be 23-26 – still not good, but just one good series away from .500. 2) The staff gives up too many long balls. Diamondbacks pitchers have given up a staggering 83 home runs in 49 games. The relievers have allowed 31, 11 more than the second-worst bullpen in the league. But you can’t just blame the bullpen for this one. The starters have allowed 52 home runs, 15 more than the next worst rotation. They’re on pace to allow 274 home runs, which would shatter the major league record of 241, set by the 1996 Detroit Tigers, a team that lost 109 games. 3) Dan Haren and Edwin Jackson have struggled. These two were supposed to be horses at the top of the rotation. While both are pitching deep into games with consistency, both sport ERAs well above what the Diamondbacks expected. The scary part for both is that their second-half struggles from 2009 are spilling into 2010. Haren has a 5.12 ERA in 25 starts since July 23. Jackson has a 5.93 ERA in 22 starts since Aug. 10. 4) Where’s Brandon Webb? Much of the hope for the Diamondbacks this season was tied to the healthy return of Webb, the former Cy Young winner. It’s nearly June and Webb hasn’ t stepped on a mound in nearly three months. He spent this past week searching for an arm slot in an Alabama rehab facility, and even if everything suddenly clicks for him today, he won’t be back in the majors until July. 5) The offense has been too streaky. Despite nearly a month of mediocrity, the Diamondbacks offense still ranks as the second-best run-scoring unit in the National League. That’s because of their torrid 26-game start in which they averaged 5.9 runs per game. Since then, they’re down to 4.1 runs per game – not especially bad, but that average seems inflated by a handful of high-scoring games. Consider: In the past 23 games, the Diamondbacks have scored three runs or less 14 times. They lost 13 of those games and are 1-22 overall this season in games in which they’ve scored less than four runs. 6) Justin Upton hasn’t produced. The Diamondbacks were counting on another step forward from their ultra-talented 22-year-old right fielder. So far, it hasn’t happened. Upton hasn’t had any prolonged empty stretches, but his .253 average, .320 on-base and .430 slugging fall well short of what the club needs out of its No. 3/No. 4 hitter. 7) Miguel Montero has been hurt. Upton, Mark Reynolds and Montero were trumpeted as the positives to take from the 2009 disaster. We touched on Upton already. Reynolds hasn’t found a hot streak, but his numbers still are OK. And Montero played just four games before going down with a knee injury. Chris Snyder done all right filling in, but he hasn’t provided the kind of offensive jolt that a healthy Montero is capable of. 8) Left field has been a production vortex. Conor Jackson played great in the Dominican Republic and was excellent in spring training, providing hope he could put his 2009 career derailment behind him. So far, he hasn’t been able to provide much of anything offensively, hitting just .227 with a .317 on-base and .309 slugging in 126 plate appearances. He also spent two weeks on the disabled list with a hamstring injury. Gerardo Parra hasn’t been any better, hitting .247/.281/.341 in 89 plate appearances. Overall, Diamondbacks left fielders have a .630 OPS, fourth worst in the league. Why have all of these things happened? That’s the million dollar question. What’s so strange about this team is that the guys whom everyone expected to be doing well aren’t, like Upton, Haren and Edwin Jackson. Meanwhile, Ian Kennedy, Rodrigo Lopez, Kelly Johnson, Chris Young -- some of the biggest question marks on the team entering the season -- well, their performances have ranged between great and just fine. Is this team really this bad? If so, then that doesn’t reflect well on the general manager. If not, then why aren’t they performing better? Looking at the front office's moves in the off-season, can you blame the Diamondbacks for picking up Webb’s option? Probably not. Did they make bad acquisitions in the off-season? With LaRoche, Johnson, Heilman and Kennedy, no, those look good. With Howry and Edwin Jackson, not so good. (But would you rather have Max Scherzer back? Right now, no.) Should they have spent the money they gave to LaRoche on pitching? Maybe. But then we might be talking about a black hole of production at first base. Is it simply the wrong mix of players? Is it the coaching staff? Are they getting enough out of the players? How many coaches do they need to go through? This general group of players is on its second manager, its second pitching coach, its third hitting coach, etc. And how much longer will this losing continue before more changes are made? The other strange thing is it seems like it’s something different with this team every year -- every week, really. Over the past three years problems have ranged from defense to bullpen to injuries to offense and, lately, to starting pitching. Just when it looks like they’ve fixed one leak, a new one springs. If it were the same thing over and over, maybe you could talk about blowing it up and starting fresh. But this club is confusing, inconsistent (which is why this rant is all over the place). Anyway, it’s not early anymore. This isn’t just a bad start or a rough patch. What can be done to fix it? Whatever needs to happen, it better happen fast. This season is starting to feel a lot like 2009. == 超長篇... 期待有人來認領 XD --

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