Thy Staff Maketh Me To Lie Down In Green Pastures
Besides losses, Bob Melvin's most reliable companion this year has been the postgame lament that his starters dont go deeper into games, taxing his bullpen and undermining the Diamondbacks' competitive standing.
It is, then, with some amusement we note that the 2006 NL staff most likely to feature three starters pitching at least 200 innings each is: your Arizona Diamondbacks! How many 200 IPers, for example, will the Mets juggernaut boast?
That would be zero.
To be fair, Hernandez the Chubby has only pitched here for one third of the season, but even taking Livan out of the equation, it's still an eye opening stat. Webb (207IP) and Batista (188.1) alone are the third best innings eating combo in the entire league, trailing only CIN (Arroyo,Harang) and HOU (Oswalt,Pettitte). Add Livan to that mix for almost two months, and there's simply no front end that gives its bullpen more rest than those three.
Yet to hear Bob Melvin and his chorus of low expectation enablers spin this year's pitching tale of woe, you'd think he was reduced to bravely fashioning a managerial tourniquet to stop the staff's bleeding. That he and his Seattle buddy, pitching coach Bryan Price, are admirably managing a terribly daunting structural problem. Nothing could be further from the truth.
The incessantly maligned Diamondbacks bullpen and back end of the rotation feature a stable of young arms superior to that of most teams. Is there another bullpen with four guys (Valverde, Julio, Aquino and Lyon) who have successfully closed major league games for significant stretches (ie more than a month)? Claudio Vargas(11-9) has stuff every bit as good as Anibal Sanchez (8-2). Juan Cruz has one of the livest arms in the game. Vizcaino. Pena. Ladies and gentlemen, Mike Koplove and Andrew Good have left the building - these new fellas can really throw.
Problem is, they dont pitch very well, or consistently. Like the game when five Dodgers were plugged with fastballs by three AZ relievers. No warning was issued until a Dodger hurler finally retaliated. Everyone understood that when a Dodger hits one batter in the hip, it's on purpose, but when the Diamondbacks staff hits five guys in the back, hand, calf, knee and head, it's because they honestly dont have a clue how to pitch.
We recognize that all pitchers have ups and 
downs, but there's an inexorable quality to Arizona's brand of collective pitching ineptitude that shouts untrained semi pro and prevents observers from taking this team seriously. The only structural problem facing the Diamondbacks staff is that many of their pitchers arent developed as effectively as they could be.
OK, Bob, time for you to lie down now.
It's September.
I was looking at this the other day, too. Perhaps if Bob tried managing the team, rather than watching it lose day after day, he might have less to whine about.
Seriously, where are the wheel plays and squeeze bunts? Maybe a few hit-and-runs? Shake up the line-up a little bit?
I always get a good laugh out of hearing the announcers debate whether or not Bob should send the runners or try a hit-and-run. The way they talk it sounds like they actually think Melvin will try to generate some scoring, when we all know full well he's just going to sit on his hands and then blame the starting pitcher in his postgame interview.
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Hey, Matt.
How does a team like Arizona with an "over-taxed" bullpen allow a guy like Brian Bruney to get away?
He's awesome for the Yankees right now.
Rick
http://munsonshouldbeinthehall.mlblogs.com/
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Perhaps Matt knows of another reasoning for it, but I think it was simply because Bruney's numbers were horrid. He posted ERA's of 4.31 and 7.42 in two seasons with the D-backs. His WHIP during those seasons was equally abysmal, posting a 1.50 and a 1.98.
It would be nice for the Yankees if he continued his current performance, but his past doesn't suggest that he will.
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Rick,
David's right. With the exception of Felix Rodriguez and your dear friend, BK Kim, no AZ reliever elicited the kind of hostility here over the last decade that Bruney did. He arrived, knocked out some saves and then coughed up a slew of games in "amateurishly" wild(see post above), spectacular fashion.
I'll be interesting to see if Torre/Stott have unlocked the key to Bruney, or if Brian simply has so many innings in him - and re-implodes.
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Gonzo won't be back:
http://mlb.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/news/article.jsp?ymd=20060914&content_id=1663134&vkey=news_mlb&fext=.jsp&c_id=mlb
They've made the announcement early enough so that the fans can say goodbye during the last homestand.
This suggests Byrnes to LF, which would be fine if they would play him 145+ STARTS. But I don't feel comfortable about this. Hairston is waiting in the wings.
Kellia
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Earlier in the season, there was a game in which Brenneman asked that if they weren't a power team and they weren't a running team, what where they?
But now all he and Grace do is make football prognostications, show pictures of the radio crew and the fans instead of the plays, and call Eric Byrnes Conor Jackson.
Kellia
Life, Baseball, and an outfielder who should get more respect than to be confused with the first baseman.
http://byrnesblog.mlblogs.com
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"But now all he and Grace do is make football prognostications, show pictures of the radio crew and the fans instead of the plays, and call Eric Byrnes Conor Jackson."
Agreed. It's sad when a story from Joe G. about riding a train to work is the most interesting thing to come from the D-Backs broadcast book over the past week.
On the plus side, Brenneman actually sounded genuinely passionate calling a home run the other day. Of course, Grace made some comment about it immediately afterwards and killed the nice little moment we were having.
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Of course by broadcast book I mean broadcast booth. Is there any way to edit your own comments on someone else's blog?
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Thanks, guys!
I am now duly educated on the travails of Brian Bruney.
Rick
http://munsonshouldbeinthehall.mlblogs.com/
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