Heading into the season, many experts would predict that the starting rotation would appear to be one of the team’s strength as team had five reliable starters with experience at the major league level: Ian Kennedy, Daniel Hudson, Trevor Cahill, Joe Saunders, and Josh Collmenter.

Unfortunately for Arizona, three of the five starters did not perform at the level that was expected of them. A 20-game winner a season ago, Ian kennedy found difficulty with his command throughout the first half of the season. Although he has pitched more consistently over the second half of the season, he has yet to pitch like the ace that he was a season ago.

Sept. 20, 2012; Phoenix, AZ, USA; Arizona Diamondbacks starting pitcher Tyler Skaggs (37) throws during the fifth inning against the San Diego Padres at Chase Field. Mandatory Credit: Matt Kartozian-US PRESSWIRE

Trevor Cahill was the biggest name acquired by the club over the offseason in an attempt to improve the rotation on a more immediate basis. In Oakland, Cahill had excelled in only a couple season’s at the big league level, and the Diamondbacks were intrigued by his affordability and success for such a young pitcher. Unfortunately for Arizona, he has failed to show the command that was previously displayed when he was an All-Star for the Oakland Athletics. He has picked up 12 victories to this point of the season, but has not shown the dominance of a number two starter that the Diamondbacks are requiring of him.

Josh Collmenter was one of the biggest surprises as a rookie, picking up ten victories and providing stability at the back end of the rotation a season ago. His rocky start to the season led to his ultimate demotion to the pen, where he did regain his control and velocity, but his consistency and durability remain a weakness.

Daniel Hudson also had difficulty with his command and ended up missing most of the month of May with shoulder problems. Upon returning to the rotation on May 27th, he attempted to work through his shoulder pain, but would see his ERA rise to a season high 7.35. He would again land on the DL and would later undergo Tommy John surgery on July 9, 2012, to end his season.

Joe Saunders had a very solid 2011 season, accumulating 12 victories and providing veteran leadership in a very young rotation. When he wasn’t able to mimic his 2011 numbers, team management decided to trade Saunders in an effort to unload his salary and acquire some talent in return (he is eligible for Free-agency at the end of the season).

Perhaps the only bright spot of the rotation was this season’s loan All-star representative in Wade Miley. Miley has shocked everyone by providing consistent quality starts all season long. He has used a combination of good command of all his pitches to deceive hitters and has shown his durability time and time again. With 16 victories on the season, it’s safe to say his spot in the rotation next season is possibly the only safe bet heading into the offseason.

The Diamondbacks have used a combination of young and talented minor league arms to fill out the rotation throughout the season, combining Tyler Skaggs, Patrick Corbin, and Trevor Bauer to round out the rotation. Skaggs and Bauer showed a lot of promise but saw their velocity drop as the season progressed and eventually led to their season ending. Corbin has shown more consistency at the major league level but needs to develop his secondary pitches more before being considered a more permanent member of the rotation.

Without a true ace on the staff, the team is desperately looking for more consistency from their veterans, and hope that their young pitching talent develops sooner rather than later. Either way, it should be interesting to see what the team does heading into the offseason.

Arizona Diamondbacks manager Kirk Gibson (23) takes the ball from starting pitcher

I’ll be the first to apologize to the fans that were able to make it out to the Diamondbacks weekend series against the fourth place Padres as there was very little to cheer about in any of the three games. They were shutout Friday, blown out Saturday and failed to come out on top of yet another one run game on Sunday- a game in which they never had the lead. Of course part of the game of baseball is losing. You’re going to lose a lot over the course of a 162 game season; it’s just hard to watch such an uninspiring series against a team with 70 losses in August as you’re the ones that are supposed to be grinding for a playoff spot.

Credit is due to the Padres however, as they’ve now won seven straight games overall and are an impressive 15-9 in August. Their starters pitched effectively and late into games- something not one of our starters got even close to doing.

Transactions: Joe Saunders was dealt to the Baltimore Orioles on Sunday morning for hard throwing right handed reliever Matt Lindstrom and either cash considerations or a player to be named later. Saunders had struggled as of late and is 6-10 with a 4.22 ERA on the season. Lindstrom is 1-0 with a 2.72 ERA in 32 appearances for the Orioles.

Record Notes: With the loss on Sunday, the Dbacks fell back to .500 at 64-64. Their home record sits at 33-31 but they’ve now dropped 10 of their last 14 at Chase Field after winning eight straight contests at home in July. With the sweep, the Padres have now taken a franchise high seven straight from the Diamondbacks which includes two sweeps- the first time the Padres have ever swept the Dbacks at Chase Field.

*With their 5-4 defeat Sunday, the team fell to 10-19 in one-run games, a league worst.

*Friday’s 5-0 defeat marked the fourth time since the All Star break that the offense has been shutout.

GOOD: Justin Upton was one of the bright spots this weekend finishing 4 for 8 with an inside the park homerun on his 25^th birthday. He is now 7 for his last 19 (.368) and has reached base safely in 19 straight games. The homerun was his 10^th on the season, the longest it has ever taken the right fielder to hit his 10^th homerun.

*Aaron Hill hit his 19^th and 20^th homeruns on the year on Saturday and Sunday- his highest total since 2010 when he belted 26. He leads all National League second basemen in homeruns and is tied for second in doubles at his position.  He has also matched his RBI total from 2011 at 61.

*Bullpen. For what they were asked to do in this series, this group of guys did a good job. While they gave up at least one run in each game of the series, they did end up throwing more innings combined than all three starting pitchers combined- 14 innings for the bullpen; 13 for the starters. On both Friday and Sunday they threw 5+ innings allowing just one run in each outing. The issue was that by the time the bullpen was summoned, the Dbacks starters had already given up four runs in each affair.

BAD: RISP. The offense in general was pretty flat but it doesn’t help when you have opportunities to cash in and fail. They were a combined 0-10 with runners in scoring position Friday and Saturday and finished just 2-15 in the category during the series. There were multiple occasions where the Dbacks had a guy on second (or third) with a chance to make some damage and a strikeout would ensue killing any momentum the club had built up.

*Paul Goldschmidt was one of a few that went hitless this series finishing 0 for 7. He did walk four times and score two runs but he is mired in a 2-18 and 6-32 (.188) slump currently. With Goldie collecting zero hits, Montero finishing 2 for 12 and Kubel finishing 0 for 9 you’re not going to see too many runs put up for the Dbacks.

UGLY: Ian Kennedy continues to struggle in 2012 with another ugly outing on Saturday allowing another three homeruns (all solo shots) and walking four hitters on his way to giving up six earned runs in just 5 1/3 innings. In the month of August, the team’s ace has surrendered eight homeruns and sixteen walks posting a 5.60 ERA. He has now matched his career high in homeruns allowed in a season (26) which is also tied for the most allowed by any pitcher in the National League. As he struggles with his control he beaned his eighth batter on the season- a career high. At this point we just have to hope that Kennedy can grind out the remainder of 2012 without enduring some type of arm injury that would hinder his chances of coming back strong in 2013.

*Trevor Cahill was hit hard again on Sunday as he provided the Dbacks with the shortest outing of the season at 3 2/3 innings allowing eight hits and four earned runs. He failed to get out of the first inning unscathed for the 19^th time in 26 starts. His first inning was as follows: groundout, groundout, single, walk, RBI single, RBI single, walk, groundout. There’s definitely something going through Cahill’s head in the first as he really struggles to get three outs without allowing a run- he finished the second by striking out the side.

NOTES: The Padres scored ten of their nineteen runs in the series with two outs.

*Rookie Jake Elmore was 0 for 7 in the series and is now 0 for his last 14. He has yet to record a major league RBI or score a run.

*Paul Goldschmidt hasn’t homered in ten consecutive games, his longest streak without a long ball since he went eleven games from May 12- 26^th.

*The team begins the last three games of their ten game home stand tonight against the Cincinnati Reds. Lefty Tyler Skaggs is making his second career start facing Bronson Arroyo. The Reds have lost three of four but Arroyo comes in on a personal three game winning streak.

Now bring on the Reds!!

Image: Jennifer Stewart-US PRESSWIRE

My expectations, and many others’ expectations, were sky-high coming into this year for the D-backs. They took all of us on a wild ride last year that was some of the most fun I’d had in a long time. It was awesome.

This year was supposed to be better.

Ian Kennedy was going to be the ace he was all of last year, Daniel Hudson was supposed to improve, Trevor Cahill was supposed to be the stud he was in Oakland, Joe Saunders was supposed to be an innings-eater and Trevor Bauer and Tyler Skaggs were waiting in the wings to save the day if one of the pitchers faltered.

Justin Upton was supposed to continue his MVP pace, Ryan Roberts was supposed to hold down third base and Stephen Drew was supposed to return and solidify short stop.

All disappointed.

The D-backs even had surprises like Wade Miley, Patrick Corbin and Jason Kubel give them a boost. But it just wasn’t enough.

They have been flirting with .500 all season long. In fact, I should have figured it out long ago. The Dbacks were just a mediocre team who would stay in the race just long enough to make disappointment turn into agony. But those damn expectations kept me in it. It’s over now, though.

After the Dbacks went 5-5 against three of the worst teams in the league, it’s finally, mercifully, over. They are back to .500 for what feels like the three millionth time this season with a 64-64 record. They are 7 games behind in the division and 6.5 games behind in the wild card. With only 34 games to play, what would the D-backs have to do to make up that type of ground? Their best chance is most likely in the division because even though they are .5 games further behind, there are only two teams in front of them. In the wild card, three teams are ahead of them.

So, the Giants are 71-57. If they play .500 the rest of the way, that puts them at 88-74. The D-backs would have to go 24-10 in the next 34 to even TIE that record. It’s not happening.

So, say good-bye to a season that promised so much.

But there is always next year. And the flipside of the D-backs always disappointing me when I have high expectations is that when I have low expectations, they always surprise me.

So, World Series next year?