Dbacks Keep on Rolling…Downhill
By Scott Allen
The Kirk Gibson era is officially not working and it’s not his fault. Your Arizona Diamondbacks are on track to best their franchise worst year of 2004 when they went 51-111. They lost their fourth game in a row this evening to the Chicago Cubs 6-4.
The fact is Dbacks fans, this team is not any good. At all.
Statistically we all know the bullpen is the worst ever in the modern era of baseball. Tonight was no exception to that exhibition. Name him, he’s awful. They go by the names Esmerling Vazquez, Blaine Boyer, Chad Qualls, Aaron Heilman, Jordan Norberto, Juan Guiterrez and Sam Demel.
The Dbacks need more change. It’s time. Whether through fire sale, cuts, whatever, the Dbacks aren’t making the right moves when it comes to players. Sure, they dropped dead weight in Dontrelle Willis a couple of days ago. Let’s be realistic though, the troubles run MUCH deeper than Willis and replacing him with Jordan Norberto is like replacing the Rock’s “Tooth Fairy” from your 2010 DVD collection with “MacGruber“. It’s just plain wrong.
How in the world is Conor Jackson the only position player you have moved at this point? Chris Snyder. He’s awful. He’s about as useful as a bar of soap at in a mud wrestling ring. KTAR’s John Gambadoro said it best earlier today on Gambo & Ash, mark Reynolds and Justin Upton do not belong on the same team. You just simply can not have the two co-exist on the same roster and expect a winning team. Combined they strike out way too much, much less alone. Problem is, the team won’t give up Upton. He’s still young and is viewed as having great potential. The other problem is who wants a .217 hitter, no matter how many home runs are hit? As much as he strikes out, Reynolds is just not of any value to anyone right now. Unfortunately I think we are stuck with both for awhile.
The team can’t hit in critical situations. Tonight was a great example. Twice they had rally killers with strikeouts. Reynolds came up with runners at first and third and no one out. What happens? Yep, he struck out. Next guy, Adam LaRoche, hits into a double play. Then a short lived rally is killed by Miguel Montero and Mark Reynolds striking out. I don’t care if he is hitting .377, Montero can not come up with runners on base and strike out. He could be hitting .777. If he is making outs with runners on base, all that great hitting is for not.
I could go on and on, but I need to save some for tomorrow, because ultimately, it will be the same story, just a different day.
Party on!