Dodgers 7, Diamondbacks 0 - Lowe Expectations

Nothing more to say

Terse and to the point. We sucked. The Diamondbacks haven’t been able to win consecutive games in over two weeks now – the last time was August 25. After the end of April, our record is now 51-69 [which would project to a 69-83 record], and that seems like a much better assessment of the way we are playing right now. This is basically a third- or fourth-placed team that overachieved incredibly for one month.

Which, of course, will be the cue for the Diamondbacks to crush the Dodgers over the next couple of days, confusing me once again. :-) We can only hope…

Going back to July 28th, 2007, over their past 197 Games, the D backs have been either tied or alone in first place for 192 of those games.

During that time span they have scored 886 runs and allowed 881

How is this even possible ?

Seriously, this team is terrible. The only possible positive comparison I can make is the terrible 2006 Cardinals who somehow put it together for three weeks come playoff time and took home the WS title.

(thankfully) but it kinda sums up my night.

Someone smelled gas on my floor, so we had to evacuate the entire building. At 2:20 in the morning. Grr.

This team needs to get their heads screwed on straight. NOW.

This is basically a third- or fourth-placed team that overachieved incredibly for one month.

Couldn’t agree more, Jim, though I’m sure it’ll keep neither of us from continuing to pull for them.

Heck, I wish someone, anyone knew how to motivate this team.

scrbi, between last night’s GDT and this thread, you’ve made a dozen similarly snarky claims, so I thought I’d chime in and invite anyone on this thread to make a case for an individual Diamondback who is not sufficiently “motivated” or putting forth a professional effort. Failure to make a specific case suggests, to me, that this generality is little more than exaggerated gasbagging. I’m sorry, but it’s disheartening enough to watch the team play right now, without impugning the players’ or manager’s character or will. Couldn’t there be something more structural going on here than the team doesnt care enough? Did Dan Haren get lit up because he’s not motivated? Please, anyone, give this line of criticism some substance, or please give it a rest.

This team does not seem to carry over their victories into the next game, though they seem to have few problems carrying over their defeats.

kishi, definitely feels that way this week, but over the course of the year I think this team is more characterized by not carrying over much of either. They “carried over” wins in April fine, but since then no big streaks I remember. They look about as “.450-.500” as you can get. Contrast them with the Dodgers! A week ago, they’d lost eight in a row (talk about carryover), and now they’re carrying over wins, bigtime. The Diamondbacks, over time, display very little ‘Mo’ imo – in either direction.

*****************

I was more or less aware of the two pieces of info shoe provided, but the way he juxtaposed them is really compelling, I think.

How is this possible? We’ve talked last year’s run diff to death, but I still dont think one aspect has sufficiently sunk in for how remarkable (and misleading) the Dbax 07 run truly was. It’s not just the 11 gap pythag gap (or whatever it was). It’s been done before and will be again. It’s not just that they won the division with a neg run diff. Been done before, will again. The astonishing thing is that they led the league - a sixteen team league! – in wins with a negative run diff. I havent researched it, but am pretty confident that’s never happened in baseball history and never will again.

How is it even possible, indeed. It’s an unprecedented confluence of events, many beyond the Dbacks control that led to a very young team pressing for the World Series, and I guess the reason I’m beating it over the head is because I feel this degree of “success” has greatly contributed to some questionable expectations – here and most everywhere – about the readiness and abilities of the 2008 team. I mean, it’s one thing to acknowledge the 07’s were “lucky” to hit 90 wins, but I think it’s very,very, hard for any fan – even the most scrupulously objective – to put aside just how happenstance those 90 wins were. To put aside just how bad the entire NL was last year, when low resource teams like the Rockies, Pads and Dbacks filled a league wide quality gap by little more than default.

I still believe our 2008 version is fundamentally better than last year’s – certainly before Webb and Haren started channeling JD Durbin, and before all the critical injuries (Byrnes, Hudson, Davis, Upton and Haren’s apparent fatigue). But what’s different now (besides the "luck") is that the Dodgers are (finally) starting to play like a team of their demonstrated talents. And the Cubs and Brewers and and Mets and Phils are following suit. And the Cards are overacheiving with a better manager. All in all, the NL is gradually starting to look like a major league again, and I think that is hurting these Diamondbacks about as much as injuries and a lack of lopsided good luck.