Just how bad (so far) are the 2010 Diamondbacks?

 Nearly two months into the 2010 campaign, and the Arizona ball club is already behind last year's disaster.  It's Memorial Day weekend and is tied for fourth in games behind first place (8.5).  Do things get better from here, is it all just bad luck?  Or is the team performing about as well as we can expect, which means the next 4 months will be an exercise in frustration?

They certainly could get better, but I'm not sure if that's likely anymore.  As much as we might have mocked pythag as the D'backs dodged a bullet in 2007 to get to the playoffs, reality isn't just knocking on the window anymore, asking to be let in.  It's planted a pipe bomb and blown its way.  The Diamondbacks' winning percentage is .417; pythag predicts (based on runs scored and allowed) that the winning percentage should be .415.

 Okay, it's not all bad.  It's just that the Diamondbacks are two teams; the best of offensive, but the worst of pitching, to completely warble a famous Dickens' quote.  And it isn't that the Sedona Boys aren't just middle of the road pitching and just need to improve a little, or that if only they got a little more offense, then they'd be great.  Arizona is one of the best offensive clubs in either league, but also just about the worst pitching team.

The Good: Offense:

 When calculating out the Diamondbacks' pythag, I noticed it wasn't so much that they didn't score enough runs, but more just absolute awful pitching that has doomed the squad.  The Diamondbacks lead the NL in runs scored (RS) with 247, and are fourth in the majors, behind only the Blue Jays, Red Sox, Yankees, and Rays.

 RS isn't the most elegant way to measure an offense's prowess, though, and when you go through nearly every batting category you find the same story: Arizona is either first or near the top.  6th in OPS+ for NL (middle of the pack, though, when you add AL).  3rd in OPS with .780, 5th in majors.  Tied for first in home runs (58), third in majors.  Second in the majors for doubles (108), behind only the Blue Jays.

 Unfortunately, also first in strikeouts in the majors (437).  The D'backs are a patient lot, though, and are 6th in walks (186).  Oddly enough, we're dead last in hit by pitches.  We're only middle of the pack for stolen bases, but on the other hand we're not getting caught stealing much either.

 The Bad: Pitching

Pitching has truly been a nightmare this year.  ERA is dead last (5.81), ERA+ is third worst (79), as is WHIP (1.521).  We've given up the most hits per 9 innings (10.3), and most home runs per 9 (1.8).  If there's any consolation here, its that the D'backs have only 3.4 walks per 9 innings, which is about middle of the pack.

Arizona has far and away given up the most home runs over all (82), the most hits (481), the most runs (293), the most earned runs (272).  To cap it all off, the Diamondbacks have used the most amount of pitcher this season so far, with 19 poor souls taking the mound.  And all of these pitching stats I just named are for the entire league.  The Diamondbacks pitching is the worst in the majors.

They've played 48 games so far.  In 28 of those games, the Diamondbacks have given up more than 5 runs.  Not 5 or more.  More than 5.  Not sure where that fits into this puzzle, but it hurts my head to think about regardless.

Is it going to get better?

Who knows?  There's no reason to believe it will if the Diamondbacks continue to play the way they do.  We're either going to need a complete turn around for the pitching staff (even just mediocre would be a step up at this point), or an even better performance by the offense.  Since the latter is unlikely, given the high level the offense is already performing, our only hope is better pitching.

But you already knew that.  I know that, the FO knows, the bullpen knows that, everyone knows it.  It's Memorial Day weekend, and we're already out of it.