81 games in, 81 games to go. Fair to say, I think, that the 2009 Diamondbacks season has been one of the most disappointing on record, with expectation far outweighing actuality. That said, however, let's take a look at the best individual performances and some team totals - using the complex and arcane "doubling what they have now" method, see what we could be getting by the end of the year...

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More photos » by Ross D. Franklin - AP

Mark Reynolds kneels at first base and contemplates ritual suicide.

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"It seems like we get down one or two runs and no one [cares] anymore ... This is the Major Leagues. You can't go out there and make three errors a night and expect to win a game. We look like the Bad News Bears out there and it's frustrating. It's to the point where stuff's got to change... You can give all the rah-rah speeches you want and have all the team meetings you want and yell at guys, but guys have got to [care]. I don't really see it. I know I care. I'm out there busting my tail every night trying to win. Physical errors are fine, but guys loafing, guys not being where they're supposed to be or guys giving up on ABs, it's not acceptable at any level."

"You've got to give it to Fowler. He was hustling. He made us make a play and we didn't make it and he ended up scoring. It seems like we've had a lot of that lately. J-Up should have been over there, I should have been over there backing it up. He just made a good play and we didn't. I feel sorry for the fans, for A.J., because he's trying to do everything he can to get us to snap out of this. We're not responding. It's a poor effort and it feels like night in and night out it's the same old song. It's just not fun to be in this clubhouse right now. I don't know what it's going to take to change it. It's frustrating, and I don't know what else to say."

"We get behind a run and, oh, here we go again. We lose focus. We don't play hard. It's like everyone is up there for themselves ... It's very frustrating. The effort's there when we're winning or when we're blowing somebody out, people are having fun. If it's 7-1, 7-0, guys are out there playing hard, having fun. It's easy to do that when you're winning or when you're on a winning streak or 20 games over .500. When you're in the cellar like we are, it's embarrassing. I know we have a better team than that, but we're not showing it. It's frustrating and it's embarrassing."

[Link - Though the actual speech as delivered by Reynolds included a good number of words which mlb.com were clearly not prepared to included on their website!]

More photos » by Al Behrman - AP

The Reds' Joey Votto ends Clay Zavada's scoreless streak. Interesting paternal parallels between those two.

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In the interests of more informed discussion as we head towards the trade deadline, there's been an effort among the SB Nation baseball sites to provide some information for each team, from which we can work. The aim is to provide a more factual basis - upon which we can then base the usual groundless speculation. Ok, this will work better than it sounds, but it should hopefully help to avoid any "OMG! We can so get Greinke from the Royals for Eric Byrnes!"-type posts.

We start where we finished, as it were, with Joel from Red Reporter telling us what the Cincinnati Reds could use. After the last series against the Diamondbacks, you will not be surprised to hear that pitching is low on their list of priorities. Details after the jump.

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More photos » by Chris Carlson - AP

Upton celebrates his first career grand slam. Here's to many more.

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Team Record: 9-17
Runs Scored: 124 - Runs Allowed: 128
Series Record: 1-6-1

Is it just me, or did the past month feel an awful lot worse than that? Ok, it was still the fewest games won by the Diamondbacks since June 2006, when we went 8-20 (boy, we really don't like June!). But I was surprised to see we scored almost as many runs as we conceded. Just for comparison, in 2006, our differential was -72, rather than the -4 posted last month - the closest we've come to parity all season. The main reason the record doesn't reflect this, is that the Diamondbacks were 2-6 in one-run games in June, but were 4-0 in games decided by seven runs or more.

But after the jump, we'll go into more details, about a June we'd probably rather forget, and list the nominees for AZ Player of the Month

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More photos » by Ross D. Franklin - ASSOCIATED PRESS

Ssh... If you listen very carefully, you can hear the sound of Webb's labrum fraying...

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The news that Brandon Webb is likely to require surgery on his labrum seems a good opportunity to discuss some of the questions arising from the report. These would include, "What is the labrum?", "What has he done to it?", "I had a friend who had that pierced" and, perhaps, "Would Webb be better off seeing a gynaecologist?" Ok, scratch the last one, and replace it with a couple of more pertinent ones for the Diamondbacks: when will he be able to pitch again, and what are the odds for him being as good as he was before the operation?

Bear in mind that 2009 is the last guaranteed year of Webb's contract with the team. There is a club option for 2010: before this season, that seemed a lock to be exercised, but now... It would cost the Diamondbacks $8.5 million to exercise the option, or $2 million to buy it out. [It was originally $500K, but the buyout increased by $500,000 each time Webb finished in the top five of the NL Cy Young voting - which he won in 2006, and was runner-up in for 2007 + 2008] That decision may depend on the prognosis for our ace's recovery, but it doesn't h1elp that the option must be exercised within five days of the 2009 World Series concluding, so the team can't hang on and see how he's doing in March. it has already been suggested that he may have pitched his last game as a Diamondback. Here's Josh Byrnes' recent comments on Webb:

Audio courtesy of KTAR 620

Follow me after the jump, for Labrums 1.0.1.

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More photos » by Ross D. Franklin - AP

This would appear to be an illusion: a home-run being hit by the young talent we don't have, according to Mr. Thomas.

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While I can't get online from home, I can still write stuff - there's something to be said for not doing recaps, as it gives me time and energy for other things! My task today is to respond to this article in the Republic, entitled 'Dear Mr. Hall, D-Backs losing it all' - it was published ten days ago, but having canceled our subscription to the paper and been otherwise engaged, it managed to escape my attention. It's worth going and reading the piece in full [I'll wait for you here...], because it's a beautiful illustration of the kind of fair-weather fans for which Phoenix is infamous, possessing the memory-span of a goldfish with Alzheimers - and the baseball savvy of one too...

As a brief summary, I love, and totally agree with, valuearb's second comment in response to the piece:

But after the jump, I'll give you my full response...

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More photos » by Ross D. Franklin - AP

The bullpen in happy times.

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After Friday night's fiasco, in which Schoeneweis and Pena contrived to turn a three-run lead into a deficit while retiring two batters in the eighth, it might not seem like there's any doubt on the matter. Why, yes, they do suck. But it's worth looking into the numbers a little deeper than the purely anecdotal evidence. Every relief corps in the league is going to blow some late leads now and again - as noted at the time, our implosion wasn't even the most extreme of the day, as the Indians bullpen blew a five-run lead after seven frames. They stick in the mind, that's for sure, and this perhaps gives them a perceived commonness beyond the reality.

After the jump, let's delve into the stats and see what we can find... [Note: all figures exclude Saturday and Sunday's games. Since we're supposed to have our Internet moved at some point today, I scheduled this post well in advance, so you'd have something to read on the off-day, even if we were 'off the grid']

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More photos » by Tony Dejak - AP

Alberto Callaspo. [SB Nation legal advisers rejected the previous seven versions of this caption.]

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On the road and into the American League go the Arizona Diamondbacks, as they head off for their first second taste of the DH this season, going to Kansas City. Being foreign, it took me quite some time to work out that Kansas City was not in Kansas, but in Missouri. After all, Arizona City is in Arizona, and New York City is in...well, you get the point. So all my carefully-crafted references to The Wizard of Oz and 70's prog-rock go out the window.

Kansas has struggled almost as much as Arizona, having one more win to this point. However, they don't have anyone streaking away at the top of their division, so are only 5.5 games out of first. It's been the pitching that's been getting it done. Their offense has an OPS+ of 91, 11th in the American League, mostly because of a team batting average of .251, ahead only of Oakland. They are also 13th in home-runs, but don't lack for speed and lead the AL in triples - and it's not even close, with the Royals having 23, nine more than the next-placed Angels.

However, on the mound they've had more success, with an ERA+ of 106, fifth in the league. That's mostly thanks to one man, Zack Greinke. In his first ten starts, he had five complete games and an ERA of 0.84. In the three games since, he has returned to mortality somewhat, but his 1.72 ERA is still the best in the AL. We'll get to see him on Saturday, when he faced Max Scherzer. For more on the Royals, I traded Q+As with Ray Wachter of RoyalsOnRadioEtc.com - his questions and my answers are on his site here, while my questions and his answers on all things KCR-related, are after the jump.

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