Bad enough to be swept by the Dodgers, but to be swept by the Giants, a team that went into the series 18 games below .500, is terrible. Especially when the last two of the three were Giants walk-offs. There was so much wrong with that.

Doug Davis did about as well as could be expected; Haren started badly–34 pitches in the 1st inning–then he settled down–but the bullpen gave up both games. It is disheartening to see the biggest strength of this team, the starting rotation, fall on hard times in the last few weeks of the season. The bullpen has been a problem since Jose Valverde was traded. And those of you who believe in karma or baseball gods, or tempting fate or some such, might want to reflect on this trade as being what doomed this season, if doom is going to be the result. In 2007, Valverde led the major leagues in saves with 47. Valverde, this year, has saved 42 games in 48 opportunities; his W-L record is 5-3. He was traded for Chad Qualls and Chris Burke. As of Sept. 12, Qualls has saved 2 games in 10 opportunities and his W-L record is 4-8. Burke, a utility player, has appeared in 81 games and has a .191 batting average with 2 homers and 2 RBI. Eric Byrnes, playing 52 games on busted hammys, batted .209 with 6 homers and 23 RBI.

Brandon Lyon, who closed a bit in 2005 before he hurt his elbow, has saved 26 games in 31 opportunities and he’s 2-5. Tony Pena has saved 2 games in 5 opportunities and he is 1-1. Jon Rauch, acquired from the Nationals on July 22, is 0-4 with 1 save in his last 10 games. His ERA over the last 30 days is 10.45!

Say what you will about the anemic offense, but the bullpen is the heart of the problem. Last year’s offense was anemic, too. But in 2007, the ‘pen could hold a one-run lead. It could keep a game tied to give the bats another chance.

This year’s team is like an arch built without a keystone. Such a structure collapses and that is what you have seen lately. And what for? To save money. Valverde was eligible for arbitration and could write his own ticket with the season he had in ‘07. The D’Backs F.O. didn’t want to pay the price. They basically had no faith that Valverde, who was sent down for a time in ‘06, could pull off a second good year, so they traded him, figuring his trade value would never be higher. I think a guy who puts in the year Valverde had in ‘07, especially with an offensively weak team like the Diamondbacks, deserves the money he wants and the opportunity to try it again. After all, in today’s pitching culture, having a great closer is critical if you are going to win games. Especially when you have guys in your rotation who can’t go nine even if they wanted to, like Randy Johnson, who is in his middle 40’s and coming off two back surgeries.

With Valverde to close, Lyon could have stayed a set up man where he’s obviously more comfortable. And the D’Backs wouldn’t have needed Jon Rauch. Without Valverde, we have the Equal Opportunity Start Blowers, though, in all fairness to the bullpen, the starters are doing a great job blowing their own starts these days.

Speaking of starters, do you think maybe next year we can have a No. 5 who will last the whole season?

On the anemic offense, Conor Jackson (.294) and Stephen Drew (.281) cannot make up for the loss of a healthy Eric Byrnes and Orlando Hudson. These guys were catalysts. And with them in the lineup there was something going on throughout the order. What’s so terrible about a well-balanced lineup? I’m not too keen on the Big Bopper theory of offense when your Big Bopper tends to strike out when he’s not bopping. And here we have not one, but two, of those guys: Mark Reynolds and Adam Dunn. I will give Dunn credit for walking over 100 times so far. His K/BB ratio is actually a nifty 1.45. But they didn’t get him to walk.

In fact, add up Reynolds (183), Dunn (146), Young (151), and Upton (106 - he’s only played 92 games because he was injured), and you have four guys known to have pop in their bats who also have a combined 586 K’s. That’s a year’s worth of AB’s for a regular player and the total will likely exceed 600 when the season is over. The four have 93 homers (Dunn’s strikeout and homer totals count his production for the Reds). The K/HR ratio is 6.30. They strike out 6.3 times for every homer. These four are all hitting in the .240’s. Whiff-Whiff-Whiff-Whiff-Whiff-Whiff-Crash might get you a few games, but it is not a winning offense over the course of a long season.

Young is a big disappointment. Now in the interests of full disclosure I will admit I harbor a certain prejudice against him because I have always seen him as a threat to Byrnesie. But I have also seen some things on the field that makes me wonder if his raw talent is backed up by the balls he needs to be as wonderful as people claim he is going to be. I have doubts about him when I see plays such as the one I saw in San Francisco this week. Young, left fielder Conor Jackson, shortstop Drew and 2nd baseman Augie Ojeda converged around a Texas leaguer. Fortunately they did not collide. Unfortunately, the ball dropped in.

Had Orlando Hudson been in the game, he probably would have called for it. But in fact, on such a play, the center fielder is the traffic cop and he has to get everything he can reach. The ball dropped in front of Young, and he would have been able to catch it, if he has called the others off to give him room for a short slide or dive. But he didn’t call for the ball and the four players clearly looked directionless.

This is not the first time I have seen Young let a ball drop in front of him. He is excellent at going back for a catch, but going forward, which one would think is the easier play, is difficult. This lack of take-charge attitude is also evident with Young on the bases. Last year, he stole 27 bases in the shadow of Byrnes’ 50. This year, without Byrnes, Young has a grand total of 12 bags going into the last 2 weeks of the season. Does he have the speed to steal 30? Absolutely! But, several weeks ago, Eric Byrnes told a Phoenix radio station that Bob Melvin not only has a green light signal, he has a “must-steal” sign. When a manager has to resort to those lengths, he has got a team that doesn’t have the guts to run. Young is not the only one guilty in this respect, but more is needed from him. That he got a five-year contract extension part way through his second year in the majors, shows the kind of confidence the F.O. has in him. He has improved his walk total, but if he is going to bat .246 and strike out 151+ times he’s got to show more leadership, in the field and on the base paths, as well as hitting some more long balls. (He hit 32 his rookie year, but will have to get very hot to make 25 this time).

Speaking of the field, Mark Reynolds is leading the major leagues in errors, and it isn’t even close. He’s 6 up in the second place guy, Edwin Encarnacion on the Reds. Oh, the Sheriff can usually corral ‘em, but then he throws them away, a mistake that I think does more damage than failing to pick a ball cleanly. The latter usually means a runner on first, throw the ball away and you can start up the merry-go-round.

Adam Dunn is a born DH.

The team as a whole just doesn’t feel as defensively solid as they were most of last year. And when you’re not scoring many runs, you can’t give away extra outs to the opposition.

There is something about this team that just doesn’t click. I do believe in team chemistry so I had high hopes when Tony Clark came back. But it wasn’t enough. This is not to say that I had doubts about the team just because certain people were new. I love the addition of Dan Haren. I’ve rooted for the health of Randy Johnson. But something isn’t right. I could see it in the body language as the team left the field after the Giants’ second consecutive walk-off win.

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