I console myself by thinking that the playoffs would not have been that much fun without Byrnesie anyway, and that it would have been terrible to see Orlando Hudson sidelined for the second October in a row. But the bottom line is that the Diamondbacks would have won the division going away if they’d played up to snuff. They beat themselves this year.

1. Net blown saves (i.e. the ones you don’t win anyway) — The offense has oft been criticized as weak, but to blow a save, you have to be in the lead in the ninth. Had they saved half, or even a third, of the saves they actually blew, they’d be playing in October.

2. Defense — We can’t blame the blown saves on the bullpen every time. There were some games that the fielders gave away, much more so than last year.

3. Strikeouts (and I don’t mean by our pitchers) — The offense would automatically improve, without spending an additional dime to buy some high-priced slugger,  if the players all worked on their plate discipline in the off season and spring training.

As of Sept. 25, these were the stats on K’s and HRs for players with at least 300 ABs: Young 163 - 21; Drew 107 - 20; Jackson 58 - 12 Reynolds 201 - 28; Dunn (including Reds stats) 161 - 39;  Upton 117 - 14; Snyder 100 - 16; Hudson 62 -8.

This is why you have 3 guys who are with the team the whole year hitting 20 or more homers (Young, Drew, Reynolds) and still have what is considered to be a weak offense. The K/HR ratio for the above players is 969/158 or 6.13. As I said in an earlier post, Whiff, Whiff, Whiff, Whiff, Whiff, Whiff, Crash is not a dependable offense over the long haul.

The team model should be Conor Jackson who, as of Sept. 25, had 58 Ks in 532 AB’s (K/AB = .109) …and a .303 batting average. Since Orlando Hudson went out for the season with a .305 average, CoJack is the only guy on the team with a shot at ending the year at .300. I think the low strikeout total is a factor in the high batting average. He doesn’t swing at junk.  Stephen Drew, who has the third best K/AB (.179) of all the guys who had at least 300 ABs, is hitting .290. (Orlando Hudson, who had 407 ABs before going out, had a .152 K/AB ratio). Everybody else is mediocre (Upton .253) or worse.

If the team made it a goal to strike out no more than a collective 12.5% of the time, (K/AB = .125, right now it’s 969/3867= .251),  in other words, cut their strikeouts in half, the batting averages would skyrocket because the pitchers would have to throw strikes or walk guys. And pitchers know that walks will kill them, especially in the late innings. Be patient! The Red Sox are masters at it and they are going to the playoffs again this year after having won it all last year.

ByrnesBlogger1

// Click here to read the rest from Down the Left Field Line: Life, Baseball & Eric Byrnes

Join the discussion at The Fanster Forums. Arizona Sports 24/7.