Arizona Diamondbacks

In my last article , I discussed the fact that the Arizona Diamondbacks will be sellers at the trade deadline. I named Kelly Johnson as a potential player for the Mets to go after. The Diamondbacks also have another player that the Mets and many other teams will be interested in: Dan Haren.

With the Arizona Diamondbacks sitting at 26-41 and 12.5 games out of 1st place in the NL West, it is obvious that they will be sellers when the trade deadline arrives. The Diamondbacks have already started trading players. They swapped Connor Jackson for minor league reliever Sam Demel on July 15th.

The first somewhat significant trade of the 2010 season took place yesterday between the Arizona Diamondbacks and Oakland A’s.

I say somewhat because no major names were involved, but I think it was a trade that could help both teams.

Yesterday, the Diamondbacks traded OF/1B Conor Jackson to the A’s for minor league RHP Sam Demel. Here is what both teams got.

Dontrelle Willis was a young phenom with the Florida Marlins in 2002. Now, he is turning into a journeyman in the MLB.

Willlis was like Stephen Strasburg when he made his debut. He had a marvelous rookie year and was the ace of the Marlins' pitching staff.

In 2005, Dontrelle had 22 wins, but didn't win the National League Cy Young. He should have won though.

Then in 2007, Willis wanted to be traded from Florida. After that season he got his wish and was traded to the Detroit Tigers.

In 2010, the Arizona Diamondbacks are 3-28 when scoring four or less runs.

Without much further investigation, it was safe to say that Arizona needed to pick up some additional help on the mound (no, Dontrelle Willis is not going to cut it).

And that's just what General Manager Josh Byrnes did.

His first eight, I repeat eight , picks at this year's draft were pitchers. 

"We are extremely excited about the quality of arms we were able to select throughout the draft," D-Backs' Scouting Director Tom Allison told foxsportsarizona.com.

  If you are looking for one reason why the Colorado Rockies lost to the Arizona Diamondbacks 4-3 on Saturday night in Phoenix, look no further than manager Jim Tracy.

The Arizona Diamondbacks are bad.

I mean really bad. 

They are 22nd in team batting average, and dead last in team ERA (thanks in large part to the 7.51 ERA of their less-than-outstanding bullpen).

Recently, even Diamondbacks Managing Partner Ken Kendrick apologized for the squad's lack of productivity. 

The 2007 season was truly magical for me as a baseball fan. For me, it rivaled 2001. Obviously it was very different, but still magical.

It is well known that the Diamondbacks were a statistical anomaly. They allowed more runs than they scored. They were an absurd 32-20 in one run games. They had the lowest team batting average (.250) in the National League. Outside of Brandon Webb, no starter on the staff had an ERA under 4.25.

A bad bullpen was something most Diamondbacks are unfortunately used to watching—the unit has an ERA over 6.00 and is unarguably the worst bullpen in all of baseball.

With a bad bullpen, there are a lot of ways for a team to lose and choke in a game with a strong lead—but did anyone really expect a "walk-off balk" for a way the D'backs could lose another game?

Well, I certainly am disappointed, but I really can't say I'm surprised.

Entering June in the cellar of the National League West, the D-Backs are currently riding an eight-game losing streak (including a walk-off balk given up by pitcher Esmerling Vasquez).

On the opposite end of the spectrum, the Arizona State University baseball team recently received news that they will be the No. 1 overall seed in the upcoming 64-team NCAA Baseball Tournament.

So that got me thinking.