Diamondbacks Searching for 'Better Vibe'

TUCSON, Ariz. -- The spring of 2009 should have been a good one for the Arizona Diamondbacks.

They were coming off a second-place finish in the National League West, missing the playoffs by just two games.

Phrased like that, it sounds like 2008 was a good season, but in reality, it was heartbreak broken into 162 pieces. Arizona moved into first place in the west on April 6 and built up a 6 1/2-game lead in the West three weeks later. On Aug. 29 the lead was still 4 1/2 games.

Then the Diamondbacks lost 10 of 13 while the Dodgers were winning 12 of 13. End of postseason dreams. Finishing two games behind Los Angeles after all that was exceedingly more bitter than sweet.

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So come the following spring, general manager Josh Byrnes had some high expectations.

"I thought after the disappointment of 2008, players would come in fired up and ready to make up for it,'' Byrnes told FanHouse. "But in the spring of '09 the rhythm of the team, the vibe of the team was all wrong from my point of view. It didn't feel right.''

Over time, Byrnes' feeling became his team's reality. Things weren't right, and they would get a whole lot less right as the season progressed. All-Star starter Brandon Webb would make one start, then miss the rest of the season with shoulder trouble resulting in surgery. Left fielder Conor Jackson would play in only 30 games after contracting a rare disease called "Valley Fever'' and losing 30 pounds.

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Before the season was six weeks old, Byrnes would fire manager Bob Melvin and hitting coach Rick Schu. On the same day (May 7), pitching coach Bryan Price would quit in protest. Then it would turn out that Melvin had been told of his firing three days before it was announced but had been ordered to keep mum or take the chance of being in violation of his contract, and that stirred up a hornet's nest of its own.

In part because of that and in part because the new manager, A.J. Hinch, had never managed and had in fact been on track for a front office career, Hinch would find some of the players he inherited sniping at him almost from Day One.

The Diamondbacks were 18 games under .500 by July 3. And while July and August were winning months, September was an 8-18 disaster.

Through all this, Hinch had to win over players, some of whom believed Melvin had gotten a raw deal, and Byrnes had to reshape the roster. As 2010 dawns, it's just possible that both have succeeded, although the proof won't be fully tested until April and beyond.

"We lived through it, and now we have to put what happened last year behind us,'' right fielder Justin Upton said. "A.J. talked to us about that at the start of camp, but we knew it.''

As part of the reconstruction, the pitching staff has undergone a huge makeover. Gone are pitchers who provided 36 of the D'backs wins last year, including three of the team's four winningest pitchers -- Doug Davis, Max Schezer and Jon Garland. For all of that, the team's pitching might be better this year -- partly because of the addition of Edwin Jackson, but mostly because Arizona has high hopes for the return to health of Webb.

The 2006 Cy Young Award winner and an All-Star every year since until he was cut down by injury, Webb carries the hopes of his team. Last year saw Webb in a constant cycle of rehabbing the arm and hoping to pitch before the season was over. Whether or not being The Guy while also rebuilding his arm strength is an unrealistic burden will be the story of the 2010 season in Arizona.

"We need Webby to be there,'' Opening Day starter Dan Haren said frankly. "This team is only going to go as far as he takes us.''

If Webb is healthy -- he's going to start the season on the disabled list but could be pitching by the end of April -- then Hinch will have the ability to send out three starting pitchers with winning histories -- Webb, Haren and Jackson all have thrown 200 or more innings in a season and all have All-Star Game resumes.

"I'd have to say along with [Conor] Jackson, Webb is one of the two key guys for us this year,'' Hinch said. "Having him in the rotation is such a huge upgrade.''

Webb will start the season on the DL because he simply hasn't thrown enough for his arm to be ready. He's yet to throw off a mound, but that should come soon. And Hinch and pitching coach Mel Stottlemyre Jr. have it worked out that the D'backs don't need a fifth starter until April 17. Not that Webb is a fifth starter -- he's clearly an ace -- but the extra almost two weeks may mean the club will be able to skate around having Webb unavailable with a minimum of inconvenience.

Having that core of starters is one thing, but the D'backs have enough offense to make life easy for those pitchers. Mark Reynolds (44 homers, 102 RBI but also 223 strikeouts), Upton (.300, .26 homers), Miguel Montero (.294, 16 homers) and Jackson, whose 162-game averages before last year's injury-riddled season included 15 homers, 30 doubles and 80 RBI.



Jackson appears to be completely healthy and is the other player Hinch says the club can't do without.

"Being the player he is, what he brings to the offense is hard to replace,'' the manager said. "He's one of those special players where he never gives in on an at-bat. Every at-bat of his is grueling for the pitcher, and the more of those you have in a game, the better the chance you have to knock the other pitcher out of the game.

"Conor has a special ability to know his strike zone and swing accordingly. I think it's the kind of thing that rubs off on other players, and last year we missed that."

The problem is that the defense doesn't help. Arizona made the second-most errors in the NL last year, and if the defense is going to be that porous again, the D'backs don't even need to show up. No team can win giving away so many outs. And having upgraded the pitching won't help if the defense can't shut off opponent rallies.

"Obviously our pitching is going to be the key,'' Byrnes said. "And we all think we're better defensively than we looked last year.''

Hinch said that the club got off to a bad start defensively, the losses piled up and the error mentality permeated the clubhouse. So much of his first address to the team focused on the defense. If you want to be written into the lineup by Hinch, you'd better contribute with the glove.

"Breaking the cycle of errors has been on my mind since I took the job,'' said Hinch, who has shown a willingness to have spring practices stopped and workouts repeated if his guys aren't getting through them cleanly.

"If we don't do practices right, we do them again,'' Hinch said. "A lot of what defense is is repetition, and we've got to get things done right. We know we can't win if we don't catch the ball better. Keeping the other side to as close to 27 outs as possible is going to determine how good we can be.''

Byrnes said that as bad as things got for the club in 2009, there were some positives.

"We were able to give our kids a chance to play and we were able to make some roster moves then that have us in better position now,'' he said. "We have better depth now to handle injuries.

"And I think there's a better vibe, too.''

Better be.