What went wrong in 2013

[BPNAZ]

not in any particular order

1. Pitching staff, no real ace: While Patrick Corbin exceeded expectations, IMO he is more of a longterm number 2 at the very best. He was sort of the "stopper" in April May, but as the season wore on, he no longer provided that. This team desperately needs Archie Bradley, but more importantly, need Archie Bradley to be legit......and not like the struggles of Bauer and Skaggs before him

2. Starting pitching staff: McCarthy was a complete bust, and Cahill is still the same ole Cahill, they are both number 4's. Delgado was a bit of a surprise. But just way too much inconsistency

3. Bullpen: Trading for Heath Bell was comical then, and still is. David Hernandez proved once and for all that he is not a good setup guy at all, and Putz is pretty much done. The way KT threw in hard throwing young righties like Ryan Cook and Bryan Shaw so frivolously is still odd. Cook is a fucking beast, and will continue to be

4. Adam Eaton: Losing the true leadoff hitter for just about half the season was brutal,

5. Outfielders in general: ......and then Cody Ross goes down, and then Jason Kubel continues his absolute suck from 2nd half of 2012. Not once OF position excelled from start to finish, one way or another. I like Parra's arm, but he continues to not fulfill his potential of being a .290+

6. Montero: c'mon, wtf happened here, the guy that took over fulltime catcher duties in 2009 was nowhere to be found in 2013. Hoping he bounces back

7. Kirk Gibson: im not really a fan of his, but his players play hard, and this showed the effort to never lay down and fight, which of course led to the lead league (or close to?) in come from behind wins.....................having said that, IMO, he changes the lineup card wayyyyyyyyyyyy too much. Except for maybe Eaton and Goldy, no one hardly ever knows if they are playing or where they are hitting when they get to the park. IMO, there has to be a more stable and/or consistent lineup in 2014

 

[Arizona_Sting]

Basically this. Also hard to keep up with that payroll

 

[DodgerLou80]

The reason your season went to hell can be summed up in two words. KIRK GIBSON. Get rid of him and your team will surely raise hell next year with the players that you have.

 

[Arizona_Sting]

I agree. I'm sick of Gibby... he needs to go.
I feel like our players have no respect for him anymore

 

[Jonas_steven]

Gibby is really the problem. Inconsistent lineups, too much favoritism among players and share no common sense on how to handle starting pitching/bullpen. KT is two shakes of a lambs tail away from being out of here as well! The moves he makes this offseason will solidify his fate.

 

[Orange602]

I would add the lack of protection for Goldy to that list. Teams completely shut him down when we needed him the most by intentionally walking him.

Gibby's lineup changes have been awful. The offense probably would have been more consistent had he allowed the players to get comfortable in their roles. Instead, he decided to randomly shift players around and bench them for no particular reason.

 

[CatsTopPac]

I'd say Gibby is a lot of it. He really shut down his own offense with not letting them get settled into a hitting role. I think the pitching is on KT though, and that's huge. Gibby made some mistakes with pulling guys too late, but the staff sucked. He was largely handcuffed with who to throw at any given time. I think that Gibby was trying to shake up the lineup to get the most out of it to compensate for the lack of effective arms on the mound. He didn't do himself any favors, but he wasn't given much to begin with. I'd start with getting rid of KT and bring someone in who can get some pitching and one more bat. If Gibby can't put it together after that, then he needs to go too. I just think he can do more, with more.

 

[JahiiCarson_SqodGeneral]

At least LA came to AZ and got a glimpse of what a modern day world series trophy looks like.......... Because they wont be winning one this year.

 

[JahiiCarson_SqodGeneral]

On the bright side no one will want to play for Jim Buss and everyone will want to play for McDonough shouldn't be long before we start kicking the Lakers ass again.

 

[AZ Sun]

As streaky as the lineup was, the downfall of this team was and is the awful pitching staff.

 

[Desert Glory]

I can't even take credit for this but I read your post BPNAZ and I agreed with all of it. Something seemed to be missing though, that you didn't cover and I just couldn't figure it out. We had lots of things go right for us more so than any of us could imagine and yet here we are. Usually when you have a season with someone like Goldy playing like he did or a young guy like Corbin starting out so good, things just click from there so I was confused on what happen.

Then Jonas opened my eyes:

Grit?

For a team that was supposed to be built on it and was sold that way to us, we just lacked it. They didn't have that "fight till you die" spirit like they did in 2011. Things happened magically that year in unexplained ways, which is usually credited to grit. We seemed to roll over more than anything this year.

I blame Towers for that. He came in with a blueprint for a team and it failed miserably.

 

[johnson]

I think Corbin was a legit ace this year. With even modest run support in some of his starts, he could/should have been close to a 20-game winner. After that it was just hijinx as usual.

I am not on the "Fire Gibby" train like most of you. It's baseball...the manager can only do so much. You rightly point out that Montero was horrendous all year, the rotation sucked, the bullpen sucked, and the OF was a mess..and then expect Gibby to get more than being slightly over .500 from that? I think he did a decent job and the issues are more with the talent he's been given.

Give Gibby the talent Don Mattingly (and he's a moron) has and he would also win the NL West.

These players should be all be worried KT will find upgrades over them for next year: Montero, Eaton, Pollock, Parra, Hernandez, Putz, Bell, almost the entire rotation...

 

[johnson]

Oh, and "Grit" and "Grind" are just deceptive words that really mean "we don't have the talent" and "give us an E for effort here, people"

 

[Villain]

1. Trading low on Justin Upton for Martin Prado
2. Giving up so soon on Trevor Bauer
3. Considering, for a moment, that Heath Bell wasn't a waste of time

 

[Arizona_Sting]

1. Trading low on Justin Upton for Martin Prado
2. Giving up so soon on Trevor Bauer
3. Considering, for a moment, that Heath Bell wasn't a waste of time

Prado had a better year than Upton so...

 

[JahiiCarson_SqodGeneral]

Prado had a better year than Upton so...

Upton is also becoming an injury prone baby. However Upton did heat up more and more as the season went on. Still he cant go 0-4 for 2 straight weeks and than heat up.

 

[Orange602]

Upton is also becoming an injury prone baby. However Upton did heat up more and more as the season went on. Still he cant go 0-4 for 2 straight weeks and than heat up.

He did? He started the season red hot and now is hitting .260.

 

[Villain]

Prado had a better year than Upton so...

This must be that point where homerism leads to blindness.

 

[Arizona_Sting]

This must be that point where homerism leads to blindness.

Upton- .259, 26 HR, 67 RBI, 7 SB, 158 strikeouts.
Prado- .281, 14 HR, 81 RBI, 3 SB, 53 strikeouts.

I'll take Prado's defense and versatility over Upton's laziness any day. Upton would've NEVER had the April he had with Atlanta if he was still with us.

I guess you're just the kind of guy that thinks whoever hits more homers is the better player.

 

[Villain]

Upton- .259, 26 HR, 67 RBI, 7 SB, 158 strikeouts.
Prado- .281, 14 HR, 81 RBI, 3 SB, 53 strikeouts.

I'll take Prado's defense and versatility over Upton's laziness any day. Upton would've NEVER had the April he had with Atlanta if he was still with us.

I guess you're just the kind of guy that thinks whoever hits more homers is the better player.

OH PLEASE! Way to cherry pick, lol.

Upton had higher SLG and OBP (better wOBA, too).

wRC+

Upton: 126
Prado: 103

Not to mention that Upton is only 26 years old while Prado is about to turn 30.