D-Backs look for answers after horrible season

Looking back on it, the Arizona Diamondbacks' 2009 season may have ended after four innings.

That's how long Brandon Webb lasted against Colorado on opening day. The Diamondbacks won the game but lost their ace for the season to a shoulder injury that eventually required surgery.

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Left fielder Conor Jackson soon succumbed to Valley fever, and other regulars followed him onto the disabled list. But injuries were only part of the story as the Diamondbacks stumbled out of the gate, winning back-to-back games for the first time on April 26-27.

In early May, desperate to jump-start a slumping team, the Diamondbacks replaced manager Bob Melvin with A.J. Hinch, a front-office staffer with no managerial experience. The move produced no improvement on the field, where the Diamondbacks seemed mystified by fundamentals.

The end result was a 70-92 record and Arizona's third last-place finish in its 12-year history. Given the high expectations when the team broke training camp, it may have been the Diamondbacks' most disappointing season.

"Do we have some excuses as to how this season turned sour? We do," Hinch said this week. "We had some injuries. We had a lot of change. We had a lot of turmoil amongst our team.

"But the real reason why we got to this point where we are now is we didn't play good enough baseball," Hinch said.

The Diamondbacks face numerous decisions this offseason. The most important is whether to exercise the club's $8.5 million option on Webb for 2010 or pay a $2 million buyout and allow Webb to become eligible for free agency. The Diamondbacks must decide shortly after the end of the World Series.

The affable Webb, who won the 2006 NL Cy Young Award and finished second the next two seasons, is among the more popular athletes in Phoenix. But he's also coming off shoulder surgery, and that makes it a difficult decision for a budget-conscious team.

"He's issue No. 1 for a lot of reasons, not the least of which is what he's done for the organization," said general manager Josh Byrnes, who has hinted that the team will keep Webb.

Byrnes said the club will probably part ways with free agent lefty Doug Davis, so the rotation will be restructured around Dan Haren, Max Scherzer and, possibly, Webb. In the bullpen, the club expects closer Chad Qualls to bounce back from season-ending knee surgery.

The season had its bright spots. Haren went 14-10 with a 3.14 ERA, pitched a career-high 229 1-3 innings and earned his third straight All-Star berth.

Right fielder Justin Upton made his first All-Star team and hit 26 homers, drove in 86 runs and batted .300. But Upton, who turned 22 in August, showed immaturity in the field and on the basepaths.

Third baseman Mark Reynolds hit 44 homers, drove in 102 runs and stole 24 bases. But Reynolds made national news by striking out 223 times, breezing past his own record of 204 strikeouts, set last year.

Reynolds wasn't the only Diamondbacks hitter who had a hard time putting the bat on the ball. The club struck out 1,298 times, most in the majors.

For the first time since 2006, the Diamondbacks' only view of the pennant race was when a contending team came to town — a stark change for an organization accustomed to success.

Arizona entered this season with an overall winning record since its inception in 1998. But this disastrous season dropped the Diamondbacks to 970-974 all-time.

The record says the Diamondbacks are a losing franchise. Hinch disputes that conclusion, and after wrapping up the season in Chicago, he told his players he expects improvement next year.

"We absolutely can turn this around," Hinch said. "As I told our team in Chicago, this is not the norm in this organization. It's never been the norm to have seasons like this."

Perhaps not. But after making the playoffs three times in their first five seasons — and winning the 2001 World Series — the Diamondbacks have missed the postseason six times in the last seven years.

Two years ago, Arizona won the NL West with a league-best 90-72 record, and the Diamondbacks seemed ready to defend their crown when they jumped out to a 20-8 record in April 2008.

Since then, Arizona has gone 132-164, raising questions about whether their 2007 title was a fluke.

"For the better part of a year-plus, we've just been a team that seems to find a way to lose more than we should," Byrnes said. "In order to win, we've got to reverse that, because a lot of these guys have been a part of a team that led the league in wins, so it's been done. They've done it. We're in a bad habit of losing. We need to stop that cycle."