MLB Season Preview: 2009 Arizona Diamondbacks

One year removed from getting to the National League Championship Series, the Arizona Diamondbacks found out that while pitching may win championships, Manny Ramirez eats pitchers, so the Los Angeles Dodgers took the NL West last season.
The D-backs, apparently, did not learn the lesson, sticking with their all-or-nothing starting lineup and even letting their All-Star quality second baseman walk away.
What will become of the Snakes this season?

OFFENSE: C-

The Diamondbacks offense is an eight-player version of Dave Kingman. When they hit, they hit hard. When they miss, they miss big.
They sported three 20-homer hitters in their regular lineup in 3B Mark Reynolds (28), CF Chris Young (22) and SS Stephen Drew (21), but still only scored 720 runs, good for 20th in the majors, and only hit .251, which was 26th.
This is roughly the same offense they have returning this season, only without the heart and hustle that Orlando Hudson and Eric Byrnes supplied, Hudson still looking for a dance partner, Byrnes relegated to the bench due to injury.
Oh, yeah, the bench. There isn't one, really.
And, no, bringing in 2B Felipe Lopez (.283, 6 homers and 46 RBI in 143 games with the Washington Nationals last year) isn't the answer.

PROJECTED LINEUP: 1 Lopez 2B 2 Jackson LF 3 Young CF 4 Reynolds 3B 5 Drew SS 6 Upton RF 7 Tracy 1B 8 Snyder C 9 Pitcher's spot

STARTING PITCHING: A-

The strength of the D-backs, to put it lightly, comes from the starting five, and has for some time.
It starts with the two number-ones at the top of the rotation in Brandon Webb (22-7, 3.30 ERA) and Danny Haren (16-8, 3.33), goes to solid number three Doug Davis (6-8, 4.32), then right to new acquisition Jon Garland (14-8, 4.90 with the Angels).
The strength of the first four make the five slot almost an afterthought, but youngster Max Scherzer seems to more than fit the bill, posting a 3.05 ERA in losing all four decisions he had last year.
Nothing a little offense can't fix.

PROJECTED ROTATION: Webb, Haren, Davis, Garland, Scherzer

BULLPEN: C-

And the starting rotation had better be superb since the bullpen seems to be a little iffy. Chad Qualls returns as the closer, he converted only nine of 17 chances last season, though if he doesn't work out, newly acquired Jon Rauch (another Nationals escapee) could push him aside (he converted 18 of 24).
So, the back end might be OK. Leading into them, though, now, there's the adventure. One of the (It's Amazin' They Stayed In It That Long) Mets bullpen stalwarts Scott Schoeneweis could be solid, or he could revert back to last year's form. Doug Slaten is a lefty specialist who had trouble getting lefties out. And then there's Tom Gordon, who pitched to Babe Ruth (Ruth had two hits off him, but Flash kept him in the yard).
After the starters leave, Chase Field may be very well named.

CONCLUSION

Pitching wins championships, but offense wins games.
The D-backs fell two short last year. It had a lot to do with not scoring enough runs. Arizona did nothing to address this problem, and now the bullpen, solid last year, may not be so much so this year.
It'll still be close, the starters are too good to let this team slip too far out, but again, especially if number 99 comes back to Chavez Ravine, they'll fall short yet again.

PREDICTION: 85-77, second in National League West