Actually, AZ will start Estes tonight and push Nippert a day so he'll start tomorrow. Since the Dbacks are mathematically still in the race, you just can't trust a rookie to keep up the fight. A grizzled old vet like Estes should kill the math teacher by the 3rd inning. Still, I'm rooting for a win here. Gotta stomp the Dodgers while they're down.

With a loss, the Dodgers will clinch last place. How many teams have gone from first to worst? I can only think of one.

Did the Rockies suck their way out of the division, a la British soccer cellar dwellers?

The Rockies are so bad, I forgot about them.

With a loss, the Dodgers clinch fourth place. If Colorado loses, the Rockies clinch fifth.

The Dodgers, DBacks, and Giants could still conceivably finish in a 3-way tie for second.

The Dodgers came so close to winning the 92 games zips gave them...

Levski, zips is garbage. Most people thought that the Dodgers would be about an 85-88 win team. It turns out the Dodgers were much worse than that. The Giants were the concensus pick to win the west provided that Bonds would be healthy most of the year.

Most people thought that the Dodgers would be about an 85-88 win team

Who are most people.

The Giants were the concensus pick to win the west provided that Bonds would be healthy most of the year.

Really? There was a "consensus" about anything involving the NL West prior to the season? I don't think so. Most non saber pundits pretty much said, "There is no clear favorite, but I'll pick the ___________"

Of course all the saber pundits picked the Dodgers. oops.

It was a study in contrasts before the season. The local media here were all saying "Man, the Dodgers are going to suck. We hate McCourt and DePodiscount", but most of the statheads were saying "Dodgers should easily take the West with the Giants out of the way, McCourt's not great but Depo rocks". I was real negative on their chances but let the statheads influence me enough that I thought they would be mediocre.

A rare, rare situation where the local media actually had it right.

I was never sold on the Dodgers really, but we'll never know, since they were decimated by injuries.

The Dodgers probably had the highest ceiling and the lowest floor of any team in the division.

The Dodgers probably had the highest ceiling and the lowest floor of any team in the division.

Which is surprising since most collapses along the San Andreas fault have low ceilings and/or high floors.

How about Chad Tracy? He has a higher VORP among NL 1Bmen than Lyle Overbay. And he's about 4 years younger. Too bad the Dbacks will trade him for garbage this offseason.

Levski, zips is garbage.

Yes, I do know that. That's why I like to poke fun of it on this site.

I thought coming into the season that the Giants were clearly the best team with a healthy Bonds. The Giants had just beefed up their offense with Alou, signed a quality closer, improved at short stop, and would have Noah Lowery, who pitched like a superstar in 2004, for a whole season. Of course, with Bonds injured, they were nothing.

It was a study in contrasts before the season. The local media here were all saying “Man, the Dodgers are going to suck. We hate McCourt and DePodiscount”, but most of the statheads were saying “Dodgers should easily take the West with the Giants out of the way, McCourt’s not great but Depo rocks”. I was real negative on their chances but let the statheads influence me enough that I thought they would be mediocre.

A rare, rare situation where the local media actually had it right.

I don't think anybody took a truly realistic look at the Dodgers' chances this season. The local media turned out right, but for the wrong reasons. They looked at the players dumped and the sabre-friendly players brought in and concluded that DePodesta had trashed the team. The sabrists liked the players brought in and expected the Dodgers to be good. Everybody kind of missed the fact that the Dodgers really had a fluke season last year.

They finished 4 games over their pythagorean record last season. Their 89-73 pythag record was inflated by several unsustainable factors. Adrian Beltre put up one of the greatest fluke seasons of all time. Guillermo Mota pitched like a relief ace for the time he was there, despite mediocre peripherals. Jose Lima put up a better than league average ERA. No real health issues.

All in all, what they had last year was sustainably a .500 team. You figure that the team will improve with the addition of free agents and prospects from their top-rated farm system. Instead they lose their top free-agent hitter for most of the season, their ace reliever for the whole season, a chunk of time from almost every other player, and the mainstream-lauded farm system turns out. . . nothing. The manager appears to give up halfway into the season, playing the no-hit catcher at first base among other inexplicable actions.

70-87 really isn't very surprising.

This season has been like the perfect storm for false illusions for the Diamondbacks.

The good start, the lousy division, staying alive until September 28th, finishing the season strong. The Front office is going to be tricked into thinking they are just a couple of pieces away from being a legit contendor.

Is there a more perfect distillation of all that is Bob Melvin - and the Diamodback braintrust, for that matter - than the handling of Shawn Estes tonight? The guy is clearly hurt; but Melvin, the trainer, and the pitching coach don't even flinch until he gives up a run. As soon as that happens, though, they can't swarm the mound fast enough. Process, schmocess.