This has truly been a miserable season for the Diamondbacks.  I didn't truly realize just how miserable until today.

Arizona is on pace to go 71-91 this season, their third worst season in franchise history.  Only their inaugural season in 1998 (65-97) and that sorry 2004 team (51-111) has finished below 76 wins.  Just for your comparison, the Rockies have 91 losses just thrice - 1993, 2004 and 2005.  And this Arizona team was almost universally expected to finish in the top three in the NL West, with several projections placing them atop the division.

Losing their ace and cleanup hitter from 2008 for the season sure doesn't help, but the futility doesn't just come from those two players' absences.  Anyone that had Arizona 24 games out at this point needs their own TV show.

Naturally, in all things sensical, it is the D-Backs that are just coming off a near sweep of the Padres, breaking San Diego's six-series win streak in the process.  This after losing 9 of their last 10 games.  After winning their last five games in August, Arizona is 4-11 in September.  Baseball can be so random at times.

With one win in the series, Colorado will clinch the season series from Arizona, quite the rebound from the 3-15 mark they put up last season.  Arizona's pitiful 32-40 home record bests only Washington, Cleveland and Kansas City for the worst home marks in the league, and given the Rockies are 38-37 on the road, the home field advantage for the series is flat non-existent.

The Arms: B-

The Diamondbacks will throw out their top two starts for the series, including rejuvinated OMGace Dan Haren.  Scherzer and Haren have faced the Rockies in the same series once this season, with Arizona taking that series in Coors Field (although Scherzer actually lost his game).  Kevin Mulvey is no better than any of the pitchers we feasted on against the Mets or Reds. 

Juan Gutierrez has arguably been the best reliever for Arizona this season and has taken a strangehold on the closer's role after Chad Qualls went down.

Gutierrez is joined in the pen by lefties Daniel Schlereth, Scott Schoeneweis and Clay Zavada as well as right handers Blaine Boyer, Bryan Augenstein, Daniel Cabrera, Leo Rosales, Yusmeiro Petit and Esmerling Vasquez. 

The D:  C+

Arizona has been 2nd in MLB in errors for most of the season, and they sit eight behind Washington's league high 124.  UZR-wise, their season-long range marks grade out above average, as they are 9th in the league.  Parra, Reynolds, Allen and Young are graded as weak by UZR, while the rest of the lineup is solid, led by Upton's 8.0 UZR/150.

The Ballpark:  VERY STRONG hitter's park

Chase Field has officially taken the torch from Coors Field as the NL's best hitters park.  This year, Chase is playing at a Baseball-Reference park factor of 108, clearly stronger even than Coors Field's 105/106 (both have multi-year factors of 107).  The park is extremely friendly to home runs and triples, giving a good shot in the arm for doubles as well.

Probable Pitchers:

Tonight, 6:40 pm MDT

Frankly, I'm a little worried about Jason Marquis, who has been poor in three of his last four starts.  It is the first time all year he has given up 5+ ER three times in four starts, and he was facing three of the most anemic offenses in the league in Sad Diego, San Francisco and New York.  The only time he has faced Arizona this season was in his third start of the year, when he allowed 6 ER on 9 hits (2 HR) in 5 IP at Chase Field. Luckily, he's drawing the weakest of starters for Arizona.  Kevin Mulvey stepped into the rotation in place of Yusmeiro Petit with no big league starts under his belt.  The waiver wire pickup from Minnesota got knocked around in his start Saturday while wearing a "Los DBacks" jersey, allowing 6 ER on 11 hits in 4 IP to Milwaukee.  In his appearance before that, he served up a home run to Carlos Gonzalez and walked three Rockies.  He utilizes a high-80's fastball, low-80's slider, mid-70's curve and will mix in a changeup now and again.   Favors:  ROCKIES moderately 

Saturday,  September 19, 5:10 pm MDT

Just when I started heaping uninhibited praise on Hammel, he broke his 8-game 3ER or less streak, allowing four to the Giants at AT&T.  One very unpublicized part of Hammel's game is his 0.75HR/9, which is absolutely fantastic for a fifth starter for the Rockies.  Part of that has been his filthy curveball, which Fangraphs has rated as 7th best in MLB, sandwiched in between Barry Zito and Chris Carpenter.  Nice company. He threw two scoreless innings in relief at Chase Field in April and allowed 3 ER in 6 IP Sept 4 at Coors against the D-Backs.  After suffering a miserable August, Max Scherzer has rebounded a bit in September, allowing 1 ER in two of his 3 starts.  The heterochromic right-hander faced the Rockies twice this year, both times at Coors in July, having success neither night.  He allowed 9 runs (7 earned) in 10 innings, serving up home runs to Troy Tulowitzki and Ian Stewart,  This is a fairly even pitching matchup.  Hammel has the better FIP, but Scherzer has the better tRA.  Favors:  DRAW

Sunday, September 20, 1:10 MDT

After being consistent for so long, it's odd to say Ubaldo has not given us what we wanted to see the last two starts.  Tuesday at AT&T was the kind of abomination we ought to expect every once in a while, as even aces have bad games.  Coming off that hamstring injury, one might think the leg contributed to the poor start.  But I didn't see any evidence of that - I saw rust.  If he can get Ian Stewart to play third and get back into his routine, we'll see the Ubaldo of old.  After four weeks of struggles from mid-July to mid-August, Dan Haren has returned back into a forceful hurler.  Since getting lit up in Philly, he has allowed no more than 3 ER in 5 straight starts.  He did allow home runs in 9 of his last 10 starts before pitching in the land dingers go to die his last outing, so he could be vulnerable to the heavy hitters at Chase.  Combine that with the fact that he walks no one and strikes out plenty, and the Rockies need to be very aggressive to achieve success.  Overall, Haren has a slight edge over Jimenez in tRA and FIP. The two locked horns on July 5, with Haren besting Jimenez in the rubber game 4-3.  Favors:  DIAMONDBACKS slightly

My take:  This series isn't absolutely essential in terms of the wild card.  The Giants and Dodgers will beat up on each other.  The Marlins are probably out of it as is and the Braves will get all they can handle against Philly.  Even with a series loss, they'll still be in prime position.  Now that I'm done sandbagging, the pitching matchups give the Rockies a solid chance in every game and there's no reason to drop this series.  Rox take two,

Chris Young is hitting a stout .302/.373/.698 (.438 wOBA) for the month of September with 6 HR.  Starting with the series at Coors Field two weeks ago, the CF has hit safely in 10 of 12 games.  His previous best stretch of 10 games with hits was 16 games to start the season.  Gerardo Parra is hitting .367 and Miguel Montero .327 this month.  Juan Gutierrez has permitted just one run in his last 12.1 IP.  

Ryan Roberts is hitting only .152 (7-for-46) in September, while Eric Byrnes, Stephen Drew, Mark Reynolds and Brandon Allen are all batting at a .220 clip or worse since the monthly calendar flip.  Daniel Schlereth just gave up four runs in his last outing, Daniel Cabrera threw three scoreless innings in his last relief appearance, but in his only other appearance this month, he faced 5 Rockies and all scored in his D-Backs debut.  

Chad Qualls is out with a nasty knee injury he sustained August 30 and will not return this season.  Conor Jackson (Valley Fever - 5/12) and Brandon Webb (shoulder - 4/7) are also on the 60-day and have essentially provided no value to the team all year.  Eric Byrnes (fractured hand - 6/26), Chris Snyder (lower back - 8/23) is on the 15-day.  Snyder may still return this year - everyone else has been shut down for the season.