Regrets

If we win tonight and tomorrow, this team will have definitely earned to divisional title. To win the division even with the absolutely atrocious weeks we've had? I think that's earning it.

But if we don't... the pile of regrets is going to be huge, and I know a lot of our boys will be feeling them all.

Even with the bullpen and the offensive problems, I think the biggest thing to regret is the season of Mark Mulder.

The other members of the Big 3 have really had their moments in the sun. Zito had a Cy Young season in the past. Hudson's had several seasons where he's wowed us, even if his win total doesn't always reflect it. The blown saves in the past few years, and his injuries during seasons' last games, have been regrettable, but he's put together some great seasons. Mulder... he's definitely put together some fabulous years as well, but it seems like the ghost of injury is always hanging over him. It seems like he gets himself well on the road to Cy Young, then SOMETHING happens.

His absolute tumble, his absolute fall from grace seems bigger to me than Zito's failure in so many ways. Zito's come through in many Septembers, and even when he was pitching poorly, there was an ounce of hope when he went out there. He'd find ways to surprise me and occasionally pull out a great win. But Mulder... he went from Cy Young and the ASG to pitching in a way that I had NO hope. Almost everyone knew when he went out there during these last few weeks that he'd lose. Last night was his moment for redemption. Heck, even REDMAN pulled off a vital win. I hoped for a minute, that he'd be able to be what he used to be.

Mark Mulder is the biggest disappointment of the season. While all our guys blew a good number of games, Mulder seemed to lose any chance of things going his way. He seems to be the catalyst in the 'what could have been'. Our pitching has always mobilized in the second half, before this season. Gotta wonder if Mulder had done better, if the pitching staff would have been dragged further down into the abyss like we saw.

Of course, there's plenty of regret to spread around:

Rhodes: 9/14 in save opportunities
Mecir: 2/7 in SVO
Rincon: 0/3 in SVO
Duchscherer: 0/2 in SVO
Bradford: 1/4 in SVO
Hammond: 1/3 in SVO
Lehr: 0/1 in SVO
Jermaine Dye: 127 SO
Bobby Crosby: 137 SO
Getting shut out three times
Zito: getting 5 NDs in games where he pitched 6+ innings and gave up 2 or fewer runs
Hudson: getting 4 NDs in games where he pitched 6+ innings and gave up 2 or fewer runs
Mulder: ERA over 8 for September
Miller: batting .235 after the All-Star Break, with only 2 HRs
The whole team: injuries, injuries, injuries

The thing about this season that will get to me, if we lose, is that this team is so damn talented. Last season, the team had the kind of weak spots that getting to the postseason seemed like something to be grateful for -- I mean, with that outfield? Eesh! This year, this team seemed strong from the get-go, with talent at every position.  If we'd just had Kotsay instead of T-Long and this year's Hatteberg on the 2003 team, we would have destroyed a lot of teams -- and probably had a different playoff story.

Had with last year's pitching staff with this year's offense, there's no question to me that we'd be buying our WS tickets soon.

But now the team's starting to look worn down, a lot like a combination of last year's offense and one of those late 90s pitching staffs.

Billy Beane put together a heck of a team. Had he not gotten Rhodes, it's clear we'd be in a much better spot. This year, one of our most talented teams in the past decade will put out one of the worst records under Beane's tenure.

I would hate to be within 10 miles of Billy's office for the next few months if we DON'T succeed these next few games.