The Season: Statistically, the Diamondbacks' division title in 2007 was a fluke. They beat their Pythagorean projection by 11 wins, aided by a 32-20 record in one-run games. But their youth, a big trade for Danny Haren, and the weakness of the rest of the division, all gave hope they could continue their winning ways. Thumbing their nose at Pythagoras, the DBacks began the year 20-8, opening up a 6.5 game lead on the division in late April. Staff ace Brandon Webb won his first nine starts.

The rest of the season was just ugly; despite midseason trades for Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny DeVito (er, Adam Dunn and David Eckstein) plus Jon Rauch, their lead was gradually eroded, and they gave it up for good on Sept. 6. Montezuma's Revenge has nothing on Pythagoras'.

High Point: All of April was pretty much a high point; take your pick between an 8-game win streak early in the year, or Randy Johnson's first win of the season on April 25, which gave the DBacks an early 6.5 game lead.

Positive Trends: After a terrible sophomore season in 2007, 25-year-old shortstop Stephen Drew bounced back with a .293 average and 76 extra-base hits.

Doug Davis returned from thyroid cancer, made 26 starts and was OK.

23-year-old pitching stud Max Scherzer had one strange season. He won only one game the whole year (at Tucson) and spent a month on the DL with shoulder fatigue; on the other hand, he dominated the PCL early in the year, then dominated major league hitters after his return from the DL. On the whole it was pretty impressive.

Pleasant Surprises: They got 175 solid innings out of 44-year-old Randy Johnson.

Disappointments: Eric Byrnes had a good start in April, but then had to suspend his season and return to Washington to deal with the credit crisis.

The Diamondbacks had the youngest lineup in the league. As mentioned, Stephen Drew took a big step forward, as did Carlos Quentin - though unfortunately he was playing for the White Sox. The others will have to wait another year for stardom:

• Conor Jackson did a lot of things right in 2008, including a successful move to the outfield. If he had any power at all he would be a good player; now 26 years old
• Mark Reynolds is the opposite of Jackson. He has power - 28 homers, 97 RBI - but set a major league record with 202 strikeouts, didn't get on base much, and made 33 errors at third base. 24 years old, but with plenty of question marks (including the team's decision to try him out at second base)
• 24-year-old Chris Young had a miserable first half of the season; he was moved out of the leadoff role, and played better. He was always miscast as a leadoff hitter, so this might prove to be a positive development
• Justin Upton had a hot start in April, but struggled badly in May and June, including an astonishing 0-for-24 slump in which he struck out 17 times. He missed two months with a strained oblique, but has hit close to .300 since his return. Still only 20 years old, still has awesome potential

The bullpen requires an essay of its own. After he was acquired at the deadline, Jon Rauch posted a 7.82 ERA in August - and that paled in comparison to closer Brandon Lyon, who posted a 12.27 ERA in the same month. Overall, the pen was decent - 7th in the league in ERA - but late-inning problems were absolutely devastating late in the year.

The Predictable: Brandon Webb and Danny Haren were both really good. Unfortunately, they were "only" a combined 17-6 in the second half of the season - both needed to be Johan Santana to save the team from itself.

Orlando Hudson was good at the plate, good in the field, and suffered a season-ending injury in early August.

Over the past two seasons, Juan Cruz is 10-1 in relief and has averaged 12.6 strikeouts per nine innings. But a poorly-timed trip to the disabled list in July put him out of the picture for the closer's job, even as the Lyon meltdown began.

Epitaph: You can blame the 2008 Diamondbacks if Francisco Rodriguez gets $100 million this offseason - they might even be the team that gives him the money. Closers simply don't throw enough innings to be worth that much - if the Angels lose K-Rod and get stuck with an average closer in 2009, they might only win the division by 18 games instead of 20. That's nice, but I'd rather spend the money on Johan Santana.

But a BAD closer - they can blow you out of the race as fast as anything. And no matter what the numbers say, the visceral, emotional reaction to seeing a team wrecked by its bullpen is too strong; GMs will overpay for a closer just because they don't want to be the one team that has its playoff hopes sunk by its pen (actually, two teams in 2008 - the DBacks and the Cardinals).

Anyways, the Diamondbacks are still in very good shape heading into 2009. They have a very young and talented lineup, plus two studs in the starting rotation. Now that Pythagoras has stopped playing his tricks, they have a clearer idea of how good they are, and what they need to do to get better. I'm sure that GM Josh Byrnes will devote most of his brain power to fixing the pen, but the rotation needs a third starter as well, and he needs to pay special attention to whether some of these young players are being put in a position to succeed.