D-BACKS NOTEBOOK: Haren the great

Despite the lackluster record, Arizona's ace is on pace for a remarkable season.

It’s no secret anymore. This hasn’t been the most encouraging season for Arizona Diamondbacks’ fans.

In fact, the D-backs have been downright terrible at times.

Between the .245 team batting average (next-to-last in the NL), the higher-than-league-average 4.42 team ERA, the countless bullpen meltdowns, the bizarre circumstances surrounding A.J. Hinch’s ascension to manager and the team’s mind-boggling inability to put together a winning streak (outside of a four-game streak from May 20-23), it has been a long, grueling summer for D-backs fans.

And it isn’t even the All-Star break yet.

With no chance to contend for the NL West crown (unless the team can somehow make up a 20-game deficit), Arizonans have spent the first three months searching for bright spots to maintain their interest in this club. To their credit, they’ve found two: Justin Upton (we’ll get to him in another D-backs Notebook) and Dan Haren.

Don’t let the 7-5 record fool you. Haren has arguably been the National League’s best pitcher. ESPN’s Peter Gammons wrote an article on Wednesday advocating Haren’s Cy Young candidacy.

“His 7-5 record would be 11-1 with a whole bunch of other teams,” Gammons wrote.

His ESPN colleague, Buster Olney, believes Haren should start the All-Star Game on July 14. In a July 1 blog post, Olney wrote, “If the NL starter was picked purely on performance, Haren would get the ball.”

It sounds crazy, but Gammons and Olney are 100 percent correct. Haren leads the NL in ERA (2.19), WHIP (0.81, the only pitcher in baseball below one), innings pitched (115) and quality starts (15). That last number should say everything one needs to know about Haren’s season. He’s submitted 15 starts where the D-backs should’ve won, but Haren is credited for only seven wins.

How has he been so successful? A combination of unhittable “out” pitches (I’ve seen major league hitters swing at his new cut fastball and miss by four feet) and pinpoint control. Haren has 113 strikeouts (fourth in the NL) to only 15 walks (easily the lowest among NL starters).

Ironically, Haren’s worst start of the year came against his former team in Oakland (seven innings, nine hits, five earned runs, four homers given up), but the D-backs found a way to win that game 8-7.

In his first two starts in June, Haren shut down the Dodgers and Padres with seven-inning, one-run performances, but earned a no-decision for his efforts, thanks to some disastrous bullpen efforts.

Haren also started the season with three straight losses (April 7 to Colorado, April 12 to Los Angeles, April 17 to San Francisco), but gave up only four earned runs. This led to an almost unprecedented stat line: Dan Haren, 0-3, 1.90 ERA.

Make no mistake, Haren is submitting one of the finest seasons in Arizona history — a statement not to be made lightly, given this young team’s rich pitching history.

Webb’s outstanding run from 2006-08 — which featured the 2006 Cy Young award and an unbelievable 42-inning scoreless streak in 2007 — still never featured an ERA close to as low as 2.19.

Haren won’t top Randy Johnson’s Hall-of-Fame stretch from 1999-2002 (four straight Cy Youngs, a World Series MVP, an eye-popping 1,417 strikeouts), but if he maintains this pace, he definitely enters the Johnson-Schilling-Webb pantheon for memorable D-backs hurlers.

Just about any other ace in Haren’s position would spend the season sulking and demanding a trade. After all, the Diamondbacks aren’t going anywhere this season. A pitcher of Haren’s caliber can’t be happy to waste his prime on a perennial rebuilder, especially when co-ace Brandon Webb has missed the entire season with shoulder trouble.

It was recently announced that Webb plans to be back on the mound in September in order to hit the ground running in 2010, but that won’t do much to help the hard-luck Haren this season.

Instead of pouting, Haren simply picks up the ball every fifth day and puts on a clinic. When he’s in a groove, he wastes no time between pitches. He’s completely locked in.

The unique hitch in Haren’s wind-up — that elongated pause he uses when there aren’t any runners on base — make it nearly impossible to time him properly.

Haren takes the mound today at 12:10 in Denver against the Colorado Rockies. If it’s anything like his last start (Tuesday against Cincinnati, seven innings, one run, nine strikeouts and his first career home run), you won’t want to miss it.

nprevenas@gvnews.com | 547-9747