Poor defense makes any pitching staff bad. Giving even a bad team extra outs in and inning, makes pitchers throw more pitches, and gives the other team more oppertunities to make something happen. I think that its just a combination of things that did us in this year. we were consistantly inconsistant. there were times when would score 6,7 or 8 runs and lose ballgames. That should be enough runs to win some games. I felt we were close to turning the corner a few times this season, but it just didnt happen. If we add some talent at a few key positions, we might be headed backin the right direction