At the beginning of June, I wrote a blog about my prediction that June would be as bad as May for the D-Backs. I went so far as to keep track of the embarrassing season of Eric Byrnes.

As Byrnes is headed for the DL, it’s time to get the most recent check on the Eric Byrnes watch. Byrnes batted .286 last year. In the previous blog I mentioned at the top, Byrnes had to bat .328 in order for him to improve on last year’s season. In order for him to improve on last year’s average  the Byrnes watch has jumped 15 points to .343. If I’m being unfair to expect a player that had his salary doubled to improve his batting average by 2 points, I’m sorry to waste your time.

I could go on torching Byrnes for the rest of this column, but why? He’s a waste and an embarrassment in 2008. I want to stress 2008, however. His season isn’t going to get better. It’s clear that he thought he had it made. He worked as hard as he could to finally get that big contract and didn’t put the work in during the off-season to succeed. I don’t think that has anything to do with 2009. If he has any ounce of pride, he’ll bounce back and have a solid 2009 and 2010.

There were a lot of people in baseball that were never comfortable with Byrnes as their starting outfielder. He finally had his chance to prove everyone wrong. Here’s the numbers projected for the year: .209 (-.077), 14 HR’s (-7), 10 SB (-40…but don’t worry, he’s on pace to get caught 10x’s so that’s one stat up from last year), 68 runs (-35), 88K’s (at least that’s 10 below last year but he’s getting closer very quickly).

When you see those stats, tell me you believe that he put in full energy to the off-season to get ready for this year. I don’t see it. I see the typical player who fought to get the big contract and got it and didn’t have the same fight anymore. The true definition of Eric Byrnes will come next year. He’s already wasted this one.