Scott Bordow

The Arizona Diamondbacks shouldn’t be in the postseason.

They rank 29th out of 30 major league teams with a .250 batting average.

They’ve allowed 20 more runs than they’ve scored this season.

Their starting third baseman started the year in Class AA ball, their right fielder in Class A ball.

They’ve lost pitcher Randy Johnson, third baseman Chad Tracy and second baseman Orlando Hudson to season-ending injuries.

Oh, and their $52 million payroll is the fifth lowest in all of baseball.

Given those facts, the Diamondbacks should be starting their winter vacation.

Instead, they finished with the best record in the NL and will face the Chicago Cubs in the National League Division Series starting Wednesday.

It doesn’t make any sense.

Which is why Bob Melvin has to win the NL Manager of the Year award.

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Philadelphia’s Charlie Manuel is sure to get some love after the Phillies’ remarkable comeback in September. Chicago’s Lou Piniella deserves mention for leading the Cubs into the playoffs after a miserable start.

But neither man has done as good of a job as Melvin.

Melvin is hard to define. He’s not a demonstrative guy, like Piniella, nor does he have the reputation of a brilliant strategist, a la St. Louis’ Tony La Russa.

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He’s also a complete failure when it comes to self-promotion. You don’t see Melvin on billboards or in commercials. He could walk unrecognized through the streets of downtown Phoenix.

In other words, he’s not Tommy Lasorda.

In Arizona, Melvin long was viewed as the fallback plan, someone who got the Diamondbacks’ job only because he was the squeaky-clean opposite of Wally Backman, who had the job for four days in 2004 before being fired following revelations he was arrested twice.

Perhaps that was true of Melvin then, but it doesn’t do justice to the manager now.

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Arizona’s first-place finish in the NL West can be traced to multiple sources — the brilliance of the bullpen, anchored by Jose Valverde, the play of left fielder Eric Byrnes and Hudson, the growth of youngsters such as center fielder Chris Young — but Melvin’s stabilizing influence has been just as vital.

The Diamondbacks went through several stretches of miserable baseball — losing five straight games to start the month of May, and 10 of 13 in July — that might have crippled a young team. But there was never any panic in the dugout in part because Melvin never panicked.

He moved on from one day to the next and took his team with him.

“The most impressive thing about Bob is that no matter what is happening, he is steady at the helm,” Diamondbacks managing general partner Ken Kendrick said. “He never gets too flustered when things aren’t going well, and he never gets overly excited when things are going bad.

“I think with young players in particular, a steady hand is very important. He’s an excellent manager for the team we have.”

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