The Arizona Diamondbacks bullpen was considered to be a strength for the team going into the 2013 MLB season, but after the first month, it appears to be a liability for the team.

The bullpen has already blown nine save opportunities this season, and there is still more than five months left to go. The Diamondbacks did make some improvements to the bullpen in the offseason by adding relievers Tony Sipp, Heath Bell and Matt Reynolds.

The problems with the bullpen are not with the new players, but the pitchers that had done well in previous seasons. The person who is responsible for most of the struggles with the bullpen is closer J.J. Putz, who has already blown four save opportunities this season.

He did have issues last season closing games for Arizona, but that was a result of him trying to implement a new pitch to get the opposition out. This season, Putz is having problems locating his split-finger fastball and the opposing teams are taking advantage of the mistakes he has made so far.

Arizona might want consider using another reliever to close their games if the struggles for Putz continue. They are playing many tight games this season and they need someone that they can depend on to close games for them. They could use Reynolds to close for them on a temporary basis, but the only problem with that is he has no history of saving games.

Arizona did start the season off great, but the inconsistency of the bullpen has to improve for them to have a successful season.

Chris is the Diamondbacks writer for www.RantSports.com. Follow and interact with him on Twitter. Like Chris on Facebook. Add him to your network on Google