Towers Deals Montero For Lobster Salad, Deviled Egg

ORLANDO --  In an apparent impulse move already drawing criticism, GM Kevin Towers swapped catcher Miguel Montero for a traditional upscale lunch at Disney's Dolphin Hotel.

"We still need a first baseman," cautioned Towers, "but I saw something I like - and acquired it. My appetite for old standbys is no secret at this point. "

thrilling climax and denouement >>>

Bang For The Buck?

The Diamondbacks' holiday wish list has grown longer than an antelope di*k, but at this point, what's the most pressing need? Where do they get the biggest bang for the...[wait for it]...buck? Let's eschew petty front office cracks that make (or made) Diamondhacks famous, and leap out of character to assess numbingly dull positional upgrades.

thrilling climax and denouement >>>

Endless Summer

• On a day Carlos Gonzalez hit two home runs, and Edwin Jackson solidified the White Sox' hold on first place, the Dbacks lost to the Washington Nationals, before the smallest crowd (15670) in Chase Field history. Eight of the nine smallest crowds in franchise history have now materialized in the last few months.
  


• At the two thirds mark, Arizona is on pace to lose 102 games. They should finish better than that, but are sixteen games out. Not from first place. Sixteen games from fourth place. Looking ahead, Dan Haren and Max Scherzer try to propel contending teams forward. Followed by tomorrow, and the next day...and the next.
  


• Update 8/6: Haren yielded ten hits last night and hasnt won for the Angels yet - despite an ERA under three.

Like our Dbacks, San Diego is unseasonably cool this summer, and it feels good. A thick marine layer lingers past noon most days, affording longer, brisker walks with the wife, without the usual bake and sweat. In the afternoons, our son and I body surf in the Pacific with the occasional "dolphin". They're thirty yards out, with large dorsal fins and the real estate agents all call them dolphins. Whatever. I'll be home Saturday, swimming safely with accumulated carob leaves in my own backyard pool.

More On Salary Dumps


I dont object to redistributing 2011 payroll. I have a problem reducing our chances of contending - and I think you do that swapping Haren and Ed Jackson for Joe Saunders and Hudson, even if some money can be applied elsewhere. It's almost as if the Dbacks thought process was as follows:

1. Our biggest competitive liability is pitching.
2. Haren and Jackson represent our largest financial liability among pitchers.
3. Neither Haren nor Jackson were good 2010 values.
4. Therefore, trading Haren and Jackson makes us more efficient (ie dedicated payroll) and flexible (future expenditures).

But failure to meet 2010 expectations doesnt resign either workhorse to fall short of 2011 expectations or preclude either from being an attractive contractual value going forward. Both are recent All Stars. Haren's got a high BABIP and strong peripherals, suggesting he could enjoy a significant "comeback" year. Jackson is more erratic, but a terrific athlete with a powerful, durable arm.

We didnt need to dump their contracts. We needed to optimize their talents by dumping organizational obstacles; namely a toxic manager, a subpar defensive catching tandem, immature offense, below average defense and a disturbingly ineffective pitching coach. Haren and Jackson were underutilized (if not outright squandered) by a dysfunctional organization.

If their careers deteriorate, Saunders maintains and Hudson develops, it'll be fortuitous - but if Haren recaptures most or all of his consistent mojo, he's virtually irreplaceable at $12M on the open market. Guys who throw 200 innings at 30% above league average run prevention are valuable and rare.

• Finally, welcome to four new readers who just dont get it, inexplicably voting for Joe Saunders in our latest poll! Friendly reminder: Diamondhacks is a haven from that sort of thing.
  

Fans Sold Down The River

Splat.

CEO Derrick Hall's 'championship-style' team just whooshed outta river city faster than Tempe Town Lake... and it smells just as bad. I'm outta town myself and havent had a chance to read up on all the transactions, but just skimming quickly I believe we still have Enright and Fatburger.

What's the goal here? What competitive standard is this FO to be measured by in 2011, if they insist on lowering the bar again and again? Is it to legitimately contend next year or simply "be better than" this year's 100 loss monstrosity? If the latter, count me out. In an era of well managed worst to first turnarounds, spurred by revenue sharing and NL mediocrity, "improving" on a 100 loss season isnt a serious goal worth getting behind.

Look, I get the intrinsic logic of swapping current value for futures when your current season is hopelessly lost, but excepting the fluky blip of 2007, this team has stunk going on seven years straight - due in no small part to the sustained incompetence of the same charlatans now asking us to be patient.

First they blamed Colangelo, then Backman, then Shawn Green and greedy Gonzo, then Seitzer and other hitting coaches, then luck, then injuries, then Melvin. Then AJ needed a full year under his belt to be fairly evaluated, he got that, and then they blamed him. They blamed the fans for not "understanding" the challenges of putting together a winner in this market; the one in which the Suns, Mercury, Cardinals, Rattlers and even Coyotes have recently crafted winners.

As recently as last year, Hall suggested the organization was doing everything right off the field - it just needed to turn things around on it. Yet we've since learned of massive front office disconnects, behind the curtain as it were. Earlier this summer, Hall opined we had a "championship-style" team. Last week he insisted we werent "rebuilding" and wouldnt trade both Haren and Jackson.

Maybe it's time to finally expose the "man behind the curtain", lest there be more carnage.




How can remaining fans endorse this never ending circle of disingenuous deflection, designed to enable the fortune of Ken Kendrick more than the foreseeable competitive fortunes of a ballclub?

About Town

• Derrick Hall's working overtime, preempting chatter that the looming Haren deal is a rebuild or salary dump. I would feel better if he was working overtime actually ensuring the sort of "A+" deal he's publicly fantasized about. Or working at something he's more experienced at - like looking really concerned when a spectator is hit with a foul ball.

• Sweeping the Mets was nice, prompting someone named Cash Kruth over at mlb.com, to call Arizona one of the hottest teams in baseball. According to Bill James' formula, the Mets sweep made us the tenth hottest team in the NL, tied with Pittsburgh. You decide.

• The Diamondbacks dipped below the 2 million attendance pace tonight, for the first time this season. Not an easy thing to do on a Friday night.

• Is Gibby turning it around? It's too early to tell, but the answer is No.

• Back to Haren. Is the goal for next year to merely "get better" or is it go to the playoffs? An important distinction when this year's team projects to lose 95 to 100 games. You can get better than that just by breathing, cant you? Cobble together a cheap, merely bad bullpen. That's a huge improvement right there. Spend a couple hundred thousand on any pitching coach not named Mel. Why, you've skyrocketed up to 75 wins.

Going to the playoffs is harder, and the question becomes, Are you more likely to do that with Dan Haren or a staff anchored by people you get in exchange for Dan Haren?

It can go either way, but the key word above is "likely"and the short answer is "Haren." I'm off to San Diego for a couple weeks, so the long answer will have to wait, but basically the Diamondbacks' primary impetus for this trade is not to get better in 2011. They'd like to get better and will try to get better, certainly, but the driving factor in all this is that they'd prefer not to pay Dan Haren. The driving factor of the opposite clubs, like the Yankees, is winning. Neither bodes well for Arizona's contending chances in 2011.

• In local news, the valley's largest body of water vanished a couple nights ago. Seriously, a billion gallons...gone. Whoosh.

I hope the same cant be said of 2011.

Willis, Stottlemyre To Swap Roles

Struggling starter Dontrelle Willis will switch roles and responsibilities with embattled pitching coach Mel Stottlemyre Jr, the Diamondbacks announced Tuesday.

According to GM Josh Byrnes, the reassignments aim to optimize organizational resources in a challenged market, and are effective the moment the 46 year old Stottlemyre finds a glove to his liking.

We tried to get Dontrelle to aim the ball between on-deck circles, with mixed results. Mel doesnt throw very hard at his age, or quite as hard as his dad in Missouri, but I think our remaining fans will be pleasantly surprised with his command.

Willis, who has no formal coaching experience, enthusiastically supports the initiative and aims to succeed in his unfamiliar post.

"The ball just wouldnt stay down for me, but I'm down with this. Whatever. Anything that helps the club, you know? That's what I'm about."

Byrnes further defended what, flat on its face, appears to be an unorthodox move:

People may question, "Arent you changing the nature of the job a little bit?" Yeah, we'll do that.

Just because Dontrelle cant throw a strike, doesnt mean he cant inspire others to do so. We noticed how vocal he was with Edwin during the no hitter, and thought it was strange Edwin had never pitched anywhere near that well for Stott.

So, we wanted to capitalize on Dontrelle's unique mentoring skills. We feel we've done that.

General Partner Ken Kendrick chastised skeptical media members:

Some "experts" liken this to rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic, but we think that's irresponsible. Firstly, the Titanic was an ungainly - and quite ostentatious - vessel, with lots of lifeboats, so it's hardly analogous to our efforts here.

I didnt get into this business to fail, or sink as it were. It's been five years now, and I dont honestly recall why I got involved exactly, but sinking twelve thousand feet straight to the bottom of the ocean wasnt in my wildest dreams.

At heart, I'm a modest man, operating a modest business, realizing modest returns, but despite what others may think, I do have wild dreams from time to time, when I feel it's appropriate. That's the key. I carefully assess whether or not it's appropriate, under the particular circumstances.

Creator of .370 Club Making Improvements, "Getting More Involved"

Since the Earl of Penury has hinted at transformative changes, bigger than Saul Rivera apparently, I guess I should chime in. After all, people used to flock to Diamondhacks from miles around, to get up to speed on all the latest vitriol and schadenfreude directed at our self styled Dream Team. So, if just one person still stumbles in here, by God, I will deliver vitriol and schadenfreude!

After ten straight losses, 31 innings without a run and half a decade without much of a clue, criticizing the Diamondbacks is like shooting large, slow fish in a...well in a desert, frankly. The hoi polloi have coalesced around the intuitive initiative that some combination of Hinch and/or JByrnes needs to go. Having studied Kendrick's tactics for years, however, and listening to his recent comments, I question whether either insider will exit straight away. Ken's odd and obstinate, but he must realize AJ's a bust. How could one not? I imagine he's showing support for Hinch now because he doesnt want to introduce a new manager against June's brutal interleague schedule - an awkward time to be fostering even the illusion of competitive progress.

Besides, Kendrick is almost assuredly more eager to cut costs and float hazy perceptions of long term progress, than invest in easily measured (and judged) short term moves in a 'lost' season. It sounds as if AJ's gonna stick around, at least through the most difficult stretch of games, much like Melvin before him.

And if AJ's safe it's hard to conceptualize Josh Byrnes getting the immediate boot either, despite Nick Piecoro's emphasis on JB's tenuous future. Perhaps an internal promotion, like Woodfork, is possible. It just seems exceedingly awkward for AJ to be thrust upon any GM coming from outside the organization.

Instead, I anticipate player moves to dump salary and prepare for next year and beyond. I also think Mel Stottlemyre Jr will be dismissed. This FO has a long history of blaming low level managers for encompassing, organizational shortcomings, and Stott's dismissal can easily be justified by Arizona's atmospheric ERA. It also serves to at least partially appease a hostile fan base lusting for management blood.

Who will this club's geniuses dump or trade this go round? Here's their priciest long term obligations, in millions: '

Justin Upton $50
Dan Haren $34
CY $24
Reynolds $14
Ed Jackson $12
Snyder $11
Drew *** (arbitration in 2011-2012)


Developing...

Dbacks Swap Upton For Cash

In a surprise move Thursday evening, the Arizona Diamondbacks reportedly traded babyfaced rightfielder Justin Upton to the rival Los Angeles Dodgers, for an undisclosed sum of cash.



Upton, whose athleticism has been said to reduce major league peers to comparative "little leaguers", was photographed Friday afternoon by mlb.com at a Dodgers pre-training camp workout.

Diamondback sources were unavailable for comment as of Friday evening, however it's presumed the impetus of the move was to relieve payroll pressures, set off by the lavish acquisition of Adam Laroche.

....developing

The Last Big Game

The moment Conor Jackson lobbed a deep fly beyond a drawn in outfield, sealing Sunday's walkoff win in the twelfth, optimists opined on The Big Game. The momentum builder and desperately welcome confidence boost, before three with the Cubs, that would, could, or should turn the season.

But Sunday's ughfest with the happy ending was a small game. Not just the way it was played, which was hard and poorly, by two weak teams. It was rendered small even before it started.

We went out on an April limb, predicting the young, talented Diamondbacks needed to take this early Giants series to salvage reasonable playoff hope. By losing the first two "big" games, they failed, and rendered the final feelgood victory, small.

This team is 7 and 11. If they take two of three from a superior Chicago nine, they'll be 9 and 12. People will whoop and cheer about the magnitude of those moments, but dont be fooled. Those wins, if they materialize, will be small victories. It's not because the Dbacks cant climb back over .500 (they can), or because the Dodgers are unstoppable (they're not), or because a five or six game lead in April is insurmountable.

It's because, when you play MLB's fourth easiest SOS thru an entire month, and turn that into the worst run differential in baseball, it says something about your team. It doesnt say everything, but it says something. When a young squad is gifted with 19 of 22 home starts, and winds up with a losing record, that says something too.

Sure, there have been injuries (Webb, Drew) and subpar performances (Jackson, Upton, Snyder and Rauch) bound to improve, yet several starters (Lopez, Haren, Ojeda and probably Reynolds) are playing over their heads, tempering the question of exactly how much better this team can play. They will have to win a great deal more, against ramped up competition, primarily on the road, to compete for this division.

This organization, well, it's predecessor really, started playing it's first big games a decade ago, when Randy Johnson, Luis Gonzalez and Matt Williams led an expansion team to 100 wins and it's first playof berth. Many big games followed. Then some down times. Ten years after, and four to five years into the new owners' rebuild, the Diamondbacks were favored this spring over midmarket brethren to battle Los Angeles for the NLW crown.

Whether the players or fans knew it or not, these early home games had playoff ramifications and possible long term implications about this organization's direction - two definions of "big games". After a lackluster 6-9 start, the biggest of all were the San Francisco set. Lincecum threw first, on Friday, and we lost. A great pitcher, but more importantly, the Giants arent a good team and baseball can be a very quirky game - just the previous week, Doug Davis outlasted Lincecum for a win - but this time that didnt happen.

On Saturday, our season was on the line. The Diamondbacks flailed against a pitcher with next to nothing. No stamina, no bite, no control. Seven walks in three and a third. They even hit a homer off this bum, and our pitcher (Max Scherzer) roped a deep double. Yet somehow, we found a way to fall, descending to 6 and 11.

The 'bum', of course, was Randy Johnson. The Big Unit has pitched so many of the Arizona Diamondbacks' landmark games, when the world was watching. Old and fragile now, he didnt win, but with more than a hint of irony, may've presided over the Diamondbacks' Last Big Game. Not merely for this season, but for the very core this franchise has built up, and around, for half a decade. It will be a while before this franchise plays a genuinely big game again. I hope I'm wrong, but my guess is it will not be this season.

They Might Be Giants

Today's the day I join the club. The day it hit me, like it did more intelligent folk several weeks back. Our greatest player (by a wide margin), on the cusp of the greatest individual career milestone in franchise history, will close out his career in pursuit of that quest -in a San Francisco shirt! Too bad. 300 wins would've been memorable and positive, two adjectives all but absent in Diamondback annals since the departure of Jerry Colangelo.

More germane to today's transactional disappointment is that Johnson pitched very well last year - 184 IP of 117 ERA+, and was reportedly willing to return to AZ for well below market value. He posted four months of sub 4.00 ERA (same as Dan Haren) at pinball alley Chase Field, and after the All Star break, only Sabathia, Oswalt and Santana clearly pitched better in the National League.

Randy offered to stay in Phoenix for half ($7.5M) of his 2008 salary, and might well have signed for less had it not been for the club's stunningly low $3M offer that effectively terminated negotiations. Johnson signed with the G-Men for eight, but the Giants also dangled $5M in performance bonuses, something the new and "improved" Arizona FO categorically eschews. In addition, Randy's from the Bay Area, and it's reasonable to assume he gave the Giants (and Oakland) something of a hometown discount as well. Based on all this, I estimate his "true" market value to be closer to $12M and his "Arizona discount" as $5-6 million (40-50%) below market.

Jim McLennan is feverishly trying to cherrycoat the Dbacks' parsimony across the Internets, excoriating Johnson loyalists as "know-nothings and not "true" Diamondback fans who dont understand the "reality" of the situation, to a point where one can be forgiven for wondering if Jim receives a small stipend from the club for these curiously energetic, broad-based efforts.

I dont know much, but I know Randy Johnson is likely one of the dozen greatest pitchers in baseball history, certainly the greatest Diamondback ever, coming off a deceptively strong season, and on the cusp of the town's greatest individual career athletic milestone. And I know the club ultimately offered this icon one third to one quarter of what he was actually worth on the open market, after recently shedding $35M from what was already baseball's eighth lowest payroll.

Only time will tell if the Giants made a good deal for $8M plus incentives, but the Dbacks' failure to scrounge up even $5M for a pitcher of Johnson's established and recent quality speaks to this FO's apparent reluctance to balance cost containment with competitiveness. They'll insist that's their raison d'etre, but the fact is $35M paid to departing free agents, non-tenders and Russ Ortiz has dropped off the 2009 books. Some regulars are getting raises, but it isnt close to $35 million. Further, there's no established pitcher of Johnson's quality available for $5M (let alone 8). The money's there. The clear desire to fund an MLB-average or better team, however, propped up by a largely inherited farm and residence in baseball's worst division, is not.

Quite apart from cheating AZ fans out of the most significant career milestone in franchise history, does the greater abandonment of an affordable, aging warrior like Johnson (and others), reflect an organization that keenly values its traditions and paying customers - or one systematically taking both for granted?

**************

Song of the Day - Older (They Might Be Giants)

Short Stops

The frightful and fretful Padres dumped Khalil Greene's 6.5M salary on the St Louis Cardinals in exchange for a Triple A reliever and player to be named later. Let's hope the player isnt Pujols or Musial. According to San Diego's depth chart, their default shortstop is Luis Rodriguez.

In a brazen nod to youth, the San Francisco Giants acquired Edgar Renteria to replace 41 year old Omar Vizquel. Renteria, a principal in baseball's eeriest feud, turns 34 this August.

********

Song of the day - Cool Like Dat (Digible Planets)

Dbacks Acquire White

This winter's high profile personnel moves overshadowed what may be the Diamondbacks' boldest transaction of all - the dogged acquisition of White. In addition to reliable Dan Haren, Arizona inked steady, dependable Caucasians Chris Burke and Chad Qualls, filling roster spots vacated by portly, undisciplined Livan Hernandez, wild-eyed Latino man child Jose Valverde, and disgruntled American black man, Tony Clark.



In December, troublesome Alberto Callaspo was traded for portly, disciplined Billy Buckner, and headcase Carlos Quentin was dumped for enigmatic Vernon C. Carter, who was appropriately shipped to, where else, Oakland - in consideration for creme de la creme, Dan Haren.

All this, a year after Arizona jettisoned agitator Miguel Batista (16-11 193IP $6M) and uncoachable Claudio Vargas (11-6 134 IP $2.5M), in favor of crafty Doug Davis (13-12 192IP $5.5M) and determined, extremely hard working Randy Johnson (4-3 57IP $9.1M).

The latest whitewash makes the Diamondbacks' 25 man roster one of MLB's freest from pigment, with, fair or not, seventeen white players. There are zero Hispanics in the starting lineup, nor a single Asian on the 40-man. The entire rotation - Webb, Haren, Johnson, Davis and Owings - is as white as JT Snow, as is the starting infield, save the astonishingly black Orlando Hudson. Hudson, generally regarded as the best position player on the team, is not expected to re-sign.



To the chagrin of many in the nation's whitest (71%) major city, a deal packaging talented but lackadaisical properties Justin Upton and Chris Young, in exchange for hard nosed competitors Enos Slaughter and Cap Anson, could not be closed.