D’Backs Pitching Staff In 2014: The Roster Tree Shows Now Ex – GM Towers Fault(y) On Assembly

Kevin Towers had been at the GM helm since Sept.22, 2010 before having his duties relinquished today. He authored some of the worst trades in club history, and has seen his team pay the price for it the most this year, with a 59 – 81 record, after back to back 81 seasons in 2012 and 2013, and a NL West Title in his 1st year on the job in 2011. Towers traded away Stephen Drew, Justin Upton, Mark Reynolds, Chris Young, Tyler Skaggs, Adam Eaton, Matt Davidson and Martin Prado – all without much of talent brought back to the fold in return. It was time to go.

How All Of The D’Backs Pitchers Were Acquired:

By Chuck Booth (Lead Baseball Analyst/Website Owner): Follow @chuckbooth3024

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It has not been a banner year for the Arizona Diamondbacks.  I don’t need to beleaguer that point out to much to the common fan of the franchise.

What I found most disturbing out of the Roster Tree, is the team’s brass continued reliance and insistence on Relief arms.

But before we divulge into that, the name Dan Haren is still haunting this franchise. (Not Towers fault, but still an important trade historically)

Haren’s best days as a Starter came in his 1st 2 years in Arizona, where he went 30 -18 – with an ERA of about 3.20. Haren also started well for the LA Angels in his 1st 2 years there – sporting a Record of 21 – 14 with an ERA barely over 3.  Soon after that Haren fizzled out in Los Angeles as well.  The club had forfeited many great young player to obtain him, then were able to rescue that by receiving Patrick Corbin and Tyler Skaggs back for him.  Those were deals not made by Towers.  Trading Skaggs back to LA, and Eaton to Chicago, in order to receive Mark Trumbo may go down horribly in the annals of time for the departed GM,

1st off, look at the haul they traded for his rights in the 1st place.  December 14, 2007: Traded by the Oakland Athletics with Connor Robertson to the Arizona Diamondbacks for Brett Anderson, Chris Carter, Aaron Cunningham, Dana Eveland, Carlos Gonzalez and Greg Smith.

Carter has gone on to lead the AL in HRs this year with 35, and is one of the best power hitters in the game today.

Carlos Gonzalez is an MVP candidate.  Brett Anderson was hurt for the A’s – and now the Rockies.

Here is the kicker.  Haren was 37 – 26, with a 3.56 ERA with your franchise, and you saw enough of his 2010 decline to flip him to the Los Angeles Angels for Tyler Skaggs.  (Also not KT).

In the deal, your franchise also stole Patrick Corbin,,  It is unfortunate this man went down with Tommy John Surgery for this season.

However, the organization sent Tyler Skaggs back to the Los Angeles Angels for Mark Trumbo, who has had an injury riddled season, and has failed to meet expectations.

In that transaction, the team saw fit to trade away a potential franchise leadoff man in Adam Eaton as part of the players exiting.

This had eradicated the good deal the club pulled off when they acquired Skaggs as part of the Corbin deal.

The problem with this acquisition is it strayed from your philosophy to rid yourselves off all power or nothing hitters.

That was why the D’Backs have traded away players like Mark Reynolds, Justin Upton, Stephen Drew in recent years.  So then you bring in one of the biggest Strikeout guys in the league… Stupid…

Another reminder of a deal gone wrong, was the one sided Trevor Cahill  trade, in which the D’Backs gave the A’s Jarrod Parker and Ryan Cook for the ineffective Starter.

Cahill has struggled mightily this campaign.

Kevin Towers can thank his lucky stars that Jarrod Parker went out for the season with TJ Surgery, otherwise this trade would be even worse.

In that same deal, the team picked up Craig Breslow, who they traded to the Red Sox just 4 months later.  One of the players coming back (Scott Podsednik) was then released 3 days later.  Talk about a dumb move.

Ryan Cook is one of the better late inning relievers in the game today.

In 2012’s winter, KT also made another pitching trade blunder.  Check out this deal… December 11, 2012: as part of a 3-team deal the Arizona Diamondbacks traded Trevor Bauer with Matt Albers and Bryan Shaw to the Cleveland Indians. The Cincinnati Reds sent Didi Gregorius to the Arizona Diamondbacks. The Cincinnati Reds sent Drew Stubbs to the Cleveland Indians. The Cleveland Indians sent Lars Anderson and Tony Sipp to the Arizona Diamondbacks. The Cleveland Indians sent Shin-Soo Choo, Jason Donald and cash to the Cincinnati Reds.

Essentially, Sipp was granted Free Agency following 2013, and Anderson was a total bust. Add in Gregorius to the deal, (when you already have a SS in your system like Chris Owings) and it is not wise maneuvering.

Boy Bryan Shaw would look good for the Snakes right now, and maybe you wouldn’t have had to do that Davidson for Reed deal.

Trevor Bauer wouldn’t have been shabby either.

Albers and Sipp offset each other, and now coincidentally, are teammates in Houston with the Astros.

Okay, back to the original point.

The squad next bad deal was bringing in Addison Reed for prospect Adam Davidson.

Trading for a late inning arm, with a lifetime ERA that point of 4.17 is ridiculous, and especially when you have let go of one of your best prospects in the process.

There is no doubt the Arizona Diamondbacks have been burdened by season ending surgeries to Corbin, David Hernandez and Bronson Arroyo.

Plus who could have predicted such an expedient fall for likes of J.J. Putz?

Last summer, the team dealt Ian Kennedy for Matt Stites and Joe Thatcher.  Again.. What is the fascination with acquiring Bullpen arms?

Kennedy could have been moved for a positional prospect.  By the way, Thatcher was traded to the Angels for their 11th and 23rd RD draft picks in the 2011 draft this deadline.

At least Towers picked up an OF back in return with Zack Borenstein, along with yet another reliever.

As many as 4 or 5 teams should be sorry to see Towers go, as they are competitive clubs now based on trades that he gave to them. Oakland, San Diego, Atlanta, the Angels and White Sox should be mailing Christmas cards of thanks to the former GM, who did not have a stellar trade record with the Snakes. We didn’t even mention the poor Free Agent Signings of Cody Ross and Jason Kubel. At least the man did one thing right, and that was to get Paul Goldschmidt to sign a lengthy team friendly extension.

KT may have finally learned his lesson by showing Tony La Russa, he could trade for a starter and outfield in the prospects he picked up in the Gerardo Parra deal.

Arizona was also snake bitten (pun intended), by Trumbo’s and Paul Goldschmidt‘s injuries.

Seriously though, what was the point in trading for that guy??  You had Paul Goldschmidt to play 1B already – and Trumbo isn’t a great OF to begin with.

What is horrible about the pitching and hitting Roster Trees is it shows a great draft record for the organization.

The club could have had Adam Eaton patrolling CF and leadoff, with Parra (Gold Glover) as the LF, with Martin Prado as the RF – and A.J. Pollock as the 4th OF, or you could have mixed and matched Prado in the Infield..

You could have positioned  Davidson as your future 3B, and would have had decent pitching depth with Bauer and Shaw.

Chris Owings, Aaron Hill and Miguel Montero would round out your lineup.  That is a nice collection of hitters and pitchers.

Hindsight is always 20/20, yet when you look at the track record of the club trades the last 3 to 4 years, it is abysmal.

Their are some fringe prospect left for the Justin Upton trade with Brandon Drury,  Nick Ahmed, Zeke Spruill and Randall Delgado – with none of them having success at the MLB level yet.

The Martin Prado deal comes with a player to be named later, that came with Peter O’Brien

Towers paid the price for doing his job poorly Friday…

For those that have never seen one of our Roster Trees, we go over how all of the players were acquired.

It works like 6 degrees of separation. By searching back to the origin of all the way back until a player is signed, drafted or purchased.

It totally gives you an idea on how the franchise has fared.

Wade Miley might have won the NL Rookie of the Year in a lot of other seasons than 2012. That year, he was an NL ALL-Star, but had to settle for 2nd place to Bryce Harper in ROY voting. With 3 of his fellow staffers having gone out for Tommy John Surgery, Miley very well might be the opening day starter again in 2015, like he was in 2014. This was a solid draft pock by the organization.

The Hitters In 2014 (Date Of Birth/or Age) (Pos) Roster Tree

Wade Miley (11/13/86) SP:  Drafted by the Arizona Diamondbacks in the 1st round (43rd pick) of the 2008 amateur draft.

Daniel Hudson (3/9/87) P:  July 30, 2010: Traded by the Chicago White Sox with David Holmberg to the Arizona Diamondbacks for Edwin Jackson.

For the Tree here visit link below.  It shows the Kennedy/Hudson angle to it.

How All Of The Diamondbacks Hitters Were Acquired (2014 Roster Tree)

www.baseballreference.com – the source behind all roster transactions info.

The drafting record by the team has actually been quite good, and that is what is so disturbing about the current state the club is in. From dealing away Max Scherzer, that turned into Ian Kennedy, to Joe Thatcher and Matt Stites, and now a 12th and 23rd RD prospect (Krehbiel and Borenstein) is all of the assets the club has for that Scherzer trade. That wasn’t even Towers, but this transaction thatl set off a bunch of horrible deals..

For all of the Rosters, Depth Charts, State of the Unions and Salaries Posts that we do, please visit our dedicated page link here.

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