What moves do you guys think we make?

My predictions...

- Upgrade the bullpen in a big way (Melancon plus others)
- Trade one of Owings, Ahmed to move Segura back to SS and Drury to 2B to get his bat in everyday lineup.

I feel this could be a VERY dynamic offense...
C - Castillo
1B - Goldy
2B - Drury
SS - Segura
3B - Lamb
LF - Tomas
CF - Pollack
RF - Peralta

Thats a top 5 offense... IMO

To go with a really solid rotation...
Greinke
Ray
Miller
Corbin
Bradley

So let's hear your predictions.

The squirrel is 4a or nippon league at best.... defenze dips below bat...get rid of him and start Owings at ss is my vote. I agree otherwise.

_________________
Per Mare, Per Terras
KC
30

Isn't that the same team that won 69 games this year? What changes other than the bullpen to make you so bullish? It might be a top 5 offense, but it's a bottom 5 (bottom 3? bottom 1?) pitching team and middle of the road fielding team.

Its called believing... Haha

In that case I choose to believe that Scarlett Johansen and Charlize Theron are about to walk through that door arm in arm looking for ME

_________________
trading young number one over all talent for back end of the rotation talent was fundamentally irresponsible. BFDD

Hmm, if I were to believe something along those lines, I predict that, in the settlement, Mrs. Evil be like the Atlanta front office, and I be like the worst of the Towers/Stewart/TLR front office after making a terrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrible trade.

_________________
Meet the new FO... Same as the old FO. The bag may be permanent.

Bullpen: Where do they find the money to upgrade the bullpen? This is a dismal FA class, impact relievers are in higher demand than ever, and there are plenty of big market teams - Cubs, Dodgers, Giants, Nats, etc. - that will be fighting for them. Hard to see how the D-backs add anyone of note.

Rotation: There's literally no evidence that this is a solid rotation.

Offense: Goldschmidt's the only guy who's going to project as a >.350 OBP in that group and they were ranked 20th in wRC+ this season. I could see them improving, but top-5 is unrealistic.

Barring some massive payroll splurge, I don't see this team as a likely contender.

I'd look at Shawn Tolleson as a possible reclamation project for the bullpen. Shouldn't be commanding much with an awful season, but he had excellect 2014 & 2015 campaigns.

Anybody been watching the playoffs?

Now compare what you've seen to what the Dbacks put out on the field year after year after year?

We are not even in the same league and it might be light years before we ever get there!

Aside from the wrong team winning the NLCS , playoffs have been great!!

And yeah, this AZ club isn't even close. Goldy/AJP/Greinke offer nothing but false hope. There isn't a bloody chance in hell the Dbax are going to compete for a title with Kendrick/Hall at the helm. Hall shouldn't even be managing the parking garage across the street. What a joke.

_________________
Vin Scully.

Funny, I was more or less thinking the same thing about the postseason. Neither the Dodgers, nor the Giants are great teams - they both have clear and significant weaknesses. They're also both miles better than the D-backs.

You can absolutely put together a scenario where the D-backs contend in 2017 with their current personnel, but it's an everybody-has-a-career-year-and-nobody-gets-hurt magical fantasy.

Coupled with MadBum, Kershaw, Posey, Seager and a few others having season ending injuries.

_________________
Per Mare, Per Terras
KC
30

2011 redux.

_________________
There's no success like failure
And failure's no success at all

Pretty much what I was thinking.

_________________
Per Mare, Per Terras
KC
30

Glad to see this thread is full of predictions.

Honestly Kid its very difficult to predict what Mike Hazen will do.

The team has little payroll flexibility so free agency will not be a factor.

Because he has a more analytical approach and hopefully is a better judge of who is likely to contribute in the future, I think there is a strong chance he tries to sell high on Tomas' 30 homer season.

If he manages to extract a good return for Tomas without having to swallow too much of his salary that would be a great indicator that we have a guy that not only has a sharp mind but can negotiate too. Its a tough sell, but I'm hopeful he can pull it off.

Hes not going to tear down and rebuild as I would like, but he is not going to stand pat either.

He will try to upgrade the pitching both rotation and bullpen through trades and in order to do that he will need to trade value.

In addition to Tomas being an off load target, I believe one of Drury or Lamb gets moved. not sure which one though.

If ahmed was healthy and could hit a lick he probably trades Owings, but Ahmed is neither so he needs to keep Owings around another year.

_________________
trading young number one over all talent for back end of the rotation talent was fundamentally irresponsible. BFDD

I'd have to think Lamb would have huge value given his trendline, offensive production, and years of control.

It's funny, when I think about this, whether they move Lamb or Drury will tell you a lot about their mindset.

Lamb is one of only two legit left handed power threats, the other being Peralta. (Hermann had a nice partial season in a platoon role, but I'm not counting on a repeat)

From the left side there is nobody else. So if they keep Lamb and trade Drury, it tells you they are trying to be playoff competitive now.

On the other hand if they move Lamb and keep Drury, in the short term it will make the lineup extremely right handed and easy to match up against, especially in late innings. They will of course know this, so that would indicate they are not really trying to win in 2017.

The thing is if they take the second route, and trade Lamb.....then DON'T STOP THERE. In for a penny, in for a pound. The only way a rebuild works is if you COMMIT.

And COMMIT means no half measure. And the more ALL IN you go with a rebuild, the FASTER IT WORKS.

17, 18, almost certainly miss playoffs. If you are a little lucky, by 2019 you are a threat, and if it takes another year beyond that, and you are not competing for playoffs until 2020, thats still no slower than it took Chicago (12,13,14 losing seasons before 2015 turnaround)


We aren't going to the playoffs in 2017 anyway, in my opinion, even if we don't rebuild. So it's not like we are giving anything up .

The above sentence in bold is really the key point. The argument against rebuilding is always "I don't want to watch multiple losing seasons waiting for the rebuild to kick in".......but thats all we are getting anyway, multiple losing seasons, and are facing many more if we don't change the way it's done.

They have NEVER fully committed to REBUILD. It's always "Re load", (2005, G Force, Sean Green, Javier Vasquez, Jose Cruz, etc.) or premature "All In" moves after a fluke playoff appearance, (Haren trade after 2007, Cahill trade and Kubel signing after 2011 among others just as examples).

If we are gonna suck anyway , lets at least suck intelligently, in a way that will load us up with assets that will either become above average major leaguers or be trade chips to get them at some point. No money and no farm system is our current state. 3 or 4 good core players hasn't been enough the last few seasons and won't be next year either.

_________________
trading young number one over all talent for back end of the rotation talent was fundamentally irresponsible. BFDD

Greg Holland could be a GREAT buy low option at Closer for us... If he's back to pre-injury form.

He's holding a showcase within the week... Really hope we attend.

Predictions?

Goldy lifetime deal.

Approved salary dump at trading deadline while we sit in 3rd, 4th or 5th place.

Team sells that we are just a few off season moves from being a contender in 2018.

2019 repeat, 2020 repeat, 2021 new GM hired. Somewhere along the line they might change a manager or two if approved by DH and Ken Ken.