If it was 2002 then I'd agree with those who say this team has talent. Unfortunately, it's 2005 and what we have is a bunch of slightly above average former superstars mixed in with some decent young players (most of whom have played out of position for long stretches this year) and mediocre veterans having career seasons. Some of the more optimistic members that post on this board seem to think that we'll be fine in the future but I'm not so sure which I'll now go into.
1. No direction as an organization - Are we a team that will rely on our farm system or are we a team that's going to buy it's success? That question still has not been answered. Tracy was a terrific farmhand showed some signs last year and was replaced by Troy Glaus and since then has been kicked around the field like he's Chone Figgins. Now instead of an above average hitting/mediocre defensive 3B we have an average hitting/below average fielding RF. Conor Jackson is thought of as one of the best hitting prospects in baseball and is a guy nearly every GM in baseball salivates over and is now looking at platoon duty in 2006 and 2007 with Tony Clark, who convienently seems to have found his stroke at ripe old age 33, due to Clark's contract extension in the middle of a fluke year. Another prized prospect, Carlos Quentin, is blocked due to reasons I go into specifically later.
2. No leadership - We have no sign of a competent coaching staff on the field or any GM on the horizon off the field. Tghe prospects for the GM job so far seem to be a promoted scout (albeit a good amatuer one, we have yet to see what he can do as a GM), a former ballplayer who is lucky enough to be buddies with the managing partner, and a college baseball coach. Forgive me if those names don't make me jump for joy.
3. Lack of pitching in farm - Did you see how much money mediocre pitchers got in free agency last year? That's why you need to have pitching on the farm so you can have it cheap for six years. As far as I can tell, we have no frontline capable starter anywhere close to being in the bigs so it looks like we're going to have to keep hemorrhaging cash to get pitching. Which as we saw last year during the bidding war we had against ourselves for the services of Russ Ortiz ain't exactly a guaranteed thing.
4. Mediocrity of current roster - When the architect of this team put the roster together last winter, they essentially torpedoed any chance of the D-Backs being a serious contender for at least three years. The nucleus of this team is Glaus, Gonzo, Green, Ortiz, and Vazquez. They are respectively the front of the rotation and the heart of the order not to mention they make up the overwhelming majority of the payroll. Unfortunately, none of them are even remotely considered superstar players yet are locked into superstar money for the next few seasons and they're getting up there in age. And since they're making way more money than they're worth, the G-Force and the top of our rotation are basically untradeable unless we pay their contracts to pitch elsewhere. That means we're stuck with this same 56-63 squad for at least the next couple seasons unless we crap the bed and trade off prospects. Guys like Conor Jackson, Carlos Quentin, and Chad Tracy are blocked or forced to play out of position so we can keep together a nucleus that has led us to almost 10 games under .500 in an awful division. That makes no sense. But what sucks for the DBacks is Barry Bonds, Milton Bradley, JD Drew, Khalil Greene, Adam Eaton, Moises Alou, etc. are not going to repeat this year's injury-riddled seasons. And the D-Backs are not going to be as lucky as they have been this year regarding injuries when so many regulars are going to be over 30.
I don't mean to be the harbinger of bad news, but some of us on this board saw this trainwreck coming last winter.
