In baseball it’s usually best to build from within.
Whether on the field or in the front office, success at the major league level can be translated to longevity through the inner networks of a franchise. The St. Louis Cardinals, Atlanta Braves and Oakland Athletics are a few examples of this.
The same can’t be said for the Arizona Diamondbacks.
“The Dbacks have had three general managers over the course of a short term that they’ve been in existence,” ESPN baseball insider Pedro Gomez explained to Sports360AZ.com’s Brad Cesmat during his weekly segment. “The ones who tend to do better have a lot of longevity. It’s tough when there’s kind of a revolving door at that position because it doesn’t truly allow somebody to build an organization from within.”
Both Josh Byrnes and current GM Kevin Towers came to the desert from different franchises.
Fresh off getting swept by the Mets during a winless home stand (0-6), the Dbacks are by far the worst team in baseball at 4-14, including an unfathomable 1-11 at Chase Field. Many are pointing the finger and their anger at Towers who has traded away parts of Arizona’s talented, young farm system in hopes of getting back to the playoffs this fall for the first time since 2010.
“The best organizations are the one’s that scout themselves better than they do other organizations,” Gomez said. “Over the course of the last 20 or 30 years the Atlanta Braves have done that. The Oakland Athletics have certainly been in that group. Then you see clubs that don’t necessarily scout themselves as well and trade off really good pieces only to see them flourish elsewhere. It’s tough.”
The task gets no easier as Arizona hits the road for a three-game series against the defending National League West champion Dodgers starting Friday, then a trip to Wrigley Field to take on the Cubs next week.
Los Angeles is a perfect 5-0 against the Dbacks this season.
