As for Tai-pan, my crushing power argument for Reynolds is the worst kind of speculation because there are no numbers to back it, just scouts that say his ball goes longer than most.

It is a dangerous situation staying with Reynolds because he is and could continue to be the strikeout king. But I would bet the head office is very depressed over letting Carlos Quentin leave after a bad year and will not let another young talent go. On the upside, sticking with him now and developing his swing could save them from spending a bunch to replace him with another prospect.

The argument for stay the course, is that the D-backs were always planning on developing young talent for the last few years but somehow found themselves to be productive, so what does it cost them to stay the course, since they werent planning on winning in the first place. Not to mention they have completely turned their accounts around as a result.

I will say that if the D-backs could wiggle out of the Byrnes contract right now they would. Cojack looked good in left and Dunn at first would be a much more solid team.

To be honest, I like the young talent. Home-grown teams are somehow much funner to watch. Anyone can buy their own vegetables but home-grown corn always tastes sweeter.

Reynolds is a good hitter, but he needs to remember what got him here - high BA. He is young, and if he really does have power, it will show. Since when is 28 homers crushing power? Wouldn’t you rather exchange 70 strikeouts for 30 more doubles?

I am trying not to be a hater, but the team vastly underachieved. Great points - I knew my weakness in posting on this is that I am not a die-hard dbacker. But I have been photographed in Baxter’s living room!

That’s all it took to bring you back? so simple my friend. I guess the answer to the defection question is NO?

nice job missing the entire point of the post Ralph.

Sure. But *is* that how we “earn” the office? Or is it based on some other qualities, too?

1. Eric Byrnes. The signing of Eric Byrnes came last year just prior to the playoff hunt, it did alot to fill seats and get fans excited to watch baseball. But it also gave us a good club house veteran. After watching Gonzo going and assuming that Clark was leaving too, they needed somebody to help the rest of the ballclub (with an average age under 25) to figure out the ropes. Byrnes getting hurt was obviously not anticipated and only looks horrible in retrospect.

2. Mark Reynolds. He wiffs ALOT, but the guy has CRUSHING power. The kind of power that when he connects everybody on the team stands up. With Carlos Quentin absolutely decimating in Chicago, the D-backs are very gun shy of giving up a player that couldpost big homerun numbers and Reynolds shows all the potential. He is a medicore feilder but the guy is still relatively young and will definitley have a lot to work on over the summer. My guess is that if his production is down for the first few months of next year, he gets put on the block. Im sure they are going to convince him to get the type of workout in that turned CoJack around.

3. Chris Young will stay. He got complacent this year with the bat but the guy has incredible range and allows medicore players to play left and right. Without Young, CoJack would have sucked at left. He is worth keeping for his defensie ability and obviously he can steal and hit. Never forgetting that he is young as well.

4. Lyon was bad. But the head office made a good calculated move. Our bullpen dominated last year with Valverde closing, but the year before Valverde was a crap shoot including a send down to the AAA. Obviously they thought that his good year was a fluke and didnt want the pressure so they got the most value out of him while leaning harder on the setup pitchers that were good as well last year. Lyons blew it. He knows it. Another hindsight call.

5. Melvin. Melvin will get at least one more year. As stated over and over, he has a VERY young team that were contenders last year when they had planned on being in development. Lots of things went wrong this year, and most of all the bullpen fell apart. Everything else could have continued as it did, if the bullpen held up. But, on paper, the bullpen should have been the better ones in the league. Lyon, Pena, Qualls all have potential but they collapsed all at the same time and D-backs gave up leads established by our starting pitchers.

Out of all your recommendations… shoring up the bullpen is the one i like, but then again, they tried all year to shore it up and everyone they brought over pitched like they dipped their hands in butter. Qualls is the closer for next year and they will look for a good young strikeout king to be a setup but there is little else they can do.

In my mind, it is a toss up for Tracy or Reynolds. Both are mediocre fielders and right now immature at the plate. Tracy needed more play time toget a good trade deal but they will likely still see what they can get for him. Dunn may stick around, he handled first pretty well and if they think its in their best interest they may trade Cojack as well while he posted good enough numbers this year for someone to take him. With a more developed Reynolds, healed Byrnes and Dunn in the lineup, Young will look much better.

I do have to call you out on the lineup issue though… the problem isnt that Melvin doesnt change the lineup enough, it is that he changes it too much. He moves it around like he is designing a living room. Players never get to fall into batting roles and it brings down the whole lineup. D-backs should be the most consistent hitter 1-8 in the league. Actually should be 1-9 but we gave up Owings for a playoff spot that never happened. I bet they wish they could get that trade back.