Arizona Diamondbacks’ Hall: The philosophy needed to change
Feb 13, 2015, 7:30 PM | Updated: 7:30 pm
The Arizona Diamondbacks have made some mistakes over the last few seasons.
Otherwise how else would a team go from winning 94 games and the NL West in 2011 to winning 64 games and finishing with the worst record in all of baseball in 2014?
What’s worse, is in 2011 the D-backs were not only good, but appeared to be well-positioned to be even better in the coming years due to having a loaded farm system that included some of the best pitching prospects in baseball.
Things didn’t go according to plan.
“You know, I think a lot of teams go down this path,” D-backs president Derrick Hall told Doug and Wolf on Arizona Sports 98.7 FM Friday as part of Newsmakers Week. “You have your cupboards full of talented players in the minor league system and you start to assess how close you are to a championship and you look at those holes and say, ‘if we could just get one more starting pitcher,’ but the cost is three of those guys that are coming up in the next couple of years.
“So the philosophy needed to change, and we had to really strengthen ourselves organizationally because we had lost that depth, we had lost a lot of our prospects.”
In Nov. 2011, according to Baseball America, the D-backs top 10 prospects, in order, were Trevor Bauer, Archie Bradley, Tyler Skaggs, Jarrod Parker, Matt Davidson, A.J. Pollock, David Holmberg, Chris Owings, Wade Miley and Patrick Corbin.
Last season, only Bradley, Pollock, Owings, Miley and Corbin remained from that group, with Miley having since been traded to the Boston Red Sox.
The D-backs don’t necessarily deserve to be ridiculed for that, though, as not all prospects pan out and part of building a winning team involves trading prospects for more established players meant to help get them to the top.
But Hall said the organization has reversed course from what had done over the last few years, deciding it is best to stockpile prospects in an effort to improve.
“It’s difficult because do you define it as rebuilding,” he asked. “I would say no. If you’re rebuilding you don’t have Chris Owings and Goldie and still Hill, and you’ve got your pieces in the bullpen and the rotation and A.J. Pollock, and Trumbo that are there.
“So it’s not a rebuild, but you realize you’re missing some pieces and the best way for a team like us to get them is not necessarily to go out and sign a Max Scherzer.”
Hall added the D-backs’ new strategy is evident in the Miley trade, which saw Arizona acquire 25-year-old pitchers Rubby De La Rosa and Allen Webster along with 20-year-old infielder Raymel Flores.
It’s about adding upside, Hall said, which is the difference.
You can probably consider it a lesson learned.
“I look back to those years too,” Hall said, thinking of 2011. “We were going to have an Atlanta Braves-type rotation, and you blink, and they’re gone. You can’t let that happen.
“That’s not one person’s fault. It happens to every team and you get a taste of it and you get a little greedier and you think you’re closer than you really are, and you really have to look in the mirror and say, ‘What’s the best thing for an organization like us?’ And we’re not in a large market, how are we going to compete, and it’s by doing what we were doing before and getting back on that track.”
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