Email a copy of 'Diamondbacks Remove Kevin Towers From GM Role' to a friend
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By Steve Adams and Jeff Todd | at
Email a copy of 'Diamondbacks Remove Kevin Towers From GM Role' to a friend
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JacobyWanKenobi
I knew they’d have a winning season!
letsgogiants
A move that needed to be done for the D-Backs. Hopefully the front office gets an entire makeover. Just a few years ago, this team was looking very strong with a good blend of young and veteran talent. But now they look like a team with many holes to fill. For the D-Backs sakes, they really need a good GM to make up for all the talent Towers has managed to trade away the past couple years.
Chioakcisco
Hope Kirk Gibson has his unemployment papers ready.
steimel
They’ll probably wait until the day after the last game of the regular season. The NFL teams seem to follow that course of action as good as anyone.
Brian Baker
Maybe they’ll let him pick his replacement as well.
PlayBoyBuddy Rose
lol!
Doug
Justin Upton, Max Scherzer, Jarrod Parker, Trevor Bauer, Tyler Skaggs, Ian Kennedy, Ryan Cook, Adam Eaton…boy the future (could have) looked bright!
Sean T.
No one was ecstatic about Ryan Cook when he was in AZ.
Sufferfortribe
In Bauer’s case, just not the 1st inning. 🙁
ratboy
Towers is bad but he didn’t trade Max Scherzer.
peregrintook69
Although in hindsight the Detroit Tigers killed on that three team trade.
Jeff McCoy
No big deal, but Adam Eaton links to the retired pitcher and not the White Sox player.
Jeff Todd
Thanks, I’ll edit.
JoeCB91
Always seems to happen
Jeff Todd
It’s our auto-linker. As with Chris Young, others. Need to add him to the mental checklist of players you have to manually add.
DarthMurph
I’ve got no respect for people who air their dirty laundry to the media like Towers did again and again.
craigcounsellhitsbombs
Not even an AZ fan and still: Finally! When you hear more about the upper management/leadership of a team than you do about the actual team, it’s time to make a change.
jv1975disqus
I thought he did a good job in San Diego, but his moves in Arizona were completely baffling (however I didn’t hate the Upton trade as much as most people did). He deserves to be fired based on the Bauer trade alone, let alone the Eaton/Skaggs/Trumbo deal.
The argument was that Gregorious was a great defensive shortstop. Fine. There was no reason to think he would ever hit at the major league level. So he comes to Arizona, predictably doesn’t hit, predictably plays pretty good defense, and then gets sent to the minors after doing *exactly what he was expected to do* because they have a better shortstop prospect who apparently Towers forgot about when he traded his former 1st round draft pick.
rct 2
Out of curiosity, as I’m not a Padres fan and know little about them, what good moves did he make in San Diego?
jv1975disqus
I was impressed with his ability to build a pitching staff (and even moreso for the bullpen) on such a limited budget. Guys like Bell, Gregerson, etc. He found some legitimate stars who were either castoffs from other teams (Nevin) or low(ish) draft picks (Peavy). I might be cherry picking, and his record for high draft picks is horrible, but I always thought he did a good job with a limited budgets. 4 division titles in his time there isn’t so bad…
vonjunk
Pretty obvious now he was able to i.d. valuable middle of the road guys from the trash bin, but when it came to finding real talent and understanding young talent, he was lost.
jv1975disqus
Understanding young (i.e. amateur) talent – I totally agree. But finding “real” talent – I’m not really sure what you mean by that. Do you not consider Nevin, Caminiti, Finley, Klesko, etc. to be “real” talent? Most of these guys came to San Diego and had some of the best years of their careers.
Sky14
Happy for Dback fans. A bad GM can destroy a franchise quite quickly and take many years to recover from, my Twins suffered through the same with Billy Smith. Hopefully the Dbacks can get a competent front office in and have a quick recovery.
Curt Green
Hopefully, the Twins will do it quicker but I fear they won’t.
Sky14
The Twins turnaround has already begun, their farm is restocked and just beginning to bear fruit. Players like Santana, Vargas and Arcia are contributing with more and likely better to come. Similar to Towers with the Dbacks, Smith left the team in a pretty bad position with trades that yielded little. Baseball is not a sport with quick turnarounds like football. When there are few major league assets and a barren farm it can be many years before things improve.
AZDbacksfan1
And so, every Diamondbacks fan wept tears of joy, for the man that has almost single handedly ruined or team has finally saw his days of awful trades and decisions come to an end. Rip in peace Kevin Towers (but not really)
MattDbacks
“Rip in peace”
k26dp
Hopefully they’ll get a gritty, gamer GM to replace Towers. Maybe Pig-Pen.
ratboy
“First priority: we need Rougned Odor.”
Brian Baker
9 months from tonight Keith Law will have another child, named anything but Kevin.
Sufferfortribe
Bye Kirk.
baines03
See, Larussa DID learn something from Jerry Reinsdorf. Never actually fire somebody. Just move him somewhere else where he will be paid yet have zero responsibility or input.
That being said, it’s a sad day for White Sox and Angels fans. No more ripping off the D-backs.
Chioakcisco
And the A’s, for that matter.
GameMusic3
And Yankees.
Brian Baker
The look on Kevin Towers’ face says it all.
Curt Green
Next: Terry Ryan
Lefty_Orioles_Fan
Their season got off on the wrong foot.
They got got swept down under and then their season went under
Start fresh and see what happens.
PS Yeah, that Cody Ross contract doesn’t look good and I like Cody Ross.
vonjunk
A couple games in Australia did not make or break their season. Decisions on personal did. Towers was given the highest budget in Dbacks history and spent his money locking up middling players to long term contracts, secured more middling players by trading from a good staple of youth and produced a pile of middling garbage that took the field this year. Towers pinned too much hope on Tyler Corbin and middle of the road starters. When Corbin went down the pitching staff had no one to step up, as they were all middle-of-the-road. Injuries did hurt, but not grabbing some top talent with trades or paying for top talent has hurt the team and is why Towers was sort of dismissed.
rundmc1981
I’ve never heard “oblique” used as an adjective…and now I have! Grammar wins!
Jeff Todd
Is this actually a complaint with my grammar, or am I not understanding? Because “oblique” is, in fact, an adjective.
rundmc1981
No complaints. Appreciate hearing the word usage. No sarcasm here.
Jeff Todd
Cool, thanks … can be hard to distinguish snark sometimes!
ratboy
As a Dbacks fan I’m curious: where is everybody getting the “Gregorius is a great defender” sentiment from? I know he was scouted as such, but watching him at the MLB level he has not looked like an above average defensive SS. Metrics put him at about average, I think that’s a bit optimistic personally but this isn’t a guy I would rearrange an infield around…I really hope new management will at least try Owings at SS a little while longer so his value stays solid.
vonjunk
Hey! As a fellow Diamondbacks fan, I advise waiting to be honest abut Didi until we hopefully trade him. You’ll fall into the same trap Towers so often set for himself. Be little a player, diminish his value, and then try to trade him (read: Upton, Bauer, even Skaggs).
The infield should be Goldy, Hill, Owings and Lamb. Didi was a Towers baby and most likely will be traded unless we can find a taker for Hill. I’d even advise against trading Hill at present because the Dbacks would have to eat a lot of salary and get little to nothing in return. Hill is a good defender who can run hot and cold at the plate and seems to have an every other year thing going. Next year he should do well in the pattern and that is when the team should consider a trade…but not need to trade him. The real trade target should be Didi, as his perceived value, connected to his position and reputation will never be higher. Plus, he isn’t such a good hitter, either. Shhhhh, I know, wait for that trade!
ratboy
Well I guess you can all blame me when Didi can’t be leveraged for quite as much as Towers spent, though I’m sure Dbacks fans are used to that by now.
MattDbacks
Didi is a really good defender and solid athlete, so I’d tend to agree with the rave reviews about his defense.
vonjunk
The most baffling Towers’ moments always were going into the off-season. He always gave me such a chuckle. So, he trades away Reynolds, Upton and Young because they struck out too much. This last off-season he was looking to replace the lost power and traded for a player who had power but could not play the outfield and struck out a lot.
He traded Skaggs, Bauer, and Kennedy for middle relief and Gregorios (when the team had Owings and even a player he traded for Ahmed). Then he came out saying the team needed to focus on pitching.
He last comments were looking to add an on-base % guy after trading Adam Eaton! He most likely would have swapped Owings for Bobby Abreu and a couple middle relievers!!
I mean you couldn’t make this stuff up!!
peregrintook69
The Trumbo deal was so confusing and misguided, I honestly think the Angels and White Sox were just laughing themselves silly that they had the opportunity. The Angels needed a back end starter and seemed to love Skaggs (although if I recall they did trade him prior) but had outfielders to spare. The White Sox were rebuilding and gave up a piece in Santiago that would only be useful when they were competing and nothing. Even looking at what was given up and the Teams at the time should have screamed, what is this?
peregrintook69
This was a long time coming, although I don’t understand what La Russa is doing by not “firing” Towers. Paul Goldschmidt was a great signing but even that one bright spot seems kinda lucky considering he wasn’t highly thought of in the minors. This may have been why they got him cheap. The Adam Eaton and Mark Trumbo trades were pretty embarrassing and were the telltale signs of a possible letdown season, but no one predicted how miserable this season would actually be. Daniel Hudson (missing most of 12-14) and Patrick Corbin getting injured were pretty devastating. Next year, things should be better but this team is a mess as many people have stated in these comments.
Smrtbusnisman04
I don’t completely blame Towers for the team’s struggles; The owner switches through organizational philosophies like clothes.
They have some nice pitching prospects in the system, but Towers has really struggled in trades.
Smrtbusnisman04
Look on the bright side, DBacks fans; At least he didn’t draft Matt Bush over Justin Verlander.