Diamondbacks chief baseball officer Tony La Russa says that his organization has the talent needed for a “dramatically better” performance, Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic reports. The club’s unfortunate 2016, he suggests, represents a test for the entire organization.
According to the embattled head of the organization’s baseball operations, Arizona’s struggles require a “personal assessment” by all personnel to determine areas for improvement. “[T]he quality of the response will dictate if these guys are what we think they are,” said La Russa. “I think I have enough experience that I bet on the group wanting to learn, and that opens the opportunity for the coaches and manager to step in and say, ‘Hey, this is how we could have won those close games.'”
The D-Backs’ issues go beyond relatively minor considerations such as performance in tight contests, of course. As Piecoro explains, there are numerous areas — especially the rotation — that will require rather significant turnarounds to make contention plausible.
Looking ahead, La Russa says he has “a notebook full of comments on the year.” Whether or not he’ll have the opportunity to build from those observations, and remain in charge, remains uncertain. The organization is seemingly still weighing whether to retain La Russa, GM Dave Stewart, and other front office personnel.
Notably, if the La Russa-led front office sticks around, it sounds as if the belief is that dramatic roster changes aren’t necessary. Instead, his focus appears to be on coaxing more out of the players that had been expected to produce a winning campaign in 2016.
“I think the team has good character,” he said. “It’s got good talent, and if they have a good attitude about ‘let’s learn from this,’ it can get dramatically better.”
That still-optimistic assessment of the D-Backs’ internal asset base has seemingly been reflected in the team’s recent actions (or lack thereof). Arizona largely held pat at the trade deadline, dealing a few relievers but avoiding any drastic moves in either direction. Though Shelby Miller trade scenarios were explored, nothing came to fruition. And the Snakes are apparently determined not to shop Zack Greinke this winter.
Regarding Greinke, whose inconsistency has been one of many areas of concern, La Russa expressed no regret in making a huge outlay to land a “veteran number one” starter that he says the team needed. In addition to Greinke’s contributions on the hill, said La Russa, “he can really help with, and he already has, showing guys the art of pitching.”
La Russa said that the team expects to field inquiries on Greinke and other under-performing pitchers, but Piecoro suggests that his overall comments hint that there won’t be much interest from the Arizona side. “I think this winter we’re going to be asked a lot about him and every one of our starters,” he said. “It’s already happened. Our young guys are really attractive. And Shelby is going to be attractive. They think we’ll be down on him. And Greinke’s going to be attractive to guys who can afford him because they’ll think we can’t afford him.”
Management can also be “dramatically better”.
No kidding
Lol!
LaRussa is advocating the hope and pray method of championship team building. Limited payroll flexibility, unwillingness to trade any players of value, the pitching is a train wreck even w/ exponential improvement. What needs to be done eventually, must be done now. Fire those clowns.
Limited payroll flexibility? They just signed a 1.5 billion dollar TV deal and have one of the lowest payrolls in baseball. Unwillingness to trade any players of value? Pretty sure they have been knocked the hardest for doing that. Just about every pitcher had their career worst year they don’t need amazing improvement they just need to go back to average and it would be a massive improvement.
What is “average Shelby Miller” though? No one knows, that guy has been all over the place his entire career.
I don’t think he is even in the rotation in 2017 unless he earns it back in spring training or trades happen. I think they’d be making a mistake even worse by just giving him a rotation spot just because they gave up a lot for him. Spring training 2017 every rotation spot after Greinke should be earned.
Happen to see him in his welcome back debut against LA last night? I think there’s a good chance he’s not in the rotation in 2017.
I think everyone would agree with that Tony.
Can’t be better when you traded your top prospects away and maxed out your budget.
Summary: I built a great team that is underperforming because they have a bad attitude. If the coaches did their job and got the players to perform, we would have a good team. I literally have a notebook on how to coach these players to a world series. – Tony LaRussa
Even this part is BS, because how are Jean Segura & Welington Castillo supposed to overperform even more than they have, how can Jake Lamb break out more than he has, how can Tomas do better – he’s almost to 30 bombs on the year? Robbie Ray, Weeks, Hermann etc, tons of guys played their butts off this year and overperformed expectations and this is the respect they get?
La Russa and Stewart built a bad team and actually had a lot of luck go their way this year. If anything, this team will be even worse next year if they expect all these overperformers to keep it up. They absolutely need to keep spending on pitching if they want to get even remotely close to the Dodgers and Giants.
Losing your 2nd best player arguably best player for the entire season is great luck. Ray’s ERA is nearly a full run worse than it was last year hes really burning his ass off.
Weeks is a 0 WAR player too that kind of performance cant be replaced.
Looking more at Weeks 9 HR and .247/.333/.466 slash line, no one saw that coming. Ray is going to end up a 3+ fWAR player this year with almost 200 K’s and a near identical FIP to 2015. Not many saw that happening too. Losing Pollock doesn’t mean anything to this team, he doesn’t pitch, and pitching is eternally the problem in AZ.
You talk about Ray’s counting stats like ERA and Weeks WAR, but not the other way around where it makes more sense to talk about? Bad post dude.
You know what Pollock does do? He plays defense in one of the harder places to play defense in baseball, look at players batting averages its not far behind from coors. The biggest difference from the Dbacks from last year to this year is defense they went from among league best to among league worst in the span of a year, if you want to blame that on trading Inciarte that is fine but they also did not project to lose Pollock too.
.247/.333/.466 is not a good slash line for someone in Arizona bad post dude. Its why his ops+ is only 7 above league average, and he is a replacement level player.
Pitching eternally bad? They had Johnson and Schilling and what did those two ever do for them? Oh wait…
Lol Johnson and Schilling? Wasn’t that like, 10-15 years ago? That’s an eternity in baseball.
Role players and back of the rotation starters having good/great years means little to nothing if the top if the top players are either hurt or underperforming. Pollock and Peralta have missed most of the year with injury, Greinke, Miller, and Corbin were at the beginning of the year believed to be the best trio of starters in the NL west and all of them have been severally disappointing. Even Goldie who has come around had a horrible start of the season. And a lot of those players breaking out like lamb and Tomas. Look at there numbers batting average .260s very high stike outs and both are defensive liabilities. Oh and not to mention that lamb has fallen off a cliff since the all star break. As for segura does anyone else remember that he was an all star a few years ago and his production dropped while he has some severally tragic things happening in his personal life. It rarely matters what the completely players on the team do if the stars are performing up to their level. If the stars can return and put up the number they use to them this team isn’t as bad as they have shown this year. I don’t believe they are nearly as good as the front office thinks they are especially with the bullpen not being able to get high school players out at this point but with everybody healthy and perform even at an average level this team is far better than 23 games under .500.
Pretty much this. The D’Backs got caught with just about every bad hop imaginable. The second-guessers are great at second-guessing, but pretty thin on demonstrating how anyone could have seen it all coming let alone on what they might have done better to be more competitive this year.
you don’t trade away the overall number 1 pick plus another number 1 pick plus starting outfielder for a number 5 pitcher
That is how great Tony LaRussa is. Where you say it “can’t” be done, he says “can” and “did”!
You’ve hit the nail on the head mostly, although many would disagree about Greinke/Miller/Corbin being the best trio of starters in the NL West.
I imagine most people would have taken Bumgarner/Cueto/Samz and Kershaw/Maeda/Any combination of Kazmir/Ryu/Wood/McCarthy etc.
Nonetheless, great post buddy.
Maybe not, but with the lineup they had pencilled in before the season actually started, having the best 1-2-3 rotation in baseball was hardly a necessity.
It’s easy to say that now. But at the time Miller was one of the beast young pitchers in baseball. Show me a 25 year old with a 3.02 era that throws in the mid 90s with 3 years of control that you don’t have to over pay for. The Indians and Cubs both just gave up there organizations top prospects and then some for a relief pitcher than will throw maybe 60 innings a year but for some reason that’s a great trade. If Miller had performed to level he has shown in Atlanta then this trade isn’t as crazy as people like to say it is. As far as the Touki Tousant deal that deal is what enabled the dbacks to get Greinke because Atlanta ate 12.5 mil in that deal if Greinke had performed up to his standard then give me that trade all day every day and established ace over a 21 year old that isn’t in A with an era in the mid 4s.
If you were responding to me, then I was actually agreeing with you. A respectable front three is what the D’Backs needed to compete given their lineup’s ability to produce runs. That’s what they were after with Grienke and Miller. It had to be good, but it didn’t need to be the best.
Only optimistic Dbacks fans thought that Miller was as good as his 2015 numbers. I argued with plenty of them about how unsustainable his success was. Did I expect him to completely implode? No, but he is not 2015 talented.
Greinke was old and overpaid, Miller was decline waiting to happen, and Corbin was coming back from injury and only threw 85 innings in 2015. Please show me any intelligent baseball writer who had the dbacks as the best 1-2-3 in the West for 2016.
Actually, the Miller deal was criticized across the board as soon as it was made.
Actually, the Miller deal was criticized at the time it was made mainly on the basis of what the D’Backs gave up to get him. He also did not have to be “as good as his 2015 numbers” but only as good as his last three seasons to be a legitimate #2 starter. He is also still only 25. At 32 Greinke is hardly ancient.
My bad bro I was trying to respond to the guy that was bashing the dbacks trading away their first round picks
Yes isn’t their a chapter in the notebook of not to suspect anything when your players go in a bathroom stall together?
Worst front office in baseball
Then maybe he should manage them…
Wow, Steve Gilbert is losing all credibility by being a LaRussa shill. It’s almost disgusting the stuff he’s writing.
The truth is that this organization is deeply flawed from the inside out. Kendrick needs to step aside, it is time for new leadership. Extension for Hall only means more of the same which is turning over Front Office Baseball ops every three years.
They could be dramatically better…without LaRussa and Stewart on the payroll…
Losing Pollack and Peralta didn’t help. Not only did you lose two starting bats, but it also put more pressure on the pitching staff to be that much better.
Which is why they should have gone after Quintana or Sale with that trade package instead of Shelby effin Miller.
The DBacks have a run differential of -146. Losing close games hasn’t been their problem. In fact, their record in one-run games is 19-12, which is remarkably good for a team, as poor as the DBacks. If management wants to point toward injuries, a case can be make, although I don’t think the DBacks have fared worse on injuries than other NL West clubs. The problem, as most understand, is roster assembly.
They can’t be dramatically worse.
need to get rid of everyone starting with dumb ass owner. and then whole front office maybe get someone not ready for retirement. young guys seem to be doing the best jobs in the mlb
All the hoping and praying in the world is not going to fix their pitching. The offense is actually pretty great, but they are short a whole bullpen and 3/5 of a rotation. There is zero chance the D-backs do a complete 180.
They can, if they fire Tony ( Protector of Juciers ) La russa ( R )
“I think I have enough experience that I bet on the group wanting to learn, and that opens the opportunity for the coaches and manager to step in and say, ’Hey, this is how we could have won those close games.’”
Sounds to me like TLR is starting to distance himself from the coaches and lay it all at their feet. Chip may not be the best manager around, but he certainly not responsible for the decisions the front office clowns have made.
Never forget , Tony an Snake !
can’t blame this mess on the manager. this is the three stooges doing. you don’t trade your future away on a just OK pitcher. greinke deal is fine its only the dumb ass owners money which he has more then sense.
They’re 20 games back of the dodgers. This isn’t an instance where the team’s problems can be fixed by some better coaching.
Nice job by LaRussa of trying to save himself though