Buyers or Sellers?

12 days until the trade deadline and are the Dbacks buying or selling? This decision affects the franchise for the next 5 years or longer. There are good arguments on both sides, and so we will delve into each.

Buying - You send a statement to the fans that this team is trying for the playoffs and the future is now. In a buying mode we need a Starting Pitcher and a slugger. The options are thin in trying to get a bat. J. Dye has been injured and not effective this year, M. Teixeira has a lot of money owed and the asking price is high. Getting a bat will be difficult. There are rumor's of CoJack heading to the Chi White Sox for one of their young pitchers, J. Danks, a rookie pitcher with a 4.81 ERA. I am not sure he is the answer for the push for the playoffs.

Selling - admitting that you are out of this years playoffs but the future will look bright. I love E. Brynes and O'Dog, the two veterans we have on the team along with T. Clark, but they are both looking to get paid in the off season. I think the Dbacks will pay and keep one, but not both. Either player would or could bring in a nice future starter or slugger.

I like the idea of playing for the playoffs, but the options are limited and expensive. Not to mention, I am not sure the incoming players are better than what we have. The key to making a trade is to make the team decidedly better now, and give up some future. I don't see us getting anything to make us better, and I do not want to give up on the young guys or lose any of the future. If R. Johnson was healthy and pitching like he was in May, I think this team could make the playoffs. Once you are in the post season, anything can happen (06 Cardinals). Unfortunately RJ is injured, the hitters are not hitting, and the best two teams in the NL are both ahead of us in the Dodgers and Padres. If they can sell a player or two and pick up a 3-4-5 starting pitcher for the future or a young slugger, they should. I absolutely hate the selling option but it makes the most sense. The Dbacks of the future are in fabulous shape and only need a starter to make serious playoff runs over the next 5- 7 years.

Future Starters of Webb, Owens, and possible starters in M. Scherzer, Edgar Gonzalez, Y. Petit, D. Nippert, Enrique Gonzalez and a young starter from a trade leave plenty of competition or trade bait to get another front line starter.

The outfield has talent coming in J. Upton and C. Gonzalez coming along with C. Young, C. Quinton, S. Hairston. The infield is set at the corners with CoJack, C. Tracy, and M. Reynolds. S. Drew and O'Dog are a good one two punch up the middle, with Callaspo a nice backup or replacement for O'Dog. The dbacks have good players all over the place, but no super star. They need a superstar to take this team over the top and back to the World Series. Is J. Upton that guy? Or does Young, Drew, CoJack, Tracy, Quinton, and Montero all raise their batting averages 20 to 50 point to make this an offensive team that uses extra base hits to score? The future is bright, it is just going to take a while for the young hitters to adjust to the major leagues and hopefully all live up to their potential. Will that be August and September this year, next year or beyond is the million dollar question.

My GM for the day moment would be to be a seller and try to pick up a minor league stud pitcher or slugger. If that means selling a veteran or two and a couple of our prospects then so be it. The future of this team is 2008 - 2012.