It would be so easy to bag on the D-backs for dumping salary because in fact, they've dumped quite a bit of salary already and might not be done dumping yet.
We are witnessing a massive overhaul of Overhaulin' proportions with Conor Jackson, Dan Haren, Edwin Jackson, Chad Qualls and Chris Snyder already gone and Kelly Johnson and Adam LaRoche on the verge of packing their bags, as well.
In that car makeover show, they steal people's crappy cars and turn them into gleaming gems of automotive beauty.
What the D-backs are doing is kind of like that, but in reverse... with a long-term twist.
Trading away valuable (and expensive) pieces, Ken Kendrick and Derrick Hall have decided to strip the jalopy down to the bone and promise to spend money on some new parts this winter.
The upside is they got rid of some dead weight (Snyder, Qualls) and moved some big salaries (Haren, Jackson) and got back a couple of capable(?) arms (Saunders, Hudson) and a bevy of young lefty pitching prospects (Corbin, Skaggs, Holmberg).
The problem is they have no immediate hopes of having an ace on the staff for next season and it doesn't sound like the team is inclined to go pay big money for one. Maybe Brandon Webb finds his way back to the mound and takes a cheap one-year deal next season, but the chances of that happening seem to diminish every week.
It's going to be a long slog for the rest of this season, as the only thing the Diamondbacks have to play for is a battle with the Pirates and Orioles to see who gets the honors of having the worst record in the league.
Side note: Baseball, of all our pro sports, is best suited for European-style relegation. Imagine how much more fun the next two months would be if the prospect of having the entire D-backs franchise sent to the minors for a year was on the line.
It's hard to look forward and say the future is bright for this team and yet it's also hard to get mad at the massive overhaul job either. It was a lose-lose mess and doing nothing was just as onerous as the course they chose.
It does seem, looking at how the trade market has played out, that interim GM Jerry Dipoto deserves credit for a well-executed tear-down job, so at least there's that to hang your Sedona Red cap on.