The Arizona Diamondbacks currently sit one game under .500, in third place in the NL West. That's put General Manager Kevin Towers in an odd position, according to a report from AZCentral.com. Convinced he currently has a better team than last year, he's unsure of which teams will get the team performing at the level he thinks they can, or if any moves are needed at all. Comments from Towers and more after the jump.
Towers can't get a read on the team, hampering his ability to do his job:
"Day to day, I don't know who's going to show up," he said. "It's hard. I haven't been able to put my finger on it. It's the first time in a long time that I've been with a team (at this point in the season) that I'm still trying to figure out."
That hasn't left the team paralyzed, though:
The Diamondbacks in recent weeks told their scouts to focus on third basemen, including Red Sox veteran Kevin Youkilis. But sources continue to predict no Youkilis trade will happen, either because of his salary or Boston's asking price. Or, perhaps, because of the improvement shown by third baseman Ryan Roberts, who is hitting close to .300 since the end of April.
When the Diamondbacks first inquired about Youkilis, the Red Sox asked for outfielder Gerardo Parra in return. The Diamondbacks said no.
The Diamondbacks also have depth at third base in the minor leagues, but team officials don't sound eager to bring either Triple-A Reno's Ryan Wheeler or Double-A Mobile's Matt Davidson to the majors anytime soon. Both players are having strong years at the plate but club evaluators believe they need more work defensively.
The Diamondbacks aren't playing as well as they could, and it's partly Tower's responsibility to fix that. A baseball team can be a delicate organism, though, and it's clear Tower knows that making a deal isn't anywhere near as important as making the right deal.
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