The decision was made for the Arizona Diamondbacks
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Print | Originally published: Jul 21, 2011 - 6:54 am
Sometimes in life the decision gets made for you.
The sushi place is packed, let's go for pizza. Out of red cars? Blue it is. In both cases, if you really want sushi or really want a red car, you could go somewhere else and get it. Ultimately you ask the question. Can we live with pizza in a blue car? Or is it absolutely necessary to have sushi in the red?
Not the best analogy I've ever come up with but I think we've all been there.
The Arizona Diamondbacks are there. Stephen Drew is out for the year with a gruesome ankle injury suffered Wednesday night. The play will prompt sportscasters across the country to preface the highlight with the obligatory "gotta warn you, this doesn't look good, it's tough to watch" caveat. It was that bad.
The obvious questions are flying. How do you replace him? Will the team hang their heads without him? What does this say for the future of Stephen Drew and the D-backs?
Answers: You don't, certainly not with journeyman Cody Ransom. They won't, or at least they didn't on Wednesday night. And….well….you got me there. But those aren't the questions I'm asking. I'm wondering if the decision was just made for the Arizona Diamondbacks. The decision to add. To buy at the trade deadline. To be aggressive in their pursuit of help, because goodness knows they need all sorts of it now.
Or can the Arizona Diamondbacks just live with what they are?
I think the decision was just made for them. Because what you are, is good enough. Good enough to make 2009 and 2010 nothing but a speck in the rear view mirror. Good enough to believe that Kevin Towers and Kirk Gibson know exactly what they're doing. When you lose 189 games in two years you don't need to get it all back in one season. This season can already be classified as an immense success, exceeding most of the reasonable and even some of the unreasonable expectations. Parting with any of your minor league prospects who have even a whiff of potential in the name of winning now is foolish. Especially after Drew's devastating injury.
Not that he was having a bang-up year at the plate; his numbers this year are below his career averages. But asking Cody Ransom to be a poor man's Drew all while needing another starter and another bullpen arm and still trying to rebuild your farm system…..it's just too much to ask.
