Hell, there's a good chance they've agonized over the idea for a while now.

And you know what? The time is now.

The team must call up Trevor Bauer.

Bauer, the team's much-heralded pitching prospect out of UCLA, has fared well since being promoted to Triple-A Reno. He's put together a 2-0 record with a 2.53 ERA, striking out 31 hitters and walking 12 in 25 innings of work.

In a word, he is dominant. In another word, he's been wild. But in a final, and maybe even more important word for the 2012 Diamondbacks, he is hope. Hope that the season, which is spiraling out of control, can be turned around on his right arm.

The Diamondbacks are 25-30 on the season, nine games back of the Dodgers and in danger of becoming irrelevant. Any buzz the team had around it when the season began is long gone, replaced with an apathy not seen around these parts since, well, 2010.

Winning, of course, would change that. Calling up a top prospect and inserting him into the starting rotation would change that, too, at least for a little while.

The good news is the two are not necessarily mutually exclusive. Calling up Bauer could lead to more wins, and while the guy he'd most likely replace (Joe Saunders) had an excellent April for the team, his May and June have been quite awful.

Saunders cost the team Monday when he allowed three runs in the first two innings against the Rockies. Momentum? Gone. Good feelings? Gone. Reason for still being in rotation? Of course, that does not mean Saunders has no value. A lefty with a solid track record and postseason experience will be in demand, and there have been numerous reports that the D-backs will look to make a deal. It all works out perfectly, because it's time to free up that spot in the rotation.

In fact, any deal to move Saunders would be made not so much because of anything the lefty did, but to get the younger Bauer into the rotation. After all, what does he have left to prove in the minors?

That's not to say Bauer will show up and dominate major league hitters. The 21-year-old will most certainly have his rough moments, where he looks every bit the rookie and nothing like a savior.

Thing is, he's not meant to be the team's savior. Arizona's problems go far deeper than just one starting pitcher, and Bauer's presence alone won't all of a sudden make the team a contender again.

But it won't make them worse, either, and at this point the team has nothing to lose and everything to gain by bringing the Golden Spikes Award winner to The Show.