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Originally Posted by koohead
Odd move. Dbacks have lots of potential and appear to be moving towards giving their youth a chance to play. Young is the CF..that's a gimme. Just brought up Upton...so he's set in RF next year. Carlos Quentin is suppose to be in their OF, and Connor Jackson has all but lost his spot at 1B. So why sign a huge contract for Byrnes? why not take the money and go after some pitching to go with webb?
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Quentin has really struggled and you really can't compete with a lineup of rookies. Outside of orlando Hudson, all the other starters next season were going to be Jackson, Drew, Reynolds, Young, Quentin, Upton and Montero. That's 6-7 guys under 25 years old. You need atleast 1-2 veteran players to be competitive. Now, the pitching staff is a different story - they could actually use some youth in the rotation (after Webb, RJ and Doug Davis).
Plus, if let Byrnes walk, you basically lose an asset who has basically been a .350 OBP, .820 OPS, 30 SB (80%) and very good fielder in all 3 OF spots for nothing. Instead, why not sign him to a reasonable 3-year deal and move Carlos Quentin and/or Chad Tracy for a young SP. I'd rather have Byrnes and a young SP with potential than Quentin and next year's Jeff Weaver in FA.
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Dbacks are a fun team to watch though. the youth keeps them in games, and the hustle and energy is nice to see at the professional level.
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I think they realized that they need some veteran leadership to be competitive while the kids develop. The team is just too streaky if you run out a starting 8 full of 19-24 year olds. Have a couple guys in their early 30s can stabilize this team. And, Byrnes has been pretty good in his two years at AZ.