Let's be clear: The Diamondbacks are much better than I and many people thought they'd be this year. Their starting pitching has been excellent at times, their bullpen has a few adults in the room and the offense took an extended nap to start the season but has shown some real signs of life recently.
This team is flirting with .500 after dating 100 losses last season.
There is real progress and even more importantly real reason for long term optimism.
Zac Gallen has reverted to ace-dom, Alek Thomas was the first truly anticipated Dbacks top prospect in years and has lived up to the hype, Daulton Varsho looks like an All Star caliber mainstay and Pavin Smith has been rock solid.
The Diamondbacks are close to turning the page on a failed core that Mike Hazen has stuck with for two years too long but its still not enough.
The Diamondbacks are undeniably better than we thought but they still aren't good enough to matter.
We've been here before. During the '12, '13, '15, '18 and '19 seasons the Diamondbacks were decent but harmless.
In other words, they were in no man's land.
Being better doesn't matter if you aren't relevant.
This Diamondbacks team would be much better off being bad...again.
Instead of marketing Christian Walker's hot start to sell tickets they should be offering him to the highest bidder in baseball. Instead of another season of fun stories about David Peralta, the Dbacks should tell the story of trading Peralta. Instead of signing Ketel Marte and Merrill Kelly to team friendly contract extensions, they should be dealing them for favorable returns.
I don't understand this team's allergy to doing this the right way.
Winning 83 games this year might feel like an accomplishment but its really just a punishment.
The Dodgers are the Dodgers, loaded with incredible offensive talent and the resources to add whatever they need on their pitching staff. The Padres will either catch the Dodgers or go bankrupt trying and the Giants have as much spending power as anyone but only choose to flex those muscles every few years.
The Diamondbacks only chance of improving to the point of mattering are more years like last year and fewer years like this season.
Its an unfortunate reality for the franchise but it is reality. The sooner the Dbacks start living in that reality the sooner it can actually change.