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The Arizona Diamondbacks are enjoying an unexpected turnaround in 2011. The team widely picked to finish last in the NL West finds itself in the thick of a pennant race as the All-Star break approaches. The difference between this year and last through 85 games could hardly be more dramatic:

Year

W

L

GB

RS

RA

2010

32

53

17.5

387

491

2011

45

40

3.0

381

387

Most of the improvement has been in the run suppression department. Former GM Josh Byrnes laid much of the groundwork—trading for rotation mainstays Ian Kennedy, Daniel Hudson, and Joe Saunders—and deserves a significant portion of the credit, as do his predecessors for building an offensive core around Stephen Drew and Justin Upton.

Considering the contributions of Byrnes and Joe Garagiola to the current team, it would be wrong to give new GM Kevin Towers all the credit (just as it would have been wrong to give Padres GM Jed Hoyer all the credit for his team's unexpected success last year, which was made possible by the foundation that Towers had lain before leaving San Diego). Where Towers has made his mark is in finding value where others do not. He gained a reputation for assembling strong bullpens on the cheap while with the Padres, and he is doing the same in Arizona:

Year

ERA

BA

OBP

SLG

2010

5.74

.282

.368

.452

2011

3.88

.241

.321

.372

Granted, last year's bullpen was historically bad and almost anything figured to be an improvement. And granted, the relievers haven't been as strong of late as they were earlier in the season. Still, this is a positive change and has helped keep the Diamondbacks in games more often than not.

“Finding value where others do not” is a familiar refrain made popular by Moneyball. Towers may have placed less emphasis on sabermetrics and didn't get a book written about him (although Brad Pitt did wear a Padres cap in Spy Game), but his approach in San Diego was similar. Towers learned to search for talent in unusual places while operating on a tight budget. He played the Rule 5 draft, the waiver wire, the Asian market (the cheap version, not the one that brought Ichiro Suzuki and Daisuke Matsuzaka to North America), and fellow GMs in cobbling together teams that reached the postseason four times in 14 years under his watch—no small feat for a franchise that had done so just once in its first 27 years before Towers’ arrival.

Because of his MacGyveresque approach to assembling a ballclub—give him some gum and a paperclip, and he'll give you 85 wins—Towers took to calling himself “The Sludge Merchant.” It is a moniker that manages to be self-deprecating and self-congratulatory at the same time. And it fits Towers to a tee.Towers' record in the Rule 5 draft has been poor (Kory DeHaan, Donaldo Mendez, Jason Szuminski weren't big-leaguers; Shane Victorino was, but not until it was too late for the Padres; and protecting Craig Stansberry over Joakim Soria turned out to be a huge mistake), but he has excelled in other areas. Whether it be trading Andy Sheets for Phil Nevin, claiming Scott Linebrink off waivers from Houston and then flipping him to Milwaukee for Joe Thatcher after five great seasons, or stealing Heath Bell from the Mets (for the forgettable Jon Adkins and Ben Johnson), Towers finds ways to turn nothing into something.

He signed Akinori Otsuka out of Japan before the 2004 season for $700,000. Otsuka had compiled numbers similar to those of a more heralded (and expensive) reliever who ventured across the Pacific a few years earlier, Kazuhiro Sasaki. After Otsuka enjoyed two fine seasons in San Diego, Towers shipped him and Adam Eaton to Texas for Adrian Gonzalez and change. A year after signing Otsuka, Towers brought Brian Sikorski back from a four-year stint in Japan. Although the move didn't work out as well as San Francisco's signing of this year's surprise pitcher, Ryan Vogelsong, it did have benefits. The Padres put Sikorski into 13 games, and then Towers sent him to Cleveland for another right-handed reliever, Mike Adams.

There are enough examples to call Towers' success a pattern (I once published an overview of his trade record with the Padres at my blog). His methods, though unconventional, produce results. Of course, not everything Towers touches turns to gold. Beyond his spotty Rule 5 record, he also exhibits a loyalty that is equal parts endearing and maddening. While in San Diego, Towers signed local product David Wells to help bolster the rotation in the Padres' inaugural season at Petco Park. The then-41-year-old left-hander responded with a respectable 3.73 ERA and 12 wins for a team that surpassed all reasonable expectations. Wells, a favorite of Towers, jumped ship for Boston the following year. In August 2006, though, Towers sought reinforcement down the stretch and traded promising young catcher George Kottaras to Boston for the fork-laden David Wells. Although Kottaras hasn't become anything more than a role player, Wells' presence in the Padres’ rotation for 22 starts in 2007 (he posted a 5.54 ERA despite pitching half his games at Petco Park) quashed the club's playoff chances that year as much as Tony Gwynn Jr.'s triple off Trevor Hoffman or Matt Holliday's phantom run that ended the season.

This year in Arizona, Towers again has recycled some old favorites—Henry Blanco, Geoff Blum, Russell Branyan, Xavier Nady—and the results haven't been pretty. Towers also gave Sean Burroughs a chance to resurrect his career after Burroughs took a few years off to navigate his own version of the Josh Hamilton Semi-Retirement Plan. Burroughs destroyed the PCL after having not played organized ball since 2007 but hasn't done much in brief stints with the big club. This isn't shocking given that the last time he even slugged .300 in the big leagues, new teammate Upton was a junior at Great Bridge High School.

Maybe Towers' loyalty to Burroughs hasn't paid dividends, but the fact that Towers even looked in that direction shows how far outside the box he will go to try to gain a competitive advantage. Was there enough upside in a 30-year-old third baseman with a career .078 ISO to justify the investment? I don't see it, but then, I'm not the man who drafted Burroughs out of high school. Besides, the most surprising aspect of baseball is its endless capacity to surprise. What kind of upside did anyone think Vogelsong had before the season? Or Wily Mo Pena?

Pena, the least accomplished player ever to hit exactly 26 homers at age 22, signed with the Diamondbacks in December 2010. He recently returned from a two-and-a-half-year exile in the land of Bus Rides O' Plenty to provide some pop from the right side of the plate. The results have been predictably erratic (four homers in 38 plate appearances, but also 17 strikeouts and no walks; so much for trying to make better contact), but Pena has had his moments. Two of Pena's homers (against Kansas City's Luke Hochevar on June 21 and against Detroit's David Purcey on June 24) have traveled an estimated 450-plus feet. There are no bonus points for distance on a home run, but that is exciting to see as a fan, and fans ultimately keep the sport in business.

On June 28, Pena got more than just style points. He clubbed a walk-off homer against Cleveland left-hander Tony Sipp. The downside, beyond a 44.7 percent K%, is that Pena has yet to play an inning in the field. (One could argue this is an upside, but I digress.) With Bud Selig's interleague interlude now in the rear-view mirror, one has to wonder how relevant Pena will be to a team that doesn't employ a DH.

And this brings us back to Towers. (No, not the time he received nothing from Oakland for Jack Cust.) If anyone can turn Pena into a useful part, it's The Sludge Merchant. He has gotten more out of less—transforming three scrubs into baseball's best 1-2 relief combo over the past three years is a slick trick. Maybe Towers won't work his magic with Pena, but I wouldn't bet against it. After all, the man has some gum and a paperclip.    

 

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fawcettb
7/05
Good piece as always, Geoff.
rbrianc
7/05
This is a great group of Diamondbacks. While Towers deserves all the accolades mentioned here, let's not forget Kirk Gibson's role.

He doesn't have the history Towers has, but this move cannot be underestimated at this point and i'm believing Gibson is turning out to be a better manager than any one ever expected.
LynchMob
7/05
Ya, I'm still waiting for Holliday to touch home plate :-)
wonkothesane1
7/05
This article reminds me of a number of good things Towers did in San Diego, but I'm still left wondering what he's done to help this years DBacks. Wily Mo is a nice story, but the DBacks were contending before he got to the big leagues.

The one thing that does seem to favor Towers is the Mark Reynolds trade. He got a couple bullpen arms back, including his 8th inning guy, which was big. He thought that Mora could replace Reynolds, but it turned out that he had Ryan Roberts to do that already. I wonder if that was just luck or if he knew Roberts was a solid plan B (or C or whatever).

It's also worth mentioning that their situation at 1B is mostly a disaster.
gyoung858
7/06
Addendum: I am informed that Hudson and Saunders were acquired by Jerry DiPoto during his brief tenure as interim GM between Byrnes' firing and Towers' hiring. Thanks to those who alerted me to this fact and apologies for the error.
kevinwalkerlhp
7/07
Having grown up in San Diego during Kevin Tower's reign, it's fun to see a write up about him as I always felt like he was an interesting GM that didn't get much media attention outside of San Diego. But whenever I read positive coverage of Towers, I am a bit chagrined because I also think he's at fault for a lot of the Padres failures over the last 15 years (particularly post-1998).

Towers certainly identified a bunch of useful ballplayers through unusual means -- some who were solid parts of the team for a few seasons (like so many middle relievers) and others who were real stars for the Padres for a season or two or three (Phil Nevin, Linebrink, Mark Lorretta, etc). But a big part of the reason that he was trolling the waiver wire for cheap ballplayers was that he always had someone on the team sucking up some massive percentage of the payroll, and that was usually his fault. Towers seemed to persistently over-rate his own acquisitions when it came to handing out contracts, overpaying for slightly above average talent that would then sink to below replacement level by the second or third year of the deal (see Kevin Jarvis, Woody Williams, Bobby Jones, etc). In fact, the reason Towers was called the "Sludge Merchant" is less because he was good at acquiring players and more that he was always trying to find creative ways to unload bad contracts that he himself signed (Kevin Jarvis for Jeff Cirillo, anyone?).

The constant payroll issues, combined with the fact that the front office seemed utterly incapable of drafting and developing any hitting talent (Jake Gautreau, Matt Antonelli, Matt Bush, Drew Cumberland, Allan Dykstra, and now probably Donovan Tate), never put the Padres in a position to deliver any sustained success. It'll be interesting to see how Towers does on those two fronts in Arizona.

gyoung858
7/09
Thanks for the thoughtful comment. You are correct about those horrible long-term contracts (I'll add Wiki Gonzalez and Bubba Trammell to the list), although Towers has blamed club president Bob Vizas for the Jarvis signing.

Drafting and developing hitters absolutely was a problem under Towers' watch. Headley has become useful, and a few others may yet make it (Darnell and Decker; maybe Blanks, Forsythe, and Tekotte), but where are the stars?

Towers had much better success with pitchers, e.g., Peavy and Latos. Still, the Padres had a chance to kill in '99, '04, and '07, and didn't get it done.

Arizona had some good drafts under Towers' predecessors. If the Snakes can continue drafting well *and* benefit from his trading acumen, they could be a formidable organization.