Kevin Towers has it all wrong

If the new market inefficiency is being the "toughest", most prideful organization even at the cost of putting opposing hitters on base - or worse, injuring other players and possibly getting your own players hurt - then the Arizona Diamondbacks and GM Kevin Towers may be onto something.

In a radio interview on Arizona's KTAR 620 on Tuesday, Oct 8, Towers took the stand that if his pitchers - who were already 7th in the Majors in HBP - don't start retaliating when his hitters - who were hit the 10th FEWEST times - get plunked, they will quickly find themselves in a new uniform. For some with "options", this means back to the minors where you can apparently be taught the Diamondbacks version of "an eye for an eye". For others, one can only assume they will be traded for .60 on the dollar like many of the players traded away from the Diamondbacks in the past few seasons.

It apparently doesn't stop just when a Diamondback gets hit. From his comments, Towers believes if you're having too much fun or being silly in your dugout, you should have a ball thrown at you at 90MPH+. Referring to a game vs. the Dodgers late in the season when Towers saw the NL West Champions enjoying themselves too much for his liking he stated, "Literally, if I would have had a carton of baseballs I would have fired them into the dugout from where I was sitting behind home plate." Now, I'm going to hope that is just a case of "literal" abuse, but even in hyperbole, WHO CARES? There are two much more reasonable solutions. 1. Beat them. Play better from the start and beat them. Then you won't care what they are doing in their dugout, I feel pretty confident about that. 2. Ignore them. If you feel they are acting undisciplined, unfocused or... *gasp* having too much fun playing a game, ignore them, focus on the task at hand and instead of suggesting you put MORE runners on base by hitting them, quietly come back and maybe win the game.

If another team adopts this same juvenile... technically, this should be categorized as infantile... way of thinking, will we just have a batter being hit every inning? When does it stop, when there's a brawl on the mound or in foul territory? That didn't work out well for the Diamondbacks this season when they tried to go that route. They were mocked across the country and generally lost a bit of respect among most baseball fans. Will it stop when a player loses playing time because of an injury suffered? When a season or career ends?

What do these 2012 D-backs have in common: Justin Upton, Chris Young, Stephen Drew, Ryan Roberts? All are players whose new 2013 teams made the playoffs. They contributed in varying degrees to their teams, obviously, but they were players who reportedly didn't fit with the gritty, gutty Diamondbacks being molded in the image of their manager Kirk Gibson and apparently the image Towers is now taking to the next level. They supposedly weren't gritty enough to be a part of a winning team, yet there they all were.

One of the oddest parts to me in this is that the Diamondbacks are one of the most forward-thinking and progressive organizations when it comes to the fan experience. They also have some of the most intelligent and rational players on twitter (Brandon McCarthy and Daniel Hudson immediately come to mind). Maybe it is time for Towers to join this millennium in his mindset and worry about acquiring players who will get on base and not put players on base instead of trying to find players who are willing to carelessly do the opposite under the guise of "protect(ing) one another".