To begin, why are you using things like batting average and quality starts as measures of baseball effectiveness. I didn’t think there were actually still people who believed that these things were even remotely effective at telling us who was effective.

First and foremost, I’ll address Chris Snyder, because his pictures dots this article. Snyder was anything but a problem with the offense. He made the league minimum and ranked 7th out of 30 everyday catchers in OPS+. No one cares what his batting average was – it certainly did not impact Arizona negatively. His good OPS+ reflects that he was a very, very good offensive catcher this season (in addition to his solid defense).

Justin Upton is faster than B.J. Upton. All of his clocked times reflect that. If you’ve watched the Uptons much, you’d know this. Have you ever seen Justin Upton hit a ball into the gap and have a standup triple when most players would have had a double? I have. It happens often. His base stealing numbers are much more a reflection of the difference in offensive philosophy between the two teams (AZ doesn’t run much), as well as the lack of polish Justin Upton has right now in reading pitchers. Speed isn’t the issue here.

*A healthy Eric Byrnes won’t do any good for this team. Even when healthy, Eric Byrnes is a glorified 4th outfielder. He has a career OPS+ under 100 and he’s not really an excellent defensive outfielder (flip throws not withstanding). Even healthy, he’s overpaid and would be a worse option than, say, Carlos Quentin, who the Diamondbacks unloaded for a barrel of nickels when they extended Eric Byrnes.

*Lastly, Orlando Hudson is not going back to Toronto. It would have taken two seconds of research for you to find that right now, the Yankees, Mets, and Nationals are in line for his services. There’s exactly 0% chance he’ll go back to Toronto.