Moore

Paul.

This isn’t about anything other than them. Not right now, anyway.

Icon for prospects

Hazen got rid of ‘America’s First Baseman’ for Luke Weaver, Carson Kelly, Andy Young and a Competitive Balance Round B draft pick to be selected later.

No disrespect to these gentlemen, but who are they? And why should we care?

Goldschmidt is on his way to Cooperstown, and he gets traded for prospects?

One of those guys is a catcher, another one is a pitcher. Don’t ask which is which, that’s not the point.

The point is the Diamondbacks already have catchers, three of them on the active roster, and way too many pitchers. (Just like every other team in baseball.)

What they icon.

Zack Greinke isn’t the guy. When he goes to the Hall of Fame, there’ll be a legitimate question over which cap he’ll wear.

Besides, he might be the next guy traded.

Archie Bradley isn’t the guy, either. He’s mostly known for having a beard and being a middle reliever, which is apparently an important position these days.

Not that fans would know. The way the game is played lately, they’ve been trying to watch through their eyelids. Starting pitchers are going three to five innings then getting pulled in favor of a don’t have is another succession of specialists skilled in the art of putting fans to sleep.

The sport has been reduced to data and analytics, which might be a way for small-market clubs to gain an advantage, but who wants to watch?

The day people care to pay to see others think, tax offices will install ticket windows.

Nothing to be happy about

Paul Goldschmidt might have come across as robotic, but he wasn’t boring.

The guy hit 209 home runs in his eight years in town. Four times he finished in the top 10 for MVP voting, and he should have won it in 2017.

And now he’s gone for a stack of role players, and fans are supposed to celebrate and cheer for him?

Every time he comes to bat as a member of the St. Louis Cardinals, chants should ring through the supposedly dilapidated concourses at Chase Field: “Thank you, sir! May I have another?!”

And, again, we get it. The Diamondbacks think they need to start over. They need to improve the farm system and acquire draft picks. They don’t think spending $125 million for an aging first baseman with declining production makes sense.

It’s not complicated. We understand. We just disagree. Vehemently. With the decision. With the way this franchise has spent money that left it in position to make this decision (see: Yasmany Tomas). With baseball’s revenue-sharing deal that made it reasonable. With the way front offices are dimming stars in favor of sabermetrics.

We’ve had time to process it. But there will never be enough time to like it.