DiDi Gregorius’ success will be the deciding factor in the success or failure of GM Kevin Towers. Image: Jerry Lai-USA TODAY Sports

There are several positive ones in my point of view. First, it means the D’backs are finally going to let the Justin Upton trade rumors die and keep him in an Arizona uniform for at least the year. Perhaps they can even start to build around him again.

Second, the rotation is pretty much set at this point. Ian Kennedy will be the opening day starter with Trevor Cahill, Wade Miley, Brandon McCarthy pretty much locked into their spots behind Kennedy. That leaves the fifth spot open for Patrick Corbin or Tyler Skaggs to claim. But with Skaggs’ ability and his readiness for the majors at this point, it’s a good bet he will win the job.

Finally, it also means that the D’backs finally feel comfortable that they have their guy at the shortstop position. Whether that is Cliff Pennington for this year while Gregorius gets some more seasoning in the minors, or Gregorius wins the job out of Spring Training, the D’backs finally have filled that hole.

There also are several negative repercussions. The first is the D’backs no longer have a disposable upper-echelon trade piece. The D’backs biggest advantage was their depth of pitching prospects at the upper levels of the minors between Bauer, Skaggs and Corbin. One of those three could have been a major trade piece in case the D’backs wanted to acquire a player mid-season in the midst of a playoff race.

Now, that pitching depth is all but gone with Bauer traded and Skaggs most likely earning a spot in the rotation with Corbin serving as a swing-man for the D’backs. After those three, the D’backs still have high-upside pitching in the minors, such as Chase Anderson, David Holmberg, Anthony Meo and Archie Bradley, but they all are still a ways away from being major-league ready.

Second, what do the D’backs do with their other shortstop prospect Chris Owings. Some still view Owings as a regular starter at some point in his future despite his unbelievably bad plate discipline – 22 percent K-rate and three percent walk rate. However, if Owings is in fact going to make it to the majors as a regular, where does he play? There has been some discussion about moving him to second, which would work once Aaron Hill moves on, but it’s also moving a guy from the position he has played his entire minor league career. That doesn’t always turn out well.

Finally, the last possible repercussion of this trade is how Kevin Towers will be viewed as a GM. Many D’backs fans have grown weary of his trades – most of which have been loudly criticized – but this is the biggest. If Gregorius’ bat never develops and he turns into nothing more than another Pennington, and/or if Bauer finds his control and starts to show the dominating stuff many believe he has, Towers may be run out of town.

This trade is the proverbial planting of the flag move for Towers. If it ends badly, it’s on him.

Mike Moustakas could be just the right guy for the D-backs. Image: Rick Osentoski-US PRESSWIRE

For me, it starts and begins with trading one our upper-level power arms for an upgrade at third base or short stop. Presumed starters Chris Johnson and Cliff Pennington are guys that could capably fill the positions, but they are also not roster strengths by any stretch of the imagination. Pennington has 24 career home runs over five seasons. He also has a poor .313 On-Base Percentage for his career, rendering him basically useless at the plate. Thankfully, he does have some defensive acumen.

Johnson on the other hand isn’t bad either offensively or defensively but isn’t good in either aspect, either. He is the definition of replacement level as he has a -0.8 WAR over his career; though, he did have a 0.7 WAR in 2012 with the Astros and Diamondbacks.

So if the D-backs really consider themselves contenders going forward, those two positions would be the easiest to upgrade. Now how to do that? Instead of trading a guy like Justin Upton, who they should be building around not constantly shopping like I wrote here, they could pull the trigger on one of their elite pitching prospects that are big-league ready. Trevor Bauer, Tyler Skaggs and Patrick Corbin all saw time in the majors last season with mixed results.

However, all three are considered to be prospects with great potential (Skaggs and Bauer a bit more than Corbin). The Diamondbacks currently have Ian Kennedy, Trevor Cahill and Wade Miley penned into the starting rotation for 2013. The D-backs also have adding a veteran starter to the mix as a top priority at this point. Assuming they find someone, that leaves one spot for Bauer, Corbin and Skaggs to battle it out for (not to mention Daniel Hudson will be back at some point).

In addition, the D-backs have guys like David Holmberg and Chase Anderson right behind those three and Archie Bradley and Andrew Chafin behind them. That’s a long way to say that the D-backs are stacked with high-upside starting pitchers in their farm system with very little position player talent.

So perhaps, the D-backs can trade one of their arms for an upgrade over Johnson and Pennington. I’ve seen quite a few rumblings from Royals fans that they would like to trade one of their young hitters for some starting pitching. I’m not saying it’s likely, but at least asking about Mike Moustakas would behoove the D-backs front office. That is item number one on my wish list.

Possibly giving up Bauer or Skaggs and another arm lower in the ranks for Moustakas would be a coop for the D-backs. It would provide a massive upgrade at third and possibly give the D-backs one more bat in a relatively deep lineup outside of third and short.

I’m not saying it’s likely, but I could wish, right?

AFL pitcher of the week Chase Anderson was most impressive in his Rising Stars appearance Saturday night.

On the heals of receiving the AFL pitcher of the week leading up to the Rising Stars game, the 24 year old Chase Anderson (AA Mobile) put together the most impressive pitching outing of the evening throwing a pair of shutout innings while collecting four strikeouts. After retiring the first batter in the fourth, the right hander surrendered back-to-back singles before fanning the next two hitters to stomp out any chance of a rally. All of Anderson’s pitches seemed to have movement and his breaking ball was down-right dirty with nobody touching it on this evening.

“I was hoping for an opportunity to play in this league this year,” said Anderson, who missed most of 2011 with an injury, but jumped back on the map with a strong 2012. “I wanted to do this at the beginning of the year.”

Chris Owings (AA Mobile) got the start at shortstop and collected a hit, stole a base and scored a run before being replaced at the start of the fifth inning.

The show was [quite literally] stolen by Reds prospect Billy Hamilton however who showcased once again just how much of a nuisance the switch hitter can be on the base paths. He led off the game with a walk and quickly swiped second base before using a delayed steal to find his way on third base. He would score easily on a double later in the at bat. The fifth inning offered another example of how dangerous he can be as he laid down a drag bunt up the first baseline and as first baseman Jonathon Singleton hurried his throw he sailed it into right field allowing the speedster to advance all the way to third with a run scoring.

Watching Hamilton in person for the first time was a treat and really opened my eyes to just how electric this player can be. He is the type of guy that has enough energy to play doubleheaders daily and still go out for a night on the town. “I’m always energized,” Hamilton said. “I never get tired. When I feel tired, I tell myself to get up.” That’s the truth. As he led off third in the fifth (bouncing up and down) it was as if his natural energy sent him nearly three quarters of the way towards home before retreating as the pitcher stepped off. Perhaps he was about to steal home or perhaps he didn’t realize just how far he was- either way, the crowd took notice and got a little chuckle out of Hamilton’s big smile. That’s my game,” Hamilton said. “I like to bring fun, a little excitement. I bring a lot of energy.”

One other notable prospect was the East’s leadoff hitter, Brian Goodwin of the Washington Nationals (AA Harrisburg) as he smacked a leadoff the game homerun and added another run and a pair of RBI’s to his line. He nearly had one more double but [recently turned] shortstop-turned-centerfielder Billy Hamilton ran out to the warning track to make a diving catch saving at least one run and rob Goodwin of an extra base.

“This was more fun than I thought it would be,” said Goodwin, the No. 67 prospect in the league. “I met some new guys, we played the game we love and we came out with a win. What else are you playing for?”

This was definitely the vibe during a perfect evening in Scottsdale with an AFL record 5,713 people. Offense was aplenty and in a game that historically 72.6% of participants will see the major leagues in some regard, us as fans got a glimpse of the bright future of professional baseball. Not to mention, as an added bonus for attending this game we were given free tickets to the AFL Championship game coming up on November 17th.

Follow me on Twitter at @ndougherty313 and our team at @venomstrikes.