I know they’d never can Bavasi during the season, especially before the draft, but honestly those of you who are concerned about losing Fontaine need to pay a little more attention. Yes, Fontaine has brought us better players using the draft than his predecessors. Hard not to improve from the zeros HIS predecessors gave us, though.

Fontaine is somewhat replaceable, but the message that’s perhaps missing is that a metric ton of our GOOD players - our BEST players - have come from the International scene.

That’s Bob Engle’s shop.

With Triunfel at the top of our remaining prospect list, that trend can and will continue.

I’ll acknowledge that Fontaine has brought some good players in lately (and two of the bigger pieces of the Bedard deal were also his guys)—but even right after the 2006 draft (and MORESO now that the Org has crapped on how he’s been developed), I thought Fontaine f’d up on the Morrow pick. Yeah, yeah, he wouldn’t’ve had Howie’s blessing to grab Miller (who actually is struggling a bit with FLA). Still, it was his call of Morrow over Lincecum and/or any number of other players who were worthy of a top-5 pick. Mangini is another questionable pick. He’s not a saint by any means.

I’m not saying we should dump Fontaine - not at all. He’s a good scouting director, and a great draft guy. But we also need to recognize that another guy in the organization has actually been MORE important to the farm system than Fontaine. If a side effect of losing Bavasi is losing Fontaine, that shouldn’t be something to be too horribly concerned about. There are many competent folks who can manage a draft, and the M’s have actually done a pretty good job of building their MLB-matriculating farm system without relying 100% on the draft - and they can continue to do so, even if they hire a low-VORSD (Value Over Replacement Scouting Director) to replace Fontaine, they’ll still be OK.

Where the Diamondbacks Came From

Draft:
Chris Snyder(2002-2nd round)
Conor Jackson(2003-1st round)
Stephen Drew(2004-1st round)
Mark Reynolds(2004-16th round)
Justin Upton(2005-1st overall)
Robby Hammock(1998-23rd round)
Brandon Webb(2000-8th round)
Max Scherzer(2006-1st round)
Micah Owings(2005-3rd round)
Brandon Medders(2001-8th round)
Doug Slaten(2000-17th round)

Trade:
Orlando Hudson(2005 with Tits from Toronto for Troy Glaus and a throw in minor leaguer)
Chris B Young(2005 with El Duque and Luis Vizcaino from Chicago(AL) for Javier Vazquez)
Chris Burke/Chad Qualls(2007 with minor league pitcher from Houston for Jose Valverde)
Danny Haren(2007 with minor league throw in from Oakland for Carlos Gonzalez,Brett Anderson, ect)
Randy Johnson(2007 from New York(AL) for crap)
Doug Davis(2006 with Dana Eveland and throw in from Milwaukee for Greg Acquino,Johnny Estrada, and Claudio Vargas)
Juan Cruz(2006 from Oakland for Brad Halsey)
Brandon Lyon(2003 with Cassey Fossum and two throw ins from Boston for Curt Schilling)

Free Agency:
Eric Byrnes(2005)
Augie Ojeda(2006-NRI)

International Free Agency:
Miguel Montero(2001)
Edgar Gonzalez(2000)
Tony Pena(2002)

Other:
Jeff Salazar(2007-Claimed off waivers from Colorado)