What they need: Arizona Diamondbacks – A second baseman

If you look at the Diamondbacks, they are actually pretty stacked compared to most teams, especially given that they only lost the weak NL West by 2 games last season, and the Manny-less (not to mention Lowe-less and Penny-less) Dodgers look sure to take a step backwards next year.

In the rotation they will still have the best 1-2 punch around in Brandon Webb and Dan Haren, with fireballing sensation Max Scherzer looking set to join Doug Davis and a likely returning (and surprisingly effective) Randy Johnson in a solid back end.

Looking to the everyday lineup, the Diamondbacks have good young players at almost every position, with continued improvement being a reasonable expectation for many, including still-on-the-upswing young stars like Justin Upton, Stephen Drew, Chris Snyder, Mark Reynolds, and Chris Young.

The only place the Diamondbacks have a somewhat glaring hole is at second base, where Orlando Hudson is a free agent and seems determined to test the market. But even here, the Diamondbacks have some internal options. In one scenario, they could take advantage of Eric Byrnes returning from a hamstring injury to shift Connor Jackson back to first base from left field, and then move Chad Tracy back to his natural position of third base and shift Reynolds over to second.

Another option would be to hand the job over to Chris Burke, who is still young and talented, but whose star has fallen significantly since his first callup with the Astros.

Then there is also the free agent market, which is not super promising, but still, it would probably not be a terrible idea for the D-Backs to bring in an aging but still capable veteran like Ray Durham, Mark Loretta, or the ageless and ever-.300-hitting Mark Grudzielanek on a one-year deal to provide competition and a backup/stopgap plan.

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