Hot Seat for Hazen, Booker the author, Future for Fitz…

IF the Diamondbacks don’t make the postseason, the General Manager is going to be the one to blame. In the here and now, the Major League trade deadline went over in Arizona like a lead balloon. With 50 games remaining, Mike Hazen did next to nothing to improve a team that has fought hard on the field, only to be left with obvious holes. The only conclusion is that the GM was outplayed on deadline day. ” I think it’s frustrating”, is how Hazen responded to the lack of roster addition.

Salty language hit my text messages right after the deadline passed. I get it and agree with the fans. Not going to defend the GM, who, for some reason, hasn’t been held to the fire in spite of several recent misses. For the defenders who point out that the team has overachieved even with all the injuries and poor production. Please defend what has happened at first base since Josh Naylor was traded a year ago? “There wasn’t a lot out there,” Hazen said on the TV game broadcast Monday night. Please explain how Zac Gallen was brought back for the 2026 rotation? Paul Sewald has turned into, well, Paul Sewald. Yanked as the closer, and I could go on. The coaching staff has worked a miracle just to put them in the playoff conversation.

Pretty clear that the front office is counting on all the injured players to return and save the day. A mighty big gamble for a clubhouse to accept after they clawed and fought for the first 111 games.  Of course, everyone on 401 E. Jefferson Street is going to play nice and say all the right things publically but if the team misses its third straight postseason, the lack of creativity and guts to pull the trigger and send a strong message to the 25 guys and manager that “we have your back”  falls on Hazen, who after today’s swing and misses should be on the hottest of seats. IF the parts on the injured list return and deliver, then he will look like a genius, but that is a mighty big IF for the next seven weeks…

I’m pleased for Larry Fitzgerald going in as a first-ballot Hall of Famer this weekend, but I am more interested in what he will be doing with his life in the coming years. Fitz is one of the rare talents who has been developing his next act in life as his on-the-field career was winding down. He has already tinkered in sports ownership, owning a small share of the Suns under Robert Sarver. Could he take the reins of the Cardinals? NO. The owner would never let anyone, even Fitz, come in and take away his spotlight(no matter how dim it currently is). Easy to imagine Fitz getting an investment group together to target another NFL city(Minnesota). Why not just do it here? He’s already tried the TV studio analyst gig and wasn’t a fan(his words, not mine). Could politics be in his future? Remember his close relationship with the late Senator John McCain? …

I can only imagine when a “bleepshow” production meeting must be at Fox News and CNN when the subject of the WNBA comes up in the daily meetings. How can they wrap Caitlin and Sophie into the mainstream news cycle? Nonsense at its highest…

Devin Booker is now an author. Book comes out next month