I'm becoming less optimistic about my D-backs

From Chris Kahrl's Transaction analysis (premium Baseball Prospectus membership needed) on the D-backs trading John Patterson for Randy Choate (WTF?):

Apparently, the Snakes don't merely shed their skins, they also smoke them. Randy Choate, for a promising starter? Keeping in mind that I think Choate can be a useful situational lefty, let's face it, he was bundled into the Vazquez package to give it mass. That the Snakes would now trade for him, days short of a period when there will be a few potentially useful lefty arms going through waivers before Opening Day, was senseless. I guess it "solves" the problem of figuring out what they were going to do with Patterson now that he's out of options. But even that review of the decision-making process involved overlooks the root cause, which is that this team, of its own free will, is really going to open the year with Steve Sparks as their fifth starter. A team that dealt Curt Schilling to… well, not start Patterson, but instead run with the aging and infrequently effective knuckleballer, while panicking because it's short a lefty in the pen now that both Casey Fossum and Shane Nance are among the walking wounded… how does that make sense? If anything, it smacks of an organization that has no idea what it's doing, while really hoping that they win some games somehow. If they think Sparks as their fifth starter is going to make them more competitive, they're on drugs. Choate might be a full-season solution to their lefty relief needs, but they overpaid for him.

But the seasons 162 games away from being over, so I maintain some level of optimism, but things ain't looking too peachy.