With the increasing industry understanding of how valuable almost-ready prospects are, the old alchemy of front office management is no longer the absolute truth. Teams once accepted that ditching veterans and turning to the youngsters represented a resignation that this year’s regular season was done. Nowadays, teams understand that trusting the youngsters who have already proved their readiness no longer represents running up the white flag. It instead implies the teams’ own willingness to go for broke instead of making deals for moderately useful veteran talent.

Remarkable examples are to be found in the contentious National League, as the Arizona Diamondbacks and Los Angeles Dodgers are doing what they can to gain some advantage over one another by calling on their deep farm systems to fuel their bids for contention right now, instead of belaboring old truisms about turning to youngsters as part of a rebuilding effort. It’s the Snakes trusting their big league playing time in right field to Justin Upton before his 20th birthday, and the Dodgers coming to the grudging realization that talents like 22-year-old Matt Kemp in the outfield or 23-year-old James Loney at first base are working. This isn’t that unusual for either club: The Dodgers trusted some portion of their fate to rookie outfielder Andre Ethier (a find by general manager Ned Colletti) last year, while the D’backs trusted their unsuccessful 2006 stretch to rookies at shortstop (Stephen Drew) and right field (Carlos Quentin).

The distinction is that this year, both clubs are again gunning to unseat the two-time division champion Padres, and Arizona’s trusting its fate to rookies like Upton, center fielder Chris Young, and young starters Micah Owings and Yusmeiro Petit in the rotation. While none of them have the Griffey-like talent of Upton, the simple fact is that all of them have the ability to contribute right now. If the Snakes win their division despite the lack of expectations from pundits before the season, or stat-heads during its long haul, it will be in no small part because of the courage and confidence of general manager Josh Byrnes in the talent assembled by his front office compatriots. The Dodgers have trusted Loney and Kemp, and while they perhaps should have considered each man’s brief experiences last season, in both cases the Dodgers will have learned to trust to the fruits of scouting director Logan White’s labors over the individual choices of Colletti.

Earlier in the season, the Braves took confidence from their scouting acumen with outfielder Willie Harris, anticipating that he’d become an economic asset — even in a high-offense position like left field — after their coaching ironed out his swing. How many contenders have that much self-assurance in the ability of their scouts that it enables them to trust a relatively inexperienced journeyman like Harris in a semi-regular role? Not many. But the Braves saw something and exploited it. Where most teams might have traded for a used up veteran for left field, the Braves had the benefit of employing a relative nobody in left field, one dug up by their own cogent scouts, and had the subsequent organizational and financial muscle to pull off the deal that put Mark Teixeira in a Braves uniform through 2008.

That’s not to say that teams aren’t still making deals for the old hands who are available. Mets general manager Omar Minaya has elected for an age-old bit of nearly-adequate veteran insurance by picking up the well-traveled Jeff Conine as a perfunctory first baseman/outfielder/pinchhitting warm body who’s played in enough meaningful October ballgames to represent a known veteran quantity. Conine was once the easy veteran add-on to the 2003 Marlins, and the less-successful veteran rental for the 2006 Cincinnati Reds. At 41 and almost shorn of any defensive value at first base or left field, he barely represents an upgrade on the exhausted remnants of Julio Franco’s career. But even the Mets have some measure of faith in their homegrown talent, having learned that outfielder Lastings Milledge might be the man of the present as well as the future in theiroutfield, regardless of whether or not Shawn Green or Endy Chavez are healthy this week or next.

Similarly, in the American League, a number of teams have shown trust in their young talents to help staff their bids for contention. The Yankees’ confidence in Joba Chamberlain has been impressive enough, but the Bombers aren’t the only club to turn to big league neophytes in their hours of need. Both the Tigers and Indians have turned to rookie talent to give themselves advantages over the other in the increasingly tight AL Central race, as each have turned to highly anticipated rookie hurlers to shore up their pitching staffs, the Tigers to their top 2006 pick, Adam Miller (since disabled), and the Indians to rookie southpaw Aaron Laffey. More impressive still, the Tigers have hauled up rookie outfielder Cameron Maybin — one of the best prospects in anyone’s minors, with or without the benefit of much experience above A-ball — to start for them in left field, and discarded last year’s regular, Craig Monroe, to make room. The Mariners might also support their shot at either the AL wild card or the Western Division title by trusting the talents of rookie outfielder Adam Jones. But even though they have him up, it depends on the willingness of the manager to play him over below average veteran regulars like designated hitter Jose Vidro or first baseman Richie Sexson.

What’s clear is that the simple model of giving up and calling up youngsters as a matter of “waiting till next year” is no longer relevant. Big league ball clubs are now willing to turn to premium talent to shore up their bids at October glory in the present. If this is a matter of taking a cue from the 1959 Giants, who hauled up rookie slugger Willie McCovey and ended up nearly catching the eventual world champion Dodgers, so much the better. As Forrest Gump might have it, talent is as talent does, and in today’s meritocracy in baseball, there’s an increasing readiness to trust talent over mere experience.

Ms. Kahrl is a writer for Baseball Prospectus. For more state-of-the-art commentary, visit baseballprospectus.com.