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Some idle thoughts for a Thursday morning….
1. Sign Alex Rodriguez, if he opts out of his contract. Whatever the price, just sign him.
2. Trade Edwin Encarnacion and Joey Votto for pitching, particularly a #3 starter (and some relief help), if possible.
3. Move Adam Dunn to 1B.
4. Start Jay Bruce, Josh Hamilton, and Junior Griffey in the outfield.
5. Put Homer Bailey in the rotation to begin the season, and order Dusty Baker not to ruin his career.
6. Put Brandon Phillips at SS (assuming A-Rod stays at 3B) and start Jeff Keppinger at 2B.
7. Call Kevin Towers and ask how to assemble a quality bullpen on the cheap. Assure only Jared Burton and Bill Bray spots in the pen.
Voila. A very competitive team.
Chad for GM!
Chad:
Agree on Votto AND Ed E. I’d trade them in a second for a veteran starting pitching. I’ve written about it several times on my own site.
I’d add making a run at Scott Linebrink and/or Francisco Cordero on the free agent market. Both are quality arms out of the bullpen, plus either signing would have the added benefit of sticking it to a division rival!
Good post.
I read somewhere where soon to be 40 year old Kent Mercker is trying to make a comeback. Could you imagine, Stanton, Mercker, and Weathers in the Reds’ bullpen next season?!?
That would be nice nucleus…10 years ago…
Mercker has also been vocal in his support of the Baker hiring…
I\’d add sign Adam Dunn to a contract extension, or trading Votto makes no sense.
I\’d also question whether trading EE and Votto for a #3 starter. Aren\’t you hoping that Bailey\’s the real deal?
If so, then Arroyo\’s your #3 in \’09. Is trading EE and Votto for what will end up being a #4 starter worth one season?
Plus, this is Junior\’s final year, right? (Club option in \’09, I believe.) Who\’s your outfield then? I\’m not confident in anyone coming up at this point.
Mercker and Baker are pals from when they both blamed the Cubs’ problems on Steve Stone.
Out of curiosity, I checked out PECOTA for ARod, EE, and Votto:
ARod’s projected WARP:
08 – 7.0
09 – 5.7
10 – 4.6
11 – 3.5
EE
08 – 4.7
09 – 4.6
10 – 4.4
11 – 3.8
Votto
08 – 4.7
09 – 4.2
10 – 4.3
11 – 4.4
Wow. That ARod projection was done before this season, so they may be more optimistic going forward, but I’m surprised at how quickly ARod and EE become essentially equal.
Agree with most of the moves…except…trade Hamilton for the pitcher; or Hamilton and Encarnacion. Hamilton is still high risk, but has value; Votto is projectably good.
Since there’s little to no chance of getting ARod….another reason to trade Hamilton is the thought he could be a better player than Votto.
I find that very risky in thought…and I’d gamble on someone else taking that chance and getting a better pitcher…
Keep in mind…we would not get a veteran pitcher for any of these guys; we’d be better off (with or without Dusty) in getting a highly prized prospect starter who’s ready for his chance…
Oh…one more thing…
the advantage to trading Gonzalez and moving Phillips to shortstop?
That’s where the money comes to sign real relief pitchers….
With respect to Bill’s comment above, a couple of things:
Yes, signing Dunn to an extension should be a given.
And I’m not sure what your objection is over the #3 starter issue. It’s all labels. Are you saying that having a #3 quality starter as our 4th starter is a bad thing? Harang, Arroyo, Bailey, and a #3-quality starter makes an OUTSTANDING rotation.
I don’t care who’s #1, #2, #3, or #4 in the rotation. I want four quality starters. EE and Votto are our most marketable commodities right now, and if things go right, they could be expendable.
And everyone should know that EE is my second-favorite Red after Dunn. I don’t take lightly the suggestion to trade him.
Anyway, I’m not saying my suggestions above are correct. Just thinking about what I’d do if money weren’t an issue(and frankly, I think it’s becoming much less of an issue, based on recent events) and if I were GM.
I have no problem with switching Hamilton and Votto in the above scenario. Hamilton, in my opinion, has a much higher ceiling than Votto, but he’s much more risky, too. It’s a toss-up, as far as I’m concerned.
If you trade Hamilton, you leave Dunn in LF and leave Votto at 1B.
mlb trade rumors state that Danny Haren may be traded. I would trade Gonzalex, hamilton, and Maolney for Haren. Keep votto at first and Dunn in left and bring up Bruce. We would have a 1a and 1b for pitchers and the greatest thing he is a groundball pitcher. Our starting rotation would be stacked. Our Offense should be the same or better and we could focus solely on the Bullpen. Scott linebrick would be a nice addition in the Bullpen.
Trading Gonzalez and moving Phillips to SS would be one of the first moves I would make.
Any thoughts on how our infield defense will fare with some of these moves? Especially if we’re adding groundball pitchers.
Kurt may have something, although I doubt the A’s would take Gonzalez. They may want Hamilton/Votto/Maloney for Haren, and would certainly ask for Bruce or Bailey. They might go for the younger (and cheaper) three. Keep in mind that Haren has already proven to be an injury risk, is about to get expensive, and would be in the hands of Dusty Baker.
I think Phillips would actually be a better shortstop then a second baseman. He has the good arm, and some trouble on the pivot.
Supposedly the A’s are looking for SS/3rd and centerfield. Maybe Hamilton and EE for Haren and Some Bullpen help. Hamilton and Haren should be awash when it comes to injuries.
and I think Haren is relatively cheap to 2010, I think I saw somewhere he will be under 8 million his last year and is around 3 or 4 million for 2008
I wasn’t impressed with Gonzalez’ defense this year, especially given all the hype. With one exception: I thought he and Phillips did a VERY nice job on double-plays. As Shawn notes, the credit for that may well go entirely to Gonzalez. (IIRC, turning DPs was his one consistent strength, per The Fielding Bible).
Forget A-Rod; it will never happen. Use those millions on pitching. Go with the young guys; trade Griffey, Hatteberg, Gonzalez, Stanton, and Weathers for prospects to improve the farm system. Then do in 08 what the Rockies and D-backs did this year.
Chad, getting ARod would move EE down to your 3rd favorite player and thus he’d be more expendable. I’d prefer to trade Hamilton and keep Votto, considering he’s emereged as my favorite player.
OK, this doesn’t belong here, but I need to get it out of my system. It’s been marinating in my little brain for a couple of days and I just have the need to share: I heard Tim McCarver say what sounds like one of the dumbest remarks I have ever heard an announcer make (and mind you I listen to George Grande and the TBS guys all the time). He was talking about leadoff walks vs. leadoff homeruns and he made the following comment: “a leadoff home run has led to more multi-run innings this year than a leadoff walk, surprinsingly so.” Now, I’m not a big stat guy, granted. But doesn’t it seem that anytime you start an inning being spotted one run you have a better chance of scoring more than one than if you start the inning with 0? I know leadoff walks can absolutely kill you, but I would think a leadoff homerun would be pretty bad too….unless this theory is part of the “solo homeruns are rally killers” thing. Why is this stat so stunningly suprising?
Once again, Chris W, you’re the voice of reason. Yes, EE might drop to #3 on my list at that point…and if he’s still around when Jay Bruce debuts, he may drop to #4.
Preach, I heard McCarver say that too, and was stunned by the idiocy of it. Hey, if you hit a leadoff home run, you only have to score one more run to have “multiple” runs. If you get a walk, you have a baserunner, but still have to score at least two runs to have “multiple” runs. Why is that hard to understand? Pretty basic math.
Probably the same guys that think sacrifices are better than home runs.
MLBTradeRumors.com says that the Reds might be interested in Torii Hunter based on conversations with Dusty Baker…
i heard about that, Lets hope it stays a rumor. How many outfielders do the reds need.
[...] I’ve just found seven easy steps to making the Cincinnati Reds a competitor in 2008. [...]
“I read where Adam Dunn said he had four pitching coaches in four years or something like that,” Baker said. “That’s not what you want. It takes time to get trust. In today’s society young people distrust authority. You have to build trust. You can’t change coaches every year.”
Dunn has had 4 pitching coaches??? HUH? Guess that might explain his high strike out totals!
Yeah, they’d sign A-Rod and he’d spend the majority of his tenure nursing a variety of leg injuries, first a hammy, then the other hammy, then an ankle, then a knee, then a hammy again, then a toe, then maybe a hernia, etc. Then Reds fans would bellow about how much money the team is throwing at one player who is made of glass, blah blah blah.
Nope.
I have to disagree with the hamilton trade considerations. It is because his ceiling is so high that im not ready to part with him yet. The guy could easily be a 40 hr 100 rbi. If he turns out to be that the guy you got for him will not equal up in value. Jr is on his way out. In 2009 we could have hamilton bruce and dunn as our outfield. Wow. You could easily package EE gonzo freel kep hopper in whatever capacity to get a 4th starter. Bailey is the 3 whether he is ready or not. Cueto and Maloney are on the way. Bullpen help is what we need. The reds need to explore hamiltons potential since two possible starters that they have been waiting for are on the horizon, jr is not going to be here much longer, and they can package some other guys up to get the help in the bullpen they need.
Not sure what you’re talking about, John (unless it’s Griffey Part II):
ARod’s missed all of 20 games in the 7 seasons since he signed with Texas. I bet he’s first or second among all players in that timeframe.
It would be nice if we could get a reliever for junior. It would be hard to move him, But it looks as if jose guillen may be testing the market this winter. Who knows, maybe seattle is willing to trade for junior. I would like to see Hamilton stay also, but we do need some pitching. If we could move Junior for a solid reliever and pick up another starter and reliever in the Free agent market i could live with that.
The thought of signing A-Rod, I think is really out of the question & to get him you would destroy the payroll to get what you really need; PITCHING !!!
I think trading Edwin E., Joey Votto, or Adam Dunn for one or two more arms or prospects is the true way to go. Also, I am more for developing talent if all possible?
This plan might work if the Reds were the Yankees, Sox, or Dodgers, and we would one or two injuries away from it being a complete disaster. You are not going to be a consistent contender in a small market by trading away your young talent for a #3 starter and throwing half your payroll at one player.
Look at D-Backs, Rockies, and Indians. All of these teams have a nucleus of young, internally developed talent and solid veteran role players.
actually a prett good idea…
but votto is going to be great an a-rod is getting up there in age..
and i doubt the reds can afford him even if he wanted to come to cinci
Sign A-Rod. OK, let’s write him a check. Does the entire city of Cincinnati have that much money?