Phil, I agree with that as well, some had to move and I noted that. I’m not saying that moving him is the best option, but it very well could be a good option.

Talking about an established SS,
Word is that Michael Young wants out of Texas because they are trying to move him to 3b. I’m not saying that we should go after him, but what would it take to get him? EE, Arroyo, and a prospect? I’m sure it would be a lot. Any thoughts?

A-Rod switched positions as part of a trade to a new team because the New York Yankees are too stubborn to realize that Derek Jeter is not a shortstop any longer.

What position did Ichiro swap? Right field to now being center/right? That’s not as major a change as 2b-SS or 1b-3b or however else you draw out an infielder role change.

The problem with a majority of your examples a few excluded such as Craig Biggio is that these guys weren’t top defenders in their prime switching out of the kindness of their hearts. They were switching positions because they were too old to be good there. They had slowed due to injuries and other ailments.

If we have all these prospects with blocked positions then you can trade them for a major league ready or established player such as a shortstop.

I am not saying that you should move a GGW but really who is there to play short in the future? Janish..NO, Valaikia…Probably not at short…Do you really want to go back into free agency and pick up someone like Gonzalez…No thanks.

My point is that they really need to look at what is coming up from below. Valaikia is projected as a 2b in future, Frazier is projected as a 3b in future. There isn’t a SS ready in the system and why waste money on a has been/never was FA.

I believe that WJ can turn this team and this organization around, as he did in St. Louis; but not without a lot of support both from fans, and especially ownership. But if this orgnanization expects its fans to hang in there, then it’s time to look in the mirror, and realize that this is not a second-tier town, and we don’t deserve a second-tier team. We already have that in the Bengals, but that’s a comment for another time and place.

Please, front office, give us a reason to keep believing!!!

I honestly just believe that Dunn is making it difficult for the Nats to sign him because he doesn’t want to play there. He’s probably asking a lot more from the Nationals but if a contender came calling, I bet he’d take less

We all keep talking about moving Phillips to short. Is there any interview with him anywhere that asks him if he would? Maybe he really likes playing second and would fight a move to short. Maybe the Reds brought up the idea to him before and he said he didn’t want to?

I have no idea if that’s true but it would be interesting to hear what his thoughts on playing short would be

Lastly,

Let’s look at a couple of the last few FA signed and you see how much money was/is wasted. Cordero 12 mil per, Taveras 3 mil per, Crappy 3 mil, and of course Gonzalez. I don’t buy a small market team paying a closer 12 mil, that is just downright crazy. You have to have the lead to get him in the game and lesser expensive guys could do just as well. Gonzalez’s contract was a laughing stock when it was signed and looks even worse now. Crappy was rediculous and Taveras is as well.

I am more willing to watch my team losing if they are developing for the future so I can see a light at the end of the tunnel. I can’t stand watching “veterans” blocking development of younger, cheaper talent to have a false hope of contention.

World, I agree with your moves for the most part, but only if Crede is healthy otherwise you have Kepp in a power hitters position and that’s not good.

If the Reds plans are to be better defensively in the middle, they should move Phillips to SS and sign Grudzeilanek to play 2B until Valikia or somebody from the minors is ready in a year or two. I don’t buy being better in the middle with Gonzalez coming back. He is coming off serious injury and his range will probably be no better than Hairston or Keppinger which is not good. This fanchise has been very shortsighted and I don’t think they even look at what they have coming up because they could have saved a lot of wasted money.

With some of the quality guys in the minors you could easily move Phillips to short, and move EE to LF to get ready for Valaikia at 2B and either Frazier or Fransico at 3B in ‘10. How good potentially (I know I hate that word too) could the infield be in ‘10…Votto, Valaikia, Phillips, Fransisco…With OF of EE, Stubbs, and Bruce, then on the bench you have Frazier, Dickerson, and Dorn. If you moved EE to LF this year, you could determine if he could handle it, if not trade him to a team like SF and you still have Dickerson or Dorn to play in the OF. That lineup looks far more pomising than we are going to see this year and probably the year after because management won’t see things correctly.

I think your ideal lineup would be something like this (try not to cry):

Dickerson
Encarnacion
Bruce
Votto
Phillips
Keppinger
Taveras–if he all of a sudden starts taking walks and getting on base, then maybe you could hit him leadoff, but who really sees that happening?
Hernandez

Pinson343, that’s entirely true. I hope that there is some secret plan to make the Reds better than they currently appear to be. I want to watch the Reds play meaningful ball at least through August, that seems like a fair goal (and a sign of how far this team has sunk in the past decade or so).