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Wow, the market really collapsed for Francisco Cordero. It appears he is going to the Blue Jays…as a setup man.
I know I’m probably in the minority, but I’m a fully-paid member of the CoCo Fan Club. Sure, he had his occasional problems, and he frustrated me just as much as he did you guys. In the end, however, he was what you would call a “stand-up guy.”
After enduring the frustrating reign of Danny Graves in the Reds closer role, in which Graves blamed everyone but himself every time he failed, Cordero was refreshing. He never made excuses, and he never hid from the media. On top of that, he was very active in the Cincinnati community, and donated more to the Reds Community Fund than any other player.
Sure, we can argue all day long about how good Cordero was on the field. There are some guys, however, that you just like, regardless of statistics. For me, Francisco Cordero was one of those. I wish him nothing but the best of luck, and I choose to recall his years with the Reds fondly.
Totally agree with you Chad. CoCo always took the ball and always took responsibility. I am glad he got #300 while with the Reds. As a side note, he didn’t take any crap from the Cardinals dugout either, gotta love that.
Agreed and agreed.
It wasn’t Cordero’s fault that the Reds overpaid for a closer — yet some fans’ frustration with that contract will misdirected toward him. He did a good job for the Reds overall and was a solid citizen as well.
Agreed. Coco is a guy you like to have on your team. That’s why I will proudly wear the clearance-priced faux Cordero jersey t-shirt my brother got me for Christmas until my picture shows up on RN’s “insane jerseys” page.
Amen to everything y’all said — especially the part about the wlb’s dugout. As much as some folks on here make fun of “veteran warm fuzzies” I bet his presence in the dugout will be missed.
It was also not Cordero’s fault when his manager sent him out three, four or five nights in a row.
Chad, you just got me a little misty. (not joking) Perfectly stated.
He will be missed. Good luck to him in his new role on his new team.
BTW – LaRussa and Duncan are gone. I know Carpenter’s still around, but regardless, must we still call the Cardinals the WLBs? Two out of three wlbs are not there this year. Can we just go back to the days when we all just hated the Cubs?
No. We hate the Cards and the Cubs. We can temporarily suspend our hatred of the Dodgers though. Until they sign Joey.
Reds acquire Wilson Valdez in exchange for Horst. Makes sense.
If Cozart goes down, the Reds better hope Wilson-Phillips can hold on…
Reports on Twitter of Masset signing two year deal to avoid arbitration.
And we got ourselves a backup veteran SS. Traded Horst for Wilson Valdez.
My initial reaction was that Valdez is just a clone of Janish (no bat, great glove apparently, cannon arm, even has pitched in relief as we know), but over on mlbtraderumors.com, the Phillies fans who are commenting are really sad to see him go. For whatever that’s worth.
Well, at least we won’t be short of bodies at camp.
The Reds outrighted Horst in early December. So we got Valdez for a player any team could have gotten for free, just by making a waiver claim.
I don’t think there’s a lot of difference between Valdez and Janish. At Valdez’s age, his defense probably isn’t as good as Janish’s, but he’s got a little more pop. But we needed depth at SS, and now we have it. At least it’s not Theriot.
Ohhhh *turns up nose*, that’s a bad one… Yes, a good move for the Reds I think. More insurance for the Reds at SS.
Honestly, when we are talking about a guy for insurance purposes, I agree. I’d definitely take Valdez over Theriot.
As for the original topic though, missing Coco, I agree with what Chad and everyone else has said so far. He was a good guy and actually a pretty good closer. He really only had one rough season with the Reds. Yes, the Reds overpaid but at the time they were trying desperately to fix what was just a horrible bullpen. Getting Cordero allowed everyone else to slot up. Yes, I’d rather have Madsen but Cordero did his job and never complained about doing it.
Good luck to Cordero with the Blue Jays this year.
They’re going to have to make a roster move to get Ludwick and Valdez onto the roster. Who’s getting punted?
@Dan: Yeah, from their perspective, they just got rid of a guy that filled in admirably for both Rollins and Utley for filler with upside to being a LOOGY.
This deal gets a thumbs up imo.
I will miss Cordero. Overall, his save percentage was great and will prove himself if he can set up games against the Red Sox, Yankees, and Rays. I would love to see his name pop up on the bottom line of SportsCenter for some saves too.
Cordero is a stand-up guy, and as a person he’s a great guy it seems. However, in all honesty, he let his ego get the best of him when he didn’t sign the contract Jocketty offered him. That’s why he’s a setup man for the Blue Jays today instead of the Reds’ closer.
Both Jocketty and Cordero didn’t understand the closer market, actually.
And so it would seem did Boras and Madson. They just came to their senses a little quicker than CoCo and Stringfellow or whatever his name is.
Agree with all of the above. CoCo isn’t with the Reds now because he turned down what was no doubt a way too generous 2 year offer to close, and later – after he should have known better – turned down a 1 year offer to close that was still generous.
I will mostly have good memories of CoCo. Yes his contract was too big. But before he arrived in 2008, the Reds bullpen had been a complete mess for several years. David Weathers was the Reds best reliever in the 2005-2007 period. Overall the bullpen improved in the 2008-2011 period.
People scoff at the save statistic with some justification, but just the same, a save is better than a blown save, and CoCo had a whole lot of saves for the Reds.
His save pct. – about 5 out of 6 – was decent.
CoCo had a better season in 2011 than 2010, and I argued that it wasn’t just luck – he was throwing 3 pitches for strikes, not getting many Ks but getting a lot of ground balls and lazy files.
But I agreed with those who were concerned about his peripherals and his effectiveness in 2012 and beyond.
Bottom line for me: I’ll remember CoCo fondly and wish him well, but the time had come for him and the Reds to part ways.
Color me into Camp Coco. I agree with most every word on this thread. When we acquired Coco, we were in desperate need of bullpen help. And even though we “overpaid” for a closer, it took every dime we gave him to outbid the Brewers. So, I, for one, never blamed Coco or the the Reds for his contract. I was happy to see the organization recognize a problem and do something about it. Good luck Coco in all your future endeavers.
@Dave Lowenthal: I would disagree only with the fact that Walt did get the market, didn’t up his original offer, and waited out Madson.