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CHAMPS!

Short Hops

Here’s a few links I’ve found that I believe you’ll find interesting to read while you watch the World Series on what used to be considered the world’s greatest waste of time…

— Paul Daugherty interviews former Reds General Manager Wayne Krivsky on the Josh Hamilton-Edinson Volquez trade. I supported the trade at the [...]

Our Championship

Tuesday night’s game was thrilling, liberating, life-affirming, and everything else. And it belongs to a whole lot of people who sweated, cried, and suffered over the last ten years.

It belongs to Jay Bruce and his hop-off HR, obviously, but also to Dan O’Brien who drafted him in 2005 (along with Travis Wood, [...]

Trade Deadline Stories

I’m always interested in reading about what goes on behind-the-scenes of baseball front offices. As a bonus to the topic in today’s Baseball Tonight Clubhouse online article, ESPN’s J.P. Ricciardi shares a couple of Reds-related trade deadline stories.

First, the Scott Rolen trade was almost undone by technical difficulties.

As we were trying [...]

Stability

I don’t know what to make of this, but I thought it might trigger some interesting discussion. From a Hal McCoy Q&A over at DDN:

Q Isn’t the problem with the Reds the manager (Dusty Baker), as it has been since Jack McKeon was dropped? — Will, Dayton

A Let’s see, since McKeon they’ve [...]

The Rolen Effect

We aren’t going to rehash the merits of the Scott Rolen trade (again), but there was a very interesting nugget in this John Fay piece (which is substantially what appears in today’s Enquirer):

The Rolen trade is Castellini’s latest attempt to change things with one move. It’s along the lines of the hiring of [...]

Redleg Trade Review: Austin Kearns and Felipe Lopez

July 13, 2006: The Cincinnati Reds trade Austin Kearns, Felipe Lopez and Ryan Wagner to the Washington Nationals for Bill Bray, Royce Clayton, Brendan Harris, Gary Majewski and Daryl Thompson.

The 2005 Reds team was a team of transition. Following the 2004 season, all-time great shortstop Barry Larkin had retired, and Felipe Lopez had moved into the shortstop position. They had replaced most of their starting pitching staff as Jose Acevedo and Cory Lidle had been traded, and Paul Wilson only made nine starts in 2005 due to injury. Ramon Ortiz, Luke Hudson, and Eric Milton joined holdovers Aaron Harang and Brandon Claussen.

The 2004 team had three starting pitchers with ERAs over 5.00, but that didn’t improve in 2006. Three pitchers again had ERAs over 5.00, with two over 6.00, but the Reds relievers and defense held on enough to lower runs allowed by 18. The big difference in 2005 was that their offense improved by 70 runs, or almost one-half run per game. The Reds’ offense featured a set of four slugging outfielders, Ken Griffey, Jr., and youngsters Adam Dunn, Austin Kearns, and Wily Mo Pena. The team also had smooth swinging first baseman Sean Casey at first base and an offensive minded shortstop in Lopez. This team averaged over 5.125 runs per game, allowing almost 5.5 runs per game.
Continue reading Redleg Trade Review: Austin Kearns and Felipe Lopez

Other Options

GM Walt Jocketty talked today about some of the players he’s interested in (some of whom were already suggested here):

After the non-tender list was revealed late Friday night, there were some names that the Reds could pursue. Among those that pique Cincinnati’s interest were outfielder Willy Taveras, utility player Ty Wigginton and infielder [...]