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britneyspearsatemyshorts said:
Narron has become very vocal in the last few week of his defense, look the stories up if you don't believe me. Clayton may or may not get the majority of starts at SS, he is a solid SS Lopez is a liability that is a upgrade. Aurilla and Freel both play SS very well, and as I said earlier Phillips is a very good SS, which is his natural position.



I haven't seen any of those reports, but I do remember Narron being very vocal in his campaigning for Lopez to make the All-Star team last year(which Lopez did).

You say that Aurilia, Freel and Phillips all play shortstop very well. What are you basing that on, exactly? Freel has yet to play a single inning of shorstop at the major league level, Phllips has played a whopping total of one, and Aurilia wasn't a particularly strong defender even in his prime(which was a looong time ago, and I say that as one of his biggest fans).

Clayton is not a good defensive shortstop. He is, at best, average(according to most defensive metrics, below-average), but regardless, any value he did have defensively is negated by his horrid offense. He is, in every sense of the word, a negative.

Lopez, on the other hand, is a good player. Clearly, the Reds realize that(or, at least, used to), as they let D'Angelo Jimenez go, and signed Lopez to a $2.7 million contract this offseason. Lopez also is young enough to still get better, unlike Freel and Aurilia(both of whom are playing at an unsustainable level, given their age and history).

In other words, while the Reds had several guys who may have, at some point, played shortstop, the one they traded away was the best, and the one they got in return was the worst.

And they decided to throw in one of their best young hitters for good measure.

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I dont believe this is the final deal and more than likely it is to set up something else.



That could very well be the case, but unless there's a GM out there who has a serious hard-on for Royce Clayton, it won't make this trade necessary(let alone good).

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But barring that I would be willing to bet they will have a better record after the trade than before.



So, you think the Reds will win at least 82 games this year.

I'll take that bet.

MisterJLA is RACKing awesome.