Quote:

britneyspearsatemyshorts said:
I think you mean Wayne Krivsky. I understand you are one of those guys who calls the sportslines and thinks he's an expert, but reality is you dont really understand baseball all that well.



Dan O'Brien(not Jim O'Brien) is the former GM. My bad. I thought that since a page ago you referred to Felipe Lopez as "Encarcion"(not even the correct spelling of the guy you were confusing him with), you might cut me a little slack. I guess not.

I don't think I've ever called a sportsline in my life. Is that what the cool kids are doing?

Quote:

The Reds are going to need to aquire some starting pitching next year, they are going to need some $ to do this. I would say that if you pay Kearns arbitration numbers your gunna lock up your check book with money that could go towards a quality starter.



Kearns is making $1.85 million this year, so arbritration isn't going to raise his salary to an unreasonable amount. Furthermore, the Reds are in the bottom 10 in payroll, so if they were going to shell out the cash to get a quality starting pitcher(and, in this day and age, you almost always have to overpay to sign free agent pitching), I doubt the $3-4 million Kearns would be in line to make would have gotten in the way.

Of course, the last starting pitcher they spent big money on was Eric Milton, so maybe it's better they not spend anything.

Anyway, even if Kearns was about to get too expensive, that doesn't mean they should have given him up for nothing(which is essentially what they did). That's really the problem here. Not that they were trying to acquire the wrong type of player, but that they gave up too much to acquire players that aren't very good.

Quote:

Kearns bat isnt gunna make as much difference this year as having some bullpen guys with ERA's in the 3's rather than the 6's.



Unfortunately, the bullpen guys the Reds did get aren't going to get them into the playoffs. So, what did they achieve?

Quote:

So Kearns is prolly not going to be here in the future anyways, so when you are 1 q/2 games out of the wild card and 4 out of first you try for today.
As you say many of them are having career years, better to win today instead of waiting till next year with more holes.



Kearns should have been a part of their future. He was young, cheap, and finally healthy.

I think the worst move they could have made last offseason was signing Scott Hatteberg. That really made no sense, considering they'd finally gotten rid off the albatross that was Sean Casey. If they hadn't handed the first base job to Hatteberg, they could have moved Adam Dunn there(completing what would have been one of the best young infields in baseball, with Dunn, Phillips, Lopez, and Encarnacion; all 26 or younger). Then they could have moved Griffey to right field where he'd have been far less likely to injure himself, have Freel in center so he could play everyday, and kept Kearns in left.

They'd have been much better off trying to win with that now, and then trying to sign relievers in the offseason(Eric Gagne might be on the market). They do have arguably the best starting pitching prospect in the minors, as well.

MisterJLA is RACKing awesome.