Peter Gammons tweeted Arroyo leads the NL in wins and innings pitched since the Reds acquired him for Pena.
Also, this is a fun read:
http://www.redszone.com/forums/showthread.php?t=44013
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Peter Gammons tweeted Arroyo leads the NL in wins and innings pitched since the Reds acquired him for Pena.
Also, this is a fun read:
http://www.redszone.com/forums/showthread.php?t=44013
That was quite a thread. My favorite part is the Baseball Prospectus quote on Wily Mo:
Quote:
It's difficult for me to separate my Red Sox fandom from the careful analyst, but I'm pretty optimistic. Pena has already shown that he's capable of hitting in the majors (albeit with less plate discipline that I'd like to see), and is young enough to still take several steps forward. When your upside is Sammy Sosa, and your downside is Joe Carter, you've got a pretty good future ahead of you.
I think some of those reactions happen when there is a deep distrust of ownership and the FO.
But I did find this post to be particularly over the top:
http://www.redszone.com/forums/showp...6&postcount=20
If only we had gotten Matt Clement or Jake Westbrook.
The Hatteberg and Womack hand wringing were pretty fantastic too. Hatteberg was a damn good stop gap until Votto got here and Womack had all of 18 ABs with the Reds.
To be fair to those posters, unless you were a scout watching the 28 year-old Arroyo every day and saw some hidden untapped talent, how could you have reasonably expected the maturation Arroyo experienced here in Cincinnati to occur?
Arroyo had just posted back to back average-above average seasons in the AL, was entering his prime, and was going from the AL to the NL. He would seem like a prime candidate to improve. He had a 4.19 ERA in Boston and has a 4.02 ERA in Cincinnati. I don't think he made some shocking jump.
Man, I hate going back through those threads because I never remember how strongly I was for or against something at the time. I knew this one might be difficult because I had a man crush on WMP's potential (and that man-love showed through on Page 17 of 18 page thread!!). But I wasn't too off - my main problem was that trade put Hatteberg into lineup. Turned out SH played decent though, so what do I know!
BrooklynRedz broke the Arroyo/Pena trade news before anyone else had it. I don't remember BrooklynRedz, does s/he still post here?