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Originally Posted by RedsFanWC
Im sorry but if the two guys werent being paid a combined 21 millions dollars maybe we could have afforded some pitching. (FYI Dunn is making the same as both David Ortiz and Roy Oswalt, who would you rather have?) The fact is neither of these players have shown enough leadership to even be named captain of the team. Earlier this month the reds were struggling and they were both sleeping in their recliners instead of taking extra batting practice before a game. Star players arent just for stats they are supposed to carry their teams to wins. This year who would you rather have: Soriano and Lee, Braun and Fielder, Tejada and Berkman, Glaus and Pujols or Griffey and Dunn. I would take all 4 of those combos over Dunn and Griffey and as long as that is the case the Reds will struggle to compete in the NL Central. Hopefully Votto and Bruce can change that or the Reds can add someone by trade, otherwise the pitching the reds are now starting to develop will be wasted.
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Maybe we could have spent that 21 million dollars (or really, probably some fraction of it, because I don't think we are going to find two outfielders who will play for free) on pitching; I don't see how that would have guaranteed us success. We probably would have been the Houston Astros of a couple years ago who had great pitching but couldn't score any runs. I'm also not arguing that there aren't better combinations of players out there than Griffey and Dunn. But WE don't have those players, and it seems a little naive to think that if we didn't have Dunn and Griffey 7 years ago, we would have automatically had those other great players you talk about, in any combination.
As far as the leadership goes, I would like someone to show me some evidence that taking extra batting practice when a team is struggling is a surefire sign of leadership. A sign of practice, yes, but a sign of leadership?
I don't know anything about the leadership skills of Dunn and Griffey; I'm not in the clubhouse. So I am not willing to pretend to know anything about their leadership skills. We're not dealing with all the evidence here. All we see is that 1) one day they were sleeping in recliners and 2) therefore, they were not taking extra batting practice. And from those two statements we come to the conclusion that they are not good leaders? I fail to see that logic.
And besides, my point was only that to blame the failures of the Reds on two players doesn't make any sense to me. The only way I could see that being a viable conclusion would be if those two players were intentially throwing games, or perhaps they were poisoning the teams gatorade. Hitting homeruns on a regular basis doesn't seem like a good way to make the Reds lose.