[Spitball]

Originally Posted by TheNext44

I think this is one of the rare cases where Gammons got his fact wrong.

Scudder had only been drafted the year before out of high school, so I doubt his name was ever brought up, and if it was, I'm not sure he even could have been traded then.

No, I believe I am the one mistaken here. I must have been thinking about a trade rumor from possibly 1990. I remember him saying, "I shudder to think the Reds would give up Scudder."

I do believe the Pirates did want Larkin, Daniels, and Jones, but I'm pretty certain the Reds never entertained even a notion to accept that deal. Rueschel wasn't traded until August 21 so the Reds would have been trading a good part of their line-up with a little more than a month left in the season.

BTW, the Reds did try to trade for Mark Gubicza about that time but the Royals wanted Larkin instead of Stillwell. Over the winter, the Royals, who already had three lefty starters, agreed to take Stillwell for Danny Jackson.

Larkin and Stillwell were sharing SS at this point, and Larkin was not doing that well. There was lots of discussion over who was better, Stillwell or Larkin, and it really wasn't clear at this point who was.

Actually, Larkin was pretty much the starting shortstop. He started 114 games at short while Stillwell only started 47. Stillwell started 48 games at second and third. Stillwell was thought to have some potential but really was not considered particularly strong offensively nor defensively.

And the Reds had Paul O'Neill coming up, so he could have replaced Daniels.

But I'm not sure if anyone in the organization thought O'Neill had Daniels' potential. Despite pretty much platooning with Jones, he was having a great first season. Remember this was late August in a season that saw him OPS 1.046, hit 26 homers, steal 26 bases, and bat .334. In 395 at bats, Tracy Jones would hit .290 with 10 homers and 18 stolen bases. They played an important part in the Reds' offensive scheme.

Like I said, I believe the Pirates may have wanted to fleece the Reds, but I'm pretty sure Cincinnati was never considering giving up that much that late in the season for basically a number two or three starter. After all, the Giants didn't give up near that much.

Btw, rumor had it that Rueschel did not care for his free agency dealings with the Reds from a couple of winters before and did not want to be traded to the Reds.