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Originally Posted by buckeyenut
buckeyenut wonders how m2 thinks the lidle signing was a bad signing. It was a low risk signing. It filled a need. Maybe it works, maybe it doesn't but no way it was a bad signing.
And buckeyenut never said we didn't have any options. What buckeyenut said or meant to say is that most of our options would have included dealing someone at a low point in value. Gotta go back to Kenny Rogers. "You gotta know when to hold them, know when to throw them. Know when to walk away, know when to run."
We had several guys we needed to hold. It wasn't the time to throw in yet. Some of them, it may be getting closer. Some may be proving to be keepers.
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Lidle was a bad signing because it hasn't worked and the chances of it working were extremely low. I don't hold the team to all that high a standard. All I really ask is they be able to figure out things that I can figure out from 1,000 miles away. Lidle was more of the same for a pitching staff that needed a change. He wasn't going to give them a sub-4.00 ERA, likely not a sub-4.50 ERA and quite possibly not a sub-5.00 ERA. Had they spent $500,000 on him, which is about what a "maybe it works, maybe it doesn't" flyer is worth, that would be one thing, but paying $2.75M for one is a dumb idea anyway you slice it.
And the Reds could have tried to turn some of their 2003 sell-off returns into players. I'll bring up Ben Sheets again, because we know the Brewers shopped him. Could Brandon Claussen and Phil Dumatrait have scored him? Don't know, but I'll bet Milwaukee would have given it serious consideration and Sheets would have fit right into Lidle's salary slot.
Austin Kearns was at peak value. Jason LaRue had value in what was a good market for catchers. Injuries and second-half slumps could still make the club's Big Three contracts difficult to move this coming offseason and you won't see much in the way of significant change until one of those contracts (more likely two) are off the books. The Reds keep giving away affordable contracts when what they need to do is prune from the top. That's how you go from maintenance pruning to clearing enough payroll space to reinvest.
Using your Kenny Rogers analogy, the Reds decided to keep playing with a pair of sixes instead of getting new cards. Know when to fold them indeed.