[Scrap Irony]

Red Improvements:

Replaced the septet of Freel, Castro, Larson, Lopez, and Hummel with Randa.
Rough average of 2004 chaff OPS while playing 3B: .665
Career OPS of Joe Randa: .765
Probable Improvement: 100 OPS points

Replaced Jose Acevedo (5.94 ERA) with Ramon Ortiz (4.43 ERA).
Replaced Cory Lidle (5.32 ERA) with Eric Milton (4.75 ERA).
Net Gain: 1.04 R/Game

Replaced John Rielding (5.10 relief ERA in 77.7 IP) with David Weathers (4.15 ERA).
Replaced Phil Norton (ERA of 5.07 in 65.7 IP) with Kent Mercker (2.55 ERA).
Replaced Todd Van Poppel (6.09 ERA in 115.7 IP) with Ben Weber (8.06 ERA).
Net Gain: .50 R/Game

Fairly self evident the Reds improved themselves. Greatly.

That said, I would have liked to see at least one LTC given to Kearns or Dunn. I understand the importance of having the player agree to the contract and assume Dunn is rightfully aware of his value in today's market-- i.e., he's among a handful of players that are possibly worth $10-15 million per year. Assuming his agent has clued him into these numbers, I also can't fault DanO for failing to find common ground on a LTC with Dunn. (This logic seems to be lost on some posters, as they assume the Reds could sign Dunn if only they shell out enough cash. This is obviously a specious argument and cannot be proven valid by either side. Suffice it to say, I am fairly content DanO has tried and seems to know full well the value of Dunn in Cincinnati.)

Overall grade: B-