Broxton to the DL; needs surgery. Cueto to the 60 day DL, Nick Christiani called up

[Tom Servo]

I'm just not seeing it as a massive overpay. Jonathan Papelbon getting 5 years, 50 million, that's a massive overpay. It's a deal I had real reservations about and it obviously hasn't worked out too great, but it's not a crippling blow either.

And your list is a little deceiving. Frasor and Peralta were good value pick-ups by their teams. But the lefties (Howell, Perez, Uehara) are irrelevant because for what the Reds wanted in Broxton, they weren't looking for lefties. Grilli had a lot of suitors and decided to stay put. Joakim Soria is still not recovered from his surgery and has appeared in just 14 games for Texas.

[REDREAD]

But that's sort of the point - relief pitchers are notoriously volatile and it's a whole lot easier to jettison a short, cheap contract than it is a long, expensive one.

The contracts that I listed weren't pulled randomly out of thin air, they were the alternatives to Broxton that were available via free agency and unsigned at the time the Reds re-signed Broxton. Instead of letting the market settle and look for value, the front office panicked, bought early and ended up massively overpaying both in terms of salary and the number of years guaranteed.

I guess I have a different opinion.. Collect relievers with a high chance of succeeding, so you don't have to jettison them. That way, it's not like 2006, where a new reliever was acquired every month (seemed that way). Bring some stablity to the team.

Grilli was not realistically available last season. Seemed like he wanted to stay with the Pirates who resurrected his career and had faith in him when he was down. Why would he want to sign with the Reds, who had a loaded pen (and risk ending up banished to the minors like Arrondo and Logan).
Sure, in theory the Reds could get any FA, but in reality, it doesn't work that way.. A quick search showed the Blue Jays and Cubs also tried to get Grilli.. there was competition.

I just think it's going to be awfully difficult to build a winning team if there's a low cap (like 2-3 million) on what you are willing to pay relief pitchers and if you plan on filling several spots per year via spring training auditions.

[PepperJack]

http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?...k_cin&c_id=cin

"Everything is fine. There have been no problems throwing, and no stiffness after," Broxton said on Friday.

On Monday, Broxton is scheduled to throw from a mound for the first time.

"We'll see how it goes and see how I feel," Broxton said. "Hopefully, everything will feel normal."

Broxton, 29, now has an L-shaped scar near his right elbow, similar to the aftermath of Tommy John surgery. He tore his flexor mass tendon off of the bone during an Aug. 21 game vs. the D-backs. Broxton, who had just given up a home run, felt the pain from the tear when it happened, but still threw three more pitches before exiting after a walk.

Two days later, Broxton had season-ending surgery. He later watched a video of Dr. Tim Kremchek performing the procedure. One thing he noticed was that Kremchek broke two drill bits while drilling into his bone.

"He said it was the first time that had happened in 20 years," Broxton said.

[malcontent]

We definitely need some kind of warning system when digging up a thread like this.

[_Sir_Charles_]

No kidding. My heart just stopped!

[mth123]

Hope he shows he's healthy and teams needing BP like the Yankees are interested. Reds have plenty of RH Middle relief and if Chappy is closing, they should look to move Broxton for a prospect.

[Degenerate39]

I about crapped my pants with this thread title :-/

[tomnuetten]

I would not want to watch a video of an operation... but hey if he likes it