I know this is semi-old news, but...

[Atlas Jobinson]

...I need an explanation. Why in the world did the Reds not put a claim in on Marlon Byrd?

We are in the thick of a division race. One of our two key rivals has a glaring weakness in right field. Byrd is a logical acquisition for them. They end up claiming him, and giving up a decent prospect to get him and John Buck.

But what if we had claimed him? We have a worse record than the Pirates so we would've gotten him. They can then only trade with us, pull him back, or dump his contract on us. Let me note that his remaining contract was about $130K.

I tweeted this to C. Trent and he replied that the Reds did not want to take a chance at being "stuck" with Byrd. WHY? Even if we don't get him, at least the Pirates don't. We tell the Mets: we will either take him free of charge, or give you, like, our 30th best prospect. Your call. What's the downside?!

I assume/hope we will carry at least 14 position players in the playoffs anyway, right? In what world does Marlon Byrd not help us?

[CmdrCody]

...I need an explanation. Why in the world did the Reds not put a claim in on Marlon Byrd?

We are in the thick of a division race. One of our two key rivals has a glaring weakness in right field. Byrd is a logical acquisition for them. They end up claiming him, and giving up a decent prospect to get him and John Buck.

But what if we had claimed him? We have a worse record than the Pirates so we would've gotten him. They can then only trade with us, pull him back, or dump his contract on us. Let me note that his remaining contract was about $130K.

I tweeted this to C. Trent and he replied that the Reds did not want to take a chance at being "stuck" with Byrd. WHY? Even if we don't get him, at least the Pirates don't. We tell the Mets: we will either take him free of charge, or give you, like, our 30th best prospect. Your call. What's the downside?!

I assume/hope we will carry at least 14 position players in the playoffs anyway, right? In what world does Marlon Byrd not help us?

There's actually a little unwritten rule, that you don't do things to just block other teams. If you do than others will do the same to you. It's very rare for a team to do this. I'm not sure where the Reds would put Byrd. They already have to figure out who's going off the 40 man to bring up Hamilton.

[RedlegJake]

As Cody says if the Reds picked Byrd just to block the Pirates it would come back to haunt. Not only Huntington but other GMs would exact a bit of revenge at some point. You notice the Cards didn't block the move either. Now, if the Reds really wanted Byrd for a legitimate role that would be different but I think the Reds felt he'd be superfluous with Ludwick coming back and with Ryan starting to hit they may be right.

[Joseph]

But Jim Bowden used to block teams all the time, and he was a great GM right?

[RedlegJake]

But Jim Bowden used to block teams all the time, and he was a great GM right?

LOL...yep. Jimbo was beloved around the GM campfires....

[mrherd05]

Reds did it with Randy Myers, and we won the World Series.

[Joseph]

Reds did it with Randy Myers, and we won the World Series.

Randy was not a waiver claim.

December 6, 1989: Traded by the New York Mets with Kip Gross to the Cincinnati Reds for Don Brown (minors) and John Franco.

[usfldan]

Some interesting stuff I found while trying to see if there might have been a time later in his career where the Reds tried to block Myers going through waivers. It wasn't the Reds, but Padres did put in a claim to keep Myers from clearing waivers in 1998 and ended up stuck with him:

http://www.sfgate.com/sports/article...ig-2997629.php


There was also this segment from an article on CBSSports.com about all the waiver trades that happened just before the Aug. 31 roster deadline this year:

http://www.cbssports.com/mlb/writer/...change-october

It was the Giants who scooped up outfielder Cody Ross off of waivers on Aug. 21, 2010, only in an attempt to block the Padres. Here, the Marlins said. Take him. So the Giants did, even having no place to play him.

So Ross, who was the choice of exactly no one to become the Future October Hero in San Francisco, turned into the NLCS MVP. No way the Giants win the 2010 World Series without him.

Ironically, here is an article from 2010 comparing the Ross deal to the Myers deal:

http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2010/...-waiver-claim/

[CmdrCody]

But Jim Bowden used to block teams all the time, and he was a great GM right?

He also traded injured players and got involved in some scandal in the DR. Whatever leatherpants does, normally doesn't work. His drafts were all 5 tool outfielders and where did that get us.

[KYBatsFan]

I still don't understand all the trade deadline rules in MLB.