Don't trade our top prospects for marginal players!

[Stingray]

I've been a Reds fan since 1939. My dad had a significant role(at CG&E) with the installation of lights at Crosley Field, although I was too young to remember it. I lived three houses away from Lonnie Frey although I don't think I ever met him. I'm 75 years old. If anyone on this board should be impatient to win, it should be me(how many years do I have left?).

However, as a small market team, we'll never have sustained winning by trading our top prospects for older marginal players to maybe get to the first or 2nd round of the playoffs. We need to develop our own players keep them at least through their early arb years. Sign the real difference makers(Dunn, Harang, for example) to long term contracts. Get prospects or draft choices for those who become too expensive or are playing above our evaluation of their potential. This approach requires top scouting(pay for the best) and the ability to stick to a plan. This is the only way we'll be more than an occasional splash in the pan.

Don't sacrifice our future for a Zito or Willis-sp?(to many $$$ for us to keep long term and too expensive in young talent for a rental) or a Redman(not worth much young talent for a marginal upgrade).

Don't trade any of our top ten prospects - please. I'm still young enough to wait a few more years for a WS win(most of the posters here have 40 or 50 years).

[TOBTTReds]

I've been a Reds fan since 1939. My dad had a significant role(at CG&E) with the installation of lights at Crosley Field, although I was too young to remember it. I lived three houses away from Lonnie Frey although I don't think I ever met him. I'm 75 years old. If anyone on this board should be impatient to win, it should be me(how many years do I have left?).

However, as a small market team, we'll never have sustained winning by trading our top prospects for older marginal players to maybe get to the first or 2nd round of the playoffs. We need to develop our own players keep them at least through their early arb years. Sign the real difference makers(Dunn, Harang, for example) to long term contracts. Get prospects or draft choices for those who become too expensive or are playing above our evaluation of their potential. This approach requires top scouting(pay for the best) and the ability to stick to a plan. This is the only way we'll be more than an occasional splash in the pan.

Don't sacrifice our future for a Zito or Willis-sp?(to many $$$ for us to keep long term and too expensive in young talent for a rental) or a Redman(not worth much young talent for a marginal upgrade).

Don't trade any of our top ten prospects - please. I'm still young enough to wait a few more years for a WS win(most of the posters here have 40 or 50 years).

Great post, and I agree. So you don't like the scrappy vets?

FYI - Can't trade for draft picks...but everything else you said is great.

[Stingray]

If you offer arb and lose a player you can be awarded picks.

[Stingray]

[QUOTE=AvesIce51] So you don't like the scrappy vets?

Not in place of equally good(or better) young players.

I'd play:


Hat/Aur platoon -1B, Freel 2B, Phillips - SS, EE - 3B, Dunn - LF, Deno - CF, Jr - RF, Hot hand - C every day except for occasional rests for these regulars. Best to win now AND for the future.

[Ron Madden]

[QUOTE=Stingray]

So you don't like the scrappy vets?

Not in place of equally good(or better) young players.

I'd play:


Hat/Aur platoon -1B, Freel 2B, Phillips - SS, EE - 3B, Dunn - LF, Deno - CF, Jr - RF, Hot hand - C every day except for occasional rests for these regulars. Best to win now AND for the future.

Good Stuff.

[Cyclone792]

Good stuff, Stingray, and I really do believe the team can easily be improved internally simply by utilizing the players we already have on our roster in a better fashion, just like you state.

Your lineup above is an excellent start as it gets better defense at both SS and CF while also getting EE in the lineup and Clayton out of the lineup, and I believe the run value difference in your lineup would easily trump what Narron's been sending out there every day.

[Spitball]

If you have the chance to contend, you have to gamble. B.J.Ryan is a good example of a good gamble. The Reds traded Ryan and Jacobo Sequea to the Orioles for Juan Guzman in 1999. Guzman helped the Reds to a Wild Card tie with the Mets. It was great fun even if the Reds didn't make the real playoffs. B.J.Ryan made the All-Star game this year, but he wasn't with the Orioles. He had really only one really good season with the Orioles before he left. I'd much rather have had Guzman's contrbutions that lead to a tie breaker than Ryan's one good season with the Orioles.

Success is measured in winning seasons, not crops of promising promises.

[Redus]

They better not give anything worthwile for Redman. He's no better than Claussen/Germano.

[rcb126]

If you have the chance to contend, you have to gamble. B.J.Ryan is a good example of a good gamble. The Reds traded Ryan and Jacobo Sequea to the Orioles for Juan Guzman in 1999. Guzman helped the Reds to a Wild Card tie with the Mets. It was great fun even if the Reds didn't make the real playoffs. B.J.Ryan made the All-Star game this year, but he wasn't with the Orioles. He had really only one really good season with the Orioles before he left. I'd much rather have had Guzman's contrbutions that lead to a tie breaker than Ryan's one good season with the Orioles.

Success is measured in winning seasons, not crops of promising promises.

But imagine if the Reds had Ryan now......"the trade" might not have ever been necessary. Sometimes it pays to be patient unless you are SURE you can win it all.

[Tornon]

They better not give anything worthwile for Redman. He's no better than Claussen/Germano.

Don't forget.. he's a scrappy vet that knows how to play the game

[Ravenlord]

Don't forget.. he's a scrappy vet that knows how to play the game

and an All-Star.

[Redus]

Don't forget.. he's a scrappy vet that knows how to play the game

I think you meant a crappy vet

[KronoRed]

and an All-Star.

So was Turnbow

[Redus]

and an All-Star.

Yes he was. He reminds me of the glorius All Stars Jack Armstrong and Atlee Hammaker

[UKFlounder]

But imagine if the Reds had Ryan now......"the trade" might not have ever been necessary. Sometimes it pays to be patient unless you are SURE you can win it all.

But 7 years of patience? And even if Ryan developed with the Reds as he did with Baltimore, what are the chances the Reds would have given him the big $$$ last offseason?

So if he did become an All-Star, but left as a free agent, this year's bullpen still may not have been that much better.

Of course, if we had known in 99 that we would lose the tie-breaker then maybe the deal was a bad one, but without the benefit of hindsight, it was, IMO, a good deal, and, even with hindsight, I'm not sure that keeping Ryan would have had any impact on this season anyway