Kearns rips Cincinnati fans...

[pedro]

But the Red have increased spending on the farm and like it or not, Cincinnati is not going to support a team that loses a 100 games. Just because you can't see the logic in some of Wayne's moves doesn't mean they're dumb. Plus he had nothing to do with Milton.

[REDREAD]

I think he's a product of the hitting era, he doesn't value defense or starting pitching much, he has an affinity for CF speedsters who can't hit and right now they are trying to make Nook Logan fit into a square hole, his teams are generally a mixture of bats and a lot of "If this goes right (though it's completely against the players makeup) then we'll do good." It's manifested in the myriad of players he tries to move to a different position (Boone, Kearns, Dmitri Young, Lopez) because of their bats.

In Cincy, Bowden had the handicap of having Allen have to approve everything. Starting pitching was expensive. Allen didn't value it. Guzman deal was almost scuttled. Penny deal was scuttled. Other trades were scuttled. Bowden was in talks for a lot of players that he knew Allen would reject. IIRC, he was in talks with Philly when Schilling was been shopped.
He picked up Wells, Neagle, and Guzman when money allowed him too.

Likewise, some of the speedy guys that couldn't hit were experimented with due to cost reasons.

I agree that moving Aaron Boone to 2b was ill advised. I'm not sure what you mean by Dimitri though.. it's not unprecendented when a team basically has two 1b, to move one to LF. Unless you mean that silly experiment when McKeon had Young at 3b for a game or two. I think it's a smart idea to try Lopez at 2b.. I mean, why not? He's a defensive liablity at SS, and they are rebuilding anyhow. Why not try it? I guess I don't get the Kearns position shift either.. I know Kearns played CF plenty times when Jr was hurt, but all teams have to do that when they don't have depth. I believe the Kearns to 3b experiment was Dan's idea.

As far as that posted article, right now they are rebuilding and seeing what these young players can do. Some of them are going to stick, some are going to wash out. That's what rebuilding is all about. In contrast, the Reds are either going to have to option Bray down or expose/lose Belise or Burton because they loaded up on marginal veteran relievers. Very short sighted in my opinion, although maybe they can find some sucker to dump Cormier to.