I'll answer that. We aren't going to make the playoffs in 2009. Not going to happen.
So, then we have to ask ourselves if improving the team to maybe 500 is worthwhile (vs selling off every asset, and losing 100 games while rebuilding).
Well, the team has stunk for a long time. We need to try and rebuild the fan base. We need to give longterm fans like me a little hope and a reason to follow the team. I almost completely ignored the Reds for the last 60 games of 2008. That's the first time in my life I did that. I intended to go to the GAB this year, but the team was so bad and boring that I couldn't justify wasting a Saturday driving down to Cincy and dealing with all the headaches of managing my family on an outing like that. So we went to minor league games instead.
Remember, the Reds are in a business to sell tickets and get a better TV contract the next time around. That's how they make their money. Improving the team with minimal payroll impact will hopefully boost revenue and the fan base. It's just good business.
If the Reds can hit 500 this year, I will be very pleased.
[Phil ] Castellini celebrated the team's farm system and noted the team had promising prospects who would one day be great Reds -- and then joke then they'd be ex-Reds, saying "of course we're going to lose them". #SellTheTeamBob
Nov. 13, 2007: One of the greatest days in Reds history: John Allen gets the boot!
"This isn’t stats vs scouts - this is stats and scouts working together, building an organization that blends the best of both worlds. This is the blueprint for how a baseball organization should be run. And, whether the baseball men of the 20th century like it or not, this is where baseball is going."---Dave Cameron, U.S.S. Mariner
Thank God they actually play the game so all this math can be quantified. Otherwise I'd find all this really boring.
While I agree with your points, personally, I'll be disppointed if he Reds aren't at least in the WC hunt.
It's still early in the off-season and, so far, I think Walt has made some good moves. However, LF, SS and a platoon partner in CF still need to be addressed. The ability or non-ability to upgrade at those positions will, IMO, determine how competitive the Reds will be this year.
Much like Castellini, I'm tired of loseing and I want to see Walt go for the playoffs. NOW!
Rem
"Reality tells us there are no guarantees. Except that some day Jon Lester will be on that list of 100-game winners." - Peter Gammons
I don't think there's been one coming from you, but the way I've read a number of posts in this thread is there's a concealed rubber chicken poised to whack folks over the head.
A discussion of win value seems as premature to me as prognostications that the Reds could be a surprise contender next season. There's too many bodies yet to be added. More than that, I don't think we've got all that good a fix on the state of the Reds heading into this offseason given all the late season trades and injuries.
In a lot of ways Hernandez adds 20 RC to ???. So some of the talk in this thread about how many wins have been won or lost in a work in progress has me wondering "Why are we rushing there?" It's the kind of point we usually see when the argument is that the club has moved backwards or in the wrong direction - e.g. they're not going to get there doing this.
Yet, I think, the general consensus was the Reds needed to add a catcher and that Hernandez, theoretically, pushes the enterprise in the right direction (if not terribly far in that direction). And I would hope most people realized that the Reds weren't going to get much more than a #7 hitter at catcher. Anyway, something's coming off dissonant in some of the posts (again, not yours, at least to me). Maybe it's just that we've all spent so much time together we don't hear each other anymore or we don't know how to agree with each other.
Though I'm going toss a new log onto the fire here. Part of the rationale behind this move is that the GAB will put some extra Vitamin HR in Hernandez's diet. I think we all tend to add 5 HR to whomever the Reds might acquire and then speculate that could pick up the player's OB as well.
Yet should we? Is it an across-the-board SLG elevator? Or are some players not going to get a boost? More than that, how sound is it from a competitive standpoint thinking the park might make the man?
Last edited by M2; 12-12-2008 at 11:01 AM.
I'm not a system player. I am a system.
I've looked at Ramon's hit chart for 2008 in Camden Yards, and I'd say the answer may be yes. It looks like he does a real good job going to RF, and he showed solid power to RCF, particularly tending to the CF side of RCF, where Camden is a lot deeper than GAB. I think he's got a decent chance to get back over 20 HR. From the few highlights I've seen of the guy -- I have seen very little of him over the years -- he's got a solid, compact stroke with quick wrists. I'm optimistic about what he'll do at the plate.Though I'm going toss a new log onto the fire here. Part of the rationale behind this move is that the GAB will put some extra Vitamin HR in Hernandez's diet. I think we all tend to add 5 HR to whomever the Reds might acquire and then speculate that could pick up the player's OB as well.
Yet should we? Is it an across-the-board SLG elevator? Or are some players not going to get a boost? More than that, how sound is it from a competitive standpoint thinking the park might make the man?
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