IMO, the Cards understand that its very difficult to get your top prospects up to the big show and start.....I am sorry, but the odds are against any prospect in any organization turning out any better than Matt Holiday and Cliff Lee and Roy Halladay...so the Cards basically do what it takes to get those guys....even if it means giving up a guy that "MIGHT" make the MLB roster in 3 years.....They get negotiation rights to Matt and Cliff and their club jusst got better by at least 10-15 wins over the course of a year.....Now if matt and Cliff can give you a good 6 years then you have that long to go draft their replacements and develop them into stars......Its a common theme amoungs mid market teams....go look it up......the only teams out there that follow the Reds manual to success are the ones that 99% of the time finish at the bottom of the scrap heap.....I would say the exception to that rule is the Tampa Bay Rays and maybe the Athletics......its a model that the Reds have been trying for 15 years, its a model that has proven failure over 90% of the time.....I think its not time for a management change, but time for a theory change.....even if the payroll gets knocked up to 80mill....this team could contend for a playoff every year just like the Cards.....We have young pitching, we just need a ACE and we need protection around Joey not named jay.....oh yeah, and get Mario Soto in here PRONTO....
