“In the same way that a baseball season never really begins, it never really ends either.” - Lonnie Wheeler, "Bleachers, A Summer in Wrigley Field"
The Baseball Emporium - Books & Things.
The Baseball Bookstore
http://tsc-sales.com/
http://tscsales.blogspot.com/
http://silverscreenbooks.com/
I never, ever thought Votto would be a Red past 2013. I was wrong.
I was ready to cut bait with Ludwick a couple months ago. Thought he looked hopeless at the plate.
"I can make all the stadiums rock."
-Air Supply
I don't know- depends how much credit you give to the GM for first round draft picks.
The 2004 draft really only produced Homer Bailey, who was the consensus best HS pitcher in the draft. Taking him at #7 overall isn't exactly a world-beating move. Paul Janish was a nice fringy player they picked up in the 5th round. Other than that, BJ Szymanski was a joke of a 2nd round pick, and other than Craig Tatum for a cup of coffee, no one else even scratched the bigs (I'm not even sure if any of them scratched AAA!)
The 2005 draft produced Jay Bruce, Travis Wood, and Logan Ondrusek. I give the organization a lot of credit for selecting Bruce, especially when some other "experts" were touting other players. This draft is arguably the only good thing DanO ever did in the organization.
At least Bowden had *some* success at the big league level (ie 1995 and 1999) and made some acquisitions that worked out reasonably well (ie Brantley, Shaw, Graves, Dmitri, Casey, Konerko, Cameron, Vaughn, Neagle, Guillen). Of course, other than a Canadian catcher, his drafting was atrocious.
Go BLUE!!!
The Ryan Ludwick renaissance has been a stunner to me. Not in a million years did I think he still had one of these left in him. Given that I a sad pand that they didn't pursue Carlos Beltran in free agency, that Ludwick's OPS is now pretty much level with Beltran is a genuine delight and massive surprise to me.
It's interesting that it always seems in the last 5-7 years the Reds sign one "washed up" veteran right before ST much to the chagrin of RZ. That player usually exceeds EVERYONE'S expectations.
Past examples include:
Ryan Ludwick
Miguel Cairo
Jonny Gomes
Rich Aurillia
Joe Randa
Jeff Conine
who else, I know there have been others...?
Go BLUE!!!
I spent some time today looking over the 2012 Bold Predictions thread, just wondering if anyone anticipated how this season has progressed. Interesting read, but I didn't want to pull it forward yet since the protocol the previous season was to revisit it towards the end of the season. Some things are almost prescient and some didn't anticipate injuries (Madson) and trades (Francisco & Janish). Fun read and I thought I'd mention it here for the "wrong" parts. BTW, no one nailed where we are yet, although one person noted we would move into 1st place on August 8th and remain there for good. Let's hope we don't relinquish it at all.
“In the same way that a baseball season never really begins, it never really ends either.” - Lonnie Wheeler, "Bleachers, A Summer in Wrigley Field"
The Baseball Emporium - Books & Things.
The Baseball Bookstore
http://tsc-sales.com/
http://tscsales.blogspot.com/
http://silverscreenbooks.com/
I guess I was wrong in thinking most of you had an idea of what you were talking about
One point I'd throw in the mix: bearing fruit from the farm system is not only drafting but also player development. I don't have hard evidence for this but I think player development took a drastic step forward after Bowden left. It was pointed out earlier in this thread that the Bowden regime failed to produce any starting pitcher of note except for maybe Tomko. Doesn't that fail to even meet the "broken clock is right two times a day" minimum criteria?
Last edited by wolfboy; 08-02-2012 at 12:29 PM.
How do we know he's not Mel Torme?
Board Moderators may, at their discretion and judgment, delete and/or edit any messages that violate any of the following guidelines: 1. Explicit references to alleged illegal or unlawful acts. 2. Graphic sexual descriptions. 3. Racial or ethnic slurs. 4. Use of edgy language (including masked profanity). 5. Direct personal attacks, flames, fights, trolling, baiting, name-calling, general nuisance, excessive player criticism or anything along those lines. 6. Posting spam. 7. Each person may have only one user account. It is fine to be critical here - that's what this board is for. But let's not beat a subject or a player to death, please. |