Quote Originally Posted by edabbs44 View Post
Can't argue that, but has he been in a position to? His tradeable assets have been weighed down by their contracts in the midst of a financial crisis. Look at what Javy Vazquez just fetched...little in the way of long term impact.

Not many teams are dealing legit cheap talent for middle tier vets with contracts of size.
I agree.... he wasn't exactly in a position to be adding established types of players, or high end prospects for that matter. But, Walt hasn't been particularly proactive in taking some risks on some of the lower end roster players. The Reds being fairly non-competitive, are in a position that they could be filling up parts of the bench, or perhaps even offering partial playing time opportunities to some young players that have failed in other organizations.

One such guy he did pick up was Balentin, and I think that is the right type of move that he should be exploring more often. Those types of guys can be had, and you know, it's not that surprising when they develop into meaningful players. The best thing Kriv ever did was turning nothing into something (I'm not meaning to bait you). For all the faults he had, that is one area that he had right, and it came at no cost to the other areas of the team.

Walt has done a very good job for the most part in excercising patience, sticking to the rebuilding effort, and not strap himself with future contracts. And rightfully so, that was Kriv's biggest downfall and the reason that he shouldn't be GM.

So honestly, I don't think it would take much for a combined approach (as in the best of each world, not signing bad players to LTD's and adding no talent lol). In the end, baseball is set-up based on contracts and roster positions that it is very much possible to turn another team's failed prospect into a successful project. So I dont think there's much of an excuse for the void of building blocks, or even mildly interesting talent that has been added during his tenure.