What I have started to believe, especially lately, is you don't extend players to big time contracts unless they are elite at their position. With all due respect to Phillips, I don't think he is in the same conversation with the best overall 2b. I think he is a very good 2b but don't think if I had to do it all over again I would committ the long term money to BP.
Don't quite know where you have come up with Phillip's value so far, but I think right now the Reds would be much better off with the BP contract money and Frazier or Valakia at 2b instead of BP. They wouldn't be better defensively but I believe they would be better overall offensively. Also it isn't are the Reds better with BP or Frazier, but is are the Reds better with BP or Frazier + $10M/year?
As for the Harang and Arroyo contracts I don't have much of a beef with them. They were signed around the time when middle of the rotation starters were getting around $10M/year. Just look at the Silva, Suppan, Marquis, etc. contracts signed around the same time. There is no way the Reds, or anyone in that matter, could have predicted the scale of the economic collapse which really made the contracts look bad. I think Harang was the better of the two contracts. He was looking like the Reds first bonified ace since Jose Rijo in his prime. No one could have predicted his struggles over the past two seasons. The Arroyo contract I think was done a little too quickly, but has been the better of the two signed.
As for Cordero to me its really a toss up. While the Reds are paying a lot of money to a closer he has lived up to his contract. The argument you can make is that its a misappropriation of funds. Another factor is when the contract was signed and the collapse of the economy and the FA market. If the Reds signed CoCo with the idea of expanding payroll over the course of the next year then it made sense. But when the FA market went south the Reds could have gotten both Abreau and KRod for the amount of money Cordero was making.
When you look at the 4 big deals right now the Reds have a lot of money committed to an above average 2b, two MOR pitchers, and a closer. Not bad players, but players who aren't worth their present day value of their contracts, especially when you take into consideration the recent FA markets.