How can we improve this team?

[NorrisHopper30]

Judging from some of the responses I got in the Markakis thread it seems like many people are content with riding the Gomes' wave. I love Gomes and I love his attitude and energy, but how long will he play like this? Are we content with Stubbs? Will Cabrera continue to be solid? How long can we win with Harang? Bullpen? Bench?

Here are my priorities:

1) Stubbs needs to stay hot to keep his job and continue to show improvement at the bottom of the lineup. His OBP is still below 300. If he starts slowing down again I give Heisey a little try and then if that doesn't work I try to make a trade for Andruw Jones who has a .353 OBP and is OPSing .931.
2) Miguel Cairo needs to go, build up the bench with anything I don't care who it is just not Cairo. This is a cheap, easy fix..probably fixable through a AAA promotion.
3) Add a reliever via trade. I don't feel like looking up targets, but I think one more solid bullpen arm could improve this team (unless of course we keep pitching CG shutouts).

Things that may need to happen? (no particular order here):
1) Upgrade to Gomes? I love Gomes attitude and energy, but even after this hotstreak his OBP is still just a tad below MLB average (.330 is ML avg, he's .328). He's very streaky and will be back to normal sometime unless something has really gotten into him. When I mean upgrade I don't mean just barely upgrade, I'm talking a fairly large trade here for a famous player that may involve Alonso/Francisco being traded.
2) Upgrade Orlando? I say only do this if we could somehow land Hanley. Cabrera is still solid on D and ok on offense (although his OBP is pretty crappy). Trade the farm for Hanley if he's available.
3) Harang. What can we do with him? If he doesn't improve consistently I think it wouldn't be crazy to trade him (if possible) or move him to long relief and bring up Chapman, Maloney, Wood or anyone else who could do the same thing, but actually has potential. Another option here would be picking up an ace (lee, greinke, etc) to replace him and keep Chapman for the bullpen or incase someone gets hurt.


Thoughts? Any targets for bullpen improvements?

[NorrisHopper30]

I see Lowell is frustrated in Boston, that'd be a nice replacement for Cairo IMO if we could get him somewhat cheap.

[Vottomatic]

Judging from some of the responses I got in the Markakis thread it seems like many people are content with riding the Gomes' wave. I love Gomes and I love his attitude and energy, but how long will he play like this? Are we content with Stubbs? Will Cabrera continue to be solid? How long can we win with Harang? Bullpen? Bench?

Here are my priorities:

1) Stubbs needs to stay hot to keep his job and continue to show improvement at the bottom of the lineup. His OBP is still below 300. If he starts slowing down again I give Heisey a little try and then if that doesn't work I try to make a trade for Andruw Jones who has a .353 OBP and is OPSing .931.
2) Miguel Cairo needs to go, build up the bench with anything I don't care who it is just not Cairo. This is a cheap, easy fix..probably fixable through a AAA promotion.
3) Add a reliever via trade. I don't feel like looking up targets, but I think one more solid bullpen arm could improve this team (unless of course we keep pitching CG shutouts).

Things that may need to happen? (no particular order here):
1) Upgrade to Gomes? I love Gomes attitude and energy, but even after this hotstreak his OBP is still just a tad below MLB average (.330 is ML avg, he's .328). He's very streaky and will be back to normal sometime unless something has really gotten into him. When I mean upgrade I don't mean just barely upgrade, I'm talking a fairly large trade here for a famous player that may involve Alonso/Francisco being traded.
2) Upgrade Orlando? I say only do this if we could somehow land Hanley. Cabrera is still solid on D and ok on offense (although his OBP is pretty crappy). Trade the farm for Hanley if he's available.
3) Harang. What can we do with him? If he doesn't improve consistently I think it wouldn't be crazy to trade him (if possible) or move him to long relief and bring up Chapman, Maloney, Wood or anyone else who could do the same thing, but actually has potential. Another option here would be picking up an ace (lee, greinke, etc) to replace him and keep Chapman for the bullpen or incase someone gets hurt.


Thoughts? Any targets for bullpen improvements?

None of this works.

On another thread you laugh at the thought of the Reds affording Greinke in a trade. He only makes $7.5M this season. Yet you want to get Hanley Ramirez whose making $7M this year, $11M next year and $15M each of '12 and '13??????? Wake up from your dream. Ain't gonna happen.

Harang cannot be traded because his option for '11 automatically kicks in if he is traded and no team is going to take on his $12.5M contract for next year. We're stuck with him. On the other hand, he hasn't pitched too badly in these last 20 games we've played. Maybe Bryan Price has him on the right track?

I agree about adding a quality experienced bullpen arm. If we're considering Greinke, why not go after the Royals best bullpen arm, Joakim Soria? He has a career e.r.a. of 2.19 in 3.5 seasons. Currently has 23 K's in 16 innings. You want to trade the farm for Hanley Ramirez? I'm willing to nearly trade it for Greinke and Soria. I think that gives us a leg up on the Cards right there.

Just my $.02 cents.

[1990REDS]

I would rather have dusty baker himself see the field before ciaro.

[1990REDS]

Hanley ramirez is not gonna happen. I repeat. Hanley ramirez is NOT gonna happen.

[NorrisHopper30]

None of this works.

On another thread you laugh at the thought of the Reds affording Greinke in a trade. He only makes $7.5M this season. Yet you want to get Hanley Ramirez whose making $7M this year, $11M next year and $15M each of '12 and '13??????? Wake up from your dream. Ain't gonna happen.

Harang cannot be traded because his option for '11 automatically kicks in if he is traded and no team is going to take on his $12.5M contract for next year. We're stuck with him. On the other hand, he hasn't pitched too badly in these last 20 games we've played. Maybe Bryan Price has him on the right track?

I agree about adding a quality experienced bullpen arm. If we're considering Greinke, why not go after the Royals best bullpen arm, Joakim Soria? He has a career e.r.a. of 2.19 in 3.5 seasons. Currently has 23 K's in 16 innings. You want to trade the farm for Hanley Ramirez? I'm willing to nearly trade it for Greinke and Soria. I think that gives us a leg up on the Cards right there.

Just my $.02 cents.

Soria would be a good pick up, nice find.

I didn't post anything about Greinke being a good option or not by the way, must've been someone else. But that is a good idea if we could somehow pick up both of them.

It's just I wonder if we did pick up Greinke what would happen with our current rotation? Harang to the bullpen?

[Vottomatic]

Soria would be a good pick up, nice find.

I didn't post anything about Greinke being a good option or not by the way, must've been someone else. But that is a good idea if we could somehow pick up both of them.

It's just I wonder if we did pick up Greinke what would happen with our current rotation? Harang to the bullpen?

My bad. You're right. That was Phillipshead who posted that about Greinke on the other thread.

My apologies.

As for Harang, I think IF we'd pick up Greinke, they'd rest Mike Leake eventually. There's already talk of resting his arm after so many outings or pitches. Greinke could take his place. A trade like that wouldn't happen until late June or sometime in July anyway. But it's nice to dream about.

I'd love to get Greinke and Soria, if not to give us a huge leg up, but to also see the rest of our division squirm.

[Kingspoint]

How can we improve this team?

Sell out the home games.

[texasdave]

Why would these teams trade any of these players now? If they do decide to move them it would be prudent to wait until nearer the trading deadline in hopes of getting contending teams into a bidding war of sorts. If I am the Royals or Orioles etc., I would have to be overwhelmed to make a deal at this time.

[Vottomatic]

Why would these teams trade any of these players now? If they do decide to move them it would be prudent to wait until nearer the trading deadline in hopes of getting contending teams into a bidding war of sorts. If I am the Royals or Orioles etc., I would have to be overwhelmed to make a deal at this time.

Not alot of contending teams have as much to trade as we do.

Greinke is only signed for 2 more years. Will the Royals contend in 2 more years? No way. They need to rebuild. Will he re-sign in '13? Not if he continues to be as dominant as he has been. So it's doubtful. If they're going to rebuild, they're better off saving the money, trading him now for the prospects they will rebuild with.

Same with Seattle and Cliff Lee. He's a FA after the season. Might as well get something for him now.

And why wait 'til nearly August 1st to trade these guys if you have a good trading partner now? Why not start the rebuilding process now????

Makes more sense than people give it.

[ILoveWilly]

How can we improve this team?

Sell out the home games.

Word.

[redsfan_12]

forget the team, the attendance needs to grow lol

[Reds42MLB]

Why in the hell start a thread like this when we are currently one of the hottest teams in baseball? Haven't you ever heard that you don't mess with a good thing??? The results are there right now, no need to try and fix or add to what isn't broken. Now is the not the time to play armchair GM, sorry but OP you should be ashamed of yourself.

[redsfan_12]

Why in the hell start a thread like this when we are currently one of the hottest teams in baseball? Haven't you ever heard that you don't mess with a good thing??? The results are there right now, no need to try and fix or add to what isn't broken. Now is the not the time to play armchair GM, sorry but OP you should be ashamed of yourself.

[GIDP]

Right now we cant really do anything other than drop Cairo for Valaika, and then drop Nix for Dorn after Dorn gets off the DL. Only real 2 moves at the moment that we could probably pull off at the time im guessing.