I guess I'm not surprised, but shouldn't we want to see the youngsters make or break this season? A lot of fans treat seasons now like fantasy redraft leagues. Bench Bruce, sit Stubbs, jettison Joey (just kidding). To me, if these are the guys that we will be seeing for the foreseeable future, these are the guys who should be in the lineup day in and day out. Maybe the team ends up missing the postseason, but I'm not sure that I want to see Cincy start screwing with the young guys just because they are treating this like the last season of their lives.
If the Reds see Stubbs as being the future CF of this franchise, I want to see him get exposure to this atmosphere.
You don't see many young position players with any sort of talent getting replaced at the deadline if they are in a playoff chase. Plus, I'm curious as to what kind of upgrade we expect to be able to realistically acquire right now. What OFer is on the block, reasonably paid and available for a decent price? The popular answer might be Heisey and I could see him start to get some time, but something tells me that he'll leave us wanting more.
Again, this isn't a one year redraft league. The core of this team is back next year. It's ok to show improvement without winning it all. It isn't ok to act like you haven't been here before and start offering up the future for a short term solution.
Then again, I guess Walt just needs to go on Amazon and order that TOR arm and stud OF/SS that are on sale this week.
There's a difference btw adding talent at the deadline and adding talent in the offseason. You are more apt to deal a part of the starting lineup in the offseason than right now.
This week I would think that, barring Walt getting a Godfather type offer, he should get some help for the bench and bullpen. This offseason, I think we see some moves being made. They will hopefully have some money to spend and they have some minor league depth available.
Last edited by Ron Madden; 07-28-2010 at 04:07 AM.
Chapman + recovered Volquez + Leake w/ more innings + full season of Wood + more mature Cueto + full season of more mature Ondrusek, Smith, Bray, and Fisher + more mature Bruce, Stubbs, and Heisey + likely contributions from Cozart, Alonso, Frazier, Francisco, Valaika, Boxberger and Meseraco + around $12M in payflex = likely better position in 2011.
That combined surely outweighs the probable decline from Cordero, Rolen and Phillips + the lose of Arroyo, Harang and Rhodes.
Not all of the top stuff will happen, but even if half of it does, the Reds will be in a better position than this season, or at the very least, will not be worse.
"Imagination is more important than knowledge." -- Albert Einstein
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