Official "What to do with Cordero" thread

[Vottomatic]

They have one on the ORG and it's pretty entertaining. So have at it.

1. He makes too much $$$ to be traded.
2. He makes too much $$$ to be a setup guy. Atleast that's what I think management thinks, unfortunately.
3. He makes too much $$$ to be cut.
4. He makes things interesting every time out. He has a WHIP around 1.50.

Personally, I demote him to the 6th or 7th inning with a short leash. But Dusty won't do it. It would have to come from above.

I like the idea of swapping him with the Mets for Carlos Beltran if they send us some money to make it an even swap. Beltran is owed about $20M next season and Cordero is owed a little more than $12M.

[sivman17]

I am not sure what you can do with him. I would love to see one of the other relievers try to close, because I think Ondrusek, Smith, Rhodes, or Masset are all fully capable. I have never quite bought into the whole "closer" role, especially when you have a mediocre one like Cordero. If you have someone like Soria or Rivera, well that's a whole different story. But with a guy like Cordero, who struggles and nearly blows every single game he closes, I think one of the other guys should be given a shot.

Although he hasn't blown that many games this year, I don't know of anyone who would honestly feel confident allowing him to close a game in the playoffs. Frankly, if he came into the game in the 9th with a 1 or 2-run lead, I would just naturally assume he would blow it. I have ZERO confidence in him in a playoff save situation. Unfortunately, since Baker hasn't tried anyone else in that role, it seems as if we are stuck with him.

Maybe they figure out something in the off-season, but for this year I think we have to deal with the heart attacks every time we have a save situation.

[redlegs2370]

How many years does Coco have left on his contract?

[sivman17]

One way to look at the predicament is the same way a batting order is made. If a guy is struggling at a certain spot in the order, he is often moved to a different spot. Dusty has moved people quite a bit this season. B Phil, who used to bat 4th, has batted leadoff and in the 2-hole. OCab has lead off as well as batted 2nd. You get where I am going with this...

I don't see why Baker doesn't look at the bullpen the same way. If a RP isn't performing well in a certain inning (say, the 9th), then why continue to put him out there in the 9th? I think we all know that Dusty isn't moving Cordero anytime soon as much as we want to talk about it, but I would certainly like to see something different.

At this point in the season, you can't worry about money and you can't worry about hurting people's feelings. Even Dusty said that. Thus, if Cordero is going to help this team better in the 7th or 8th, then why not try him there? I don't think it would hurt anything to move him to the setup role and let someone like Rhodes or Masset close.

One of the Reds announcers (I forget who.. possibly Welsh or Brantley) said that once you move Cordero, you can't move him back. They were even shocked that Dusty had taken him out of the game last weekend after he walked 3 guys and hit a guy. I'm not sure if I buy into all that business about not being able to move him back to the 9th. All I know is that when we are winning by 1, 2, or 3 runs going into the 9th, I give Cordero nearly a 50/50 shot of actually saving the game. I know he has done much better than that, but it sure doesn't seem like it. He is going to burn us sooner or later.

[Kingspoint]

Continue to pay him and play him this year to do what he does.

Re-evaluate after the season.

[Natty Redlocks]

Continue to pay him and play him this year to do what he does.

Re-evaluate after the season.

yep

[R_Webb18]

let him close? Don't get the point of this thread he is the closer no matter what you say for the rest of the year.

[Dale4Saul2Red0]

Continue to pay him and play him this year to do what he does.

Re-evaluate after the season.

Yup the bed has been made this season for Cordero and personally I don't think we have a guy we can even turn to at this point in the 9th outside of Cordero. Even with his struggles the Reds are still 16 games over .500. Don't want to let him have a chance to blow it in the 9th, well then our bats better give him a 3+ run cushion then we won't have to sweat it.

[Kingspoint]

Don't want to let him have a chance to blow it in the 9th, well then our bats better give him a 3+ run cushion then we won't have to sweat it.

Don't think our hitters don't know this, too.

[RedsFanInBama]

There's nothing that can be done right now unless the guys at the very top of this organization say something can be done.

[PhatHead]

How many years does Coco have left on his contract?

I believe that he's signed through next year. I don't know if they is a mutual option for 2012 or not.

I think that the Reds need to leave him in the closer's role this year, but don't be afraid to yank him. Last night's double off of him didn't bother me nearly as much as the walks that he gives up. If they hit you, then fine...... but don't hurt yourself by giving free passes.

[New York Red]

Continue to pay him and play him this year to do what he does.

Re-evaluate after the season.

I have to agree with this. It's too late in the season to switch closers. Cordero drives me crazy - I cringe at the sight of him warming up. But there's no guarantee anyone else can do better right now. As for re-evaluating him after the season, I hope it's a quick decision. I don't want to ride the CoCo roller coaster again next year.

[takealeake]

Yup the bed has been made this season for Cordero and personally I don't think we have a guy we can even turn to at this point in the 9th outside of Cordero. Even with his struggles the Reds are still 16 games over .500. Don't want to let him have a chance to blow it in the 9th, well then our bats better give him a 3+ run cushion then we won't have to sweat it.

Rhodes. Ondrussek. Masset. What do you mean we don't have a guy? Cordero has done as bad as someone could do this year as closer and the stats prove it. Time to stop treating the closer role like it's some sort of nuclear physicist specialized position that ONLY he can do, and if someone else did their heads would explode from the amount of difficulty it takes. It's pitching an inning without letting the other team score. Other guys do that perfectly fine in our bullpen, and for whatever reason, Cordero can not.

Basically what you do with Cordero is trade him for a team equally sick of their overpriced player, and go on with that. If we could get Beltran with only about a $3-$4 mil difference in salary, I would take him in a heartbeat for Cordero.

[DocRed]

Rhodes. Ondrussek. Masset. What do you mean we don't have a guy? Cordero has done as bad as someone could do this year as closer and the stats prove it. Time to stop treating the closer role like it's some sort of nuclear physicist specialized position that ONLY he can do, and if someone else did their heads would explode from the amount of difficulty it takes. It's pitching an inning without letting the other team score. Other guys do that perfectly fine in our bullpen, and for whatever reason, Cordero can not.

Basically what you do with Cordero is trade him for a team equally sick of their overpriced player, and go on with that. If we could get Beltran with only about a $3-$4 mil difference in salary, I would take him in a heartbeat for Cordero.

I think what people are saying is we know what we have with Coco...a guy that will convert about 80-85% of save situations while giving you a heart attack. Could Masset, Ondrusek do better? Well sure, but they could do worse as well. But I don't know if now is the time to find out in the last months of a pennant race. Not saying that line of thinking is right or not though....

[takealeake]

I think what people are saying is we know what we have with Coco...a guy that will convert about 80-85% of save situations while giving you a heart attack. Could Masset, Ondrusek do better? Well sure, but they could do worse as well? But I don't know if now is the time to find out in the last months of a pennant race. Not saying that line of thinking is right or not....

80-85% is NOT good. And what do you mean by saying "We don't know what they could do." These guys pitch one inning effectively ALL. THE. TIME. Just because the scoreboard says 9th inning doesn't mean that you're suddenly in an entire different world.

Closer is the most overrated, overvalued position in ALL of sports for the excuses people are saying why Cordero can't replaced. People buy into all the media crap and all the big salaries as to why other pitchers couldn't do the EXACT same thing, and better than most bad closers like Cordero.

Heck, there should be enough proof out there in the fact that most closers got their chance in the first place by the previous closer not doing their job and being put in the position to replace that guy after being a failed starter or middle reliever and do perfectly fine. Even more so, look at times like when we got Todd Jones off the biggest scrap heap you can find and he became one of the leagues top closers for us and Detroit, and also how Stormy Weathers did at closer for us, oftentimes pitching two innings to get it. There's dozens of those instances all across the league.

Remember when we had the longest streak of wins after 8 innings in the majors, maybe even the MLB record? Go look and see at all the different guys who did the brunt of that streak. It sure as heck wasn't only an overpaid $12 mil guy who could only do the position. It's time to stop worrying about egos and salaries and this and that - we're trying to make the playoffs, not stroke the ego of a guy who makes more in one year than any of us will make in our lifetimes.