Originally Posted by
HokieRed
WV fan I think you're giving up at just the wrong time. The way I read it is we finally have a GM who knows the difference between a team with an actual chance to compete and one that has no chance. 2009 has no chance to compete for anything meaningful, so the game is to make it look like you're trying everything while not doing anything to hurt the team farther down the road--either through the acquisitions one makes or the kinds of contracts one extends. Jocketty is doing superbly. The prime area for improvement in this year's team is the rotation: Harang, Cueto, the #5, and the development of depth. Taveras is, as I see it, defensive insurance and a transitional centerfielder--he gets us to whoever will claim the position for the next several years, Dickerson, Stubbs, or Heisey. Left field in 2010 and beyond will be Joey Votto. 1b will be either Yonder Alonso or EE. 3b will likely be Todd Frazier or perhaps Juan Francisco, maybe even as early as 2010. The bullpen is filled with solid, if unspectacular, professional relievers, and it, too, will look quite different as early as 2010--Fisher, Roenicke, Manuel, maybe even Herrera could be part of that. So what we get to see in 2009 is the development of a whole host of interesting young players--Volquez, Cueto, the other starters, Votto, Bruce, Dickerson et. al. By August I think they will be pretty good, and we'll have a good read on what the team will look like when it starts to really have to be taken seriously--2010 and after.