Reds sign Willy Taveras to 2 year deal....

[wolfboy]

Everyone wants to go young, but they whine and belly ache when the Reds audition relatively young guys like Patterson and Tavaras. I remember people screaming to cut Wily Mo Pena because he was "a useless waste of roster space", despite the fact he had trade value. Naturally, every time you take a flyer on a guy like Patterson/Tavaras, you aren't going to end up with a Josh Hamilton but the Reds are in a position where they have to give guys like this chances. Tavaras at less than 3 million/year isn't going to cripple the Reds at all. Walt basically replaced 1 year of Freel with 2 years of Tavaras. The cost is close to the same. Tavaras may or many not offer better production than Freel.

I don't understand why you would "audition" guys that are essentially known (poor) commodities. The Reds gave out a ton of plate appearances last season to players with wretched numbers.
I don't think Taveras is the end of the world. He's just one in a long list of bad decisions. I do think he's bad for the team. He has a guaranteed contract that pays decent money, and we're going to waste 200 or more PAs on the guy before we ditch him for a better option. To me, that seems like utter futility.

[flyer85]

I don't understand why you would "audition" guys that are essentially known (poor) commodities.

this team has never truly went young, they just keep dumpster diving instead of turning the job over to some youngsters who have higher upsides as well as giving the team ability to see how they might fit for the coming years. Instead in a couple of years Taveras and Hernandez will be gone and the team will likely may be none the wiser about potential future contributions from players that were held back or others they may have acquired.

[Blitz Dorsey]

Any word yet on what Senator Taveras is going to make in Cincinnati?

(Sorry, that is as close to making a political statement as I'm going to come.)

[flyer85]

This off season is the exact stuff that has been done since the Bowden era started. Instead of building for the future the team spends the off season dumpster diving to cobble together a team that they simply have to hope will perform a miracle to make the playoffs.

[SteelSD]

Please...someone say something political so this thread can get closed.

To summarize, due to Taveras' limited offensive game, we need to use very conservative projections for his next campaign and understand that there's good reason to view his 2007 season with a liberal amount of skepticism.

Overall, I believe the bipartisan view is that Taveras wasn't an optimal acquisition and I think lobbyists from both sides can agree there. His pre-acquisition approval rating was only 22.58% to begin with and I'd suggest that this thread's exit polling would produce a result slightly lower than that. I do disagree that Taveras' grades out as only a candidate for CF, but at minimum the primary contender for the position, and likely the CF-elect at this point in the race. The real line in the sand is that unless he can reproduce entirely unlikely bunt hit rates, he'll likely end up as a WMD pointed at his own offense.

But, as always, an enjoyable 1,000-post thread and remember- there are no blue states and there are no red states. There are only REDS states.

I'm SteelSD and I approve this message.

[Big Klu]

Please...someone say something political so this thread can get closed.

"Fourscore and seven years ago..."

[RFS62]

[KronoRed]

This off season is the exact stuff that has been done since the Bowden era started. Instead of building for the future the team spends the off season dumpster diving to cobble together a team that they simply have to hope will perform a miracle to make the playoffs.

Worked in 1999, and the Reds have been trying to recapture that ever since.

Three cheers for mediocrity.

[RedsManRick]

This off season is the exact stuff that has been done since the Bowden era started. Instead of building for the future the team spends the off season dumpster diving to cobble together a team that they simply have to hope will perform a miracle to make the playoffs.

Bingo.

[Tom Servo]

It feels like we signed Taveras months ago already

[Blitz Dorsey]

And seeing the Rockies completely luck into a WS birth two years ago didn't help the cause. Now the Reds front office thinks anything is possible.

[Falls City Beer]

Bingo.

Trouble is, until they figure out how to put a farm together, dumpster-diving might in fact be the only method of putting a MLB on the field. Either that or concentrating a bunch of money on one player (Griffey). I'm all for letting the kids play when there are kids to play. And I don't mean Dickerson. Right now, the best this farm has to offer is on the current 25 man roster. Either way (dumpster-diving or playing the kids a la Montreal of the 90s), contention ain't part of the bargain until they can come up with a Pedro Martinez to front the rotation and Pujols to drive the offense.

For all the "improvement" of the farm, the talent isn't nearly what it was, say, in the mid-80s, when the 90 team was in embryo.

It's all twaddle till they can identify talent. Or loosen the purse-strings. They're still doing neither.

[SteelSD]

It feels like we signed Taveras months ago already

That's the rift in the space/time continuum caused by Taveras running so fast. Happens to everyone. After three months in Colorado, their entire fan base could remember picking him up in the expansion draft.

[Caveat Emperor]

nah, Quirk is going to fix him.

Maybe, but I just don't see how he'd profit from doing so...

[Raisor]

Maybe, but I just don't see how he'd profit from doing so...

"Trouble with Taveras"