Kent Mercker signs for 2 years

[Raisor]

Originally Posted by Steve4192

Millwood = Blech!

Of course, when your current rotation is full of BLECH!!!, I guess plain old Blech! is an improvement.

Millwood had a bad year and everything, but his OPS against (774) and his K/9 (7.98) weren't half bad, and is a decent indicator he's due for a bounce back.

[CougarQuest]

Now that I see the $$$ spent, I can safely say I like this signing.

Something to think about when talking about age, Gabe White and Van Poppel were 32 or 33 yrs of age I believe. And Todd Jones was 36 or 37.

[MWM]

I'm going to continue my perfect bah-humbug record and say I do NOT like this signing. It's not THAT bad and I'm not that upset about it. but it just reaffirms that direction DanO is taking this franchise and that's too much money to be spending on a guy who's not likely to play much more than 50 innings.

Seems like the strategy is to try to stay out of the cellar and not suck as bad as Milwaukee. Dano has tied up over 20% of this team's payroll in Paul Wilson, Ramon Ortiz, David Weathers, Kent Mercker, and Weber. Ugh!

DanO's yet to make a single move to address the long-term future of this franchise. He's yet to acquire a single impact player of the type who can contribute to a championship caliber team now or in the future.

[Willy]

I like the signing. I really like what righties hit off Mercker. That's very important when most average lefties are pinch hit for late in the game.

[Edd Roush]

MWM, I am only 16 years old so I haven't seen any of the great Reds teams in the past and 1990 occured when I was all of two years old.

Seeing this team's murturing nucleus with a half-decent supporting cast is making me excited for the 2005 season.

If the Reds could pull off a Millwood signing, I think the Reds will yet again be leading the Central by June.

Go Reds and DanO don't quit now

[MWM]

Mercker has an OPSA of .793 over the last three years against righties.

[Falls City Beer]

Originally Posted by MWM

Mercker has an OPSA of .793 over the last three years against righties.

He probably faces about 50 righties a year.

[westofyou]

Originally Posted by Falls City Beer

He probably faces about 50 righties a year.

73 and 98 the past 2 seasons (more with the Reds, curse you Bob Boone!!!)

[MWM]

Actually, over that time period, he's faced 333 righties and 244 lefties.

[Falls City Beer]

Originally Posted by MWM

Actually, over that time period, he's faced 333 righties and 244 lefties.

Wow. So basically HALF of those righties faced were in one season with the Reds--boy I knew the Reds worked their relievers hard, but criminy.

[MWM]

Last year he faced 96 lefties and 94 righties.

2003 - 122 RH, 81 LH (RH OPS - .696; LH OPS - .708)

2002 - 117 RH, 67 LH (RH OPS - 1.099; LH OPS - .735)

[butlerbulldogs]

great signing, i think everyone else would rather just watch our payroll go down and keep padding uncle Carl

now lets get loaiza or millwood AND Wade Miller and we'd be in serious contention

[buckeyenut]

Originally Posted by Steve4192

Since 15fan is MIA, I guess I'll have to channel him ....

Millwood = Blech!

Of course, when your current rotation is full of BLECH!!!, I guess plain old Blech! is an improvement.

Millwood at 11M is blech. Millwood at 3-4M, much more livable.

And for those who didn't note the coincidence, the 3 nontenders today (Reidling 600K, Norton 300K, Mattox 300K) took up almost exactly the salary slot that Mercker will make next year (1.25M). So the moves today do not increase payroll at all theoretically. Not bad. That should leave us room to do some more things and a market that just got a lot more players on it.

Now it gets interesting.

[bleedsred]

Originally Posted by buckeyenut

Millwood at 11M is blech. Millwood at 3-4M, much more livable.

And for those who didn't note the coincidence, the 3 nontenders today (Reidling 600K, Norton 300K, Mattox 300K) took up almost exactly the salary slot that Mercker will make next year (1.25M). So the moves today do not increase payroll at all theoretically. Not bad. That should leave us room to do some more things and a market that just got a lot more players on it.

Now it gets interesting.

I like your thinking....hope the reds do too! :gac:

[johngalt]

Originally Posted by MWM

DanO's yet to make a single move to address the long-term future of this franchise. He's yet to acquire a single impact player of the type who can contribute to a championship caliber team now or in the future.

Addressing the long-term future of a franchise is not something that very many teams do through free agency, especially when they are already hamstrung by current contracts.

I know a lot of people would disagree, but if we didn't have the money tied up with Junior, I fully believe the Reds would be going after signing a legitimate ace to anchor the rotation for 3-4 years or a truly impactful bat to stick in the middle of the lineup for that amount of time. That's what the original intent of the Griffey signing was. But when you make that move in a smaller market and it fails, then you are severely handicapped from making that move again for a while.