Jay Bruce called up!!!!!

[RedsManRick]

Originally Posted by Falls City Beer

Well, your skepticism also said Bruce wouldn't be up, either, so....

I'll take Jocketty at his word when he said he'd be an everyday player when he was brought up.

This is true. I'm happy to be wrong and will continue to enjoy being proven so. I guess we'll see how much Jocketty has to say about the starting eight. It will be interesting to see what Dusty does with the lineup.

It's got to be Patterson or Valentin sent out, right?

[Stormy]

Originally Posted by Falls City Beer

And how.

I'd like to see the trio of EdE, Arroyo, and Griffey long gone. The first two could really bring back something of value.

I completely agree on BA, though I might not have felt the same way last year at this point because we had no productive replacements in sight. If you can get another 3-4 consecutive exceptional starts from Arroyo he should become one of the more coveted trading deadline arms, and it's time for Walt's first major deal. We have PLENTY of needs. With Harang, Volquez and Cueto, I feel pretty solid about the future front 3/5 of the rotation, with or without Arroyo.

[deltachi8]

How can it (keeping Bruce in AAA until May 26) damage a season for a team that with or without him won't make the playoffs?

[Cyclone792]

Originally Posted by membengal

Cyclone:

I have been plenty vocal elsewhere about my displeasure about how the whole thing went down with Bruce. It became apparent VERY quickly into April that this team was being hurt by not having him up. Certainly by late April it was clear.

IF it was money (and I certainly accept that was probably it), then I remain in firm disagreement with the club on that. Damaging yet another season and inflicting more active trauma in the form of CP in center and leading off and Jr. in RF and waving at balls not hit right at him on a fanbase already in long-term therapy for PTSD was dumb. Flat-line dumb. All-time dumb.

Cast wants to know where the fans are? They are at home, trying to make the lambs stop their screaming. They open their eyes after their latest therapy, see C Patt willie mays hayes another pop up to short lf, and the lambs start their screaming all over again.

But, hey, sure, if it saved the Reds a few million down the road, that was probably worth it, right?

Or, not. I stay with "not".

Well is it worth it if the millions the Reds save are applied to a long-term deal for Adam Dunn?

Here, I'll put a condition on my stance: if the Reds give Adam Dunn away in a trade or let him walk for draft picks, then I'll side with your stance. But if the Reds ink Adam Dunn to a long-term deal, you better bet that a good portion of Dunn's 2011 salary will be the chunk the Reds will be saving on Jay Bruce that season.

One of the primary factors that goes into a decision on when to call a Jay Bruce up is laying out the budget in future seasons. You can't just start throwing money around today that is earmarked for three or four seasons in the future just to satisfy a very short term gain right now of only a few weeks. Those are serious financial blunders, ones in which an intelligent organization does not make. The Reds - or more accurately, Wayne Krivsky - made a number of stupid financial decisions, including Corey Patterson, but that doesn't mean they should continue to make stupid financial decisions.

At some point sound financial decision-making is going to have to start happening on a regular basis, and hopefully this is a sign that this is what we're going to get from Jocketty. Walt's not merely molding the team for the remainder of 2008; he's going to be making decisions that set the foundation for 2009 and beyond ... even up to and beyond the 2011 season. These decisions are going to have to be smart decisions, and blowing $6+ million in 2011 for two weeks of Jay Bruce this season just isn't a sound financial decision.

[Chip R]

Originally Posted by RedsManRick

It's got to be Patterson or Valentin sent out, right?

Or Hatteberg.

[*BaseClogger*]

Originally Posted by Falls City Beer

Cueto's at least two or three years from really contributing, if ever

I'm glad we have you to keep things in perspective...

[BuckeyeRedleg]

Even if the Super Two status would have bitten them in the butt in three years for 6M, they could have accepted it and not paid Corey Patterson 3M.

So Bruce is up in April, and NO Patterson, costs this organization 3 Million three years later. Whippittydoo.

A small price to pay, especially considering how they have thrown millions away on garbage every year (Stanton, Cormier, Castro, etc).

[Caveat Emperor]

Originally Posted by Falls City Beer

Who do the Reds have to call up? How exactly has Arroyo trended anywhere but down the last 5 or 6 months of pitching he's thrown over two seasons? Does Cueto show any signs of "improvement"? Aside from Cordero and occasionally Affeldt, who inspires confidence in this pen?

1.) They just called up a guy that should, if everything goes to plan, solidify the #3 spot in the order and correct major defensive deficiencies in either CF or RF (depending how he is deployed).

From where I'm sitting, that's 1 spot out of 25 that is now fixed for the next 6 years, minimum.

2.) Anyone who expected Cueto to immediately be a dominant pitcher as a rookie was kidding themselves or drinking Kool Aid with WAYYY too much sugar. What he is doing right now is expected, and should have been anticipated by most.

Talk to me about "improvement" -- or lack thereof -- at the end of the season.

3.) Affeldt, Burton and Cordero are all about the same on the "Confidence-O-Meter" for me. Bullpen pitching is notoriously difficult to judge. Guys come out of nowhere to be good bullpen arms and then fade back to nothingness just as quickly. Hopefully Jocketty will be better at judging that in the future -- his run in St. Louis indicates to me that he knows the right places to look.

4.) Arroyo trended down because, literally, after his first campaign through the NL he had nowhere to go BUT down. He is what he is -- a good #4 guy on a good rotation, an OK #3 on a bad rotation. I'm not going to cry a single tear about him being on the team.

If he can be shopped for better players, I'm all for that. I also wouldn't be against going into the 2009 season with him in the rotation as long as we're looking at him as a role player and not a savior or anchor on the staff.

Jocketty has work to do with this team, but he's not in bad shape at all, IMO. This team is bad, but there are enough good young players that are just beginning their major league careers that he shouldn't have to do a total rebuild.

[Cyclone792]

Originally Posted by BuckeyeRedleg

Even if the Super Two status would have bitten them in the butt in three years for 6M, they could have accepted it and not paid Corey Patterson 3M.

So Bruce is up in April, and NO Patterson, costs this organization 3 Million three years later. Whippittydoo.

A small price to pay, especially considering how they have thrown 2 million here and 3 milliion there every year on garbage.

Well right, that's the ideal situation. It's precisely what I would have done myself.

But a now unemployed general manager blew a wad on Corey Patterson in March, and by the time the new general manager was in charge that wad was blown and Bruce was only a few weeks away from clearing Super Two.

[BuckeyeRedleg]

Originally Posted by Cyclone792

Well right, that's the ideal situation. It's precisely what I would have done myself.

But a now unemployed general manager blew a wad on Corey Patterson in March, and by the time the new general manager was in charge that wad was blown and Bruce was only a few weeks away from clearing Super Two.

It just further demonstrates the incompetence of one Wayne Krivsky.

[KronoRed]

Originally Posted by reds44

Fay seems to think Patterson is going to get the boot.

Lets hope so, OF for OF, and Dusty will want to give Patterson starts if he's still here

[Caveat Emperor]

Originally Posted by BuckeyeRedleg

It just further demonstrates the incompetence of one Wayne Krivsky.

I only hold Wayne 50% negligent on that front. He was told, in no uncertain terms, to get Corey Patterson inked to a deal because Dusty Baker wanted him on the team.

You think Corey's agent, when the Reds came calling, didn't figure out what was going on?

[Phhhl]

Originally Posted by OnBaseMachine

My dad and I are thinking of making the four hour drive tomorrow to watch him. The only problem is dad has to work plus he coaches my brother's baseball team so he's going to try to work something out so we can make the trip. Man am I pumped right now!

OBM, no offense. But, ask your dad to coach those kids instead of going to the Reds' game. Maybe one of those kids is the next Jay Bruce, but probably only if they have mentors who prioritize them and dedicate themselves to show up, throw bp, etc...

I see all these soccer fields replacing baseball diamonds all over town, and youth baseball is imperative to keeping the game alive. My coach used to cuss like a marine, make us run laps and dress us down when we made a stupid error. But we loved him because he was there three nights a week throwing 250 pitches of batting practice after working 10 hour shifts in a sweat shop. He never missed a practice or a game, much less to go watch a major league baseball game.

[OldRightHander]

Originally Posted by CTA513

Keep him away from Farney

Keep him away from Ray King.

[OldRightHander]

I picked a bad time to be in Arkansas.