Just one more acquisition...

[madeirawood]

A lefty reliever to complement Garrett. Or do we already have him? Reed or someone else?

[Bourgeois Zee]

I really like Reed as a bullpen arm. (Sims too, for that matter.)

His peripherals, stuff, and pedigree is similar to Lorenzen, Robert Stephenson, and Garrett, who enjoyed very good seasons last year. He has a (limited) history of being dominant as a relief arm.

The issue is that he doesn't have options left.

Still, there's always the Disabled List if he gets a bit overworked.

I'd roll with Reed and look for a bump elsewhere. (This assumes, of course, that good LH relief arms would be expensive to acquire. It also assumes minor league spots are still available for other free agents.)

[schroomytunes]

I think were done adding at this point, as far as the pen goes I see it shaking out like this:

1) Iglesius
2) Lorenzen
3) Strop
4) Sims
5) Stephenson
6) Garrett-Lefty
7) Reed/ Smith/ Biddle- Lefty
8) Jones/Thornberg/Shafer/Bowman/Romano/ Deleon -mop-up types

[JFLegal]

why are we always so short on lefties? oh yes, is it because our former director of scouting, chris buckley, did not like drafting lefties for some reason?

imo, we need more than 2 lefties in the pen. 3 would be ideal. if we have 2 good ones, that would do, but 3 would be nice.

i'm a believer in reed if he can stay healthy.

[mth123]

A lefty reliever to complement Garrett. Or do we already have him? Reed or someone else?

Any proven reliever will do. IF we want a lefty, Tony Watson is probably available for cheap. Ervin for Watson would be my offer, but I prefer they aim higher. An Aquino for Ken Giles based deal is my current hope. Probably needs added players, maybe on both sides.

[vottofan4life]

I vote Tony Watson. Giants need better outfielders right now.

[MoneyInTheBank]

I agree they could stand to add a bullpen arm but I don't think it necessarily needs to be a lefty. I'll take quality over handedness, especially with the 3 batter minimum coming in 2020. It is very anecdotal but Houston didn't even have a lefty on staff last season and Washington only had 1 lefty reliever and 1 starter

[Bourgeois Zee]

I have the following for Opening Day:

RH Iglesias
LH Garrett
RH Lorenzen
RH Strop
RH R. Stephenson
LH Reed
RH N. Jones
RH Sims

They have Shafer, Bowman, Biddle, DeLeon, Mahle, Thornberg, Smith, and possibly Romano as minor league options, not to mention Kuhnel, Powers, and others in AAA.

I'd prefer a better closer, but Iglesias is solid enough. The entire bullpen is comprised of superior arms with high K rates. They are, across the board, hard to hit. They have, almost across the board, high spin rates. (Sims has some of the best spin rates in the game.)

[mth123]

I have the following for Opening Day:

RH Iglesias
LH Garrett
RH Lorenzen
RH Strop
RH R. Stephenson
LH Reed
RH N. Jones
RH Sims

They have Shafer, Bowman, Biddle, DeLeon, Mahle, Thornberg, Smith, and possibly Romano as minor league options, not to mention Kuhnel, Powers, and others in AAA.

I'd prefer a better closer, but Iglesias is solid enough. The entire bullpen is comprised of superior arms with high K rates. They are, across the board, hard to hit. They have, almost across the board, high spin rates. (Sims has some of the best spin rates in the game.)

I see two unprovens in Sims and Reed and two scrap heap guys in Strop and Jones. The choice would be play Sink or swim in key spots with those or to limit the key spots to the other four. I hate sink or swim in the bullpen where a "sink" means a lost game in a pennant race. The alternative would be to limit the key spots to the other four. We saw that play out last year where the main guys were gassed by Memorial Day and guys like Hernandez, Hughes and to a lesser extent Garrett all fell apart.

I prefer door number three where they add somebody who fits in the late innings to keep the reliable ones from being overworked and the tryouts are limited to low leverage until they become more proven. The team is moving Stephenson into high leverage this year. That's enough for now.

I will say I'm optimistic about Sims and Kuhnel, but I don't open the season with either guy getting the ball in a key spot. Maybe by July I'd be happy to stick them out there if they've been fairly consistent getting guys out for a couple months, but not in April and May. If an addition means that Jones opts out or opens the year in AAA, so be it.

[Bourgeois Zee]

I see two unprovens in Sims and Reed and two scrap heap guys in Strop and Jones.

We disagree on Strop, for sure. He had a poor season last year, but was outstanding until then. Small samples and injuries affect relief numbers a great deal, and he dealt with both. Late in the year, his fastball was back to normal, and so were most of his numbers.

I'd also argue that because Reed and Sims have great arms, great peripherals, and no options, they need to show their stuff. If you don't want them to face high-leverage spots until June, that's fine. But they need to be on the roster.

You can absolutely put Jones in the scrap heap pile, but the Reds have a ton of those. Typically, there are three or four of them (per team) who end up providing league average numbers and about 15 - 20 who put up All-Star level numbers.

[mth123]

We disagree on Strop, for sure. He had a poor season last year, but was outstanding until then. Small samples and injuries affect relief numbers a great deal, and he dealt with both. Late in the year, his fastball was back to normal, and so were most of his numbers.

I'd also argue that because Reed and Sims have great arms, great peripherals, and no options, they need to show their stuff. If you don't want them to face high-leverage spots until June, that's fine. But they need to be on the roster.

You can absolutely put Jones in the scrap heap pile, but the Reds have a ton of those. Typically, there are three or four of them (per team) who end up providing league average numbers and about 15 - 20 who put up All-Star level numbers.

Agree that Sims and Reed need to be on the roster. Its why I wasn't thrilled with adding Strop. Other teams weren't very interested. To me, that's a red flag. I want them to get somebody coming off a good year and a mostly successful career as an 8th or 9th inning guy. They have Strop now, so that leaves one opening. Go get a high end guy for that spot. I don't default that to a mop-up guy like Jones or Bowman. The tryout guys need those innings. Those other guys can start the season sorting themselves out in AAA. There will be a need for an arm at some point and they'll get the chance to emerge. That's where those guys you are talking about come from. Teams don't usually plan on them. Neither should the Reds.

[JCM11]

It's worth noting that Strop is incredibly tough on lefties to the tune of a .635 OPS in his career. Last season in a down year it was .687.

[RedTeamGo!]

I think you go into the season with Reed. He actually looked pretty good before injury. This being his likely last shot to have a major league career provides incentive. If he fails or gets hurt again, acquire one of the dudes mentioned above or someone else in ST or may.

[allpurpose]

Don't forget left handers are all demonically possessed. Their arms should be broken until they become right handers. Just for the record I'm a partial left hander. I eat and write with my left so the obvious thing would be to starve me and make sure i can no longer write with a pencil nor pen. I have my demons ya know..

[RedTeamGo!]

Agree that Sims and Reed need to be on the roster. Its why I wasn't thrilled with adding Strop. Other teams weren't very interested. To me, that's a red flag. I want them to get somebody coming off a good year and a mostly successful career as an 8th or 9th inning guy. They have Strop now, so that leaves one opening. Go get a high end guy for that spot. I don't default that to a mop-up guy like Jones or Bowman. The tryout guys need those innings. Those other guys can start the season sorting themselves out in AAA. There will be a need for an arm at some point and they'll get the chance to emerge. That's where those guys you are talking about come from. Teams don't usually plan on them. Neither should the Reds.

In his last 440 innings as a cub Strop had a sub 3.00 ERA, but sure, he sucks and nobody wanted him.