aquino

[mth123]

The Reds were not persuaded by a historic month of August 2019. Why should they be persuaded by a teeny tiny sample size hitting .708 OPS?

But they were persuaded by guys who had big years in AAA last year. BTW, Aquino did that too. Screw-up. It's the only description for it.

[Kc61]

I agree with this. What I disagree with you about is that he was called up because the Reds thought he had improved while at Prasco. They only called him up because they tried a bunch of scrubs in his place, and they all failed.

1. It’s always a matter of comparing one candidate to other alternatves.

2. In this case, that alternative with Phil Ervin. He was the RH platoon OFer. When Reds gave up on him they decided AA was better. Maybe in part based on AA’s Prasco showing.

3. The scrubs you constantly mention were mostly guys at other positions or serving other purposes, such as defensive CF. They were not fungible with AA.

There is a suggestion in your posts of something odd or nefarious in Reds thinking here. It was a straightforward talent assessment. It happens every day. Even if I, you, and others disagree.

[757690]

1. It’s always a matter of comparing one candidate to other alternatves.

2. In this case, that alternative with Phil Ervin. He was the RH platoon OFer. When Reds gave up on him they decided AA was better. Maybe in part based on AA’s Prasco showing.

3. The scrubs you suggest were mostly guys at other positions or serving other purposes, such as defensive CF. They were not fungible with AA. It’s a constant fallacy in your argument.

There is a suggestion in your posts of something odd or nefarious in Reds thinking here. It was a straightforward talent assessment. It happens every day. Even if you, me and others disagree.

Nothing odd or nefarious being suggested. I agree it was just a talent assessment. A really bad talent assessment, imo, but that’s it, nothing more.

The Reds had a 30 or 28 player roster. So the last few spots could have gone to anyone, regardless of position. They had backups at every spot, even if JVM, Jankowski, Payton, Davidson or Colon didn’t make the team. It did matter what positions they played.

[Bruce Berenyi]

I love the debate between you guys,, but no one mentions the following how about looking with your eyes,, what player hits homers like that,, I really dont care what the "scouts at prasco" say I have watched baseball sine 1960,, they had enough data to know his potential is easily quadruple the detritus, and debris, and repackaged junk that wasted at bat after at bat, while the offense was struggling and games were being lost, He could have made a difference i n one or two games which is epic that this point

[Bruce Berenyi]

the guy hit the hardest balls withthe maximal exit velocity last august,, when did jankowski, or payton or davidson do that?

[wolfboy]

I love the debate between you guys,, but no one mentions the following how about looking with your eyes,, what player hits homers like that,, I really dont care what the "scouts at prasco" say I have watched baseball sine 1960,, they had enough data to know his potential is easily quadruple the detritus, and debris, and repackaged junk that wasted at bat after at bat, while the offense was struggling and games were being lost, He could have made a difference i n one or two games which is epic that this point

You've also been using punctuation for decades. Has that led to mastery?

[Bruce Berenyi]

really wolfboy? do you want to debate the merits of synecdoche, or metonomy?

[Kc61]

Nothing odd or nefarious being suggested. I agree it was just a talent assessment. A really bad talent assessment, imo, but that’s it, nothing more.

The Reds had a 30 or 28 player roster. So the last few spots could have gone to anyone, regardless of position. They had backups at every spot, even if JVM, Jankowski, Payton, Davidson or Colon didn’t make the team. It did matter what positions they played.

Roster room is a straw man. If Reds squeezed AA on the roster, with Ervin and Davidson as regulars, AA would have just sat.

He would be a sixth OFer with no role. Not in a platoon. Not a defensive CF specialist. Not a versatile utility fill-in. No role whatsoever.

A legitimate question is why they didn’t find a meaningful role for AA. Why they preferred Ervin, Davidson for RHH roles. But replacing Christian Colon or Travis Jankowski to sit on the end of the bench would have added little to the team or to AA himself.

[Kc61]

So what you are saying is they wasted a bunch of time before they realized what most of us already knew. I disagree with a lot of this. Aquino is capable in all three OF positions. The defensive problems that were being removed from games were Winker and Castellanos. Aquino is probably a better choice in a corner over the guys they kept simply because of his arm. He's also a very fast runner. Then when guys weren't hitting and tehy made an adjustment, they added Payton. This was an organizational screw-up.

The “three OF positions” is make weight. AA’s not a center fielder. Aquino played only a few games in his minor league career there. Overwhelmingly his background in in RF.

The Reds don’t have a good defensive team and, as backup, it’s reasonable to have a true CFer who plays defense.

This intent was shown not only with Jankowski and Payton but when they acquired Goodwin. With Senzel down, they went out and actually traded for a better CF backup, a real CFer.

As for the corners, when they had Ervin they were covered. A sixth OFer who played corner wasn’t needed and would have just sat on the bench.

[Bruce Berenyi]

Kc61 good pints but what does your optic nerve tell you when you see AA hit the ball 450 feet to right center? you cant make room for that swing?

[wolfboy]

really wolfboy? do you want to debate the merits of synecdoche, or metonomy?

No, not really. I'll be the first to admit that I butcher spelling, grammar and punctuation frequently. But decades of writing/typing sentences hasn't made you an expert in grammar and punctuation. And watching baseball games for decades hasn't made you an expert in baseball scouting. I think they got this one wrong. We all do from time-to-time.

[Bruce Berenyi]

Thank you

[RedTeamGo!]

Kc61 good pints but what does your optic nerve tell you when you see AA hit the ball 450 feet to right center? you cant make room for that swing?

Same could be said for Mark Trumbo and Chris Davis.

I think KC hit the nail on the head. They wanted versatility and they went super cheap on the acquisition of the versatility. They should have went out and traded for Goodwin before the season started, he’s legit, Jankowski and Payton were not.

I think the real reason AA was at Prasco wasn’t all the aforementioned junk, it was Castellanos, who refused to DH.

The more and more we get into this year the more I am completely OK with Castellanos opting out. I think if he had agreed to either DH or play LF Aquino would have been up and playing regularly all season long. Instead he would have thrown a fit if the team told him he was DH or LF, the reds went along with it because they don’t want him to opt out and there was a domino effect resulting in AA at Prasco as a result.

This should have been the lineup on day 1:

C - Barnhart/Casali
1B - Votto
2B - Moose
SS - Galvis
3B - Suarez
RF - Aquino
CF - Senzel/Shogo
LF - Winker
DH - Castellanos

I think the Reds not just telling Cast he’s DH is probably the biggest mistake of the season.

[Kc61]

Kc61 good pints but what does your optic nerve tell you when you see AA hit the ball 450 feet to right center? you cant make room for that swing?

It tells me what I said all off-season. The Reds amassed too many major league OFers. It represented an imbalance. They needed help elsewhere.

I disagreed using Ervin over Aquino. But the essential problem was that they had an overflow of OFers.

They had little backup in the infield. They had too many bounce back relievers. They should have made some deals and rounded out the team.

Of course, as it turned out, this was a secondary problem. The main problem is that they are hitting .212.

[Big Klu]

really wolfboy? do you want to debate the merits of synecdoche, or metonomy?

Isn't Synecdoche a city in upstate New York?