Ervin Santana

[joseph]

See O'Brien you damn fool! As the Reds were fading towards the all star break last year, I was on the ol' Bengals Central begging for the Reds to trade for this freagin kid. At one point I think I had the Reds trading Paul Wilson and Sean Casey to the Angels for Ervin Santana. Instead Danny "The Azz Clown" O'brien must have looked at one of his jack-azz spreadsheets to see that by his estimation Paul Wilson's career was about to take a major turn for the best. Heck I'm sure he had him down as the next Cy Young on his stupid sheets. This despite the fact that you can look at the back of Paul Wilson's baseball card and a man of average intelligence could have deduced all the information that was needed. His first half of last season was no more than a statistical fluke... Plain and simple, that's what it was. After that first half of the season last year though, he was the second hottest pitching prospect available at the trading deadline last year, and the Reds brass were too freagin dumb to capitalize on it. Instead they decided to do the dumbest thing possible. Yes that's right!! They decided to give a pitcher who has battled arm problems his entire career and really never did s**te IN HIS ENTIRE CAREER. A MULTI YEAR, MULTI MILLION DOLLAR CONTRACT!! BRAVO, DANNY BOY!! I know if I was the general manager of a "small market team" I would also be looking to sign the riskiest players possible to long term contract based on half a season.......IT ONLY MAKE SENSE...jackazz!!!! The Milton... what the fu... do you have sh... I can't even talk about it.... Let just say that signing the pitcher who gave up the most homeruns in the league last year, had a high ERA and doesn't have overpowering stuff is almost as dumb as signing Wilson. I can almost hear O'Brien in his weasely little voice when asked why he signed a pitcher that smacked all around the ball park last year to a huge contract, "Well, he had a lot of wins last year, and he really battles out there, and most of those homeruns were solo shots" Oooooooohhhhh, I see Danny Boy, so by that thinking Milton purposely only lets himself get jacked around when there's no one on base. That's interesting because I thought he was getting jacked around last year for the most homeruns because his sh*t stinks, and that his ERA was a statistical fluke considering his HR and more so the fact that he got lucky enough to win as many games as he did last year was about as likely as you making a good decision Danny.

Enough of that though, that stuff gets me a little heated when me average Joe fan could do a hell of a lot better running the freakin Reds than the current dim-wit known as Dan O'brien.

Back to Ervin Santana. This dude is my boy from now on, and I think I'm becoming an Anaheim Angels fan (since they actually know how to run an orginization) This kid really looks like he is going to be a freakin stud (based on box scores)! I haven't had the pleasure of seeing him pitch yet though, but hopefully I can catch an Anaheim Angels game here on ESPN with him pitching. Lord knows, it will be the first MLB game I've seen since about the 3rd week of the season. As mentioned above though I first heard learned of him last year, as I was trying to figure out what the Reds best course of action would be. I was looking the minor league stats and was like whoa who the funk is that guy with all those strikeouts. Then I did a goggle search on him and saw that he had a monster fastball, monster curve and was basically a stud. You see unlike Danny "the Jack Azz" Obrien, I CAN read and understand the implications of stats....It's just a shame I'm not the GM, because the kid would probably have been on our the Reds along with a legitimate leadoff hitter, and a couple young bullpen hands. Of course that would have meant trading Wilson, Casey, Graves, and whomever else necessary, but seeing as though they probably won't be around for the new five year plan to come to fruition anyways, I'm sure they get traded too. OOH YEAH!!! THAT'S RIGHT!!! WE CUT GRAVES, AND NO ONE WOULD TOUCH WILSON WITH A TEN FOOT POLL. HMMM WE DIDN'T REALLY GET MUCH OUT OF THAT DEAL. Unless you consider wasting millions of dollars something. Which I guess it is something when you think of it.... but I'd prefer a kick in the head and a handshake...

IN CLOSING, SINCE I SEEM AS CREDIBLE AS (AND IN MANY WAYS MORE SO) MR. DAN O'BRIEN, I AM OFFICIALLY THROWING MY HAT IN THE RING AS A CANIDATE FOR THE CINCINNATI REDS NEXT GENERAL MANAGER. AT LEAST YOU KNOW HEADS WILL ROLL, AND THAT HALF THE THIS TEAM OF UN-PROFESSIONAL BASEBALL PLAYERS WILL BE EXPEDITED AWAY FROM THE TEAM. FIRST AND FOREMOST WILL BE THE FIRING OF DAVE MILEY. HE'S A GOOD GUY AND ALL, BUT SOMEONE HAS TO BE HELD ACCOUNTABLE FOR THESE GUYS RUNNING AROUND OUT THERE PLAYING THE GAME LIKE LITTLE LEAGUERS. MY SECOND ACTION AS REDS GM WILL BE TO HIRE BARRY LARKIN AS THE NEW MANAGER. BARRY IS A BLUE COLLAR GUY WHO KNEW HOW TO GO ABOUT THE GAME RIGHT AND COMMANDS THE SAME FROM THOSE AROUND HIM.

[joseph]

I'll have to admit to fans though that my original two year plan to correct the Reds lineup and finacial situation has definately taken a major hit, and is probaly pushed back a year due to O'brien's wasteful spending and inability to captilize on the obvious. So my plan to have the starting rotation of Santana, Harang, Clausen and using saved money to sign a pitcher such as the quality of a C.C. Sabathia. And then having a starting lineup of: the leadoff hitting 2b we should have traded Graves for, Freel, Pena, Griffey, Dunn, Kearns, Lopez, Enacarcion, and a catcher isn't very likely anymore... But that sure does sound like it would have been one sweet rotation and lineup...Plus if we would have used the money wasted on Milton on some GOOD middle relievers... The Reds actually probably would have been good next year. As it stands now were back on the 5 year plan, but unlike Huggins contract though it appears to have a roll-over on it

[bengalboomer7]

Let me ask anyone this. There is an insider article on ESPN and the blip is advertising the Reds making some trades. Does anyone have any info? Did anyone read it? I friggin hate insider and as a political stand I refuse to pay for it (damn wife!)

[CBin2k7]

I read the article. The summary of this article is as follows.

Cincinnati's outfielders have been the subject of so many trade rumors, the buzz is circulating all the way to the infield.

If Ken Griffey Jr., Adam Dunn, Austin Kearns or Wily Mo Pena doesn't leave town, Sean Casey wonders if he might be jettisoned to clear the way for Dunn to move to first base. Never mind that Casey's trade value is limited by his three homers in 231 at-bats, his 15 double-play groundouts and his $8.5 million salary next season.

"You hear all the rumors and you talk about it," Casey said. "Guys will come in and say to each other, 'Hey, you're going to the Dodgers tomorrow.' Or, 'Somebody has you going to Boston.' We all see it and we know it's out there."

In spring training, when the Reds had some basis for optimism, general manager Dan O'Brien thought it would be prudent to keep all four outfielders because everyone except Dunn had injury issues and it seemed important to have some depth.

Three months later, the trade rumors and manager Dave Miley's job status are about the only things left worth monitoring in Cincinnati. Reds pitchers rank 28th in the major leagues with a 5.57 ERA, the hitters have struck out an astounding 509 times, and Cincinnati is going to have difficulty catching Pittsburgh, much less St. Louis, in the National League Central.

O'Brien continues to maintain he has no plans to move an outfielder. But in the meantime, he is sitting on a bunch of depreciable assets. If Griffey gets hurt, his trade value will diminish. As Dunn and Pena get more expensive, their value diminishes. And when the Reds demoted Kearns to Triple-A Louisville last week, his trade value – at least for the short-term – diminished.

The industry consensus is that O'Brien, deliberate by nature, is more likely to go into a shell than act recklessly in response to the Reds' problems. Dumping Danny Graves was one thing. Trading an impact everyday player is another. O'Brien is already taking heat for spending $25.5 million on pitcher Eric Milton, who has been a disaster. O'Brien is not so much wary of trading an outfielder as trading the wrong outfielder.

"I think he's very gun-shy and he'll stand pat," said an AL executive. "Rigor mortis is starting to set in."

The rest of the article sums up the trade value for each of the four outfielders.

[bengalboomer7]

Gotta love those reds.

Besides me, who loves the comment about O'Brien going into a shell. I try never to be too mean or hateful, but f**k those guys!!

[joseph]

Oh I'm sure they will. Probalby Dunn considering he's about to hit free agency soon, and they're too cheap to pay him even though he'll be among the league leaders in homeruns for the next decade, and should become a dominant hitter here in the next couple of years as he finally starts to piece everything together and cuts his strike out down. I'm sure we'll see him in the allstar game every year hitting about 280 with about 50 HR and 150 RBI's, of course it will be in another teams uni though... It will be a shame to see him go considering he's like a young Mark McGwire, but with a heck of a lot more potential to hit for power and average (without roids of course). Then I'm sure they'll try and trade Randa, Casey and maybe Griffey too, but they're unlikely to get anything decent in return for any of them. Maybe Casey, but they could have got more last year when he was hitting 370. It's a shame they can't get rid of Wilson or Milton, but they are pretty much saddled with those multi million dollar contracts for the long haul. They might trade Kearns which would be a terrible mistake, an absolute terrible mistake. Kearns is probably the best hitter on the team. Instead of trading him, they should probably sit down with him and tell him to stop acting like a whiny beotch. I know he's frustrated not playing and being sent to the minors, but for pete's sake guy acting like a beotch isn't going to solve anything. Furthermore, he's letting his bad attitude affect his play on the field. Plus he's just not going about his job as a professional, instead opting to be a pre-madona beotch. I mean I'm a fan of Kearns and think he has everthing he needs to be a great ball players except the attitude he's been sporting for the last several months. I mean dude is suppose to be competing for a starting job in Spring Training and shows up looking like the damn Pilsbury dough boy. Give me a break guy. Then when he loses the starting job, instead of working hard, he decides he's going to pout and be a malcontent. Yeah I'm sure you'll get far with that guy. So my 3rd action as Reds GM would be to have a little Pow Wow with Kearns. And tell him to stop pouting, lose some weight, take some extra BP of the tee with a focus on hitting line drives, go out there play some baseball and have a little fun.

[CBin2k7]

I love Dunn, but do you pay big bucks to someone who hits 40 homers and drives in 60 runs. The article said if Dunn hits 40-50 homers this year he can expect to get in upwards of 9 million dollars in arbitration. It also says how Dunn is very outspoken and somewhat of a cancer in the clubhouse and is questioning alot of managements decisions. This for someone who hasn't had a sac fly in 2 yrs.

[bengalboomer7]

Dunn is garbage, I've said it forever.

IF he just turned 1/3 of those strikeout into base hits and they win 15 more games last year!! The man is GARBAGE

[CBin2k7]

This has got to be one of the most poorly constructed teams ever. I just don't understand how they strike out 9 times a game. That is 1/3 of your outs per games on strikeouts.

[jditty47]

dunn's avg dropped last year once they were out of the division race...otherwise once the team gave up, all he did was go for homers.