Getting Reds Back to World Series

[joseph]

I know it seems like an insurmoutable mountain that needs to be scaled to get the Reds back to winning baseball, in reality though they are much much closer than you all might think. First let's realize that the Reds have a tremendous core of young talent to build around. A few years down the road (assuming the current management gets their heads out of their azz and doesn't trade any of the young core players) the Reds could have one of the most potent hitting lineups ever. Currently the Reds have the two best young power hitting prospects in baseball in Adam Dunn and Wily Mo Pena. As these players mature there is no reason to believe that they won't show continous improvement in HR, Avg and cut down on strikeouts. Most likely these two will be competing year in and year out for the ML lead in homeruns. Barring injury and with their commitment to improving themselves as ballplayers there is no reason to doubt that both should/could bat about 280 with 40 plus jacks a year. Hmmm sounds like the middle of the Reds batting order should be stacked for the next decade. Next we have what appears to be a young budding allstar shortstop in Felipe Lopez who looks like he has the tools to bat in the 280-300 range and put up 20-30 homers a year. Sounds like a good 6 hole hitter. Next we have Austin Kearns who once he gets his head screwed on straight and the Reds create room for him to be an everyday player on the ML level has the skills to bat 300 plus with30 hr a year. Sounds like a solid 3 hole hitter. Next we have Edwin Encarcion who is the minor league allstar 3rd baseman. I haven't seen him play and know little to nothing about him except what I've heard and from what I hear he's the 3rd baseman of the future and is a good young player and should project into the bottom of the order around 7. So in all the Reds have the 3-7 holes in the batting order filled with great young players, and should be the core of the Reds lineup for the next 5-10 years. Assuming that Lidner doesn't cheepskate us and trade them away under the veil of some lie after we bought him a new 300 million dollar plus stadium. If I was Danny Boy O'brien I'd be trying to lock up as many of those guys as possible to long term contract (of course depending on current FA status). So as it stands in my dream world the Reds are short a CF, a 2nd baseman, and a C in regards to the field lineup. The time to start aquiring these players is now! They currently have 5 players of some trading value. Aurilla, Randa, Griffey, Casey and Mercker. The Reds need speed and average players at CF and 2nd to bat in the 1 and 2 holes of this lineup. To manufacture runs when needed and to get on base for a prodominately power lineup. Now in my fantasy world our future 2nd baseman is residing in the Angels farm system right now. The Angels are stacked in middle infielders and probably would at least entertain the idea of trading on of them. Like with any Angels prospect though (since they love developing guys) the price won't be cheap. So with a cobination of the above mentioned tradeable players and whatever minor league players, within reason, we pry either Erick Aybar or Howie Kendrick from the Angels. Aybar plays short, but whatever if you get him you just tell him "Hey guy, new plan, you're moving to second." I'd prefer Aybar because he seems like he is going to be a dominant leadoff hitter sometime in the near future. Now CF I'm not as hot on either of these guys as the Angels prospects and I might need to look into this a little more, but the two that have caught my eye so far have been Freddy Guzman of the Padres or Michael Borne of the Phillies. Both appear to be good speed solid average guys which is exactly what would be needed in the 1 or 2 hole. Catcher can be played by ear for now and see what kinda of options present themselves in the next 2 years. So in all the position players would be set (in my fantasy world) for the next decade with allstar calliber young players.

Next we move on to the pitchers...It's really not that hard, I don't think... Allright step one. We make a move right now on the Yankees for Phillip Hughes. You asked what's Phillip Hughes qualities. In all reality I don't know, never seen him, never heard of him until recently, never even read a scouting report. What I do know is: 1. I'm a big fan of the strikeouts per 9 innings stat and feel when you get down to it, it is the best indicator of how good a pitcher is and he has a good one, 2. The kid is a freagin monster he's like 6'6" and 240 or something this indicates that most likely he is a power pitcher who doesn't need to strain his arm as much to throw heat which of course makes him less suceptible to injuries, hopefully 3. He was a first round pick in the recent future, meaning he is young and has enough talent to be drafted in the 1st which indicates he probably has a "plus" fastball and probably one other pitch. Is that a great run-on sentence or what So the Reds do whatever necessary to trade for him, then cross thier fingers and pray he doesn't have his arm fall off. So now we have another kid in the system who projects to be a 1 or 2 in the rotation. We currently already have Claussen and Harang who project to be solid 3/4 guys in the rotation. Then in two/three years we make the big bang and sign a legite #1 starter for the rotation. I'm a big fan of C.C. Sabathia and Bartolo Colon. Last, like the catcher we play the 5th man by ear. Of course, Homer Bailey and whatever current minor league pitchers who come through are still a major part of this process. So the rotation is set as C.C. Sabathia (I sure do like him and I can spell his name) Phillip Hughes (please don't have your arm fall off) Aaron Harang, Brandon Claussen and Homer Bailey for the sake of putting a name there. That's a solid rotation and depending on whether this Hughes kid is as good as I think he is could be dominant.

In the meantime, after obtaining at the very least Aybar/Kendrick and Hughes by the trade deadline this year. We trade whomever is leftover from our tradeable resources for young relief pitchers with plus stuff, preferably only double AA up. We use saved money from dealing the tradeable resources to try and lock up some of our current players to long term deals. You might think it's best not to lock up players like Dunn now since they are still under arbitration, but if it ever gets that far you'll never have a chance to sign him. I'd be putting somewher in the range of a 6 year 90 mil deal on the table for him now. Then this offseason you sign whatever veterans you can that won't impede the developement of younger players with the sole intention being to trade them at next years trading deadline to further stock the minors. You probably want to focus on signing middle relievers this offseason since the are usually pretty easy to deal at the trading deadline. So there it is my plan to reset the Reds fortunes by the 2007 year and to have them in position to be a dynasty for the next 5 years after that year. Sounds all so easy after a couple beers It's just a shame that I'm writing this at the end of June....

[jditty47]

f**k man. i cant even read your s**t bro. you need some structure. talk about spains post...f**k at least he knows how to seperate a paragraph.

[joseph]

Oh and by the way if any of you get a chance to call into Lance McAllister's radio show and ask Danny Boy a question, please ask him if he ever had any discussion with the Met's at last year trading deadline about trading Paul Wilson for Scott Kazmir. It seems like that should have come up seeing as though the Mets ended up trading Kazmir to Arizona for a pitcher who wasn't having a year anywhere near as good as Wilson's first half of the season last year.... huh, sure would feel a lot better about the Reds franchise right now if we had another good young lefty like Kazmir...

[joseph]

Piss off! It took too much of my time already to type the s**te much less edit it. Maybe next time I'll at least do a spell check for ya

[joseph]

Danny Boy has sleepless nights and hours of wasted brian power (which doesn't amount to much for him in my estimations) trying to figure out what took me about an hour, and you want me to take a damn grammar book to it. You should be thanking me for telling O'brien how to rebuild this team instead of having his bumbling azz making the decisions and screwing it up anymore than he has. I have officially appointed my self the de facto General Manager of this orginization. I did use de facto in the right context...didn't I...

[joseph]

Allright the beer is starting to take affect...I'm getting chatty. Sorry I can't stay a jerk around with you fools, but I must take a shower so I can go woo some ladies..................................

[jditty47]

im sorry but i am "under the influence" most the time i read this board (like right now), and trying to keep track where i am in that humongous crossword puzzle is ridiculous.

[BengalszoneBilly]

Allright the beer is starting to take affect...I'm getting chatty. Sorry I can't stay a jerk around with you fools, but I must take a shower so I can go woo some ladies..................................

Finally...something the ol' "Boobiemiester" can understand! Woo on my brother!

  im sorry but i am "under the influence" most the time i read this board (like right now), and trying to keep track where i am in that humongous crossword puzzle is ridiculous.

Yeah joe...you might want to catch jditty before 4:20 PM!

And maybe punctuate just a tad for us drinkers too! I can't read it either bro, and I'd really like to.

BTW, I thought for sure this thread would be more along the lines of resurrecting Marge Schott from the dead!

[joseph]

Alright to make it simple...The Reds should trade any player on the team that they can that is over the age of 27-28. They should specifically trade for Erick Aybar to play second base, and Phillip Hughes to be the 2 man in the future rotation. Then use the money that is saved by trading Griffey, Casey, Mercker, Aurilla, Randa, Weathers, Mercker and whomever else to lock up their young core players. Then when the time is right and a #1 quality pitcher (like CC Sabathia) becomes available on the free agent market they used the money that would still be available on the books from all the money saved over the next couple years to sign them.

The Reds will suck and take a beat down the rest of this year of course. At the very least though they'll get the #1 pick in the draft to further bolster their minor league system. Plus they won't be able to use their old whiny excuse of not having enough money to sign their first round pick. So that another added bonus of dumping all these players.

Next in the offseason Dan Obrien is fired. It can be argued what role Danny has played in all this, and in my opinion it is to a great extent. That isn't even the real problem though. Dan O'brien has two flaws even greater than his judgement (or lack there of) in making baseball decisions. 1) The players don't like him or respect him. It doesn't take a pychic to figure that one out. I don't care who you are or what you do but if they people that you're suppose to be in charge of don't respect you, the chances of your success is minimal. MINIMAL! 2) He appears incable of separating his personal feelings from his baseball decision making. If you doubt this then ask him why he won't return any emails or calls from Jim Bowden. Danny is brat who is more hell bent in showing that the decisions he makes are right (despite all the evidence to the contrary) than trying to win baseball games. That's why he's always trying to stick his nose in the business of Dave Miley and new guy coach. He wants his guys in there and wants his guys to get every shot possible to succeed to prove his decision right. It's why he wanted Aurilla to play. It's why Milton is still in the rotation. It's why "his guys" are always getting opportunities that they don't deserve sometimes. Personally I don't think he likes Dunn, Kearns, Lopez, Pena and any other players that was put in place by Bowden because it makes him feel inadequate, and is a ever present reminder of his ineptitude as a GM.

[joseph]

O.k. I'm out of time, but I've come to realize that I don't know how to make a freagin paragraph on the flippin internet. I'm indenting these things and when it posts the indentation is not showing up. Can someone please clue me in as to how you're suppose to indent so that it actually shows up when I post something...

[joseph]

Oh and Danny Boy that's not an invitation for you to call Bowden back either. It probably be better if you didn't. Lord knows that he'd probably just rake you over the coals and jack are best young players from us since he seems to be a much better GM than you. Plus we don't need another Bonger. Please just focus on obtaining the players that I'm telling you to trade for Aybar and Hughes. We both know you won't though and you'll do everthing in your power to not have those players play baseball for the Reds ever. It's much better for you to save face than win baseball games.

[Kirkendall]

If we truly want to rebuild this team, then every effort needs to be made improving the farm system from rookie-ball to triple A. I would have no problems if the team decided to just let the Reds play now as is, while the system gets reworked.

[CBin2k7]

I fully agree with that. I think everyone would take a couple of seasons of poor play if we could get the farm system squared away. The problem is they had no direction before and they are paying for it dearly right now. False hopes of 76-86 seasons that don't show the true problems. Always thinking they were one arm away.

In order to compete the Reds have to be torn down and rebuilt similar to the way the Twins are built.

[redsfan2510]

Another prospect who would be good is 1b Howard in the Phillies minor league system. Hes got awesome power and is batting.375. I here that Houston is wanting to trade for Adam Dunn. Backe is a good young starting pitcher;and Lidge is a good closer. As for 2nd base I like Kendrick better than Aybar.Hes batting .380.

I also heard the Braves were interested in Kearns And Dunn. I wouldn't mind seeing Davies or Estrada in a reds uniform either. Another two pitchers who could be #1 starters are Bonderman of Detroit,and Harden of Oakland.

REDSFAN2510

[Kirkendall]

I fully agree with that. I think everyone would take a couple of seasons of poor play if we could get the farm system squared away. The problem is they had no direction before and they are paying for it dearly right now. False hopes of 76-86 seasons that don't show the true problems. Always thinking they were one arm away.

In order to compete the Reds have to be torn down and rebuilt similar to the way the Twins are built.

Yea man. I'd be more than willing to part with the Wily Mo's and Dunn's of the Reds if in return we have a structured and very deep farm system. That, to me, is the new formula of success outside NY and Boston.

[CBin2k7]

I'd be more than willing to part with the Wily Mo's and Dunn's of the Reds

I am willing to part with Wily Mo and Dunn those guys are not average hitters and never will be. How is it that Dunn can continually hit .230-.240 and the Reds say he is untouchable, 20 HR's 44 RBI's? Not productive. Plus he is set to make almost 9 million next year. Kearns could get a good raise as well.

From the stories I read the Reds are actively shopping Dunn and there might be some takers for Milton also.

[Kirkendall]

The last I heard the teams that have inquired about Kearns is Chicago and Atlanta.

For Dunn, last I heard that's still interested is Houston and Los Angeles.

There's also interest in LA for Sean Casey.

If you want a low batting average, a ton of strikeouts, sloppy outfield play, poor baserunning, zip run production, lazy, and disgruntled clubhouse attitude, then Dunn is our guy.

As for Kearns, whose 2 for last 24 with 10 K's at AAA, I can't imagine anyone being interested right now. Kearns is weighing in at 260 and looks sluggish, tired, and way out of shape. I realistically think if Dunn gets traded, Kearns comes back up and gets his final round of regular playing time. If he does bad, he goes. It's Brandon Larson all over again.

Haven't heard much about Milton having any suitors. But I will admit, Milton's last two appearances have been solid. I've noticed when he uses his fastball more, he gets more outs. Maybe he'll turn things around. We're set to pay him; hopefully he can turn things around and reward the Reds with our investment in him.

[CBin2k7]

The Dodgers are really interested in Adam Dunn and so are the Cubs. But I wouldn't trade him within the division unless it's a deal you can't pass up.

The Reds offered Kearns to KC for Zach Grienke and Jeremy Affeldlt. The Royals said no.

The Yankees may or may not have interest in Griffey. Randa to the Twins is only a formality right now.

Casey may be the hardest sell.

Baltimore may be a suitor for Milton. One or two more good outings for him and he can pack his bags.

The Reds are said to be standing pat for a few weeks because Jerry Narron said so.

[Kirkendall]

I hope Griffey isn't sent to NY, they have zip in return. We complain about our farm, does NY even have one anymore?

Yea, from the looks of it Randa will be gone to Minnesota. That would be a great fit for him and we should get a good return. Their farm is pretty dag on good and stacked.

Milton and Baltimore makes sense. The Orioles' pitching is getting hurt and they just have kids in the rotation from what I've read. If Milton is sent to Balt., it will be soon. They are starting to lose games and lose ground and I'm sure they don't want to wait too long before they are too far out.

I don't really understand the whole waiting thing with Narron though. Everyone (team, fans, media, front office) all acknowledge the farm system absolutely SUCKS! I just hope they follow through on their understanding of what the problems are and work at it, rather than selling players and buying cheaper talent.

[CBin2k7]

Narron says he wants a couple of weeks to evaluate what they have and to determine who the Reds can keep and build around.

My question to Narron is, havent you been the bench coach all season?

As of right now the only untradable everyday player in his lineup is Lopez, you can trade everyone else.

And will the Reds find a catcher sometime this century.

Believe it or not the best pitcher in the Reds rotation right now is Brandon Claussen, he is just lacking in the run support but he seems to be getting better with each start.