7 comments to “DONE DEAL !!!”

1. Geki says:

   March 20, 2006 at 4:44 pm

   Horrible trade. I want O’Brien back.

2. Red Hot Mama says:

   March 20, 2006 at 5:28 pm

   KC2HMZ, what would I do without you? I didn’t even find out about this trade until about 30 minutes after you’d already posted this, let alone have a chance to find an Internet connection to write about it!

3. Geki says:

   March 20, 2006 at 7:57 pm

   Imagine my anguish when I woke up around 12:30 this morning, checked my e-mail, and had one from Reds.com saying “Reds Make Big Trade for Starting Pitcher”, only to find out it was Bronson Arroyo and we had to give up Wily Mo. That ain’t right.

4. KC2HMZ says:

   March 20, 2006 at 10:10 pm

   I actually heard about it at 11:00 this morning, but had to confirm it first before posting anything about it…posting false info doesn’t do much for one’s credibility. Anyway, I got here as soon as I could.

   What did I say yesterday, “What a difference a day makes?”

   Instead of wondering who the #5 starter is going to be, we can now pencil in a starting rotation of Harang, Claussen, Arroyo, Milton, Williams. Dunn moves back to LF and Hatteberg takes over at 1B, improving the defense at both positions. We have a solid starting outfield trio of Dunn, Griffey, and Kearns with plenty of fourth/fifth outfielders to choose from, and Heartthrob a phone call away in Louisville for when somebody gets hurt.

   3/4 of the infield is now set. They know who they want behind the plate. They have half the organization lined up for a job at 2B but there are plenty of candidates around without looking outside the organization. This one trade settled a lot of things…what a difference a day makes!

   HMZ

5. Geki says:

   March 20, 2006 at 11:52 pm

   You act like having Hatteberg at first is a good thing. He put up an OPS of .678 last year and he’s 36.

6. DPardue says:

   March 23, 2006 at 9:04 am

   Geki, don’t overvalue Pena. He hasn’t seen that much MLB hitting, he is somewhat injury prone, he is a defensive liability, and he can’t hit a breaking ball to save his life.

   The Reds had a crowded outfield and someone had to go. Dunn is much more suited in LF than at first, which means in order to have showcased Pena (in hopes he would have posted good numbers), the defense would have suffered with Dunn playing out of position and of course Pena playing RF.

   Pena’s best asset is his future and not his present. We know about the present, but we can all sit around and guess about his future. Because of this, his trade value is limited. The Reds simply were not going to be able to pick up a proven number one pitcher for a player who has yet to arrive, so to speak.

   The Reds picked up a respectable pitcher for Pena. Yes, if Pena turns out to be a superstar I am certain the Reds could have traded him for someone much better than Arroyo. On the other hand, if Pena spends the next few years posting stats similar to recent years, this trade worked well. The bottom line is that we don’t know what kinda of player Pena will be, but by trading him now the Reds were assured they would receive something. It is a risk. I would rather the Reds take what they can get now than to risk getting less for him in two or three years.

7. smartelf says:

   March 23, 2006 at 7:11 pm

   Our pitching staff needs all the help it can get. Wily Mo is a bad defensive liability out there. His range was average but his instincts were terrible and he made a bunch of costly errors. Sure, when his bat is hot you can accept those deficiencies in his game… but we need to put as good a defense on the field as we can to compensate for our lackluster pitching staff. They have most definitely improved by adding 2 respectable starters in D Williams and B Arroyo. I don’t think we lose much by swapping Casey + Pena for Denorfia/Freel etc. + Hattebrg, Dunn, Aurilia etc.

   Definitely we improve our defense by subtraction and quite possibly we improve our pitching staff by addition. The equation adds up.

   And yes, it is a move to compete THIS year… the experts are predicting of a change of the guard, and if the Brewers are capable of getting a bunch of underdog votes, then I like our chances for competing THIS year. We were a respectable .500 club under Narron, and we’ve improved our defense and pitching without sacrificing much in the way of offense — which led the league.