It’s Saturday Again.
By
KC2HMZ
Posted at 5:32 pm
It's Saturday again, the day I usually try to make a weekly entry on the Red Hot Diaries. A big thanks and a tip of the Reds cap to RHM for creating this for us…as for those of you who aren't taking advantage of it, a big “Shame On You” for leaving RHM hanging here!
As I sit here typing this, it's a little after 5PM on Saturday afternoon here in Buffalo, and the Reds have won today's game. Again. For the record, it was 11-9 over the Pirates. Harang made up for his Opening Day loss by matching a career high (for the fifth time) with ten strikeouts in 6-2/3 innings. Aurilia and Kearns homered. Freel went 3-for-4 with two steals and scored three runs. Dunn, who went 1,085 plate appearances from July 22, 2003 to June 29, 2005 without a sacrifice fly, had one today and now has two in five games this season. Our starting pitchers have gone have gone 25-1/3 innings without walking a batter. Griffey walked on four pitches with the sacks drunk to record his 1540th career RBI, tying Willie Stargell for 30th on the all-time list. And, the Reds have won four in a row.
While all this is going on, here we are shaking our heads wondering what Krivsky's up to with stockpiling this glut of catchers, middle infielders, and even outfielders. I've thought about this for a couple of days now since he signed Brandon Phillips, and I keep coming back to this: On November 29, 1971 (a day which will live in infamy for Astros fans), a bold blockbuster trade engineered by then-Reds GM Bob Howsam sent Lee May, Tommy Helms, and Jimmy Stewart to Houston for Joe Morgan, Jack Billingham, Denis Menke, Cesar Geronimo, and Ed Armbrister. The deal transformed a marginal contender into one of baseball's best teams of all time.
I can't put my finger on why, but I have this strange feeling Krivsky is stockpiling talent with an eye toward making a real humdinger of a deal here. Who knows, that might just end up on the list of all-time biggest deals in Reds history, along with the greatest trade in Reds history, Howsam's 1971 deal that put the finishing touches on the Big Red Machine.
In the meantime, hey, the Reds are winning, and they're ahead of the Cardinals, Cubs, and Astros in the standings. I'm going to enjoy it while it lasts, and hope Krivsky pulls a rabbit out of his hat that lets them keep this going all season long.
When Marty gets to keep saying “This one belongs to the Reds!” as often as he has this week? Hey, right now it is fun to be a Reds fan! When's the last time you could say THAT with a straight face?
Best regards to all, keep smilin', and GO REDS!
John, KC2HMZ
It’s a nice idea, but it doesn’t add up. Lee May was an established and very good 1B right in his prime when he was traded, Tommy Helms was an established major-leaguer and two time all-star, and Jimmy Stewart was, well, a bum. I just don’t buy that adding people like David Ross or Brandon Phillips are going to result in a blockbuster deal, and trading Lopez or Dunn would be stupid.
Thing is, he’s already got more middle infielders than he could possibly trade to just one team. No joke, it looks like he’s trying to corner the market on second basemen.
I suppose a multi-team trade could be in the works, with Reds’ infielders getting distributed around. Or multiple trades. Or maybe he’s just going to hold the rest of the league hostage until they agree to exchange their aces for the scrappy little guys he’s got loads of.
But whom will it be?
I just can’t buy that he’s going to get any value for guys that nobody wanted anyways. If he’s trading middle infielders and getting something of worth back, he’s going to be giving up someone we don’t want him to trade.
It may not be just middle infielders he’s trading. The Reds also have a surplus of catchers.
One rumor that seems to keep coming up is LaRue to the Dodgers for Brad Penny. Package up a couple other guys with LaRue and maybe you also get Baez, who’s closing in LA while Gagne is hurt, and the Reds have a starting pitcher and a closer. Phillips becomes a good field, no hit (for awhile anyway…he’s 24 like Lopez was last year, and was rushed to the majors by the Indians just like Toronto rushed Lopez) shortstop with a couple of veterans around to learn from, which is what Concepcion was when he started with the BRM.
The catch: The Reds turned down a late July deal for Penny a couple of years ago after looking at some medical reports…shortly after which Penny went on the DL and missed most of the rest of the 2004 season.
Still, the rumor mills keep bringing it up. Sometimes where there’s smoke, there’s fire.
HMZ
The Penny deal has been rumored since we traded for Ross. It’s not anything new, and it got squashed a while ago. I don’t think Krivsky’s gonna trade for any more marginal starters right now. You can’t sit here and act like Phillips is gonna turn out to be just like Felipe or Davey Concepcion.
As I’ve said countless times, I can’t see much market for LaRue unless we see a good catcher on a contending team without a good back-up go down with a serious injury. He’s not very young, his ability to handle a pitching staff is constantly questioned, and his contract isn’t all that likeable. I can’t see a trade involving LaRue going down right now, and I can’t see a good trade involving any of our mass of middle infielders going down right now.
What disturbs me is that there doesn’t seem to be any discussion of any trade at all. Lancaster says on the blog that he thinks a deal’s got to be coming up, but he doesn’t know what it is. John Fay says on the radio today that Krivsky is toeing the “always be looking for ways to improve the team” line.
It bothers me to think that we’re doing this ridiculous stockpiling of middle infielders if we don’t have a plan for what to do with them. If Krivsky comes through with a deal, any deal that provides some rationale for these current moves, then I’ll be satisfied.
Then again, I [url=http://www.red-hot-mama.com/comments.php?id=480_0_1_0_C]saw Kriv-dog live and in person[/url] some 12 hours before the Wily Mo trade came out, and he didn’t give a whiff that it was going to go down, so maybe there’s hope yet.