You might be interested to know that Wayne Krivsky pulled the trigger on an eight-player deal today with Jim Bowden and the Washington Nationals:

Cincinnati completed an eight-player trade with the Nationals on Thursday afternoon, sending starting shortstop Felipe Lopez and right fielder Austin Kearns, as well as Minor League pitcher Ryan Wagner, to Washington in exchange for relievers Gary Majewski and Bill Bray, shortstop Royce Clayton, infielder Brendan Harris and pitcher Darryl Thompson.

Kriv-dawg likes to emphasize the defense, so dealing Lopez isn't much of a surprise. Personally I didn't think Felipe was doing so bad this year, but maybe I was just comparing him to last year. Such a deal makes you wonder about the prospects of Edwin Encarnación should someone come a callin' for his services.

That doesn't explain trading Kearns, though. And it doesn't heal my broken heart to see him go, either.

Looks like HMZ has some hard facts share, as always:

The Reds get:

* Gary Majewski (righthander who is 3-2 with a 3.58 ERA in 46 games this year after 79 relief appearances with a 2.93 ERA last year)

* Bill Bray (a rookie lefty who's 1-1 with a 3.91 ERA in 19 relief appearances this season)

* Royce Clayton, a shortstop who started this season ranked 2nd among active shortstops in games, starts, innings, total chances, putouts, assists and double plays, trailing only 10-time Gold Glover Omar Vizquel in every category; whose career fielding percentage of .974 entering this year ranked seventh among all Major League shortstops; and who on top of playing much better defense at short than Lopez is hitting .269 with 22 doubles and eight stolen bases in 87 games)

* Brendan Harris, a major-league ready glove at 3B, SS and 2B who has shown signs of being able to hit for average and being a good situational hitter, plus

* Daryl Thompson, a 20-year old pitcher with a fastball in the low 90's and a solid curve and change (in other words, a good pitching prospect if they can get him healthy…20-year old pitchers with three solid pitches aren't easy to find).

I'm afraid my glasses aren't so rose-colored. Sure, there's a lot here, but worth Lopez AND Kearns (and Wagner)?

Krivsky bought himself a lot of benefit of the doubt with Bronson Arroyo, David Ross, and Brandon Phillips. He's already used up some of it with Quinton McCracken and Joe Mays, but he's got enough left for me to reserve judgement for a little while longer, especially since this move means that William Bergolla and--even more important to me--Chris Denorfia come back.

Still, I'm baffled. Does this mean that the Reds have accepted a seller role this off season? I'd love for another shoe to fall to bring someone bona fide with a little name recognition and make this make more sense.

Ooh, what a great break. And after a long day at work and dinner out with the family, I'm ready to get back into the swing of things.

Let's see…I couldn't have missed much…

Wha- Wha- WHAAA?

Useless assbag. Give me back O'Brien.

Welcome to part 8 of the Reds Roundtable discussion. I'll update links to the other parts as they appear:
Part 1 on Shawn's Cincinnati Reds Blog
Part 2 on Church of Baseball
Part 3 on Reds (and Blues)
Part 4 on …and this one belongs to the Reds!
Part 5 on Red Reporter
Part 6 on We Heart the Reds
Part 7 on On Baseball and the Reds
Part 8 - You're looking at it.

Shawn: OK, any questions from the floor?
Red Hot Mama: How's the blogging treating everyone this year?
Shawn: It's been a good year for me.
JinAZ: My traffic died when I had the baby for some reason. 🙂
Doc Scott: counting down the days until I can get away from my cruddy website
Ashlee: It's easier when the Reds are winning. 😉
Red Hot Mama: Counting the days? Are you in a contract or something?
Jacci: Markedly better than last year, aside from the fact that I can't find enough time for it right now
Daedalus: my traffic has been halved in the last two weeks
JinAZ: Probably 'cause I stopped posting for a while…
Shawn: That'll do it
JinAZ: 🙂
Doc Scott: Rock Star is eating all of our lunches
Doc Scott: and he's not even here now
Shawn: We're thick with the girls tonight. Lotsa chicks in here!
Doc Scott: it's as if I'm at my own house
Red Hot Mama: Shawn, that's so insensitive
Shawn: Yeah, so?
Red Hot Mama: We prefer “dames”
Doc Scott: RHM: no, I just don't want to uproot in the middle of the season
JinAZ: Ok, well, I better go make dinner… I owe the wife for an hour now…
Shawn: Anything else for the official write-up?
Doc Scott: once the claws are sunk in… 🙂
Red Hot Mama: Nice to have you, J. Have a good one.
Jacci: Enjoy ze dinner
Doc Scott: it is quite neat to see the Reds blogosphere expanding
JinAZ: Thanks for the invite. Was a lot of fun!
Doc Scott: heck, now there are like three of 'em just focusing on the minors
Red Hot Mama: Good to see everyone again. Thanks y'all.
Shawn: Good night, John-Boy

UPDATED 2:25 p.m. - to correct a typo smarmily pointed out by the likes of Geki. Feel good about yourself now, young man?

UPDATED 2:35 p.m. - to correct the spelling of “Sidney.” Anything else you guys would like to draw attention to?

Good morning, boys and girls! We've rolled out of bed early this Sunday afternoon for another thrilling edition of Ridiculous Trade Ideas, everyone's favorite feature in which we look at current trade rumors or ideas and make fun of them.

Our first item today comes from the DelcoTimes.com. In the subhead at the bottom of Dennis Deitch's sports piece Phillies scoop: Howard won't see Thome in homer derby he describes the rehabilitation of catcher Mike Lieberthal. Lieberthal's strained left hip was still bothering him so much that he wasn't even able to play any rehabilitation games while he was in beautiful Clearwater, Florida with the Class A Threshers. Even so, he's hopeful he'll be playing with the big team again after the All-Star Break.

If Lieberthal does return and plays pain-free in the second half of July, there's a chance he could find his name among the trade rumors. He is in the final year of his contract, and there are contending teams (the Rockies and Reds, to name two) who might want to give Lieberthal a try if the Phillies are willing to pick up a healthy percentage of the $3.75 million he has remaining on his contract for the second half of the season.

Fantastic! Just what the Reds need: another catcher. Perhaps they'd like to throw in a couple second baseman while they're at it. We're kind of light on utility infielders; there might be something there.

Ooh, but it looks like the Phillies are too late to deal. We just acquired an injured catcher who won't be playing for us: David Ross is day-to-day with his abdominal strain.

Our other item today relates to Jeff Weaver. And just when you thought all that silliness was done. To make room for the newly acquired Weaver in the rotation, the Cardinals have designated for assignment Sidney Ponson.

At first glance, a person might think that Ponson could find a place with the Reds. Sure, he averaged just over five innings per start and was grumpy about the idea of pitching out of the 'pen, but he's the proud owner of a 5.24 ERA. That's better than one of the current Reds starters (Joe Mays).

But the real obstacle to bringing Ponson on board is his physique. I mean, how would it make Josh Hancock feel to have been cut for coming to camp out of shape, only to have his new teammate nicknamed “Fat Sidney” picked up by the Reds? That would just be hurtful.