March 29, 2007
More Cuts and Moves
By
Amanda
Posted at 10:58 pm
Lots of interesting things going on today:
- The Reds optioned to Louisville Gary Majewski. I did not see that one coming, but it's nice that he won't be taking up a spot on the active roster to begin the season. Here's hoping he can get his game together with the Bats.
- Bobby Livingston will be joining Majewski in Louisville.
- Jerry Narron says it looks like it will be Matt Belisle or Kirk Saarloos in the role of fourth starter. He said fifth starter, but we already know that's really Eric Milton.
- The final bullpen spot is down to Victor Santos, Jared Burton, and Jon Coutlangus. I'm crossing my fingers for Coutlangus, personally.
- Jeff Keppinger, Bill Bray, Elizardo Ramirez, Jerry Gil, and Eddie Guardado are DL-bound. So, if you're keeping count, we won't be seeing ANY of the players we got in The Trade on Opening Day. Way to improve the team.
- Chris Denorfia, who seemed on the brink of making the Opening Day roster, will be out for six months recovering from Tommy John surgery. Dammit! With The Heartthrob out of the picture for the moment, the final roster spot appears to be between Norris Hopper and Chad Moeller. I bet I'm not the only one who thinks that Wayne Krivsky was premature in sending down Bubba Crosby.
I figured Majewski was going to Louisville. A week or two ago, he told the Reds and the press that he didn’t mind starting the season in Louisville. He thought he needed some time there to get up to speed.
They could surprise me, but I don’t think Heartthrob was going to make roster anyway. Nor Hopper. It’s going to be Moeller, for a lot of reasons. They want to use LLM for a pinch-hitter, which means they need three catchers. Moeller has a major league contract. And Moeller has had a great spring. He’s legitimately out-hit Deno and Hopper.
But perhaps most importantly, Deno and Hopper have options. They can stash them in Louisville for later use, without risking losing them.
There’s also Harang’s bad spring to consider. Some have suggested that the problem is the loss of his favorite catcher. Moeller’s strenth is his ability to form a rapport with his pitchers.
I tried to comment on this yesterday, but the site went down.
The rationale on Majewski is that if they put him on the DL, he could only go to the minors for a rehab assignment, which is limited to 30 days max. By using an option instead, he can stay in AAA for as long as the Reds deem necessary.
Heartthrob is done for the year. Hopper will start the season on the DL. Moeller is the Reds’ best defensive catcher, had a good spring, and Kriv-Dawg subscribes to the three-catcher theory. I think the bench will consist of Valentin, Moeller, Conine, Hamilton, and Castro. Kinda thin, but if guys get hurt and have to go on the DL, they have insurance at AAA. That’s something they didn’t really have last year – if nothing else, Krivsky has improved the organizational depth a lot since he got here.
RHM – I’m sure everybody is keeping count on the players involved in The Trade. The shortstop the Reds got in that trade (Clayton) is long gone. As for the “shortstop” the Nationals got in that trade (Lopez), they’ve already given up on him at that position and have moved him to 2B.
Also, my guess is that Coutlangus stays around long enough to pitch the exhibition game in Dayton and then goes to AAA, and Jared Burton becomes the potential subject of a future Human League entry as a member of the Reds’ 25-man roster.
Of course, there’s still a chance they could trade Cormier over the weekend, allowing them to keep either Coutlangus or Santos as well. My take on that is that I think we saw the real Rheal Cormier a few nights ago when he was getting his bucket kicked in by his former fellow Phillies. If Wayne’s not already trying real hard to trade him, he ought to be. Maybe he can do that and make RHM happy at the same time by trading the French-Canadian Cormier to Toronto for Little Ray Ray. 😉