December 5, 2007
If I were a Reds fan, I would hate Wayne Krivsky
By
Amanda
Posted at 8:30 pm
In July, the Reds traded Brian “Love” Shackelford and change to the Tampa Bay “the success of the Rockies convinced us to drop the Devil” Rays for Jorge Cantu. While Cantu seemed like he might have some promise, the Reds didn’t really need another infielder at the time, while they always need pitching, so the move was a strange one.
Well, lest Reds fan think that there was some genius plan behind Kriv-dawg’s actions, he released Cantu today for nothing at all.
It’s going to be a good year.
The Reds weren’t going to keep Shack, anyway. Shackelford is now a six-year minor league free agent, and had already been outrighted at least once before.
They hoped to keep Cantu, but he’s arbitration-eligible. They made him an offer, he refused, so they released him. They didn’t think he was worth what he was likely to get in arbitration.
Shackelford has been granted free agency by the Rays, and is looking for a job. He could even end up back with the Reds.
(And as an aside…I’m really having trouble with this new version of RHM. I can’t get into my profile or dashboard to change my password to something easier to remember than the one I was assigned. I keep getting a “you don’t have permission to access this page.”)
Shackelford is going to be one of those LOOGYs they keep stashed in AA to test lefty-hitting prospects against. The times I saw him when he was with Louisville and pitched against the Bisons here in Buffalo, he got smacked around like a redheaded stepchild. The mistake wasn’t that they traded him, it was that they failed to develop him properly after they drafted him. This has been an organizational weakness for a long time, and led to some of the changes in minor league honchos that took place late last season.
I’m more inclined to gripe about the pick they made in the Rule 5 draft, Sergio Valenzuela. A Rule 5 pick has to stay on the major league roster all year or be offered back to the team he was drafted from. Check out his numbers in the minors so far. Valenzuela stunk up the Appalachian League in 2006 and was even worse in the Sally League and Carolina League in 2007. Now they expect this guy, who was over his head in the rookie league, to jump from High-A to the majors? This selection makes no sense to me at all.
Yeah, I don’t get the Valenzuela signing, either. I guess the scouts must have seen something they really like in him, because his stats are underwhelming.
I was wondering if they were going to draft their own player, Guevara, but the Marlins took in, right before the Reds’ turn.
The Marlins are apparently in hot pursuit of Cantu, perhaps to replace Cabrera, so that might explain why Cantu wasn’t interested in the Reds’ offer.
And it sounds like the Reds are serious about moving Josh Hamilton. Perhaps because they expect Jay Bruce to take over CF by June.
The Reds are so pitching poor, that I don’t think it matters whether Love Shack was really any good or likely to stick at the major league level. The Reds need pitchers, period. Especially in the minors to fill the spaces left by all the minor leaguers pitching in Cincy.
Don’t let that, though, detract from the nonsensicalness of selecting Valenzuela. I expect him to take up a roster spot right up until the Reds are eliminated from contention.
The problem is that Shack wasn’t going to stay with Cincinnati, any more than Cantu was going to stay with Tampa. Shack became eligible for six-year minor league free agency this year.