The Once and Future Heartthrob
By
Amanda
Posted at 8:30 pm
Chris Denorfia has been sent down, per Marc, to make room for our newest second baseman, Brandon Phillips.
No big surprise here. Denorfia wouldn't have been with the big team at all if Jason LaRue hadn't gone on the DL to have his knee scoped. Even so, it's hard not to agree with Anon8:08:
Denorfia was with the squad in 2005 and started 6 games and made 3 webgems on ESPN and has the heart of Rudy. Two for two this year in pinch hits including scoring the winning run Thursday night. Minor league player of the year… yeah let's send him down… smart move.
I just keep telling myself that he'll be back, but I can't shake the sneaking suspicion that general manager Wayne “Kriv-dog” Krivsky might just trade him for another middle infielder. In a way, he already has.
A big big trade is coming in the next week, involving more that 3 players on the 25 man roster….you heard it here first. Kriv-dog, Kriv-dog, Kriv-dog don’t mess around…hey!
Its about playing time. As long as Griff, Kearns, and Dunn are manning the OF spots, Denorfia is only going to get rare play… that is bad for a young guy… much better to send him down where he gets everday playing time and bring him up if an injury occurs. He is an insurance policy. We don’t have much OF depth beyond Denorfia/Freel so I would not expect him to be traded…don’t see it happening.
Welcome Dr. JKJ! Always nice to have someone giving RHM the inside information. Sort of a scary thought: there aren’t too many more than three players on the 25 man roster that I’d be happy to see go, and I’m guessing they aren’t going to pawn the whole bullpen off on anyone.
Hi there, smartelf. I think the key phrase here is “as long as Griff, Kearns, and Dunn are manning the OF spots.” I know everyone talks about moving Dunn to first, but Griffey meets the profile of a first baseman, too. So we’ve got two first baseman in the outfield, and possibly our best outfielder in Louisville.
But if our new doctoral friend is right, we might not have to worry about that much longer.
Unless, of course, Mr. Dr. is just making shit up, which I’m going to believe until he dispenses something resembling details.
I also think a major trade is coming. I posted that opinion to ASBCR yesterday, in fact.
I think it’ll involve a catcher, maybe one of the middle infielders, possibly an outfielder although not necessarily Denor…er, I mean Heartthrob.
Neither Griffey nor Dunn wants to play first base. I think we’re stuck with Hatteberg and Aurilia, and maybe Andy Abad on occasion, over there unless another 1B comes over in a trade or until Joey Votto is ready for the majors in a year or two.
HMZ
It could be worse than Hatteberg + Aurilia… To be honest I don’t see much of a drop off from Casey to Hatteberg. I still don’t see a major trade happening unless Narron likes Valentin over LaRue then maybe they could trade Larue, but first you’d have to get him playing time to bring his value back up because he is coming off surgery.
I still think we (here on RHM) are over-reacting to minor roster shuffling involving back-ups and depth charts.
HMZ – I hope there’s a major trade around the corner, if only to make some of these moves make sense. Without something to put the other moves into context, Kriv-dog ends up looking like he acquires players the same way my mom shops: based soley on price and without any regard to need.
“These designer baby socks were on clearance for only $16!”
“Who’s going to use those? The youngest kid you’re related to is almost 5.”
“But they were such a good deal!”
smartelf – hey, watch it. It’s my blog and I’ll overreact if I want to.
If we are overreacting, smartelf, so is just about everybody on ASBCR, where almost everybody’s convinced something’s going to happen.
BTW, does everybody notice how they keep pushing back the date for LaRue’s return? Originally, Jason said he planned to be ready for Opening Day. Then it was Wednesday. As recently as yesterday an article on the Reds’ website said Narron already had him pencilled in to start the game Tuesday. Now today it says we can forget that idea because LaRue’s staying in Sarasota a few days, supposedly to catch Paul Wilson in an extended spring training game.
I think they’re delaying his return until a deal happens and either the deal opens up a slot on the 25-man without someone having to clear waivers, or the deal itself solves the three-headed catcher problem.
I’m fine with platooning Aurilia and Hatteberg at first, it gets Aurilia in the lineup without taking starts away from EE, Lopez, or Freel. Now all they need to do is figure out what to do with Womack. 🙂
HMZ
LaRue was overly optimistic from the beginning. You (and many others) are reading way too much in this minor shuffling IMO. I agree that the plethora of 2B is bizarre, but Menechino is thankfully gone, Aurilia is playing at 1B and 3B and this new guy also plays SS, so he provides depth over there. This is just juggling the back-ups and depth chart. If I am in the minority opinion it won’t be the first time. Of course if a great deal comes there way I’d epect them to consider all options but you have to also take into account chemistry and disrupting momentum etc. If the team is winning I’d expect them to play their present hand. The one glaring need is a guy with really nasty stuff in the bullpen.. but no one gives a guy like that away and I don’t see manybeing shopped around. I still think the bullpen plan is to bring Wagner up once his confidence has returned. Coffey has looked pretty good, and the veterans are crafty enough to buy us time until the young guys mature some more.
I still don’t know how you guys can say we have a three-headed catcher “problem”, when we only have two competent catchers.
It’s true that LaRue overstated how quickly he could get back behind the plate. I don’t doubt for a minute that he would have been out there on opening day, but he should have know that the team would use his stint on the disabled list to free up a spot on the roster.
And yeah, I think that’s exactly what they’re doing. This getting-him-playing-time-before-coming-back stuff is all well and good, but it’s a load of crap that it’s the primary reason for sending him to Sarasota.
As for team chemistry and momentum, ditching Denorfia in favor of Phillips doesn’t fit the bill. That being said, I’d hard to complain about Phillips’ pinch hit today.
When I refer to team chemistry, I am refer to the starting players. Bench players can be shuffled without affecting overall team chemistry. Everyone knows Denorfia has options and will get called back up eventually. A young guy like that needs to play everyday, so if a position is not avail. on the big club he is going to get sent down until a position opens up. Sure he provided speed and defense, but he wasn’t going to get ABs so its better to send him down so he can get those ABs to continue to develop. I agree that on a team that could use improvement in defense it is hard to see Denorfia get sent down but Dunn is crushing the ball, Griffey is Griffey, and Kearns finally has a chance to become an everyday player — and he is no slouch on defense either. If any of them get hurt you can bet Denorfia will be brought back immediately.