loosing respect for the hardball times

[Cincy]

How many first basemans in baseball play in a hitters park, make 8.5M, and only hit 56 rbi's? On top of that, doesn't care about winning baseball games, just winning a personal popularity contest.

[volzok]

How many first basemans in baseball play in a hitters park, make 8.5M, and only hit 56 rbi's? On top of that, doesn't care about winning baseball games, just winning a personal popularity contest.

I think you can say a lot of things about Casey, but I dont think you could ever say he didnt care about winning games.

[Geki Ace]

Wily Mo deserves playing time, and I have no problem with getting him some, but I just don't know that our offense is going to get much better without Casey. Casey was .309/.405/.461 with RISP over the past three seasons. Wily Mo's more likely to hit .209 with RISP, and I don't know that his homerun power will even it out.

[volzok]

Thats a good point Geki. It is hard to say that WMP will even that out. But hopefully him and a healthy Kearns can help even that out this year.

[Geki Ace]

Still waiting on that list (and intellectual boost), buddy.

[Wally Mo Pena]

If you want to put the Reds around 20, I want to see you name the 10 teams that had a worse offseason.

We lost quality bench depth by trading Casey, as now we don't have Wily Mo to come off the bench. We lost quality bench depth by trading for Tony Womack, because he's not a quality player.

Alright, i'll try to get to everything here. They got Dunn for less than market value for the 2 years they have him signed for, and the option year increases the liklihood of an extension.

fine, you're not excited about Gossling, whatever, it's certainly not a bad pickup, and waiver deals like that can be huge sometimes. He could be bronson arroyo pretty easily.

we didn't lose bench quality because wily mo was horrible off the bench, and womack is replacing the likes of bergolla and olmedo, who were even worse and could play fewer positions.

the casey trade was pretty far in our favor when you consider how long we have williams for. A league average starter is worth WAY more than a below average 1b, and we save money on the deal. your problem with this is that you say that you know that BA is overrated, but then you base your arguments for casey on BA because you still can't really accept that it's true. Well, it is. Wily Mo putting up an .850 (your projection not mine) OPS is going to help our offense more than casey's .800 or so, regardless of BA.

and finally, after brief consideration i would put the reds in a tie, more or less, for 19th with the cubs and cardinals in ranking offseasons, and put the following teams below them, in no particular order:

marlins
nationals
orioles
royals
twins
rockies
astros
phillies
pirates

[Geki Ace]

Marlins achieved their goal in dumping highly-paid veterans and now have one of the top farm systems in baseball. They didn't improve their team for now, but that wasn't their goal. I'd put the Nats on par with the Reds, depending on how this Soriano situation turns out. The Orioles got Mazzone, got rid of Sosa and Palmeiro, and added some guys who I think will play well in their park. Easily a better offseason than the Reds. The Royals aren't a good team now, but they improved their team by a large amount for pretty cheap. The Twins lost nothing of importance and added nothing of importance, but I think their team will improve in the rotation and the offense is probably going to improve. The Rockies had an exceptionally quiet offseason and I'd put them right around the Reds. The Astros improved their offense and I'll bet that Clemens comes back, so I'd put them ahead of the Reds. The Phillies had a pretty good offseason, really. They lost Wagner, but improved their bullpen overall. They got solid value in return for Thome and their offense will be better because of it. The Pirates improved their image and their team in the offseason. Dave Williams wasn't gonna play for them and adding Casey will help them. They made no negative additions and their team is getting better.

All in all, I'd rate the Reds on the same level as the Nats and Rockies, and there's an argument to be made for higher and lower with each. You can disagree with the web-site's opinion, but when it's as legitimate as it is, you just make yourself look stupid.

[Providence A's]

But overall, the Reds didn't do enough to address their big need (pitching), and some of the acquisitions they made were just so strange that you can't help but wonder what the Reds were thinking this winter. I guess it probably didn't help things that the ownership and front office was in flux, but that doesn't make it any easier for Cincinnati fans to accept what happened.

I think the conclusion really does a good job of summing up their off-season. The biggest need was and still is pitching. They didn't do much of anything to improve it. I expect a similar result as last year from the Reds. Honestly, what is there to be optimistic about for this season?

[Geki Ace]

The offense.

>_>

[Providence A's]

The offense.

>_>

Yea, I expect that to perform very similarly, but due to the pitching the result will be the same. This isn't beer league softball where you can just score 15 runs and overcome the 13 that you give up every game.

[love_that_reefer]

I think the conclusion really does a good job of summing up their off-season. The biggest need was and still is pitching. They didn't do much of anything to improve it. I expect a similar result as last year from the Reds. Honestly, what is there to be optimistic about for this season?

Providence is absolutley right and to me so is the author of the original article. The Reds did very, very little to get what they NEED which is the basis of having a good offseason. Wally brings up the Twins and Nats. Nats needed offense and they went and got one of the most productive second basemen out there in Soriano. They also went out and got veterans to make for one hell of a bench. Same for the Twins. They needed a second baseman and some more run producing guys and went and got Castillo and White. Batista has pop but don't see too many abs for him. But the fact is these teams went and got what they NEED and on a budget. The Reds clearly did not and not one Reds fan is going to argue otherwise.

[Geki Ace]

Wally is already arguing otherwise.

[CincyRedsFan30]

It's pretty simple for me.

The Reds' offseason hasn't been good in the sense of addressing the team's primary area of need (pitching), but they DID go through a total organizational change, which I think will be HUGE for their future.

I consider this offseason a case of "laying the groundwork for the future."

O'Brien of course made his usual awful moves, but since the new administration has come, things have changed a lot in terms of approach.

Krivsky really didn't have any time to make any moves of significance during the offseason. If we somehow manage to compete until near the middle of the season, he could begin making upgrades then. If not, it will begin in earnest and probably will be somewhat intense during next offseason. The draft for this year can also be included in that list. I think it will be much better.

So no, we didn't have a good offseason in the traditional sense, but I think we are headed toward a very positive future nonetheless.

[Wally Mo Pena]

Nats needed offense and they went and got one of the most productive second basemen out there in Soriano. They also went out and got veterans to make for one hell of a bench. Same for the Twins. They needed a second baseman and some more run producing guys and went and got Castillo and White. The Reds clearly did not and not one Reds fan is going to argue otherwise.

sorry, i just can't let that go. THe trade for soriano was one of the worst that i can remember, and on top of that they are now speculating that when Bowden has to trade him again when he won't play that he'll probably get 1/4 value for him. That's a terrible mistake that will effectively ruin their season.

The twins needed offense as desperately as the reds needed pitching and they brought made one reasonable trade to improve and one reasonable signing which is about what the reds did with williams and hammond. The reason i put the twins lower is that the impact trade they made was for an older guy with more injury risk, and they keep him for fewer years.

i'll agree that the marlins didn't do terribly in some of their trades, but i refuse to say that they had a "good" off-season because they didn't need to rebuild like they did to become a better team. They sold everyone off because the owner didn't want to pay for a team without a new stadium, and that's not making good baseball moves. Maybe they had a good offseason for his wallet, but that's not the context i'm talking about.

[missionhockey21]

I think the Marlins had a fine offseason considering the circumstances placed on the front office. Making the best out a bad situation in other words.