Friday Open Thread: Where's your head on the Reds?

I’m in agreement about Bronson. I’d be perfectly happy with him on the team again next season. He eats up innings and keeps the club in games without being spectacular, though he can be that from time to time. The nice thing is that in this market, that kind of pitcher with his level of experience can bring quite a haul.

But this was kind of fun. Someone in England decided to imagine where the teams in the English Premier League would be relocated if they were all moved to America. Sort of surprisingly, Ohio got three teams. Not so surprisingly, they are all pretty crap.

So residents of Cleveland, Columbus, and Toledo, say hello to your new EPL teams: Middlesbrough, Stoke, and West Brom!

that the Reds should find a left handed starting pitcher I will fucking find them and hurt them. I have read for many different sources that Mulder would be a good pickup because it would give Cincinnati a left handed option. I guess Eric Milton would be a good pickup too based on that logic.

He’s the only Texas catcher that I like. He plays good defense and has some pop. Laird isn’t an improvement over Hanigan. Salta-whatever isn’t really a catcher…the same goes for Max Ramirez.

I’m sticking with what I said in the previous Jockety thread: They’ll sign Burrell (because they need a “RH LF”, and they’ll go after Beltre (because not a single person in the organization believes in EdE, or ever has).

It’s also interesting that Stark would mention trading Arroyo when he also lists “veteran starting pitcher” as something the Reds “need”.

or is this one of the more awkward headlines they could have written? I had to read it like 5 times before I had a clue what they were trying to say.

and trade Arroyo to the Rangers for a catcher not named Laird? of course, it would depend upon who we got in return for him, but is this an idea that could gain some traction?

he has been named a Public Diplomacy Envoy by our favorite black female archetype Condi Rice (via BTF). this is pretty cool. i imagine his job will mainly be traveling around the 3rd world hitting towering home runs for the awe-struck locals, much like when Mark McGwire was on the Simpsons. “DINGERS!!”

but he is brittle and too much of a risk for a mid-market team, since he will be demanding a multi-year multi-million dollar contract. But I would love to see him and Coco split the closers role, imagine Burton-Wood/Coco for 7-8-9, and Bray is around too.

says the Cards have made an offer to Felipe Lopez.

And the Yankees have made an offer to Sabathia. Apparently, Swisher is one of Sabathia’s best friends, which is a big reason the Yanks signed him.

A lot of Yankees bloggers expect the Yanks to sign Dunn or Teixeira along with Swisher, but Yankees beat writer Pete Abe says that’s nuts, and I agree. They’ve got Swisher. They might go after a center fielder, but they don’t need another first baseman/corner outfielder type. They’re going after starting pitching.

but decided it probably wasn’t worth the space.

I saw this interview with Joey Votto linked over at RedsZone and found it a fairly good read

http://www.cbc.ca/sports/baseball/story/2008/11/12/f-votto-baseball.html

 that Stubbs is only hitting .178 in the Arizona Fall League?

and he has 9 walks and 25 Ks in just 73 ABs (OBP=.286; OPS=.560)!

does anyone else know if Juan Duran is playing any fall/winter ball anywhere?

I’m excited about trades that would garner the Reds ML-ready or ML-experienced players, relatively young, who would be under their control for several seasons. As much as I’d hate to give up Arroyo, who has done much to stabilize the starting pitching, he’s also the one guy of value I’d be most amenable to trading. Especially if he gets the Reds a young, promising catcher in return…those guys aren’t easy to come by.