I think he’d be a great fit for this team that could be done without gutting the team. Yeah, Beltre would be idea, but I don’t think that has a snowball’s chance in happening anytime soon.

Lets go for Swisher

1. He’s more expensive than Nady, so he should be cheaper to get.
2. That being said, he’s not that expensive.
3. He’s likely to still be a good player in ’10 when the Reds have a realistic chance.

Of those listed, I’d vote for Burrell next. As fewer and fewer teams show interest, his price tag keeps dropping. I’d fully expect him to perform better than Dye next year, he’ll cost only a 2nd round pick.

However, I’d still rather have Baldelli than anyone on that list except Swisher.

but if you have to target Swisher first. He would give the Reds flexibility defensively and would add much needed OBA that this current roster sorely, sorely needs.

Gracias, Jankees.

I just thought everyone should know.

Nick Swisher’s OPS last year was 742. The average starting CF in MLB since 2001 has an OPS of 780. For corner OFers, it’s 826.

He moved to a hitter-friendly park last year, yet still had a dumper of a season. His away numbers last year in 283 PAs: .301/.294/.596. That’s right – he SLUGGED .294 on the road last year – in a large sample. Our dear CoPat slugged .344 on the road last year in 222 PAs.

But it was a fluke, right? Can someone convincingly make the fluke case to me? The guy hit .219 in almost 600 PAs during his “magical” 27th year of life. He didn’t even switch leagues, just teams. Without injury or some other circumstance, why would we think he suddenly would revert to previous form, back when he was admittedly impressive?

As for Nady, let’s compare again to the average starting corner OFer in MLB since 2001 who had an OPS of 826.

Nady’s OPS:
2005: .760
2006: .790
2007: .806
2008: .867

Steady improvement, but only one year above average for a starting corner OFer. And that year was last year when he started red hot for the Pirates, but after a July 26th trade to the Bankee$, had an OPS of .794 the rest of the way.

So what’s the fluke, Swisher’s single-season decline in a large sample, or Nady’s excellent first-half last year? I have no answers, but neither of these guys looks like a solid answer, either. I don’t think we could bank on either one of them being more than serviceable, in which case I’d rather sign Burrell or Bradley for 1 or 2 years, or even better, trade for Beltre, who is really the best fit for our needs.

Oh – and here’s a point that seems disregarded in our recent discussions: Just because we sign a guy for X years does not mean that he will necessarily hog that position for the full length of the contract. If we trade for Beltre and sign him to a 4-year extention, and Juan Francisco forces our hand, we can trade Beltre. Not every deal ends in a contract-eating buffet of Hattebergs, Cormiers and Stantons. Just the complete busts.

And probably 2 of the 3 last contracts the Yankees signed.

But I don’t see why signing Teix all of a sudden means that Swisher is expendable. It wouldn’t surprise me to see the Yanks rotate Damon, Swisher, Nady, and Cabrera through their 4 OF spots. There’d even be a starting spot for all of them if Matsui is truly broken. Posada isn’t going to be a full time DH. And don’t forget that the Yanks aren’t sold on Melk-Dud either. He might not even make the team out of spring training, which would make Swisher all the more valuable.

To me, Beltre is the move to make. Putting him at third instead of EE saves 20 runs, and EE can’t be worse in LF than Dunn if he works on it all during spring training. Remember how Ryan Braun was supposed to be terrible in LF too? He’s now an above-average defender out there. Beltre is also playing for a contract, and we all know what happened the last time he played for a contract.

I’ve found our RH bat!

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=3793001

Slammin Sammy Sosa.

Thoughts?

why isn’t “Boobs” a choice?

I choose nobody, because I honestly don’t want to see Cincinnati waste money and/or prospects when that won’t make a difference, unless they add a couple more players, next year is probably a lost year.

Once on an airplane from Chicago to Cincinnati…well that’s a story for another post.