The Speedwagon That Thought It Was a GM

From Hal McCoy's article in Chicago yesterday, Bronson sat down to play bullpen GM for a few minutes.

Relevant graphs:

 

And Arroyo has a plan on how to make the Reds competitive next year, plus he didn’t need to send a babbling letter that makes little sense.

Here’s his plan. And it ain’t half-bad.

“The pitching staff is solid enough to win plenty of ballgames,” he said. “We really need a starting catcher — unless they are going to go with Ryan Hanigan and I haven’t seen him enough. We need a solid guy you can run out there five days a week, a guy who can hit a little bit, a regular guy instead of dividing it up between a couple of guys.

“We’re going to need two other guys who can hit, probably outfielders,” Arroyo said. “Our infield is decently set if (shortstop) Alex Gonzalez comes back. So we need a couple of outfielders to replace those home runs we lost (Adam Dunn, Ken Griffey Jr.).

“We just need a lineup, from top to bottom, that feels the same when we pitch against the other team’s lineup, so we don’t have as many weaks spots.” Arroyo added. “I mean, with the Cubs I’m facing a seven-hole hitter like Mark DeRosa, who hits .280. That’s the feeling we need to project to other teams.”

DeRosa had two of the three hits Arroyo gave up over seven innings Wednesday in a 2-1 win. And Hanigan was Arroyo’s catcher, contributing a double that led to the Reds tying the game, 1-1, in the sixth.

“We have enough right now in our starting staff and bullpen to win this division, for sure,” Arroyo said.

 

Some thoughts:

First of all, you've got to like that Arroyo went on record with his ideas -- whether you agree with him or not. You hardly ever see a baseball player willing to talk shop about personnel because of the subsequent hurt feelings in the clubhouse. Big ups there.

Also, coupled with his earlier statements about wanting to stay with the Reds, Arroyo does seem have more than a soundbite's interest in bringing a winning team to Cincinnati. I'm not sure why, but there it is.

As to his "plan" itself, I find it interesting for a few reasons.

1. He understands that the catching-by-committee experiment is a huge problem and is aware that Hanigan is an unknown quantity. No mention of Bako or LLM. (sour grapes over his boy Ross being let go?).

2. His Alex Gonzalez comment suggests that he knows Keppinger's defense is unacceptable at SS.

3. He frames the loss of Dunn and Griffey in terms of home run power rather than overall offensive value.

Nothing groundbreaking, but, as Hal points out in the article, it's more specific than anything that's come from the Reds' FO.

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FWIW: The Denver Post is reporting that the Rockies might be looking to move Willy Tavares this off-season. He's fast, has zero power and doesn't seem terribly interested in walking; in short, he's everything Dusty loves in a son-in-law. Ironically, the Rockies have apparently expressed an interest in Arroyo more than once this season.