cant you let a girl dream?

His minor league wOBA is approximately .370 compared to Francisco’s .330. Francisco has the home run power, but Frazier is a much better hitter. Plus, while END might be a 40+ HR guy, I wouldn’t be surprised for Frazier to develop 25+ home run power. His minor league numbers look a lot like Votto’s – not that he’ll ever hit like Votto does now, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see some progression in a similar direction.

and that’s not necessarily a bad thing, as long as it is not Votto.

They might be looking to flip some propsects for pitching, what with Harang and/or Arroyo most likely gone by some means in the next year – and Cueto/Volquez/Bailey still with major question marks.

But I also think they’re banking on Frazier being the most MLB-ready bat who could play a position of greatest need (LF) as soon as this season. I don’t think it’s crazy to think that they’re considering both Francisco and Frazier to inherit 3B. I see no reason why he can’t be moved to 3B in the event of logjam. Which there will be with Votto and Alonso at 1B, Frazier and Francisco in the mix at 3B and Frazier, Francisco, Heisey, Gomes, Balentien and Dickerson all possibilities in LF. It’s hard to speculate about trades without knowing the return, but I think they trade Alonso or Frazier at their peril. Sticking Alonso at 1B, Frazier at 3B and moving Votto to LF in ’11 is the best chance this team has for reliable, cost-controlled production.

i thought i was the only one!

That this really should be a FanShot.

This seems like something Madville could pick up and run with.

It’s fun to see news like this while 2/3 through The Machine, which quotes like “Pete’s wife was pretty sure he was cheating on her on the road.”

Yes. Yes he was.

and Taveras’s 2009 OPS+ was 48.

..is when you abbreviated “especially.”

If they thought that Frazier had any sort of future as a SS, he’d still be playing there in the minors. The fact that he was predominantly a 3B, LF, and started playing 2B at the end of the season should suggest that the Reds don’t see him as much of a SS. If they did, Luis Bolivar wouldn’t have played there over him when he got to AAA.

above average defense at SS according to what measures we have

I’m confused, there are measures that say Frazier is above average defensively at SS?

not using the ‘reply’ button.

for the snark.

And she was “heroic” for bashing in the back of his Escalade with a 3 iron.

He and his wife got into a huge fight after Thanksgiving dinner, after the kids were in bed. She was plecked off because he was having an affair. She scratched his face. He beat feet, trying to escape in his SUV. She followed, breaking the rear window of the vehicle with one of his golf clubs as he drove away. He told a friend he thought he’d stopped the car, and turned around to see what she was doing. But the car kept going, and hit the hydrant, then the tree.

i just want to make sure im reading you right. what youre saying is, you hate prospects? is that right?

as they may have fine major league career like Bronson Arroyo and Derrek Lowe, or they may suck like Jimmy Anderson.

and I’m not fighting the idea of trading Heisey. I was simply responding to your use of a single example of a player as a reason to trade prospects by pointing out that those can backfire too (Bagwell and Smoltz are two prominent examples, but I’m sure if I dug far enough I could find some guys who weren’t all stars but were still very good contributors).

The problem with the plan is that the Reds don’t have the right kind of prospects to turn into a frontline pitcher. What they really need to happen is for Cueto and/or Bailey to develop into that type of pitcher and to use the prospects either to fill offensive holes themselves or to be traded for someone who will. The real issue is that their long-term needs are most teams’ long-term needs – pitching and talented skill position players. I’m not sure they have the prospect quality to acquire a cheap skill player or pitcher. They have the depth of players to fill a roster with Major League contributors over the next 5 years, but I’m not sure they have any real All Stars in the bunch right now, which shouldn’t be surprising since they have 4 players who have come up in the last 2 years with that pedigree.

So, unless they feel a player’s street value is much higher than his actual value, I think they are better off just sitting on prospects right now because I doubt they can turn any of them into a player this off-season that will single-handedly reshape the team into a serious contender. Unfortunately, their best option is probably just to continue to let the young players grow and let the cream rise. Then maybe in July, if the big league team is still in it, they could have more value to a team that is dumping a future free agent that can fill a hole for the Reds.

Probably the most important thing though is to not sign any big, long contracts this off-season. Let the young players mature and then use your extra money to fill holes rather than spending money and wishing you had cheap players to fill holes.