Cliff Lee back in Red

I have to disagree. Roy Halladay is the best pitcher in baseball.

I think it’s pretty important to keep Chapman on the starter path. With Greinke now the only ace-caliber prize out there – and next offseason is slim pickings on the free agent market – there’s no choice but to optimize the rotation internally if they want to keep pace. Chapman starting this season could help keep the Reds from playing Twins to the Phillies’ Yankees.

That’s it. Crazy things happen. I’m really not too worried (especially about Oswalt).

You were drunk when you wrote that, weren’t you?

This is pretty clearly the best rotation in the majors and one of the best ever assembled. Nowhere do I make the leap to suggest that this somehow hands them the WS, only that it makes it more urgent that the Reds get another bat (and probably get Chapman making starts in AAA again) if they want to fare better in a playoff series against the Phils next time around.

/Fya’d, lately

Chapman- Volquez- Cueto- Bailey – Big Wood- Leake

or Halladay-Oswalt-Lee

I’d go with our younger guys over the older people.

Anything can happen.

The game isn’t played on paper.

[insert witticism]

[insert platitude]

and that still seems hard to believe.

Of course, if their offense goes in the tank (please please please) and one or more of those golden arms turns to shit… well, I’m sure Philly fans will understand. They seem to be pretty reasonable and forgiving folks.

Joe Blanton WAR -.07
Cliff Lee WAR – 5.3

That’s a pretty big difference.

I’m cashing out the 401k pronto. Fireworks, heroin – here I come!

I think Halladay, Lee, Hamels is a better slate. And it’s a question of depth. One of those four could go down and they’d still have a murderer’s row.

My point about regular season vs. postseason is that there’s no chance of squeaking by with a match-up against Kendrick or whoever. If healthy, it’d probably be HLH, all three of which have been poison for the Reds. I’m mostly just trying to cram this signing into “how does it affect the Reds” prism.

That’s two Roy Halladays and no Cliff Lees.

who is any good either retires or gets traded to the AL

I figure if we get to the W.S., we can do a Bill Bates/Joe Oliver/Billy Hatcher routine and laugh like pigs all winter.

But I hear ya.

It really sunk in when I read this post talking about how this will affect the Reds in the playoffs. A few years ago I could have cared less what the Phillies were doing.

But I do think he has established a plan of building the team around young, good players, and he’s sticking to that. This team is good because he didn’t trade away prospects over the last 2-3 years, and now those players are the core of the team. To trade away the next wave would jeopardize the long-term viability of the team, and I think he’s unwilling to do that.

Also, I believe him/Fay/everyone else that there just isn’t a lot of money to spend.

Also, I think he is more optimistic about the team’s offensive projections than we are.

because they use stats to start the conversation, not to end it.

That said, I loved this piece about the 2011 Phillies. It’s remarkably unscientific: “Well, Utley’s getting hurt these days” and things like that, but he pegs the Phils as a team at +50 WAR. The Reds last year came in at +49 WAR.

These signings are all hardly end-all be-all. The Braves should be the most concerned, but I doubt they’re just giving up, either.

First, I’m not at all troubled by the lack of action on a LF or SS. The past couple of years have taught me that I can’t guess what Jockety and Castellini have planned (Rolen, Gomes/Hernandez last year, Chapman, OCab).

Second, I think that his plan (like others have said) is to build a long-term winner. I think he sees this team as not quite there yet, and rightly won’t mortgage the future (whether in dollars or talent) for a 1 or 2 year run.

Third, I do think he may be waiting out the market much like he did last year with LF.

Finally, Bruce’s contract isn’t “backloaded” in the traditional sense. He’s making more in the final years because those are free agent years being bought out.

Shouldnt really be paying attention to how the teams are doing outside of the division. GM should just be trying to put the most competitive team out there to get to the playoffs every year. Micromanaging and planning around the playoffs is hubristic and unnecessary.

….but the Reds would have won that series Game 2 if not for the errors.

Halladay and Hamels absolutely owned them, and Halladay probably would’ve done so again had it gone to 4 games.

You are kind, but the Phils pitching was just too much. So I don’t think people are worried, per se, but I definitely wouldn’t want to have to face you in a 5 or 7 game series again.