Winter Meetings: Want/Have

The day after the execution, the bodies of Mussolini and his mistress were found hung upside down on meat hooks in Piazzale Loreto (Milan), along with those of 15 other fascists, to show the population that the dictator was dead. The corpse of the deposed leader became subject to ridicule and abuse by many. His body was then taken down and the crowd was allowed to kick his corpse. Many chose to kick him in the head…

What did Joey Votto ever do?

We have no Idea what we have in Willis.

says the Reds will have to outbid the Red Sox and Phillies if they want Rhodes.

If so, he was also in that recent non-conversation I had about where Adam Dunn played college football.

turned into Arroyo, I say it’s a push.

Not only did Wily Mo Pena include a positive WAR over Henson and Coleman, but the Reds were able to flip him for Arroyo in a hugely lopsided trade for the Red Stockings over the Red Socks.

But then again on the depth chart the Reds had Griffey, Dunn, Kearns, Guillen, and Pena. Griffey missed some time early in the year, which allowed Guillen to play, and he put up monster stats, when he was traded to Oakland at the deadline he had an OPS over 1.000.

So when Griffey went down in April, the Reds had an outfield still of Dunn, Kearns, and Guillen, where does Pena fit?

Austin Kearns last game was was July 8th, Griffey’s was July 17th. Wily Mo Pena went on the DL with a strained hamstring on July 5th, and he returned on July 30th, with a little less than 3 weeks of rehab. Prior to Pena’s injury he had 35 at bats. He played 14 games in AAA and OPS’d over 1.000 on AAA pitching.

When Pena returned to the big leagues on July 31st, Boone and Bowden were gone. Griffey and Kearns were out for the year and Guillen was an Athletic. Pena played in 45 of the remaining 54 games, he put up a pedestrian slash line of .254/.326/.752 over 145 PA’s.

So what happened was for the first half of the season Pena was 5th on the depth chart behind Griffey, Dunn, Kearns, and Guillen. I can’t really consider any of those players in 2003 established garbage, Griffey was the only veteran, Kearns was just a second year player, and Dunn was a 3rd year player. Guillen was hardly established and he had a monster year.

During Boone and Bowden’s time at the helm in 2003 where does Pena fit? Also keep in mind that as late as July 2nd, 2003 the Reds were 2 games under .500 and were 2.5 games out of first. Bowden and Boone were in hot water and needed to stay in contention to save their jobs, they weren’t about to replace Griffey, Kearns, Dunn, or Guillen with a project for the future.

The problem was simply that Pena needed more minor league at bats. He was up in the big leagues and out of options by 2003, when he 21 years old, and just his 5th professional season. Further prior to 2003 he had only 454 plate appearances above A ball.

I don’t really see a major problem in how the Reds treated Pena in 2003.

I’d rather see him platoon with someone, but I think the Gomes re-sign effectively ruled that out.

I’d also rather see him be the everyday player than Gomes. He may not hit much better, but he’d definitely play better defense.

I just can’t bring myself to buy a Dunn White Sox jersey though….