So here's why I'm annoyed with the D'Angelo Jimenez thing since I didn't elaborate yesterday.
First of all let me say that the guy's not one of my favorites. I doubt D'Angelo is one of anyone's favorites to be honest, he simply isn't that kind of player. Cutting him really doesn't make me all that upset as far as his performance goes.
What upsets me is that this front office decided to sign him for $2.5 million just a few months ago and now they're ready to eat that contract. Dan O'Brien seems to just be pissing money away, which is a real problem when this is the first year in over a decade that the Reds have had a decent sized payroll.
I thought Jimenez was a better player than Ryan Freel so I was pleased that they re-signed him to play second. I liked Freel's versatility and fully expected an outfielder or two to get hurt and I didn't want to see a guy like Luis Lopez with the ballclub.
I was wrong.
Freel is clearly a better player than Jimenez. Ryan Freel should be starting at second base on a daily basis. The problem is that I believe Jimenez could have been traded. He still could be traded in fact, being DFA'd leaves that avenue of action open, but if the Reds end up eating any of this contract then I'll just have to shake my head in disappointment. You can't tell me that the Yankees wouldn't have taken Jimenez's contract in exchange for some A-ball scrub.
I'm also annoyed that the Reds are still - still! - carrying 13 pitchers. That nugget of info tells me that this is one of the poorest run organizations in all of baseball. There aren't many baseball owners that would stand for this kind of incompetence.
O'Brien seems to be waiting for Hudson and Hancock to come off the DL before he makes any pitching moves, but he just had the opportunity to add someone like Steve Kelly to the 40 man and he ignored it. Instead we have 34 year old Luis Lopez, who has a .294 OBP in 1593 career major league at bats.
Just a warning, this blog is probably going to be 100% critical of Dan O'Brien from here on out. I mentioned this earlier, but he's blown any benefit of the doubt that I once gave him. He needs to go, and soon.