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Hall of Fame baseball writer Hal McCoy has retired from the Dayton Daily News after covering the Cincinnati Reds for 37 years. Hal's blog, though, will continue to be a must-read for Reds fans. He'll share his thoughts on the team this season and will file updates from Great American Ball Park. You also can catch Hal in print every Sunday in his popular Ask Hal columnHome > Blogs > The Real McCoy | Cincinnati Reds baseball news > Archives > 2008 > July > 25
Friday, July 25, 2008
Don’t mess too much, Walt
Best trade the Reds have made in my 36 years: Frank Duffy and Vern Geishert to the San Francisco Giants for George Foster.
I was not yet covering the Reds when they acquired Joe Morgan, Cesar Geronimo, Jack Billingham and Denis Menke from the Houston Astros.
That, of course, is considered one of the best trades ever for the Reds, but acquiring Foster and sticking him in left field put at least the ‘G’ in The Big Red Machine.
AND THIS year’s non-waivers trade deadline (July 31) creeps closer and everybody wants to know who the Reds should trade.
Before we get into that, let me give you manager Dusty Baker’s take.
“I believe in miracles because I’ve lived them,” he said. “What would have happened if at the trade deadline last year the Rockies had traded away a lot of players? Yeah, that was a mirACLE, but it happened. It isn’t something likely to happey often, but it did happen.”
The Rockies, puffing and puttering along at the All-Star break, but won 26 of their last 36, their last 10 in a row, and found themselves in the World Series.
Baker said he gets the feeling owner Bob Castellini isn’t in a tent-folding mode or a toss-in-the cards mood.
“Every time I talk to him he has everything all mapped out, ‘If we do this and this happens and if we do that and that happens,’” said Baker. “I feel the same way. We’re playing real good baseball right now and we have a lot of games within the division coming up. We can either be in the thick of things or be way, way out of it.”
Baker said he is always interested in improving a team, if it can be done without destroying yourself.
“All team seem to be talking about right now is taking high-salaried players for no return,” he said. “I call it cherry-picking. Nobody offers anything of value.”
So, the feeling is, if Baker has his way, there won’t be a major makeover, if there is even minor tweaking.
And I couldn’t agree more.
Off the top, forget about Ken Griffey Jr. He can’t be traded without his permission and he isn’t about to say, “Permission granted.”
And for the legions who want Adam Dunn traded, I’m not in your camp. Griffey won’t be back next year, so do you want to lose both of your lefthanded corner outfielders?
As I’ve said over and over and over and over and over again: “Where are you going to find a guy who hits 40 homers, walks 100 times, scores 100 runs and drives in nearly 100 EVERY year? Nowhere, that’s where - unless the St. Louis Cardinals become delirious and trade Albert Pujols.
Folks blame Dunn for the team not winning while he has been here. His fault? Absolutely not. You build AROUND a player like him. You find some on-base guys, some high-average guys and sprinkle them around him. The Reds are doing that now with Jerry Hairston Jr. and Jeff Keppinger, plus future stars Jay Bruce and Joey Votto.
Dunn most likely is the player Baker is talking about when he says other teams want to cherry-pick, pluck away the high-salaried Dunn and sent nothing back in return. You don’t do that.
Trading pitchers was talked about here yesterday. Don’t do it. Don’t even talk about it. At least the starters. At this point, I wouldn’t trade much out of the bullpen, either. There is talk about David Weathers but he is pitching grandly and he is the veteran steadying influence in the bullpen, stacked with mostly youngsters.
To me, there are only a couple of moves I’d make. I’d trade Edwin Encarnacion, but only for quality young players no more than a year away from the majors. Encarnacion blows hot and cold, both offensively and defensively. They can play Jeff Keppinger at third and Jerry Hairston Jr. at shortstop.
If they could find a catcher, go for it. Catchers are easily found, but good ones are like the Rosetta Stone or the Dead Sea Scrolls. Where do you find them? But don’t sell the farm for one.
It’s time to stick with something. Seven straight years of losing with promises of things to come smells like rotten rutabaga. The nucleus is there. Some minor tweaks? OK. A major overhaul? Hey, it ain’t broken.
We all thought this team would compete coming out of spring training. I thought so. I still believe it is better than it’s record and it has 58 games to prove it.
If it falls completely flat, then GM Walt Jockety can spend his winter doing some heavy construction work. Right now? Just patch a few pot holes.
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