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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 > December > 01
Monday, December 1, 2008
Deafening silence in Cincinnati
The silence out of Cincinnati is deafening - and it has nothing to do with the Cincinnati Bengals.
It is the Cincinnati Reds.
So far, nothing.
Oh, there was one defection. Lefthanded relief pitcher Jeremy Affeldt couldn’t wait to bail out. About 30 seconds after teams could sign free agents, Affeldt became the first free agent to sign with a new team - two years for $8 million with the Giants.
Can’t blame him, for two reasons. One, he no longer has to watch pop flies land in the bullpen for home runs. Two, who else is going to pay $8 million to a middle relief guy who as 1-1 with a 3.33 ERA in 74 games. Lots of games, nice ERA - but EIGHT MILLION DOLLARS?
Maybe the Reds are waiting for the Baseball Winter Meetings next week in Las Vegas at the Bellagio. Maybe Bob Castellini can hit it big enough at the craps table to sign both C.C. Sabathia and Manny Ramirez.
Not likely. Sabathia and Ramirez aren’t likely to come to Cincinnati even if the Reds had the money.
So what’s a team like the Reds to do?
There aren’t enough good free agents out there to make a difference, at least ones the Reds can afford or can lure to Great American Ball Park.
That means they must make trades. With what? They need a power-hitting righthanded bat for left field or center field. They need some veteran catching.
The problem is that everybody who talks to the Reds wants the good, young players - Joey Votto, Jay Bruce, Edinson Volquez, Johnny Cueto. The Reds shouldn’t do that. Finally, they DO have some minor-league prospects, but how much can that bring?
One tradeable commodity might be pitcher Homer Bailey. Clearly, he needs a different venue. But scouts have watched him the last two years and they know something is amiss. What could the Reds get for him.
The Reds are at the point where they need to stick him into the rotation and leave him there for a full season. Make or break time. If they don’t want to do that, time to dump him for whatever they can get.
As here’s an idea being kicked around in Cincinnati - how about moving third baseman Edwin Encarnacion to left field. He has power. He is right handed. And that would eliminate all those errors at third base.
That, though, would mean they would have to find another third baseman. Some believe Jeff Keppinger could play there. Doubt it. Not regularly. From the few games he played there, too many balls zipped down the line between him and the third-base bag.
The other necessity is a leadoff hitter. Tough to find.
What’s the line on Las Vegas: “What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas.” The Reds better hope that isn’t true.
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