In a story on ESPN.com this afternoon ( http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=3807591) it was said that the Reds have expressed interest in Andruw jones. What?! I would have to seriously question the sanity of management if they made that deal. Yes, he is a right handed outfielder...but last year he hit .158 with 3 home runs and 14 RBI. Not to mention that he is overpaid. He made $14 million last year for those stats. $14 MILLION! He was set to make $15 million in 2009, but that deal was restructured to make him easier to move. He will still make that $15 million but it will be spread out over 6 seasons now. The Reds were mentioned as well as the Braves and Mets as having interest. He is a 10 time gold glover and would provide most likely provide some defense that is needed, but I think giving up anything at all for him is a mistake.

Continue reading "Andruw Jones rumors"

All I've written about so far is baseball, but since it's prime time in football season I might as well go ahead and share some thoughts about that. I've been a Vikings fan for awhile now. And it's been painful; the first season I remember was 1998, when they went 15-1 but lost in the championship game when Gary Anderson missed his first field goal all season. Since then they've had some other playoff teams, but very underwhelming. When Cris Carter left in the early part of this decade I have to be honest and admit that I kinda stopped following them. There was nothing exciting about them anymore.

      With that said, I'm really not expecting much from them tomorrow. The team has been a little shaky all season, even Adrian Peterson has let me down once or twice, and he's the centerpiece of this team. They did win the division title, but that was in a fairly weak division. For them to win tomorrow I see three things that need to happen:

Continue reading "Thoughts for Vikings-Eagles game tomorrow"

As I mentioned yesterday, the Eagles came right after Tarvaris Jackson. And they beat him. They brought some real pressure on him like I haven't seen before. He did make some good plays - I don't think he was absolutely terrible. But I do agree with Kevin Seifert ( http://myespn.go.com/blogs/nfcnorth/0-7-38/QB-questions-not-going-away-for-Vikings.html) when he says that the Jackson experiement is over and it's time to move on. The Vikings have a great runningback in Adrian Peterson. The defense is good when they are healthy. Special teams have been below average but that will improve in practice. They have some decent wideouts that can make the plays. They need a QB that can throw it to them.

     One option that crossed my mind is the fact that there has been a lot of speculation whether Donovan McNabb will stay in Philly. If he does move on to free agency then I can't help but think that the Vikings will at least take a glance at him. How weird would that be, to have the QB that beat you in the playoffs be your starter the next season? It would be interesting, but I would hope they would turn back to the draft and find a young guy that can be with them more than just the next season. I understand that there will be a host of good QBs entering the draft this year, there's no reason the Vikes couldn't take one.

Continue reading "Vikings lost"

While reading columns about the Reds that I frequent (Hal McCoy's blog and the official Reds web site) I saw two articles about the same thing, the Reds moves this offseason. One was very negative (McCoy) while Mark Sheldon, writer for the Reds website, was looking at the positive side of things. To glance at the moves the Reds have made wouldn't shock anybody, even though I think they did sign some key players to fill needs. McCoy ( http://www.daytondailynews.com/o/content/shared-gen/blogs/dayton/cincinnatireds/) says that much more needs to be done, and that they haven't done enough to move out of 5th place. I hate to do it, but I'm gonna disagree with you here.

Let's take a look at the moves made by other NL central teams this off season. The first place Cubs haven't done much. They re-signed Ryan Dempster and signed Aaron Miles. They traded Mark Derosa for 3 minor league pitchers who probably won't make an impact at the major league level. They are finalizing a trade for Jason Marquis and a contract for FA Milton Bradley. That last deal for Bradley is the only thing to make a huge difference, I think. And he may not even turn out to be that big of an impact as he has some injury problems over the last couple of years. The rest of the moves are just tinkering, which is probably all they need to do, because they did win 97 games last year.

Continue reading "A look at the NL central"

http://hotstove.mlblogs.com/archives/2009/01/hairston_returning_to_reds.html 

It's being reported in the hot stove blog that the Reds have re-signed Jerry Hairston Jr. And from the first news coming out about the contract it sounds like a very good deal as well, only $2 million guaranteed, with up to $4 million in incentives. From what I was hearing it sounded like he would take no less than $4 million guaranteed. The article mentioned that he is expected to be the starting shortstop since Alex Gonzalez is scheduled to be out for another year (chalk that one up to a bad contract; we paid him two years to do nothing).

     While I don't like the idea of Hairston starting at short, what else are we gonna do? If we end up trading for Xavier Nady sometime I don't think Derek Jeter would be included in that deal. There's really no other good shortstops on the market. If we do somehow miraculously pick up another shortstop then the deal is small enough that it wouldn't kill us for him to be a bench player either. Either way, this will provide us some good depth on the roster. One of the best possible moves that could have been made, I think.

Continue reading "Hairston returns to Reds"

Speculation over at www.mlbtr.com (quickly becoming one of my favorite websites) has the top 20 free agents left and the most possible suitor for them. Included in the list was Bobby Abreu (easily in the top 20) coming to Cincinnati. Right away I was thinking "how would this work?" He's really not exactly what the team is looking for, or needs, but if you were going to pick from what's left he's gotta be looking pretty good. Not so many years ago he was considered a great player, and he's been putting up average numbers over the past couple years. I've never heard much about his defense but I don't think he'd be any worse than what we threw out there before. The only problem I can think of is that if signed then that would mean a middle of the lineup featuring Bruce, Votto, Abreu, and Philips. Signing him would not help with what we struggled with last year (left handed pitching) but would certainly make this team better. And I really don't see much else out there that have a chance of coming to the Reds that would improve the offense that much. MAYBE Ty Wiggington but I'm not convinced he would make the team that much better. Any thoughts on what else Abreu would bring to this lineup?

Continue reading "Bobby Abreu? coming to Cincinnati?"

Of course, you know that the topic had to come up with all of the spending that the Yankees are doing. They have spent 442 million for 4 players, as opposed to the other 29 teams spending 491 million for 58. First of all, that's just a ridiculus amount of money to spend on anything. But aren't the Yankees getting a little out of hand with this spending?

     I say no: they are completely within the bounds of what MLB says they can do, as are other high payroll teams. And it was proved in the last few seasons that money doesn't buy championships. I think it does provide a better chance of winning though, as a team like the Yankees are perennial contenders while a team like the Rays must build for years just to have a chance at the postseason (and usually after that one run a crucial part of the team leaves and it takes longer to replace him). But with all that said, I see nothing wrong with what the Yankees have done, I would have done the same thing if I could.

Continue reading "The most discussed topic in baseball: the salary cap"

One of the free agent names that is still looking for a job this season is 11 time gold glove winner Omar Vizquel. I started thinking if he would be a fit with the Reds and thought why not? Right now there's still uncertainty whether Gonzalez will be able to start the season healthy, and I'm just not sold on Hairston as an everyday shortstop right now. Vizquel played 92 games with the Giants last year, a part time role, and I think he could do the same very well in Cincinnati. Start the season as the everyday guy until Gonzalez gets back and then play the role of defensive replacement or fill in when Alex needs a day off (which might be good to have since he's coming off the injury). Basically he would be insurance...a very good defensive insurance. His hitting has gone down in recent years, but he was never known as a hitter to start with. He reminds me of someone we carried for a few years named Juan Castro, anyone remember him?

Continue reading "could another piece to the Reds puzzle be Vizquel?"

In seperate interviews today with Jocketty and Castellini both said that the shopping for the offseason is over, with at least one big hole left to be filled. The payroll is at the budget limit, and unless Obama can miraculously revive this economy before baseball season and the Reds sell out their stadium with season tickets, that budget ain't changing. With no other major free agent signings, and this budget supposedly in place since the fall, it makes me wonder if they really had any intentions of going after that left fielder at all? They did take on a little salary in Hernandez, but I don't think that was more than what they were expecting to take on for the catcher they wanted (and let me reiterate that I still think that was a bad trade: we picked up an overpaid mediocre catcher. I reserve the right to take back my comment should he have a career year and be that hitter we were looking for all along). Taveras also cost a little money, but again, they knew they were going to have to spend that money all along, and should have been planning on that as well.

Continue reading "I guess that's it then..."