Only time will tell with Latos but I'm not ready to call 27-29 quality and a #1 starter. Cueto is the Red's #1 until Latos proves he can be that man.

I didn't call him the Reds' #1 starter. He is a quality pitcher though ... his stats bear that out.

He's hardly a great replacement.

 

There aren't many "Votto's" in the MLB. No one said great but he, obviously, was the next in line if Votto's isn't re-signed.

Which is not showing much baseball knowledge if you really want to use a pitchers record to determine if he is good or not. Say if he had pitched for the Yankees instead, which means he had an offense behind him but had the exact same stats. He probably would have an amazing record, but does that all of a sudden make him a better pitcher just because his record was much better? No he would still be the same guy, using a pitchers record is wrong. Just like saying a guy who has an ERA of 5 but 18 wins is a good pitcher would be wrong.

 

 

We are talking about a pitcher here that has not proven himself yet outside of San Diego. Nowhere did I say that wins made a pitcher a better pitcher. You need only look at Bronson Arroyo to see that. Like I said only time will tell with Latos but I think the Reds reached bigtime and I hope it pans out. Remember we still have Johnny B. Baker, aka the toothpick, calling the shots.

I didn't call him the Reds' #1 starter. He is a quality pitcher though ... his stats bear that out.

 

Bronson Arroyo was 17-10 with a 3.88 era in 2010 pitching half his games in GABP. Is he a quality pitcher?

I hope you mean july 2013? You never know what will happen by then

 

They won't go into 2013 with him if they can't resign him. They won't pay him $19m for 1 year.

There are holes still, however as you mentioned they still may be good enough to reach the playoffs. You talked about how they don't have the right pieces to make a run in the playoffs, and that is where you are wrong. There is no set thing that teams need to have to be able to make a run. A team that usually looks like they have all the pieces sometimes doesn't even make it or gets knocked out in the first round. If this team is good enough to make the playoffs, then they very well could make a run in the playoffs. Not to mention they still have time to address some of those areas.

 

This is a step in the right direction but not a move that necessarily puts them in the playoffs. They have lots of question marks in the lineup. Who plays leftfield? What does Rolen have left? Is Mesoraco ready to hit big league pitching, he didn't look like it last season. Is Stubbs going to improve? Can Cozart and Janish be effective at shortstop? Who closes games, or even sets up? Lots of things have to break just right for this to be more than a. 500 team. Latos also has to prove he can pitch in a bandbox like GABP. Lots of other pitchers have struggled when moving to a smaller park. I like the trade because except for Boxberger the other minor leaguers had their paths to the majors blocked and Volquez had run his course in Cincinnati. This is far from a sure thing though.

Walt said that as of now Chapman is slated to start.

CTrent's take on why the Reds made the deal.

 

http://eye-on-baseball.blogs.cbssports.com/mcc/blogs/entry/22297882/33904080

A guy tweeted John Fay saying he would have liked to see Arroyo in the deal to free up cap space.

Walt also said they will approach CoCo again about coming back.

Just read some Padres fans' reactions and it seems they feel they sold too low on Latos or aren't too keen on Alonso.

I'm one of them. Latos is a stud. You guys got a hell of a deal.

Alonso and Grandal are extra pieces for the Reds. Volquez is a head case who is going to get paid more money than he deserves in arbitration, so the Reds not only don't have to deal with him but they save payroll. Boxberger is getting hyped and maybe he is that good, but I heard two sportswriters on the radio talking about the trade (One from Baseball America and the other from Sports Illustrated) and neither of them seem that excited about Boxberger. One of them specifically said there is a chance he is a closer but he sees him more a set up man as of now. The Reds gave up excess parts that they weren't counting on in 2012 for a STUD. Latos is dominating. His career WHIP is 1.15. He has struck out 189 and 185 the last two seasons. Petco has nothing to do with that. He is arguably better than Cueto and he is only 24. This deal doesn't get much better for a small market team like the Reds. It sounds like a lot, and it is a lot of potential, but I like the deal. And from what I am hearing, the Reds had to give up that much to get Latos. There were 4 teams bidding for Latos over the past two weeks. Then it got down to 2 teams. The Reds had to add Boxberger to the deal to make it happen. I think it was worth it.

Alonso and Grandal are extra pieces for the Reds. Volquez is a head case who is going to get paid more money than he deserves in arbitration, so the Reds not only don't have to deal with him but they save payroll. Boxberger is getting hyped and maybe he is that good, but I heard two sportswriters on the radio talking about the trade (One from Baseball America and the other from Sports Illustrated) and neither of them seem that excited about Boxberger. One of them specifically said there is a chance he is a closer but he sees him more a set up man as of now. The Reds gave up excess parts that they weren't counting on in 2012 for a STUD. Latos is dominating. His career WHIP is 1.15. He has struck out 189 and 185 the last two seasons. Petco has nothing to do with that. He is arguably better than Cueto and he is only 24. This deal doesn't get much better for a small market team like the Reds. It sounds like a lot, and it is a lot of potential, but I like the deal. And from what I am hearing, the Reds had to give up that much to get Latos. There were 4 teams bidding for Latos over the past two weeks. Then it got down to 2 teams. The Reds had to add Boxberger to the deal to make it happen. I think it was worth it.

 

Agree on all points...

CTrent's take on why the Reds made the deal.

 

http://eye-on-baseball.blogs.cbssports.com/mcc/blogs/entry/22297882/33904080

 

Note that he said this as well. " There's no doubt the Reds payed dearly -- more than one front-office person told me the Reds grossly overpaid and I tend to agree -- but Jocketty dealt from positions of depth".

He's hardly a great replacement.

 

Alonso will be great for the Padres...The kid is way better than you give him credit for and is determined to get better...I say he hits. 300, 20 dingers and 100 rbis...All in all good trade though...Alonso was the best OF option for the Reds but maybe Fransisco can play out there or Sappelt and Heiser...