Rants, Raves and Rumblings

OK. So there was supposedly this little to-do about some moves to be made by the Reds today. I have a question: Where the hell are the moves? None of the roster variety anyway…

I know for some time Reds fans have wanted to see the likes of Zack Cozart, Devin Mesoraco, Dontrelle Willis, Yonder Alonso and also Dave Sappelt up with the big club. None have happened. The current status of the team is not working the way we all thought it would coming into the season. To bring all or most of these guys up at the same time or even close together is not the right thing to do. Too much, too soon could spell an even bigger fall than we’re witnessing.

About those “moves”…

So the big move was sliding BP back to clean-up (a spot of which he isn’t particularly fond of) and putting Edgar Renteria at the #2 spot. For cryin’ out loud. I would rather see Jay Bruce, Scott Rolen (yes, even Rolen), Fred Lewis or even Ryan Hanigan there. Bruce and Lewis because you have the righty-lefty at the top of the lineup. Hanigan can work the count as well as any hitter the Reds have. Rolen could be somewhat viable because he can handle the bat even though it appears to be a little slower than in 2010.

But Edgar?

And I don’t get the fodder of shipping out Drew Stubbs. Kerry mentioned this earlier today (a move he is against, by the way) and it did gain some steam on Twitter.

Yes, he currently is lost at the plate, but I do not see his lack of offense playing into his defense like some players do.

Say you do that, send Stubbs to L’ville. You’re left with Chris Heisey as your everyday center fielder. Not bad really, but what happens if/when he starts to fall off in his production? And that most likely would be “when” and not “if”. Would the bastion of fans call for his demotion as well?

Just yesterday, Alex pointed to the Reds offense and how the rankings skew the overall team performance. In some cases, the knee-jerk reax is to look at the pitching. In others, you get the rumblings of players being demoted either to the bench or Triple-A. The pitching hasn’t been stellar either with the exception of Johnny Cueto and the fist part of the season by Homer Bailey. Mike Leake has been the most consistent (except for Cueto) as of late. This all leads into something possibly afloat here.

Dontrelle was reportedly lifted from his start today. There were some theories that could have led to him starting tonight. Well, even after a bout with dizziness, Bronson Arroyo will take the mound. That then led to a smattering of thoughts that maybe, just maybe, he could be in line for Edinson Volquez‘s next turn in the rotation. That would not be until Sunday. Isn’t that a little too far off? Wouldn’t you let Willis pitch a couple of innings tonight just to stay on a schedule? Or better yet, could they put Willis in the rotation sooner and move everyone else back a day? Flocka…

One last thing and this is not Reds related, but this simply boggles my mind. How is Pittsburgh’s Andrew McCutchen not on the NL All-Star squad? He’s not even on the freakin’ final vote ballot! A huge boat was missed here. Huge, and it cannot be said and overstated enough.

Since there is an NFL lockout still going on…I’ll use a football term here: FUMBLE!

So in review: No roster moves today, only lineup moves (and not for the better); don’t demote Stubbs despite the ugly stats; Willis might be here soon; Andrew McCutchen was hosed.

Done. Enjoy tonight’s game.