Reds Rants and Raves

Nothing really new today on the trade front…

Except for this little tidbit from Troy Renck of the Denver Post (hat tip to Ronnie Kohrt for the alert on this):

If you go to DenverPost.com and check out Renck’s column from today, you will see what’s been a bit of a buzz on Twitter today…

According to Renck, the Rockies submitted to the Reds what they wanted in exchange for Ublado Jimenez. Rox GM Dan O’Dowd requested the likes of (get this) Chris Heisey, Devin Mesoraco and (even more outrageous) Aroldis Chapman. Needless to say, this brought a laugh from me and probalby many other Reds fans when this all hit the Twitterverse. It is the “Herschel Walker” package O’Dowd said he wanted to Jimenez, but Walt Jocketty is not the GM that will bite on that type of deal.

Acutally, you have to start somewhere, I guess. And if this is where O’Dowd is starting, he may want to lower his vision a tad. Think about this for a minute. For his career, Jimenez is 11 games over .500…which can be easily attributed to last season and most of that was in the first half. Outside of that, he really is no better than a .500 pitcher. I’m not saying he’s not good or has no further potential (he’s only 27), but the numbers are what they are.

Renck adds an interesting note: teams that are “unwillling” to meet the Rockies demands are focusing in on (and this is not to say the Reds are among those “teams”) Hiroki Kuroda and Derek Lowe. Kuroda has a full no-trade clause and has said it will be a “case-by-case” basis if he will waive the clause. This could be a pivotal move for the Braves as they currently sit as the wild card leader, but have young arms in waiting (when don’t they?).

Enough of that since nothing’s really going on anyway…

On to this.

Rob Neyer of Baseball Nation has an interesting read and take on the prospects of a former Reds shortstop and his chances for the Hall of Fame. I’m not talking about Barry Larkin either. I’m speaking of Dave Concepcion. Neyer takes a recent article by B.J. Bethel of the Dayton Daily News and constructs intriguing points for and against Davey being a member of the HOF.

"It’s probably true that if you’re one of the two best at your position over the course of a decade, you’re probably going to wind up in the Hall of Fame … but it doesn’t mean you necessarily deserve to be in the Hall of Fame. Dale Murphy was one of the best center fielders for 10 years. Don Mattingly was one of the best first basemen for 10 years. Both have their supporters, but neither is an obvious choice. And both were better players than Concepcion, who (in this discussion) was simply lucky enough to play in an era when there weren’t many great shortstops."

I’m a big Neyer fan and I think he hits one out of the park with this. Like I said, it’s a great read…and I’m not giving away the “ending”.

It’s no longer a secret that the Dayton Dragons have now set the record for most consecutive sell-outs by any professional sports franchise. CBSSports.com and USA Today have mentioned such on their sites. Baseball America takes a piece from DDN’s Seth McClelland and brings up something that may have slipped through the cracks on the monumental achievement up at Fifth-Third Field.

"The next Dragons game that isn’t a sellout will be the bigger story. It will be the first."

I know John touched on this with his last Dragon Tales piece, but this record is so incredulous that it deserves another mention.

Last thing. I was engaged in an extremely short conversation with a colleague and the subject was that of Travis Wood. The question was posed if the Reds had soured on the lefty. My response was due to the success of Dontrelle Willis, it may appear that is the case, but I know rival GMs have not forgotten about Wood.

Well, today I get a link to an excellent read on The Beanball about this very subject (coincidence, I think not!). Yes, again, well worth the read and some nice analysis.