I don't see the Reds going back to the clean cut, no facial hair policy of the old days with Francona. When you go back to his old teams, they had Johnny Damon, Bronson Arroyo & Manny Ramirez with the long hair in Boston.I doubt it will happen, but hopefully Francona implements some professionalism in terms of uniforms and appearance. Lose the long hair, man buns, bandanas, and Elly's clown outfit.
Color me shocked Bowden is as good of a reporter as he was a GM. We'll see how good of a pitcher Singer is in GABP, but it seems like a good deal for the Reds getting another arm that has ML experience with all of the injuries this team has had in the rotation recently. Better than going after the $25 million injury-prone Sonny Gray for another pitcher in their mid-30s.The India Royals trade appears to be off according to Jim Bowden. Says Brady Singer was the backup plan for Nick Martinez if he signed elsewhere. This would have been a good trade for Cincinnati getting Singer. He would have been much cheaper and gave them 2 years of team control. Reds should have dumped someone else off than the team leader in .OBP, but it would have been a fair trade. Plenty of infield prospects to move. Now that it is dead, they best be looking to trade for a real outfielder instead of a bunch of guys who are 4th/5th outfielders at best.
Looks like India got traded tonight.The India Royals trade appears to be off according to Jim Bowden. Says Brady Singer was the backup plan for Nick Martinez if he signed elsewhere. This would have been a good trade for Cincinnati getting Singer. He would have been much cheaper and gave them 2 years of team control. Reds should have dumped someone else off than the team leader in .OBP, but it would have been a fair trade. Plenty of infield prospects to move. Now that it is dead, they best be looking to trade for a real outfielder instead of a bunch of guys who are 4th/5th outfielders at best.
Really? I had not heard.Looks like India got traded tonight.
Just saw it on ESPN ticker.Really? I had not heard.
It will only be a good move if the Reds boost this lineup with some impact bats in the outfield. This trade was essentially getting the India equivalent of a pitcher in Singer for your team leader in on base percentage who draws a lot of walks for a team that strikes out too much. Basically this is robbing Peter to pay Paul. Cincinnati hasn't done a damn thing to address the offense yet and it just got weaker after this trade. Keeping my expectations tempered with the injury-prone McLain and CES coming back from a wrist injury that is known to zap the power out of hitters for good. Cincinnati has plenty of infield prospects that should have been traded without a clear path to a starting spot in Cincinnati to use as trade bait for a legit ace who has postseason experience to mentor this young pitching staff similar to the effect Montas had as an influence to Hunter Greene this past season. India caught a lot of hell for his defensive here, but he kept improving to have the 2nd fewest errors at 2B in all of MLB for the 2024 season. Always thought the Reds did a disservice to him by catering to Moustakas and not shifting India to 3B after the Suarez trade when he was a natural 3B.Color me shocked Bowden is as good of a reporter as he was a GM. We'll see how good of a pitcher Singer is in GABP, but it seems like a good deal for the Reds getting another arm that has ML experience with all of the injuries this team has had in the rotation recently. Better than going after the $25 million injury-prone Sonny Gray for another pitcher in their mid-30s.
Keeping my expectations tempered with the injury-prone McLain
Fair enough. But that is rich coming from you who wouldn't even give Elly De La Cruz a month before shipping him back to Louisville. I bet you shit your pants that anyone would vote for him in the NL MVP race with the 8th most for the NL MVP 1 1/2 years into his career. Contrary to any of your delusions about him, he is one of the top players in the National League.Why don't you let the guy play a few seasons before slapping this premature label on him.
LOL. I'm sure you already tweeted Sadak to tell him how much of a joke EDLC receiving MVP votes was, right MarkKY58521944?The HOF SS is now 6 for his last 35 w/ 14 K's (mirrors his excellence of a year ago)
Everyone got excited over a 2 week stretch and Sadak screaming, but that balloon burst w/ the quickness as expected. He simply isn't good enough on a consistent basis, and is very bad for long stretches.
When your best player is 5'8; 190 lbs. and is out until August, then you have a problem.
I think he will be a good addition as a mentor and a younger coach who was in the game not too long ago. World Series Champion, a lot of postseason experience. He was an offensive catcher in his prime hitting for a lot of power. Been a coach within the NL Central the previous 4 years with the Cubs. I do like Brad Mills coming back to baseball and work with Francona as the bench coach here. Also, saw where Jose Barrero is getting a chance with St. Louis now.Former Chicago Cubs coach joins a suddenly daunting Cincinnati Reds organization
Former Chicago Cubs' first base coach Mike Napolis is joining the Cincinnati Reds' coaching staff under Terry Francona.cubbiescrib.com
This is huge for everyone and should eventually add more in TV revenue for the Reds reaching $13 million homes is what they are estimating. Several million more than what it previously was with Diamond Sports Group. I finally cancelled Directv after 20 years when the league announced they were taking over the distribution of the game. The very same day, Directv had raised the rates on my bill for the 2nd time in 2024. Kept them around for years just because of the Reds. Glad to be done and cut my bill in half with a new service.Got an email from Reds.com that Reds games will be available live streaming with no blackouts this year, either on a streaming service, e.g., YouTube, or via MLB.com for approximately $20 per month. Good news for the local fans.
Small market teams won't compete for World Series Championships in the current landscape of MLB as long as this continues. MLBPA will never allow for a salary cap like the NBA and NFL and are the players agree to the deferred provisions in the collective bargaining agreement. Teams like LA & NYY scoff at the Competitive Balance Tax and are just fine paying a luxury tax, while the Dodgers continue to exploit the system to defer contracts on multiple star players. Maybe take top round draft pick away of the next MLB Draft for teams that are deferring outrageous amounts of money on these contracts.Blake Snell just signed for 5 years, $182 million to the Dodgers and of course some of the money will be deferred. I know the Reds tried this with Griffey and the worst-case scenario of winning absolutely nothing happened. Just finished paying out Griffey this year. Not the Castellini's fault as this deal took place under Carl Lindner. Getting burned like that makes me never want to see the Reds do something like this again. However, I wonder if other teams are going to start doing this more often to even have a snowball's chance in hell at competing unless rules are ever implemented to limit deferred contracts per team.
I absolutely hate it. It is bullshit that the Dodgers deferred Teoscar Hernandez last year on a 1-year deal, now Snell and deferred $68 million of Shohei Ohtani's $70 million per year. Imagine if Juan Soto would agree to do the same with them as they are one of the teams that have presented a contract offer to him. If teams are going to do this, should be required to pay a large percentage of the annual salary of the contract rather than paying a league MVP a base salary of $2 million every year until 2034. Small market teams will never have a chance as long as this keeps happening.