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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.
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.
 
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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.
 
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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.
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.
 
I like India but this is a good move on paper. Singer brings stability and a proven mlb starter. Don’t have to rely on Lowder who is probably on a pitch limit and can put Ashcraft in the pen where he probably belongs

McLain will be back healthy, Espinal is still there and Tyler Callihan was just added to the 40 man.

I thank India for what leadership he brought and I do like him but it makes too much sense to do this deal.

Now, get a corner OFer or two
 
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.
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.
 
Interesting hire. I like it. Still hoping they bring in Votto for some role within the organization.

 
Why don't you let the guy play a few seasons before slapping this premature label on him.
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.
 
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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.
LOL. I'm sure you already tweeted Sadak to tell him how much of a joke EDLC receiving MVP votes was, right MarkKY58521944?
 
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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.
 
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Kikuchi got 3/63M with Anaheim. If that’s the starter market for a mid-rotation guy, the Martinez 1 year QO and Singer trade sounds better and better imo
 
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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.
 
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.
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.
 
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.
 
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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.
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.

Teams who can't afford to pay the agreed upon yearly deal with the player and have to defer have no business signing these guys. In 10 years these guys will all be gone if not sooner and will be past their prime. LA is really going to fall on their ass when this happens. If other teams did this, owners may think it is worth it for 3 or 4 World Series Championships in a decade. Selloff when they don't want to pay up and a new ownership group is left assuming the debt. Will set many teams back who can't afford to spend with the likes of LA & NYY. Leaving the Reds out of this who can never afford to do it. Middle of the pack teams in spending will really feel the effect much more than teams the big market spenders.

As long as the Reds have the mindset that big time additions are signing jokes like Mike Moustakas to make him the Reds most expensive FA signing in team history, acquiring middle of the rotation pitchers, stock piling the organization with infielders and won't trade any of them for veterans in their prime they wouldn't otherwise be able to afford with giving up prospects. They will always come up short to teams like the Dodgers and have narrow windows to compete in before trading off players while under arbitration to trade for more prospects. Continuously rebuilding. Rinse and repeat. Spend half a decade just to appear in the NLDS once, maybe twice and that is as far as Cincinnati gets.
 
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Didn't the state of California sue the Dodgers over the Ohtani deal in an effort to collect state income tax? What happened to that litigation? That might stop the deferral business if the players have to go ahead and pay state income tax.
 
It is not going to fix the system with tax reform laws. It is in the CBA that there are no limitations on the amount of players a team can sign to deferred contracts as well as the amount of money too. The MLBPA will never agree to it. They can make players like Ohtani pay more now changing the law, but it won't stop a team like the Dodgers from loading up their rosters with players like Teoscar Hernandez to 1-year deals who won't command as much money. It is less of a burden on a player of Teoscar's stature to be effected by any such change with a smaller contract than a long-term lucrative deal like Ohtani. More players will just sign shorter deals as Hernandez did. Like I previously said, the Dodgers will laugh at the notion of paying a luxury tax so long as they are winning. Closing this tax loophole which is what the SJR 14 legislation aims to do wouldn't effect the club from signing players to deferred contracts.
 
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Paying Martinez $21M is the worst contract in recent Reds memory.
No it’s not, the Homer Bailey contract was far worse. 1 year deals don’t hurt you that much if the player does badly. And if he’s doing well and the team is doing badly, he’s easy to trade at the deadline
 
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