RealGM

What kind of off season moves would you like to see the Reds make? Let's start with the pitching staff.

64 Jon Adkins L/R 6-0 210 08/30/77
41 Jeremy Affeldt L/L 6-4 225 06/06/79
61 Bronson Arroyo R/R 6-5 195 02/24/77
45 Bill Bray L/L 6-3 220 06/05/83
51 Jared Burton R/R 6-5 230 06/02/81
48 Francisco Cordero R/R 6-3 240 05/11/75
47 Johnny Cueto R/R 5-10 185 02/15/86
39 Aaron Harang R/R 6-7 275 05/09/78
52 Daniel Ray Herrera L/L 5-7 145 10/21/84
57 Mike Lincoln R/R 6-2 215 04/10/75
38 Gary Majewski R/R 6-1 220 02/26/80
40 Nick Masset R/R 6-4 235 05/17/82
56 Micah Owings R/R 6-5 220 09/28/82
63 Adam Pettyjohn R/L 6-3 200 06/11/77
58 Ramon Ramirez R/R 5-10 170 09/16/82
65 Josh Roenicke R/R 6-3 200 08/04/82
36 Edinson Volquez R/R 6-0 200 07/03/83
25 David Weathers R/R 6-3 235 09/25/69

This is the current active roster pitching staff for the Reds, rosters are expanded right now I guess. But when you have to narrow it down to around 11, who do you keep and who would you dump? Heck, let's narrow it down to the pen first, what 6 guys would you keep for the bullpen?

Our guys battled hard the last few weeks and I am sure it was great experience for next season. I think we're going to have a battle for the backend of the starting rotation. Cordero certainly came around towards the end, and I am sure Bray, Masset, and Burton are in as well. I really liked Lincoln, his stuff is simply too nasty to not have, he just has to keep his walks down and prevent those long slumps he has. And the 6th will be interesting, with Weathers being a year older, we'll have to see how free agency goes. However, I hope we spend our money on offense( a catcher?) We need more RBIs.

I agree with your list of keepers for the most part. IMO the Keepers for the bullpen would be about what you had. Cordero, Burton, Bray, Lincoln, and I would bring back Affeldt instead of Weathers. I haven't seen Masset enough to give an honest evaluation of what he has, so I left him off of my list.

Our starting rotation is actually pretty decent if we can keep them healthy and get the old Harang back. Cueto and Volquez are definitely MLB material. Arroyo had another decent year for us even after starting the season out terribly. Harang was the guy that we needed results from. If we could flip flop his wins and losses, we might have been looking at the wild card hunt.

I also agree with you about the catcher. I think we need to go out and get a quality veteran catcher, to go along with the talented youngster (Hannigan) or Ross. I like Valentin, but his time has come to move along. I would also like to see us get a good center fielder to go along with Bruce and Dickerson. I would move Hairston to short. I think this would give us some really good defense up the middle of the field. Keppinger could be my everyday utility guy and a pinch hitter.

I don't know what I would do with Freel and Hopper or whoever lost out between Hanigan and Ross, but I wouldn't bring back Bako or Patterson.

I don't know who becomes our 5th starter, but I do know that Fogg and Belisle aren't the answer.

Apparently out pitching staff really liked pitching to Bako, and I believe we were close to .500 with him catching, so we might see him back. Or I could see us signing a more productive offensively veteran catcher.

^^^ I can see and understand that, but the guy is such an offensive liability. I would try to replace him with an upgrade if it were up to me.