Negron

[JohnU]

For folks who think giving up defense at SS is practical, what Negron played Wednesday is an example of why you don't.
Plus, he can't hit.

 

[Redsfan1507]

These days, I think it's a requirement for a utility infielder to be hitless. Turner for the Dodgers, Solarte for Padres, are the only ones that come to mind that appear be hitters. Cozart is a very good defensive SS...sometimes when you see a guy all the time, you start overlooking him. I think they could do a lot worse at SS than Cozart. We probably are currently.

 

[JohnU]

I think most people who are idiots about baseball thought that the fix for the Reds was to unload everyone not named Votto -- and the metrics experts just sloughed it off as saying "yeah, Cozart's "decent" with the glove but anybody can play SS, if he can hit .240. Yeah, anybody CAN play SS, but not very many of them are better right now than Cozart. I think Simmons with the Braves is better. Haven't seen many others lately who are. I thought Segura could be good, might still be. I don't follow AL teams enough to comment on them. Brandon Crawford at SF is probably in the top 5 or so. Starlin Castro is not.

 

[Redsfan1507]

A FEW things keep Cozart from getting more attention as a SS.

1. He plays in Pigtown, OH. not LA or NY or the ex-team of conversation of ESPN announcers.

2. He makes lots of outs on balls most don't get to, but he is pretty boring doing it. Not many acrobatic catches or behind the back acts of web gem worthiness.

3. He doesn't have an un-worldy arm, hit enough, or have "it"- a cult of personality that attracts media stalkers and supermodels, so everyone knows his name.

If Cozart gets traded to a perennial Series winner in a major media center, hits .290 and dates Kate Upton, he'd have a wall of gold gloves.

 

[JohnU]

It took Barry Larkin an entire career before anybody noticed how good he was.
For the record, Cozart has to prove over 6 months that he's improved his hitting. I'd like to see more action on the bases but I am not privy to that thinking.
And for what it's worth, Negron has been passable at SS, but he's also a slightly-below replacement level player. With him and 6 other guys like it, you get a 51-111 team.

Modifying the chat a bit, it appears Mike Leake is making a trophy run for his inevitable free agency. I guess we take what we get while we still can.

 

[WvuDieHard]

Cozart is an above average SS and is having a season worthy of the Reds trying to retain him. But much like the brief spurts of Bruce--I am not convinced yet. I still believe Cozart ends up hitting under .270 and goes back to pulling the ball, swinging at bad pitches, and popping up.

 

[Redsfan1507]

Given the results of ALL long term contracts longer than a couple years, especially those in the $100M plus range, I don't think I would ever sign another one. I think it is a more sensible investment to put that money into scouting, minor league development and fan accommodations at the ballpark.

I've seen no evidence that MVP's were underpaid at $15M a year, or whatever they earned the in their big year, or that they repeat those career years five years older at $25M a year. Tying up $250M or approx. 1/4 of a yearly team payroll on one guy, just isn't sound economics. I think the only thing it provides is some residual PR for fans and younger players that the team will consider paying for loyalty, even in an environment where fans and players have no loyalty that isn't paid for in wins and/or dollars. Players under contract get paid regardless of their performance, attendance, or if the team is losing money or games. All the risk is on the team.

Fans are fickle. They cry if those favorite players leave for bigger cash, or if they don't live up to the payday if they are kept. They expect teams to spend even if they refuse to buy a ticket. Marlin "fans" said they didn't want to go to a hot, buggy ballpark so far from home even though they were consistently a plus .500 team, so they build a beautiful new stadium..and signed a lot of high dollar players, and a high profile winning manager..and they still didnt show up, and they didnt win, so the team dumped their salaries, and fans still didnt show up (in that order), because the owner was "untrustworthy, cheap and greedy". Lately, they signed the biggest single contract in history with Stanton..who isn't hitting...and the fans still aren't showing up...so who is untrustworthy ? IMO, Loria is running a business, fans and players are just giving him "the" business. There is a difference. Baseball isn't an entitlement program, but apparently not everyone in South FLA knows that.

Owners are responsible, for the original irresponsibility of the MLB market value, but lawyers, judges and player unions reinforced that insanity with collusion settlements a long time ago. Baseball is somehow unique to the limitations of other sports- NHL, NFL and NBA- who don't guarantee all the money, and/or regulate with salary caps. They've also escaped the PED scrutiny MLB has been saddled with, even though anyone that has looked at an NFL player out of uniform, or seen Dwight Howard in uniform would doubt those were strictly their Mommas muscles.

I wish Cueto and Leake, and future ex-Reds signing free agent deals elsewhere well, but not enough to repeat prior monetary indescretions with Votto and Bailey. Especially if it means the rest of the roster can't make more than 50% of the MLB average salary to stay afloat. I'm afraid the Reds need a different model-one more A's and Rays like, until they have perfected the Cards version supported by a consistently superior minor league system and a fan base that is trustworthy enough to sign an occasional bigger contract and not have to fill the rest of the roster through the Temp Agency.

 

[JohnU]

Had the Reds not signed Votto 4 years ago, the team would be

a. running away with the NL-C after having won 3 W.S. titles
b. settling into 5th place with no chance of recovery
c. a game or so out of first place with a pitching staff in line for next year
d. refer to (b.)
e. preparing to host an All-Star game and bragging about what great restaurants there are all around the ballpark

 

[Redsfan1507]

This team would be worse without Votto, unless of course they would have traded him before the big contract, for 3 prospects that wound up MLB all-stars by now, still making only a fraction of Votto's contract.

I think the days of hitting like Hornsby, and staying that way longer, on Roids is over, and so the 8 year contract at max bucks needs to be also. Teams like the Reds just can't pay 3 guys combined $65M a year, and still field a competitive team with only $40M to split with the remaining 22 players.

It would be different if those contracts had a performance clause-where they make $30M in a triple crown year, and $750 K for an absentee year like Votto's last season. There is a difference in fair and cheap....I get a chuckle at the Yankees trying to welch out of A-Rods $6M per milestone HR bonus, contending the PED issue, but volunteered to pay him $250M in the first place, and had to know he (and every other Yankee) was on PED's.

 

[JohnU]

Yankees didn't have a problem luring all the top guys so that they could be in the post-season every year. That's why they got A-Roid. As well, they were always able to keep the guys that other teams would routinely lose in the FA market.

How long do you think Mariano Rivera would have stayed in Cincy or Pittsburgh or Oakland?
Their apologists seem to forget that part.
And the Yankees jacked up the price so that the Cincy or Pittsburgh front office was compelled to make choices, much like the Reds are now -- nobody wants to lose Chapman but the writing is fairly plain -- he's not really helping the team while in a Reds uniform. He's worth more to some whackoff GM who still believes that closers are worth giant contracts.

 

[chico ruiz]

"whack off" gm. never heard it put quite like that john. is that anything like a "punch the clown" gm? or a "beat the bishop" exec? maybe a "choke the chicken" young statistician analysis type gm? they do spend inordinate amounts of time on the computer. they can't just be perusing spray charts and spewing forth all those numbers from memory. you show a lot of spunk for a man of your age.

 

[JohnU]

I really never considered analyzing the phrase, to be honest.