My favorite line reguarding Adam Dunn is the insanely stupid blanket line of Let him go and use the money for free agent starting pitchers.

Here is a listing of all the free agent starting pitchers for 2009.

http://mlbcontracts.blogspot.com/2002/02/2008-09-free-agents.html

There are probably 4 pitchers on the 09 FA list that could be helpful to the Reds. 
In my opinion they are:
CC Sabathia(who couldn't he help!?)
Ben Sheets
Derek Lowe
Ryan Dempster

C.C. Sabathia. We all know CC is going to get insane money.Which sort of rules the Reds and really most teams out except for the really large payroll teams.Unless of course the Brewers spend the dough.

Ben Sheets. He's a very dominant pitcher but with a pretty huge injury risk.He's not made over 30 starts since 04. He hasn't thrown 200+ innings since 04.He'll probably be looking to make a large chunk of cash as well.

Derek Lowe. He's a groundball pitcher with a great sinker. He has a bunch of problems though. His ERA every year with the Dodgers is lower at Dodger stadium then on the road. Usually it's a full run up on the road. Could he actually pitch in GABP? Also doesn't help that he's in his mid-30s.

Ryan Dempster. He pitches in a ballpark that gives up the longball similarly to Great American. The problem is, is 2008 a fluke career year or can he reproduce it again?

On the Cots MLB 2009 free agents listing for starting pitchers there are 4 total pitchers under the age 30. Only 4. Those 4 are CC Sabathia, Jon Garland, Oliver Perez, and Mark Prior.

Again this is just my opinion and maybe I'm looking at it all wrong. 

Am I the only one thinking that Walt Jocketty is going to wreck the Reds currently top rated farm system? Maybe wreck is the wrong word I'm looking for there but I just don't know

about Jocketty.  He's known as a wheeler and a dealer. He's certainly not known for helping St. Louis build up a great farm system. I just hate this whole cycling out GM's, managers, owners. It's got to stop. I for the life of me can't figure out WHY on God's green Earth you fire your GM within the first month of games by saying we don't like losing. I mean Castelini in this part comes off like some insane cry baby who has to have their way but refuses to do things the way they should be done. Castellini wants to win. The players want to win. The fans want the team to win. Nobody wants or is trying to lose. It's funny about that old saying you don't know what you got until it's gone. Well now that Krivsky's gone I know how much I hated his silence about everything and his double talk he must of learned in Presidential Elections 101 but with that silence I sorta felt like I knew what was going on with the team.  We kinda knew he wasn't going to dump the touted prospects for one above average player. I just feel uncertain about the future of this franchise. I want this team to win but I want them to be set up for many years of competitive and hopefully WINNING baseball not just 1 or 2 years.

Either way it goes I can't control things and just got to hope for the best.  Which is what I'll do, as I always do.

I just want to rant off about things I hate about when I go to see the Reds at GABP. I was there last night for that awful awful game against the Dodgers.



Booing. I understand booing what you think is a bad call. I understand frustration builds. The want to show your displeasure to the world and to the team. Where I was sitting people were booing just about everything. All I could think was there's two cities you can move to that LOVE do to that. Chicago or Philly. I'm not suggesting to clap when young phenom Joey Votto boots a grounder or the pitcher gives up a longball on the second pitch. How about instead of booing you sit there. You sit there in silence. The worst is that these same people think it's perfectly cool and normal to boo with intense anger and then when that same player turns around and say cranks a nasty bomb that they deserve the right to cheer for them. For me I don't boo any of the Reds players EVER. I might boo a bad call or somebody getting an IBB. It's mostly a half-hearted booing.



The music. Could we PLEASE not have that god awful euro-trash techno crap play? The one that is played during futbol matches. Leave it over there. It's awful. I can handle the woo-hoo's of Gwen Stefani. I might even be able to handle the day-o's. But not that garbage.



The last thing I hate is coming away with a Reds loss. I knew going in the odds were against us just because of Brad Penny. Sadly the Dodgers decided to pack their offense as well. Also Belizzle threw the grizzle and held the sizzle.

This is for a H2H league with 10 players. The only stats we count are:Runs,HR,RBI,SB,AVG,OPS,K's,W,Svs,ERA,WHIP.

C:Joe Mauer(Minnesota Twins)

1B:Adrian Gonzalez(San Diego Padres)

2B:Dustin Pedroia(Boston Red Sox)

3B:Miguel Cabrera(Detroit Tigers)

SS:Jhonny Peralta(Cleveland Indians)

OF:Jeff Francoeur(Atlanta Braves)

OF:Shane Victorino(Philadelphia Phillies)

OF:Andruw Jones(LA Dodgers)

UTIL:Chone Figgins(LA Angels)

Bench:Ronny Paulino(C;Pittsburg Pirates)

Bench:Jason Kubel(OF,DH;Minnesota Twins)



Pitching Staff:

SP:Jake Peavy(San Diego Padres)

SP:Justin Verlander(Detroit Tigers)

SP:Roy Oswalt(Houston Astros)

SP:Derek Lowe(SP;LA Dodgers)

RP:Francisco Rodriguez(LA Angels)

RP:Francisco Cordero(Cincinnati Reds)

P:Chad Cordero(Washington Nationals)

Bench:Francisco Liriano(Minnesota Twins)

Bench:Kevin Gregg(RP;Florida Marlins)

Bench:Johnny Cueto(SP;Cincinnati Reds)

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My offense seems pretty weak and thin, stupid 10th spot in the draft.