WSH takes advantage of CIN

[Phill11]

Holy cow. I can't believe this trade.

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=2518314

Going to Cincinatti:
RP Gary Majewski
RP Bill Bray
SS Royce Clayton
IF Brendan Harris
P Darryl Thompson

Going to Washington:
OF Austin Kearns
SS Felipe Lopez
RP Ryan Wagner


WSH Gets an All-Star shortstop, potentially All-Star OFer and a former highly talented 1st round pick (Who I think will pitch great in WSH). All for an overrated RP, worthless prospect (Bray) and a backup SS.

Cinci you can now pull your pants up. Washington is done with you.

 

[NEZCardsfan]

Cincinnati needed bullpen help. They have to shore up that bullpen if they are going to try and compete with St. Louis. Sucks they gave up Kearns......but you have to give up to get.

 

[nathan]

Dumb move by the Reds. If you need relief help for a stretch run, you trade prospects not young players. A better move for them would have been to have traded The Human Strikeout.

 

[boondockdrunk]

I did not notice this, but the Reds actually picked up a pretty good pitching prospect in Daryl Thompson. While he is not going to be an Ace, he can sure be a solid #2 or 3 starter on a team.

However, the Nationals still won this trade. I can see Bray (who is underrated as a pitching prospect) and Majewski helping the Reds but the price that was paid was way too much.

In addition, I expect Jose Guillen to be moved in order to make room for Kearns.

 

[Phill11]

Cincinnati needed bullpen help. They have to shore up that bullpen if they are going to try and compete with St. Louis. Sucks they gave up Kearns......but you have to give up to get.

They gave up a solid reliver and on top of that a young solid OF (Not great but still has potential there) AND an All-Star shortstop.

 

[Brandon_Webb]

It's not as bad as a trade as it looks because the Nationals players aren't as well known. Kearns and Lopez are both solid players but nothing amazing, with the Reds hitting (3rd in the NL) is solid enough to not have too much of an effect. The reds probably did get the butt end of the deal but they needed pitching and they got two good young relievers

 

[Arby]

They gave up a solid reliver and on top of that a young solid OF (Not great but still has potential there) AND an All-Star shortstop.

Lopez had one good season last year (just because he was an all-star means nothing, see Redman, Mark) and this year he hasn't been the same offensively. Defensively he's a liability.

Kearns is a good young talent who has had a hard time staying healthy over the past few years.

Calling Wagner a "solid reliever" makes no sense. He came up for a half year after he was drafted and pitched well, since then he's been awful. Now he can't even get AAA hitters out. I believe his ERA in Louisville is somewhere around 6.50

While Lopez and Kearns are both young (26), they are both heading into their arb years and will become expensive, which is always a factor for Cincy. I would also expect their numbers to take a major hit moving from the ultra hitter friendly Great American Ballpark to the spacious DC park.

Overall I agree with the general consensus that this was a good trade for Washington, but Cincy did have their reasons for doing it.

Bray and Majewski will be a major upgrade to pen that featured, at one point or another, Rick White, Chris Hammond, Esteban Yan and Jason Standridge. Not to mention David Weathers and Kent Mercker.

For Reds fans, you can only hope that Chris Denorfia comes in and continues to produce like he did in Louisville and Royce Clayton can add just a little bit offensively to his solid (yet unspectacular) defense. If that happens, offensively they will still score plenty of runs. Defensively and pitching wise this trade makes them better.