Ken Griffey, Jr., stroked over 600 home runs.
He is a first-ballot Hall of Famer.
Adam "Big Donkey" Dunn has hit 40-or-more home runs each of the past four seasons.
He is tied for the Major-League lead with 32 this year.
The Reds have traded both in the past two weeks – Griffey on July 31; Dunn on Monday.
Here’s what the Reds received:
- Nick Masset, a 26-year-old right-hand pitcher who has thrown all of 100 innings in the Major Leagues.
- Danny Richar, a 25-year-old infielder who has played in all of 56 Major League games.
- Dallas Buck, a 23-year-old right-hand pitcher who is coming off Tommy John surgery.
- Two players to be named later from the Diamondbacks.
Those aren’t exactly blue-chip prospects the Reds have garnered for their corner outfielders. Masset has looked decent enough in his early outings with the Reds. And Buck is considered a promising prospect, if he remains healthy. He's only Class A ball. And if the Reds had let Dunn walk at the end of the year, they would have received two supplementary first-round draft picks.
Evidently, GM Walt Jocketty felt he had to act now. He didn’t want to pick up Griffey’s option for next season. He didn’t want to pick up Dunn’s option for next season. Griffey is out of gas, long past his prime. Dunn has never played with any kind of gas, not on the bases or in the outfield. He hits long home runs. And he walks. His on-base percentage is .373 this year, but his batting average just .233. And, as Paul Daugherty points out, Dunn is no leader.
But the Reds aren’t exactly leaders, either. They way they’ve been doing it these past few years has been the wrong way. Eight straight losing seasons, which will be the tally after this campaign — Jack McKeon was the last winning Reds manager — doesn’t lie. You don’t neglect the farm system, hire five managers in six years, hire three general managers in four years and expect to be a contender.
There is something to be said for stability.
So what’s the plan now? Owner Bob Castellini was downright laughable in telling the Cincinnati Enquirer the Reds were starting over, but could "absolutely" win next year.
There's your problem right there.
Maybe they should hire Rich Brooks.
I moved to Cincinnati in 1993 and they were talking the rebuilding story at that time. 15 years later and they are still trying to get things fixed. Just a bunch of hollow promises. At least all of the development between the 2 new stadiums is nice….oh wait, still trying to get that worked as as well.
Great point on the lack of development between the two Cincinnati stadiums. Would the Reds have been better off to build at Broadway Commons? And would they have been better off to build a more conventional park than the home run hitter’s paradise they now have?
Walt Jocketty is an experienced GM with a track record unlike Krivsky or O’Brien. Lets see what he can do. Changing the sense of urgency in the clubhouse is as important as changing the players on the field. That and money are why Griffey and Dunn are gone. The name of the game remains pitching, pitching and more pitching.