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Paul Daugherty
Enquirer columnist files news and observations

Paul Daugherty
Paul Daugherty has been an Enquirer sports columnist since 1994 and has been chronicling Cincinnati sports since 1988. He has covered almost every major sporting event in America, as well as five Summer Olympics. Along the way, he has been named one of the country's top-5 sports columnists four times, and Ohio columnist of the year on seven different occasions. Last year, he was voted 2nd-best sports columnist in the country, by the Associated Press Sports Editors.

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Friday, February 09, 2007

keeping aaron and bronson

To say that locking up arguably the best 1-2 pitching punch in the NL is a good thing is obvious, so I'm not going to say that. Here's the bigger question to everyone who sees this as "evidence'' the Reds want to win now: Are they better today than they were Monday? To me, keeping Harang was a bare-minimum necessity, for credibility's sake. Extending Arroyo is a good move, but here's the thing: If you don't sink some toes in the free agent water, you best keep your own players, lest you freefall into Pirateville. An option might have been to buy a few years of Jeff Suppan and come back at Arroyo, who had 2 years left on his old deal, after this year. As it is, the Reds locked up 2 durable, productive starters at below market. But their everyday lineup is still one inevitable Junior injury from 2 or 3 runs a night, even at Great American Small Park. These moves suggest Castellini & Co. know winning here is at least a year away. And is anyone truly excited at the prospect of Dustin Hermanson closing?


4 Comments:

at 3:54 PM Anonymous Anonymous said...

Totally agree. While it's obviously good news the organization decided not to let 2 of their positives from the '06 season walk - 2 years down the road, it's not like this does anything to upgrade for '07.....only possibly in '09. I don't get what all the fuss is about.

 
at 4:38 PM Anonymous Anonymous said...

yep, it's great the organization isn't aggressively trying to be worse this season. but i don't get how either of these signings make them better this year than they were last year - when they finished 3rd, with a losing record in the worst year the NL's had in half a century. are we ever gonna try to win NOW?

 
at 2:16 PM Anonymous Anonymous said...

Have to disagree slightly. Undoubtedly keeping your #1 and #2
starters is huge, huge, huge in
the current baseball environment.
You can then hope to chop and dice
a really good staff together.
Remember when we tried to chop and dice and entire pitching staff together? Definitely results were
not good. Now we have decent pitching, the litmus test is what happens in the outfield. That will tell you what the state of this franchise is. If Narron and Wayne keep on lettin Griffey and Dunn keep walking out to their
positions and keep acting like they
are major stars when they couldn't carry a Babe Ruth team anymore then we are in trouble. That's the area to keep an eye on. I think both of
those fellows are going to get a good dose of "what the f*" when spring training opens.

 
at 8:14 AM Anonymous Anonymous said...

Give the team credit for locking up 1 & 2. Don't think Lindner watch would've done so. (See ex-captian, 3 years @ $27m and fading star @ $112m as 2 questionable moves).

This era is thinking a little more clearly. However, still a little perturbed at the preoccupation with all things Brennamen. I will concede that the play-by-play of said Cooperstown enshrinee is wonderful. But, that's where the praise stops from me. Marty is tiresome in just about every other capacity. His charitable work, admirable. But his bitching, his classless tastes, his braggadocio wear on me. He is to broadcasting what Rose is to hitting. A proud rooster strutting around like he invented the radio medium. Further, his similarity to Rose is fitting in that Rose was the greatest singles hitter of all time, who would sprint to first base to draw attention to himself, and bore the locals with his tired, "it's all for the fans rhetoric".

Mickey Mantle once joked about Rose to a fellow player. In effect, he said that Rose was the loudest singles hitter ever. Kind of the Ugly American to his peers. The same can be said for Brennamen. In your face, never wrong, has let his success in the village go to his dome. Now we have to put up with another arrogant backwoods protestant for 20 more years. Think Blue! Go Dodgers!

 
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