John Fay’s Reds Insider
Fay discusses the Reds chances of going after Jeff Weaver:
Or, in general manager Dan O’Brien-speak: “At this time, I have to say that scenario is unlikely.”
Fay also says:
The Reds made runs at Matt Morris, Dan Kolb and Brett Tomko.
I hadn’t heard anything about Kolb or Tomko being approached by the Reds. Kolb is a reliever, which while needed, isn’t nearly the priority that a good starter is. Tomko isn’t the front of the rotation guy this team needs, he’s more along the lines of what they already have.
Concerning the difficulty in signing pitching, O’Brien says:
“(Money) most definitely isn’t always the leading factor,” O’Brien said. “It’s different with each player. They may want to go where they had previous success. Teammates are a factor. Geography is a factor.”
Morris wanted to work with San Francisco catcher Mike Matheny. Kolb wanted to go back to Milwaukee and work with pitching coach Mike Maddux. Tomko, a California resident, signed with Los Angeles.
“I’d be less than candid if I didn’t say geography was a factor in Chris Hammond signing with us,” O’Brien said.
I think it’s becoming increasingly apparent that, at least for 2006, what you see in terms of starting pitching, is what you’re going to get.
The HR explosion at GABP should definitely be a concern and I agree that it scares off some pitchers from wanting to come here. Philadelphia moved back one of its fences (LF, I think) this offseason to help curtail some of the cheap HRs. We should consider this not only to help attract FAs but also to help develop young pitchers, whose confidence can be blown with chip-shots that go over the fence. This may have already happened here, although I can’t think of anyone off the top of my head.
I’m not worried yet about the team’s inability to attract a few FA pitchers this offseason, because I think it has more to do with the team’s record than the ballpark.
Once the team improves a little bit (as I expect them to do this year), then they’ll have better success.
Also, I think Milton has a lot to do with this. Milton sucking not only hurt us on the field, but I think his problems last year are being attributed to the ball-park, which has a lot less to do with it than the fact that he just sucked.
you can attribute Miltons performance to his 85 mph fastball…this from a guy who used to pitch in the 91-95 range.