Here’s a few links I’ve found that I believe you’ll find interesting to read while you watch the World Series on what used to be considered the world’s greatest waste of time…
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Paul Daugherty interviews former Reds General Manager Wayne Krivsky on the Josh Hamilton–Edinson Volquez trade. I supported the trade at the time for many of the reasons that Krivsky espouses in the interview. I don’t normally support trading a position player for a pitcher, but I thought this may be the exception. In hindsight, I believe I should have stuck to my normal way of thinking. An outfield of Hamilton-Drew Stubbs–Jay Bruce sounds like heavy artillery and exceptional defense to me…and think of the runs scored with a heart of the lineup featuring Joey Votto-Hamilton-Bruce.
–John Sickels, publisher of the widely respected annual “The Baseball Prospect Book”, has an extremely complimentary view of the young Reds players. Now, this isn’t a minor league prospect review, he’s discussing young players on the major league playoff squads. In one sentence, Sickels says the Reds are “chock full of them.” He briefly reviews virtually every roster player age 25 and under on the Reds.
–Sickels also has a short opinion piece on whether Aroldis Chapman or Jeremy Hellickson is the best pitching prospect in baseball. Here’s a great Chapman photo, too.
–I feel like Sickels’ agent today, but here’s a chance to vote on who’s the better prospect, Yonder Alonso or Logan Morrison.
— At the Hardball Times, Chris Jaffe, author of “Evaluating Baseball’s Managers,” does a comparison of postseason managers and names ten things he didn’t know about them.
–And here’s my favorite one. Over at The Hardball Times, there are two articles published in May that I had not noticed about how good the 1960’s Reds could’ve been had it not been for a few seemingly dubious deals. We’ve discussed past Reds trades before ( click “Redleg Trade Review” or search that phrase on Redleg Natoin and there’s an abundance after a couple of pages of linked posts), but THT gives their take and it’s worth your reading of what could have been. Read Part One and then Part Two. We’ve talked a lot recently about how the 1960’s Reds are somehow overlooked and were quite probably underachievers. THT offers some scenarios which would could have given us a long term dynasty that would’ve rivaled almost any team in baseball history, especially if we hadn’t traded away all those young pitchers in the 1970’s.