Please don't mortgage future | Cincinnati.com | Cincinnati.Com

Quote Originally Posted by John Fay
Please don't mortgage future
Reds insider
By John Fay • jfay@enquirer.com • July 4, 2009

Friday night’s loss was one of those games that make it hard – no really impossible – to stick to the old it’s-one-of-162 adage.

It was a very ugly ending to what could have been a very uplifting night for the home team.

My thoughts on the 7-4 loss to the great Albert Pujols: The killer was Arthur Rhodes walking Jarrett Hoffpauir, who was making his major league debut, on four pitches; I might have used Francisco Cordero to pitch to Pujols.

But what I took mostly out of the game had nothing to do with the outcome. Sure it would have been nice for the Reds to win. But as David Weathers pointed out, you don’t win the division on July 3. However, you can make decisions that affect the organization long term.

And it would be foolish right now to trade Homer Bailey or any of the other top arms to rent a bat for less than three months.

There’s sentiment among fans and pundits that the Reds need to make a big splash of a trade...
I tend to agree with Fay on this one. This team is not deep enough offensively to where 1 piece is the difference between playoffs and sitting at home. This team is more likely 2-3 pieces from that point and theres not that many bats that would affordable enough to make it worthwhile. Ive said it beforeo and I'll say it again if were going to be saddled with a mediocre offense Id rather see what the guys from AAA could do rather than Willy T or even Jerry Hairston. Callup Drew Stubbs and get rid of one of them. Theres a huge difference in this lineup when Chris Dickerson is leading off and when Willy T leads off... Dickerson can actually HURT you with the bat. He doesnt have the prolific base stealing ability Taveras does but he actually can get a ball into the gap and more importantly draw the occasional walk.