the reds have claimed utility infielder matt kata from the phillies and released allan simpson. Now, i'm not saying that my love for allan simpson was entirely rational, but this just seems silly.
We have LOTS of utility infielders at this point, and the 27 yr old kata is certainly nothing with the bat (in 3 MLB seasons .248/.308/.392/.700), so he offers our team exactly nothing. Even if he somehow radically improves on that, he's not going to take away a starting position from EdE, Felo, Freel/Aurillia, or Dunn. So even if he gets better, he still gives our team exactly nothing.
on the other hand simpson has minor league career number of 3.66 ERA 7.38 h/9 0.40 hr/9 5.08 bb/9 9.84 k/9 1.38 WHIP. Yes it's too many walks, but he could have been servicable as is with a 1.38 WHIP. Is a servicable reliever worthless to the reds? no. it's better than we got out of belisle and coffey last year and about the same as mercker.
Now consider what he could be if he manages to cut down the walks, say by 2.08/9 (still not exactly great). Using my projection system based on pitching peripheral stats (http://strike3forums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=8715) his ERA should have been about 4.21 in the minors, and it was probably a little lower because of the high k rate getting him out of some jams. say .25 for the sake of argument because of k's, the rest luck.
if he was able to drop his walks to 3 per 9IP, i'd project him to have an ERA of 3.33, and then with correction for high k/9, around 3.08. it's not an exact science by any means, but what i'm getting at is that this was a guy with the potential to be one of the reds best relievers if he marginally improves, and kata has the potential to be nothing even if he drastically improves.
for a team whose main need is pitching, we sure do seem to be getting rid of a lot of pitchers (hancock, hudson, simpson) who could have helped, and bringing in a lot of utility players (kata, McC, Perez) who have no chance of contributing.