Willy Mo traded for Bronson Arroyo (Confirmed)

[General]

Lets say he got 700 ABs, the record in the MLB. He still would have hit .254, and around 40 HRs. Oh, and bad defense and low plate awareness.

[MarinersFan87]

Yes, but he only had 311 AB. I think he would hit a lot more if he played everyday.

Would his OBP have improved or gone down with those extra at bats?

[Geki Ace]

I don't want to have gotten anything better for Wily Mo, because he shouldn't have been traded in the first place. It opens up a hole in our offense (Lefties are gonna rape us again this year. Yay!), and it barely improves our pitching staff in the short term. It's a short-sighted, stupid deal that was made in an attempt to contend immediately, which the Reds are just plain not capable of doing. I honestly expect the Reds offense to fall to middle of the pack in the NL, and the pitching staff is still gonna be easily in the bottom third.

[volzok]

I agree with Geki. Also, I look at the fact that hes 24 with very little playing experience. He pretty much skipped over the minors with that contract of his. I believe you give him 2 seasons of playing everyday and he will learn how to control and play better D. Im not saying he would win the Gold Glove, but he would be improved. I think in the next 2 years, his offense will continue to blossom. You look at stats, but we have seen improvement every year with his plate discipline. The kid needs AB to reach his potential. Batting practice could never cut it.

[Geki Ace]

He has the tools defensively. Good speed in the outfield and his arm is ridiculously powerful, albeit pretty inaccurate. If he can learn how to get a good first step, he'll be very solid defensively.

[redsfan28]

Lefties could rape us with Pena in the lineup because he still can't hit breaking stuff.

[Geki Ace]

Wily Mo owns lefties. Half the people in our lineup can't even hit lefties.

[Wally Mo Pena]

if hatteberg rebounds to his 2004 numbers (.284/.367/.420) he'll replace casey pretty well, losing 10 pts of OPS.

Dunn, Griffey, Kearns in the OF is no loss in offense. Freel and Aurilia at 2nd is no loss in offense, and EdE seems to have improved, so there's a potential gain in Offense. Seems to me our offense should be pretty much every bit as good as it was last year.

add to that two cheap starting pitchers, who we control for 3 years, who will improve our pitching staff by a good amount. Doesn't seem so bad to me. Arroyo led the red sox in quality starts last year and had a 3.5 ERA away from fenway, which is much more of a hitter's park than GABP.

It seems like the reds have done exactly what i would have wanted them to: dealt from their strenght to improve their weakness.

[missionhockey21]

For a guy who hit .254 with 19 HRs last year in a hitter's park, you sure love him. I don't think you could have gotten any better for Pena, nor should you have.

A. You don't trade young players with so-so present value and unknown future value unless you are getting a player with the same type of potential even if it as uncertain as Wily Mo's. Am I the only one who remembers how young this kid is?

B. We're not going to win, everyone knows this, including most Reds fans. If this was a deadline move like mentioned to keep us in the race, I am sure it would be more widely accepted but that's not the case. I want to be upbeat about Arroyo but he flat-out stunk in the last half last year and this does not bode well for us considering the trends most pitchers take when they get to Cincy, sliding rapidly downward.

[General]

Wally, bringing down the hammer! If this was ATH, I'd give you 5 points.


However, will you now get a name change?

[Slyder]

Please Note I do not think that its a given what I write below will be what happens, just whats a POTENTIAL to happen.

I agree with Geki. Also, I look at the fact that hes 24 with very little playing experience. He pretty much skipped over the minors with that contract of his. I believe you give him 2 seasons of playing everyday and he will learn how to control and play better D. Im not saying he would win the Gold Glove, but he would be improved. I think in the next 2 years, his offense will continue to blossom. You look at stats, but we have seen improvement every year with his plate discipline. The kid needs AB to reach his potential. Batting practice could never cut it.

Why does everyone just assume that Pena is going to become the next great hitter? Werent people saying the exact same thing about Russell Branyan when he was 23-24???

http://archive.sportingnews.com/baseball/bookonal.html

Many of the things here could be said about Pena too. IMO

[Wally Mo Pena]

the real question now is who is going to get bumped from the rotation? i think it will be wilson, who will join the bullpen and do middle relief. he could be good. reitsma gained a lot of velocity moving to the pen and became a reasonable reliever after being a pretty bad starter.

that would give us:

harang r
claussen l
arroyo r
williams l
milton l

weathers
mercker
hammond
white
wilson
?
?

[General]

Mission, Pena's 24 and has had 830 at bats in which he posted an amazing .303 OBP.


Oh, and I'll tell you why I'm hating on him: Because he should still be a Yankee.

[Wally Mo Pena]

However, will you now get a name change?

i been thinkin bout that.

[volzok]

Yes but IMO, Branyan never really ever seemed to get better. IMO, Pena continued to get better the more ABs he got. He especially blossomed when Chambliss got here. I dont think you can compare an old spec with a current one. Homer Bailey could be Nolan Ryan or Todd Van Poppel. Who knows? To compare Pena to Branyan is foolish IMO.