Mike Gonzalez was spotted throwing a bullpen session during an audition for the Reds at their Spring Training complex on Monday, reports Mark Sheldon of MLB.com. With Sean Marshall set to close following Ryan Madson's injury, Cincinnati could be looking to add a left-handed setup man.
Gonzalez, 33, remains a free agent despite recent interest from the Red Sox, Indians, White Sox, and Rangers. The lefty reliever had knee surgery early in the offseason and appears unwilling to sign a minor league contract at the moment.
Already have a set LH setup man in Bray. Gonzo will probably take a middle relief role if signed
Shaky is a decent setup man vs both LH and RH batters and teams can always use someone like him around, even if Chapman is sent back to the pen. Sure he eats lefties alive when he is “on” but the guy is effective against RH hitters also.
Boston already has 3 decent late inning people (Bailey, Melencon, Aceves) and I would still like to get hold of this guy if they would sign him.
That tells me they will be sticking with the Chapman to rotation experiment. (Applause)
Amen
Don’t be so sure.
With Cueto, Latos, Leake and Arroyo having four of the five starting spots locked up it leaves Chapman, Bailey and Francis for the fifth spot. Bailey doesn’t have options left. Francis has said he will go to the Minors.
However, if Chapman is in the Majors as a starter and the Reds sign Gonzalez what do you do with Bailey? No spot for him in the rotation, no spot for him in the Bull Pen and he is out of options.
Toothpick has said numerous times that he wants Chapman in the Bull Pen. Even though Jocketty has said many times that Chapman is going to be a starter, he mentioned last week that Chapman could be the Closer.
The question is, with Madson going down with the injury, will Ca$htellini want to cough up MORE money to sign Gonzalez (seeing as how they had to go looking for change under the couch seats to sign Madson)?
My guess is no.
So, knowing Toothpick, Bailey will be the fifth starter, Chapman will be in the Bull Pen and Francis will be sent to the Minors to start the season.
I am hoping your wrong… With how Chapman has pitched so far this spring starting I want him as a starter. I’ve never really been a huge Bailey fan he never seems to quite put it together. He has flashes of good stuff and then he falters a lot. I am hoping this.
Bailey to bullpen
Francis to the minors especially after his last start yuck!
Chapman #5 starter
I Too don’t think Gonzalez will be joining the Reds with them just basically now handing Madson 8.5 million for nothing.
I have read where a lot of Reds’ fans want Chapman to be a starter. However, you have to remember that Baker is stubborn and he has Ca$htellini’s ear.
Since last year, Jocketty has said he has wnated Chapman to be a starter. However, Chapman didn’t get to play Winter Ball and that was supposed to be where he was going to begin to get stretched out as a starter.
Then look at what Baker has said ALL of Spring Training about Chapman (even before Madson was diagnosed and out for the year). He has said he sees Chapman in the Bull Pen. He also says he doesn’t see Bailey as a reliever and that Bailey is getting paid too much.
This, to me, means that Bailey isn’t going to the Bull Pen. It also means that Ca$htellini doesn’t want to eat his salary and cut him. Since Bailey is out of options and Baker wants him as a starter, the only other thing that could happen is the Reds trade Bailey. To what team and for what is a good question.
Also, if Bailey is traded it most likely means that Jeff Francis is on the team and is the fifth starter.
With Arroyo and Leake already in the rotation and soft tossers, all opposing hitters would have to do against those three is move about a foot up in the batters box and start teeing off on their breaking and off speed pitches because none of those three can overpower many Major League hitters with their Fast Balls.
If that happens, then the Bull Pen is going to be overworked and the Reds are in for another losing season.
“Toothpick” doesn’t set the roster.
If “Ca$htellini” isnt willing to add payroll for Gonzalez why would they have him in at the facility and waste everyone’s time? Walt would have talked to Gonzalez’s agent and know what they are looking for before they asked him in. Likewise, Gonzo’s agent would make sure the Reds are seriously considering paying what they are asking before traveling to Arizona (at their own cost) to work out for the team. The Reds have made a significant investment in resources to field a contending team this year, if they think another 3 or 4 mil protects that investment, its a no brainer. The question is, is Gonzalez healthy and effective?
If you had been paying attention these last five years, you would have seen that Dusty Baker was NOT Wayne Krivsky’s choice as Manager or Walt Jocketty’s. He was Ca$htellini’s.
Go back and look at what was said about the Corey Patterson signing. After Krivsky was fired he made it a point to tell EVERYONE that Corey Patterson was NOT his idea. This is his quote from Hal McCoy’s blog from April 29, 2008.
And then there was the $3 million paid to outfielder Corey Patterson.
“I was told to get him signed, whatever it takes,” said Krivsky, who signed him for $3 million. Patterson was paid $4.7 million last year.
I ask you, if Krivsky is the GM, a job pretty high up the food chain in the organization, WHO is above him and has the power to tell him to do something like THAT? Has to be Ca$htellini.
So, look at the facts, Baker had managed Patterson while with the Cubs. Baker had spent all Spring Training saying the Reds NEEDED a Center Fielder and then Patterson is signed on March 9, AFTER Spring Training had already started and he was signed to something MORE than just a token contract.
No, Baker WANTED Patterson on the team and he went stright to Ca$htellini with this. Ca$htellini then TOLD Krivsky to sign Patterson “for whatever it takes”.
When looking at the moves the Reds have made since Baker has become the Manager it makes a LOT more sense why certain players have been signed to the ridiculous contracts they have been and why certain players made the team when others didn’t.
Because Baker has Ca$htellini’s ear and bypasses the GM when he wants something.
As a GM, when Baker does this, they have two choices, 1) say no and risked gettting fired or 2) go ahead and do it even though they might not want do.
As far as why Gonzalez was in camp throwing if the Reds aren’t serieous about him. Hype.
Ca$htellini is in the fruit and vegetable business. In that business, my product is pretty much the same as your product. This is especially true of bananas since there is basically only ONE species still living that is eadible.
Because of the products being so similar, the profit margins are low. This means there are about three ways to make more money than a competitor; 1) sell more quantity than the other guy, 2) sell at a faster rate than the other guy or 3) HYPE the heck out of your product and charge a higher price than the other guy.
If you had been paying attention since Ca$htellini bought the team,he loves to HYPE things.
In his first speech to the public as owner, he recognized that the team had been losing for awhile but instead of saying the obvious, it took time for the organization to get to that place and it was going to take time to get out, in short, be patient, he said he was going to “bring Championship baseball back to Cincinnati”.
With a bold proclamation like that (HYPE) you would expect some BIG things to happen quickly. Nope. 2006, Manager Jerry Narron was signed to a contract extension and Austin Kearns and Felipe Lopez were traded to the Nationals for some Relief Pitchers (including Gary Majewski who had a sore arm). Meanwhile, Forbes estimates, the Reds had Operating Income of nearly $30 million dollars that year.
A few years later, near the trade deadline, the Reds were under .500 (again) and out of Play Off contention (again). But there was Ca$htellini, on BOTH the TV and radio during the SAME game telling the announcers that he thought the team was “still in this thing”. Yep, hyping the team yet again while doing nothing to fix the problem.
So now, they bring in Gonzalez and make him pay his way to Arizona (saves Ca$htellini money) for a hype show. Since Madson went down with an injury, thus dampening the Reds’ fans spirits, ownership brings in Gonzalez to make it LOOK like they are doing something.
This is an OLD trick of Ca$htellini’s. Make it LOOK like something is going on to keep the fans interest when, in fact, there is nothing happening and no hopes of anything happening.
Brandon Phillips contract extension is another one of these tricks. String things along, keeping the fans interest and hope up and then doing nothing. Meanwhile, Phillips keeps talking about the extension and when it doesn’t occur, he LOOKS like the bad guy. The Reds can say they were interested in getting something done (yeah, a low ball offer) and make it so that the fans see Phillips as leaving because he is greedy.
I don’t doubt the same thing happens with Votto in a few years.
I’m impressed you go to the trouble of putting the ‘$’ in Castellini every single time. I’d probably forget after doing it two or three times, so props on the dedication
Years ago, my Mother told me if you wanted to see if a person was trustworthy or reliable, you needed to listen to what they say and then watch what they do. If their words matched their actions then they were probably trustworthy and reliable. If they didn’t then…
Bob Ca$htellini graduated from the Wharton School of Business with a Degree in Economics.
According to Forbes, the Reds have turned a profit in at least four of the six years he has owned the team.
According to a recent article by Forbes, the Reds have an estimated value of $434 million dollars (probably more now that the Dodgers have sold for $2.15 billion) versus the about $270 million dollars he paid for the team in 2005.
If you listen to what he says and then watch what he does, the two, to me, don’t seem to match.
In 2006, Cots estimates the Reds payroll at almost $61 million dollars. If Forbes is correct and the team had nearly $30 million in Operating Income that year it means the Reds could have had a team payroll close to, if not above, $80 million and STILL broken even for the year.
Same goes for 2007. Cots estimates team payroll at nearly $69 million and Forbes says the Reds had Operating Income of over $20 million dollars and probably closer to $30 million. This means the Reds COULD have had a team payroll of $85 milion and still broken even.
Last year Cots estimates the Reds had a team payroll of almost $81 million dollars and Forbes estimates Operating Income of $17 million dollars. This means the Reds could have had a payroll of $90 million and still broken even.
The point is, Ca$htellini is milking this “small market” excuse for all it is worth. So instead of taking some of that profit and getting REAL Starting Pitchers in 2006 and 2007, or getting a REAL Left Fielder or a REAL Short Stop these last couple of years, he is using the “small market” excuse to scrimp on payroll and sign over-the-hill guys to low dollar contracts.
Now, these guys (Corey Patterson, Paul Bako, Wily Taveras, Orlando Cabrera, Jonny Gomes, Edgard Renteria, etc) are overpaid for what they are and what they actually provide the team but in contrast to REAL players that could actually help the team win ball games, they are low cost bargains.
In short, Ca$htellini is ALL about the money and not so much about the team performance. In his world, the best case scenario is for the Reds to be a .500 team. That way they stay in contention long enough to keep fans coming to the ball park and spending their money but aren’t quite good enough to warrant increasing payroll to sign or trade for big dollar guys who will put them over the top.
This way, he can make a profit and still keep the fans interested all while the team value keeps increasing.
In a perfect world, Bailey and Francisco get dealt, Francis lands in the bullpen for long relief and spot starts, and Chappy gets the 5 spot in the rotation. In a perfect world…
I assume your perfect world includes a perfectly healthy Scott Rolen, because I don’t see a fallback plan at third base except Francisco.
Frazier over Francisco IMO
I expect that’s who would get the call, but I don’t think Frazier is any kind of answer. His ML equivalencies from AAA scale him to a .226/.290/.379 hitter for the Reds. I think he’s possibly a better hitter than he projects, but probably not good enough to bat in the top 6 where he’d be needed. Here’s hoping Rolen has 130+ games in him this season and we don’t have to find out what Frazier can do 🙂