The first big trade of the baseball season went down yesterday, and, to just from the popular reaction, you'd think the Washington Nationals were in wild-card contention and the Cincinnati Reds were selling off. The Reds traded Austin Kearns and Felipe Lopez, two of their best young hitters, for a cavalcade of relief pitchers .. and Royce Clayton. It's not the Yankees signing Sidney Ponson, but Reds fans are certainly skeptical. In fact, they're kind of losing their minds.
• Red Reporter: "So I've thought about it, and I can honestly say that this is the worst trade the Reds have made in my lifetime."
• Red Hot Mama: "I'm baffled."
• Redleg Nation: "I take back everything good I've ever said about Reds GM Wayne Krivsky. Jim Bowden robbed Krivsky today."
Keith Law — whom we really like over at ESPN, by the way, if you happen to be an "Insider" — hammered the trade too, saying [Bowden] just pushed the Reds to the back of the NL playoff queue." So does anyone like this trade for the Reds?
Would you believe a Cardinals blogger?
he's spent his surplus of slugging, one-dimensional outfielders to broaden the talent base on the pitching staff. the reds still have two 40-hr outfielders on the roster, plus denorfia and freel, so i don't think they're gonna miss kearns all that much. and now krivsky has created the payroll flexibility to go after zito or schmidt or one of those guys in the off-season. so by next year the trade may actually translate to: kearns / lopez for majewski / bray / schmidt. which would be a pretty damn good trade.
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That's right, Reds fans: Only Cardinals fans can cheer you up.
"Steep Price" For Relief [Cincinnati Enquirer]
