Cincinnati Crapped in their Red Stockings for Christmas

The Cincinnati Reds have signed Willy Taveras to a two-year deal.

"Willy Taveras fills two significant needs for our ballclub, a speed base-stealing threat at the top of the order and superior defense in center field," Reds general manager Walt Jocketty said in a statement. (source AP)

Three problems with this poop of a Christmas gift.

1. Taveras has been lousy in the field and relatively lousy at getting on base. Neither of those bode well for the Reds - Patterson 2.0 anyone?

2. Taveras has no power in a ballpark built for power. Why the Reds can't seem to remember that they built Great American for a certain HOFer named Griffey is beyond me. Power, left-handed bats have a field day in Great American - Taveras is neither of those.

3. Jocketty seems to be delusional, which scares me for the rest of the offseason and beyond. If he thinks that Taveras is a leadoff hitter - then he's been watching Patterson too long (and seriously, does Jocketty even watch baseball anymore?! Patterson was worse than atrocious...)

All in all, this one sucked. The Reds got rid of Dunn and now won't sign him (or so it seems). They won't sign Burrell (and really, why would they want him over Dunn anyhow?) They didn't even try to get a decent player (even that Nationals tried to land Tex before the Yankees showed up with suitcases full of unmarked bills).

*sigh*

I guess there's always next, next year.

Source:

http://graphics.boston.com/bonzai-fba/Globe_Photo/2007/10/25/1193360113_4079.jpg