I've been away from tumblr for a while. For this, i apologize. Hopefully with my new laptop I will be able to post more. So, let's hop into this:
-Mat Latos Deal: For the most part I'm happy with this deal. I'm glad that we got a young pitcher with tons of potential who is also under contract for several years. With him, Cueto, and Mike Leake I think we're going to have a great starting rotation for 2012 and for years to come. Hopefully Arroyo will give us at least a decent year. Maybe he can finally earn some of that money which Walt just carelessly throws his way. As for the people we gave away, I'm not too unhappy. I think we may have given up one too many players(Boxberger is that one too many), but I'm fine with giving away Alonso and Grandal. I know Alonso will be great, and Im sure Grandal will be a fine player as well, but it's not like we had a open spot for either. With that being said, we must work on extending Votto's contract. I know it's looked unlikely in the past, but if we just let Votto go for nothing than we become even bigger "losers" in the trade. As for Volquez, I would have loved to see him have a historic comeback season, but risking some unlikely comeback in order to sweeten the deal isn't something I'm opposed to. One last note on the trade, touching on the Boxberger portion of the deal again, I think we lost a great arm. According to Walt he was a vital part of finishing the trade, but he was undoubtedly the best bullpen guy down at Louisville this year, and he was even getting looked at as a potential call-up towards the end of the season. Some see him as a starter, but I saw him as a good option for bull-pen depth or even a closer in the near future for the Reds. Most of that is just speculation though, but I wouldn't be surprised if Alonso, Grandal and Boxberger were all All-Stars sometime in their career. Okay, that may be a little bit of an over-exaggeration, but they're all fine players who I will miss. Let's just hope that Latos delivers.