Winter Signings

During the month of December the Reds organization made a couple of contract signings with their players. The big one was signing Jay Bruce to a six year deal worth fifty-two million. Another smaller deal was made with Miguel Cairo.

I was really happy to see the Reds keeping Miguel Cairo for at least another year or two. He really proved his worth last season by stepping it up every time he was put into the game to replace a starter. He always seems ready to play and that is great for a utility player.

I wasn't so happy about the Bruce signing however. Don't get me wrong I think he is a good player, I was just hoping that the Reds would lock up Joey Votto for a long time. Maybe the Reds felt since Votto just had an MVP season he would be too expensive, but giving all that money to Bruce just seems like a giant risk to me. To me Bruce is still a little bit unproven. He has only been in the Majors for two full seasons and both of the seasons he had some big ups and downs.

I still remember when Bruce sprang into the big leagues he was sensational. He really caught my eye then, and not trying to bring him down but wow he was on fire. I know it would be almost impossible to keep that up for a whole season but if he could then his contract would be worth it.

Edinson Volquez

Watching Volquez pitch is like pulling teeth it is so slow and agonizing. It seems that he isn't all the way back yet. Chris Welsh keeps commenting on his problems with his release point, but I don't really know if that is his only problem or not.

The problem with watching Volquez pitch is, he is so slow coming to the plate he seems to really take his time between pitches and it really slows down the pace of the game. At least today against the Cubs he went six plus innings and was able to only surrender one run. It amazes me that in the last two starts he has only given up two earned runs over eleven innings and he has so many walks.

His last starts have been a lot worse than his first start back from the disabled list. His first start back was great, and I was hoping he would be back to his all-star form in 2008, but so far he hasn't. At least Volquez at 75% is still pretty good.