Wednesday, July 17, 2013

The Reds A Suitor For Phil Hughes or Joba Chamberlain?


The New York Yankees are looking to trade both Phil Hughes and Joba Chamberlain according to various reports. The Cincinatti Reds are 53-42 and are 4.5 games behind in the National League Central with a run differential of +63. The Reds have a very prolific offense as it must be extremely easy and almost fun to fill out that Reds lineup every day but the pitching is what is going to make or break the Reds this season. The Yankees seem to have, for lack of a better word, a surplus of pitching so are the two teams considered to be a trade match? Let's take a closer look.


The Reds starting rotation currently is topped off with Mat Latos and followed by Bronson Arroyo, Homer Bailey, Mike Leake, and Tony Cingrani. The only starter that I could see the Reds willing to get rid of to make room for a Phil Hughes type would be Bronson Arroyo and I do not see many suitors for him. Also with Johnny Cueto coming off of the disabled list that makes the Reds pretty stacked at starting pitching again so there probably would not be a lot of room for Phil Hughes, but what about Joba Chamberlain?


The Reds bullpen seems to be pretty suspect outside of closer Aroldis Chapman so Joba Chamberlain may intrigue the Reds just a little bit. Sam LeCure has been great with a 2.23 ERA and 1.13 WHIP but those are far below his career average so I expect those to come down to Earth sooner rather than later. JJ Hoover, Logan Ondrusek, Manny Parra, and Curtis Partch have neither been stellar or terrible and would not represent a significant upgrade for us. Alfredo Simon has been very solid with a .217 batting average against and a 1.07 WHIP but that is probably the reason that the Reds will hold on to him. The Reds seem like they would be in the market to upgrade their bullpen at the trading deadline so would they be interested in Joba Chamberlain?


Here is a better question, what would the Reds have to trade in a potential deal for Joba Chamberlain? We would probably have interest in a right handed 3B Todd Frazier but I am not entirely sold on the idea that the Reds would be willing to hand the reigns to Jack Hannahan full time. Frazier is a right handed bat at the hot corner that has been better than any player we have thrown out there this season so the interest should definitely be there. The Yankees would probably love to have Tony Cingrani with tons of team control left as a starting pitcher that has had success this year but for all those reasons the Reds will probably hold on to him. Even though they have a young core of Mat Latos and Johnny Cueto I think they will probably want to hold on to Cingrani, especially for a rental reliever. Devin Mesoraco would also be an interesting piece to look at if he were just a rental player but that is not the case so I do not see the Yankees making a serious run at him this season.


With all this said I think that the Reds and the Yankees do not match up for a trade in my opinion. If the Yankees want major league ready talent right now unfortunately so I cannot see a trade happening  as much as I would like Cingrani for Joba. I can dream I guess but I think it is time to keep looking out for potential trade suitors for two thirds of our "BIg Three" from 2007, Phil Hughes and Joba Chamberlain.


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Sorry for the Capatcha... Blame the Russians :)