Goofy thought, but maybe the argument can be made to JV that going to the outfield is his best shot at multiple All-Star appearances. 1B in the NL is stacked, and you have to put up huge numbers every year just to be the third 1B chosen.
Yonder Alonso is a 1B only, but a pretty good defensive 1B from what I saw firsthand. Because the NL is behind the times and won't institute the DH, the only chance the Reds have to use he and JV in the same lineup is to put one in LF.
Alonso is a rare talent. You just don't see guys with power and the type of plate discipline he shows. He's a .300avg/.400obp guy capable of 25-30 hrs in GABP. He's too good to give up for 3 months of Cliff Lee, period. (more on this later).
Cozart, Alonso, and Chapman are off the table. I just saw a post on MLBtraderumors that one Fox Sports hack says Francisco is a better prospect than Alonso. God, I hope the Mariners think so. If Jocketty can package Willie Mo Pena Jr. and a couple other guys for Lee, I'd praise his name. Too bad Bavasi isn't still the GM out there.
I've also heard talk about Mesoraco in a deal. I hope that's not true, but drafting Grandal and having Hanigan already catching in the bigs would make that more palatable. Mes may be having the best season of any minor leaguer in the system, and you have to applaud how the organization has brought him along. You can never have too many good catchers.
Okay, so this is a long way from Joey Votto and his MVP season. The point is that I hope he will do what's best for the team if that means changing positions. Adam Dunn never did, and it's the biggest reason for my extreme dislike for him. The organization needed donkey to move to 1B, but he never took it seriously until it looked like he was headed out of baseball. I think JV would take the longer view...at least I hope he would.
Votto should not go to LF anywhere in the near future and possible ever. Why? Because Alonzo is an unknown entity at this point. What has he done? Sure, he is in AAA but he has underperformed (at least to his great expectations) and he has been injury prone. You have a known, young commodity in Votto that rakes in all categories who is getting better defensively every year. And he can steal a few bases. And is a team leader. Why make him move? The Reds have a weatlh of young outstanding outfielders. Heisey, Stubbs, Bruces. Where do they go?
ReplyDeleteIt is crazy to make a big change for Alonzo's unkown ability. Keep the known working piece and lets trade the mystery. Besides, how often do the Reds have a MVP candidate All Star 1b?