Also, Hearne was more successful than Lynn last year in the minors so it is confusing why he would be moved to the bullpen. He pitched more innings and had a lower ERA than Lynn. He also put up some good starts in AAA. Again, hard to understand why we stick with Walters and Ottavino who struggle in the minors when we have starters who are actually doing well in the system. No meritocracy I suppose

Take another look at the Reds, Walt has built a fine young, exciting up and coming team that will be big time challengers. Scott Rolen is all his years of ware is a good veteran fit to help these young players grow. They will be legitimate title contenders in 2011. They’re just a shortstop away.

As to Jockety, I too really liked him when he was their GM. I won’t get into the circumstances about his departure because I don’t know enough of the facts to comment. However, toward the end of his tenure with the Cards, I had started to wonder if, because teams were becoming more likely to sign their impending excellent free agents and/or keeping those free agents and accepting the draft choice compensation, it was becoming more likely that Walt would not be able to make the type of trades he had made early on for McGwire, Edmonds and Rolen etc. I have not seen anything so far in his time in Cincy to indicate otherwise. Acquiring Rolen at his then age, physical condition and salary from the Phillies, is much different than acquiring Rolen at his current age, physical condition and salary from the Blue Jays.

As for Jocketty, I still have a lot of respect for the man. Look at our roster and you see lots of talent brought in during his regime: Pujols, Molina, Schumaker, Ryan, Carpenter, Wainwright, Craig, Garcia, McClellan, Hawksworth, Rasmus and so on. He has every right to be pissed at the Cardinals because they basically stripped him of his powers in his last year so he would fail. Having said that, Walt lost respect from the Cards for his support of Manno, who was not doing a good job as farm director. For Manno it was all or nothing with his drafts, whereas Luhnow has stalked the entire farm system with home grown talent. When it comes to making trades, I’d take Walt over Mo any day. Personally I hold no ill will toward Walt, but obviously he has no use for the 27 year old Jukich or else he would have protected him. If I’m Walt, I’m saying let’s move on and give his spot on the AAA team to a younger prospect. Why reclaim him if you no longer wanted him?

I also think there is very little liklihood that Jockety would allow the Cards to send him to the minors this season because of the risk that if he turned into something good it would make his successor, Mozeliak, look good at his expense. I think there are enough hard feelings on Walt’s part to not take that risk. Having to return $25k of $50k to the Cards is not a big deal for the Reds.