Something I think would be fascinating is to discuss Grant Balfour.

Holy moly, I saw his stats on screen last night and he's been lights
out maybe the best reliever in the AL this year.

65 or so strikeouts in 41 or 42 innings, maybe 29 hits, and the
announcer said that he had the lowest batting avg against for all AL
pitchers.

Another WK whiff?

On Sep 4, 11:46 am, t...@nomail.please (JustTom) wrote:
> Something I think would be fascinating is to discuss  Grant Balfour.
>
> Holy moly,  I saw his stats on screen last night and he's been lights
> out maybe the best reliever in the AL this year.
>
> 65 or so strikeouts in 41 or 42 innings,  maybe 29 hits, and the
> announcer said that he had the lowest batting avg against for all AL
> pitchers.
>
> Another WK whiff?

IIRC, it was Krivsky that brought him to the Reds, but Balfour was
injured and spent his reds tenure on the 60-day dl for the longest
time. Balfour has sucked his entire career until this season. I had
noticed his numbers a few weeks back. Shocking that he's having this
season. But, that whole TB team is a shocker. They built that bullpen
in 1 offseason, like Bowden used to do with the Reds.

On Thu, 4 Sep 2008, tmbowman25@yahoo.com wrote:

> On Sep 4, 11:46 am, t...@nomail.please (JustTom) wrote:
>> Something I think would be fascinating is to discuss  Grant Balfour.
>>
>> Holy moly,  I saw his stats on screen last night and he's been lights
>> out maybe the best reliever in the AL this year.
>>
>> 65 or so strikeouts in 41 or 42 innings,  maybe 29 hits, and the
>> announcer said that he had the lowest batting avg against for all AL
>> pitchers.
>>
>> Another WK whiff?
>
> IIRC, it was Krivsky that brought him to the Reds, but Balfour was
> injured and spent his reds tenure on the 60-day dl for the longest
> time. Balfour has sucked his entire career until this season. I had
> noticed his numbers a few weeks back. Shocking that he's having this
> season. But, that whole TB team is a shocker. They built that bullpen
> in 1 offseason, like Bowden used to do with the Reds.
>

I think Krivsky was a very good judge of talent. Considering some of
the stiffs we've been stuck with in trades the past 15 years or so
his win rate is pretty high.

"Zuke" <me@privacy.net> wrote in message
news:Pine.OSX.4.64.0809051256520.29405@ucfs1.ucfs-public.net...
On Thu, 4 Sep 2008, tmbowman25@yahoo.com wrote:

> On Sep 4, 11:46 am, t...@nomail.please (JustTom) wrote:
>> Something I think would be fascinating is to discuss Grant Balfour.
>>
>> Holy moly, I saw his stats on screen last night and he's been lights
>> out maybe the best reliever in the AL this year.
>>
>> 65 or so strikeouts in 41 or 42 innings, maybe 29 hits, and the
>> announcer said that he had the lowest batting avg against for all AL
>> pitchers.
>>
>> Another WK whiff?
>
> IIRC, it was Krivsky that brought him to the Reds, but Balfour was
> injured and spent his reds tenure on the 60-day dl for the longest
> time. Balfour has sucked his entire career until this season. I had
> noticed his numbers a few weeks back. Shocking that he's having this
> season. But, that whole TB team is a shocker. They built that bullpen
> in 1 offseason, like Bowden used to do with the Reds.
>

I think Krivsky was a very good judge of talent. Considering some of
the stiffs we've been stuck with in trades the past 15 years or so
his win rate is pretty high.

*********************response******************************

I think quite the opposite. I think he wrecked this franchise for years to
come. I haven't seen such a AAAA Reds team since Vern Rapp.

He hired the wrong manager, and got rid of the wrong players. He failed to
sign the guys who needed to be signed, then turned around at locked up a guy
like Phillips, overpaying him.

I'm not ready to give up on Bruce, but he's got more errors than Adam Dunn!
In less games!

There isn't enough time, money or available players to make Reds competitive
next year.

If Krivsky had made just a couple of adjustments to his 2007 roster, and
retained Pete Mackanin, my guess is, they would me much closer to a winning
baseball team.

Uncle Bob may have caused him to over-steer by putting Jocketty over his
shoulder. The Reds have a dismal record. but at least they have a
high-profile manager.