Stanton CUT!!!!

[Lark11]

Mike Stanton was informed by the Reds that he's being cut despite the $3 million left on his contract.
A big surprise, especially on the heels of Bill Bray's demotion. Barring a late pickup, Kent Mercker apparently will be the second lefty in Cincinnati's pen.
Source: Cincinnati Enquirer


Evidently, the Reds are serious about winning. Nice to see the Reds willing to spend the money necessary.

[GMBurchfield]

So Mercker will make the team unless we are bringing someone in. Or Coffey? or both. Should be intresting.

If we are bringing someone in I could see it being AAron Fultz. I doubt we bring someone in though because just lettin Stanton go cost us some change.

[awnawboi21]

Mar 28, 2008 17:26:14 GMT -5 GMBurchfield said:

So Mercker will make the team unless we are bringing someone in. Or Coffey? or both. Should be intresting.

If we are bringing someone in I could see it being AAron Fultz. I doubt we bring someone in though because just lettin Stanton go cost us some change.

I say go with what we've got. Coffey has proven that he deserves a shot.

[redvol]

Very surprising. What was the rush? I actually don't like the move unless we get something in return. A healthy lefty with Stanton's experience can be valuable in a pennant race.

Now we rely on 2 lefties with significant downside risk; Mercker - who I like but hasn't pitched in over a year, and Affeldt - who hasn't been impressive this spring and has only 1 year of solid pitching to his credit.

I didn't see the downside to keep Stanton for a couple months before making this decision and starting Lincoln in AAA. Lincoln signed a minor league deal so he would have had to take it or retire. If Stanton falters in April/May, then you cut him and bring up Bray.

[sabo3b17]

maybe this is a pre-cursor to unloading freel. Maybe their is a possible 2 for 1 deal here and one player is a Left-handed pitcher.

[Lark11]

The question I have is what is the point of cutting Stanton if we are just going to replace him with Kent Mercker? Aren't they very similar pitchers? At the very least, Mercker isn't an appreciable upgrade, so I'm not sure it makes any sense.

I get the point of releasing Stanton, but what's' the point of replacing him with a clone?

[missbaseball]

I don't think they are exact clones if you add in other facters.
Sometimes teams sign or keep a player for what he does for younger players. Everything I have heard is that Merker is great with younger players. I have heard nothing of the sort about stanton.

[Lark11]

Mar 29, 2008 22:15:13 GMT -5 missbaseball said:

I don't think they are exact clones if you add in other facters.
Sometimes teams sign or keep a player for what he does for younger players. Everything I have heard is that Merker is great with younger players. I have heard nothing of the sort about stanton.

Interesting point, he may indeed have a positive effect on certain young pitchers, but more immediately his presence on the roster takes away a spot from a younger pitcher (Coutlangus, McBeth, Bray, etc).

So, wouldn't any positive impact on young pitching be offset by the fact that he is retarding the development of one of our young pitchers?

Also, as a future member of AARP, he's clearly reached his ceiling, so he needs to be better than Bray or Coutlangus right now. I'm just not sure that he is, so it would make sense to go with the younger guys who are as effective, but also have room for improvement.

Stanton must have been terrible in spring to justify getting the ax.

[GMBurchfield]

I think we was just shell shocked after Stanton from last year.

Mercker, Lincoln and Coffey have got to have the 3 shortest leash's ever.

We have too many other options in AAA to hang with those guys if they are bad too many times.

I think Kent is a future coach for us and if he isnt able to hang on to the major league spot all year I could see him join the coaching staff in some capacity. ( Bullpen Coach would be the idea place )

As I am writing this something just jumped in my head. I remember all those years we had Don Gullett as the Pitching Coach and our pitchers showed no improvement that I wished every year we would fire the guy. Now I am not saying candlestick Poole is much better if any but my question is the following: If Gullett was as good as a teacher as people made him out to be ( especially Grande and Welsh then why did he never get anouther gig>?

[oldschoolstyle]

I just wonder what the splits are on Mercker compared to Stanton. I tried looking it up on ESPN.com but they don't have Mercker's. Maybe Mercker just mows down apposing lefties which could be VERY beneficial.

[GMBurchfield]

Mercker is a lefty specialist no doubt. However his past doesnt really matter at this point. It depends on how he is pitching especially since he didnt pitch last year and is coming off injury.

However Mercker has always found a way to fight adversity and injury so maybe it is the same old Mercker.

[jake2bake4]

I'm cool with Mercker on this team because you know he isn't going to cheat the team by not brining his A game. I just hope his A game is worth a damn. I would think so but I've been wrong before.

[The Duke]

Stanton cut to make room for Lincon seems kind of pointless to me. We have a full bullpen of guys i'd rather give his spot too:

Bray
Roenicke
Viola
Pelland
Majewski
McBeth
Ramierez

[Lark11]

Mar 30, 2008 20:22:24 GMT -5 The Duke said:

Stanton cut to make room for Lincon seems kind of pointless to me. We have a full bullpen of guys i'd rather give his spot too:

Bray
Roenicke
Viola
Pelland
Majewski
McBeth
Ramierez

Agreed. There's something illogical about it.

The Reds must be very displeased with his performance this spring or perhaps this is fallout from the Mitchell Report.