If Francisco was the 3B of the future, the future was looking mighty grim. Great move by Walt and one I had been hoping for for quite a while.

I'm not sure how you can say this was a bad trade. Guy came into what was arguably the biggest ST of his career out of shape and overweight. He obviously wasn't going to make the team coming out of Arizona (and I can't argue against that stance), so the only options were to put him through waivers and cross your fingers (wasn't gonna happen) or trade him. Getting anything out of it is better than nothing at all, which was the other option. And for the record...this Hoover kid doesn't look bad.

I've noticed most of the people who have disagreed with the trades Walt has made in the offseason and in the spring have bemoaned the loss of the future, what "might have been." Coulda woulda shoulda doesn't bring trophies back to Cincinnati.

What about Janish and Valdez?....two utility infielders who could never hit well enough to play the postion on a regular basis.

we got a minor league pitcher who probably won't be a lot of help this year for us.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

reds78,

JJ Hoover is on the 40 man roster and 25 years old with a career record of 25-19. He can and probably will help us almost right away and he will be in a Reds uni soon.

Its not about what we got in return (yea it is but....). Its about getting rid of an over weight bum that has never been a good player, just potential, and we have enough of that on our team.

Ghost

I can't remember what Frazier looked like in the field but I thought Francisco was brutal out there. I like Frazier's bat much better. Francisco has never showed me anything in the big leagues other than the propensity to strike out a lot. We have too many SO hitters... Frazier is much more disciplined and showed more power last year.

Amen.

And at the end of the day, we don't even KNOW what the Reds got in return. Hoover could be a stud in the making. JF could be out of baseball in a few years. Hoover could be the second coming of Luke Hudson. JF may rake in Atlanta and have everyone saying, "Chipper who?" But to label it a "bad trade" mere hours after it went down is not only ignorant, it's narrow-minded. Look back a few years from now and judge the trade, or at the very least wait until the ink is dry.

I also agree that it's a warning to the kids in the organization, and if for nothing else, that's why I love this move. It shows me that the FO is serious about being a professional, competitive organization, and if the guys in camp don't want to buy into the philosophy, well, there's the door.

If anyone has a complaint in this situation, they should blame the way the organization handled JF. I admit that it doesn't seem as though he ever really had a chance, and there wasn't a lot of patience shown. That's done, though, so there's not a lot that can be done about that at this point.