Speaking of trades ....

[JohnU]

Knowing in advance about an injury shows how desperate teams can be in acquiring talent for the short term. It also shows why the Tigers are failing, and perhaps something inherently smart about the Reds med staff that we didn't know.
One would assume that Simon could have pitched indefinitely out of the bullpen, but as a starter, he is on borrowed time.

Clearly Mat Latos has issues as well.

Tigers SP Alfredo Simon diagnosed with patella tendinosis in left knee
-- RotoWire
A day after Detroit Tigers starter Alfredo Simonsaid he pitched hurt all season, Tigers' head trainer Kevin Rand clarified the situation by explaining Simon has patella tendinosis, a chronic knee condition the team knew about before they acquired him in trade, reports MLive.com. Patellar tendonosis is also known as jumper's knee.

 

[Hit-n-Run]

If I were heading into free agency that would be the last thing I'd be advertising. What's worse, pitching poorly or having a chronic condition that makes you pitch poorly?

If the chronic condition causes poor performance, then one should assume the poor performance will continue.

Three of the four SP's the Reds traded had less than typical results by season's end. The only one that ended the season without injury concerns and a regression in performance was Mike Leake. It'll be interesting to see how they all fare in free agency.

At this point all the trades make the Reds look like they came out on top. No All-Stars in return, but a few solid 25 man roster guys and a couple prospects the jury is still out on. That's the thing about trades though, they really have to be judged over a somewhat longer period.

 

[Redsfan1507]

You mean the LAST trades, right ? Latos for Desclafani or Simon for Suarez look pretty good...not sure Boxberger, Grandal and Alonzo for Latos looks as good now. Boxberger would have been another in a long line of closer clues and subsequent miscues by this blind-ass team that is going into Chapman's last contract year hoping for 40 9th inning leads a year, for him pitch in. He might have had half that many alone, as a SP.

 

[JohnU]

The main thing to me on Alonso was that he was drafted first in the first place. Grandal is another matter.
What the Reds did when they chose Alonso and Juan Francisco is assume they needed a crusher first baseman so they took the best guy who could do that.
They had Votto and didn't know any better, so they ended up with a couple of bats who can't play anywhere but DH and first base.