Cueto held back till Friday against the Mets

[eburg5000]

Does anyone besides me see this as strange? They say he's not injured. They say he has pitched poorly the last few games, but sense when has that made a difference? Is some guy making his first Major League start going to do better? Just doesn't make sense a makes me wonder if there is not a trade coming.

 

[JohnU]

They decided the other day that Cueto would miss the one series that the Reds have to win. Cueto is historically good against the Parrots. He's got some sort of issue. If it's an injury, the team isn't required to make it public but they should.

 

[Redsfan1507]

Who knows ? Mesoraco still has had no surgery for a condition that can't improve without it. What are they waiting for ? There are only about 4 of 13 position players hitting above .250 on this team, and pitchers bat 8th because Hamilton id not of them, but Schumaker and DeJesus can play dogshit D and bat at the top of the lineup hitting 20 points less than Hamilton. Byrd came back from a broken wrist in no time...maybe coincidence his $9M contract automatically renews next year with 450 PA this year ?

If they wait much longer trading Cueto, they might as well keep him to the end and take the higher envelope compensatory draft pick..,instead of a 23rd round minor leaguer and a 33 year old situational reliever they will get for him as a short term lame duck FA rental.

There are a lot of mysteries here.

 

[JohnU]

If he has an elbow problem, somebody is playing bullshit.

 

[Redsfan1507]

I didnt see the game Friday, but the box score didnt look too bad due Cueto- other than the HR and 3 walks after. If they intend on trading him, or keeping him to the end of the season, they need him to be healthy.

Even if he did have some injury before then, I'm not convinced it would aid the Reds in keeping him- I remember teams signing Chris Carpenter and Roy Halladay as injured guys, believing they were worth the DL wait- and they were right. Cueto would probably be considered like that and still get a big FA contract.

 

[JohnU]

I think Cueto is listening to his agent. If it hurts at all, he hears, sit it out. It's not like Price hasn't a gun to his temple on this. If Cueto gets hurt, trading him would be a real issue. Either way, he loses Cueto and if they intend to trade him to a contender for some prime beef, Cueto needs to be able to pitch. This all smells like an issue of 'let's not even attempt to damage the goods.'

Frankly, I wish they'd just deal him today and be done with it. This team is going down the tubes. I'd rather see Villarreal in there giving a shit than Cueto pretending he's trying to protect his arm so he can get a really big contract.

Cueto pitched OK on Friday, inexplicably walking 3 lame-ass hitters in a row.