Reds Give In, Sign Alonso - Reds Rocket Finally Gets Around to Writing About It

The Reds selected an interesting player out of the University of Miami - Yonder Alonso. But every knows about that because it was close to three months ago. For the privilege of having him, inevitably, disappoint Reds fans, Yonder wanted, reportedly, $7 mil and a spot on the big league roster. Faced with the prospect of either, going back to Miami (where we know collegiate athletes are treated poorly by both the locals and co-eds) or playing Independent ball and staying on Alex Rodriguez's sofa, he backed down and accepted the Reds paltry $4.55 million offer last Friday. Sure he'd have wear a Sunday dress and a little eyeliner while occupying A.Rod's apartment but just think of the money in rent he'll be saving.

The scouts seem to like Alonso's bat and also his above average raft-making skills. He was born in Cuba, so you see that is a very, very funny joke. He's patient and projects 25-30 home run power. They seem to allude to some defensive deficiencies and general oafishness on the base paths but I will accept that. Just put him in left and trade him for a bunch of nobodies his contract year.

The question then is what to do with the current young first baseman, who is having a fine rookie year on an, er, less than superb Reds team. There has been some discussion of moving Alonso across the diamond to take over third but then what happens to our buddy with the chin-strap beard? And in doing my due diligence, which makes the time spent seem very official and important, he Alonso hasn't played third in a while and was likely moved because of his lack of range and bare minimum ability to play first. So, we'll have to see what the organization decides to do. Better to have too many players than not enough. That way, management can trade the ones which will turn out to be great and hang onto the parts which will be league average or below. I look forward to that day. Thanks for joining the team Yonder, I hope it won't be too much trouble.