Jockety ignores Blue Sox Baseball . . . again.

Jockety is apparently ignoring my advice not to sign guys past 2010. He renegotiated with Rolen (adding two years, but freeing up some money for this year) which we have previously discussed. Now, Jockety has signed Nick Masset for two years. Again, against my advise. But this is much better than Mike Lincoln for two years, a couple of years ago. Massett is a quality arm, coming off a great year. Having said that, he went from a potential fifth starter to a quality set-up guy. Starters are hard to find and much more valuable than relievers, and quality set-up guys have a pretty solid history of being up and down from one year to the next. If you find a good one, give him another year and hope for the best. But stick on a one year basis. All told, however, this isn't a terrible idea.

The link (to Mark Sheldon's blog) also mentions that Jared Burton is the lone arbitration case remaining and that a deal is imminent. Interestingly, the Reds have apparently adopted the Rays' approach of refusing to settle after numbers are exchanged. This prevents an "arbitrary" settlement between the two exchanged numbers. Pretty solid thinking.