THis deal allows them to stretch out the rest of their bullpen, Weathers now becomes the 7th/8th inning bridge to cordero, the guys who were doing that last year are no 6th inning guys and can be matched up better.  It address the reds Achilles heal the past few years.

As far as money, each team is under more pressure to put their revenue sharing money into on field products (see Gil Meche signeing last year).  The reds along with every other team in MLB got a 30 million dollar check from MLB.com revenues, and with revenue sharing the reds probably got about 50 million in extra money from MLB this year.  Its nice to see them make sure they spent that money on an elite player with a proven track record.

He has had a k/9 of over 10 or higher since 2003 (tech 9.9 in 2003),  He has had a k/bb ratio of over 2.4 since 2003, including a nice 4.8 in his first full season in the NL.  This is a reliever with an elite skill set and a proven ability to close games.  

He will turn 33 in may of the 2008 season making him 36 when this contract ends.  Which in todays era, is really not that bad, closers seem to be able to hold their skills fairly late into their careers.

Just something to point out.

In 1998 Greg maddux was the highes paid pitcher in baseball, he currently makes more than he did in 1998.  If someone signed maddux to a 10 year 100 million dollar deal in 1998 people would've gone nuts, irionically he would've been underpaid most of his career, and paid appropriately now.

I think the idea is that Bailey steps up to become the #2 behind Harang, with Arroyo as an excellent #3.  Belisle's 88ERA+ is uninspiring, but his peripherals were much stronger.  In fact his season was almost identical to Harang's 2004.  I think they're expecting a step up from him.  Maloney or Cueto will be fine in the #5 slot.

Yeah, Encarnacion is mostly potential at this point.  It's worth noting that while Edwin's stats don't look like anything special, he was hitting brutally in April/May, got demoted to AAA, and came back looking like a different hitter.  His OPS's in August and September were .908 and .969.

Votto went all .321/.360/.548 in his cup of coffee.  They picked up Hatteberg's option because it was cheap, but it's Votto's time.  Of course, with Dusty Baker as the manager, maybe that's wishful thinking on my part.

They have 4 of the top 20 prospects in baseball.  Two will be in Cincy to start the season, two have already had success at AAA.  I'd call that solid reserves from the farm.

Dunn's a bargain at $13mil for the production he gave you last year.  Griff's fine at $12.5mil as long as he's healthy, and you can call up Bruce to start whenever he's not.

Don't get me wrong, they absolutely overpaid for a position that I don't think is all that important.  But with Milton off the books this year, Griffey and Dunn off next year, a whole bunch of young, cheap talent not yet in arbitration (Phillips and Hamilton in addition to the aforementioned prospects), and their top 2 starters cost-controlled through 2011, I think it was an overpay they could afford to make.

2. significantly younger than Cordero (30 and under, for me to limit the chance of their decline during the course of the contract)
   
3. Have been at that elite level longer than Cordero (he's basically there just in 2007).  Let's put it this way : I'm not ready/willing to give that contract to an FA JJ Putz or Jon Papelbon till they do it for another year and prove they can hold up long term to the punishment of closing.  I realize this means that they are also one year closer to the inevitable breakdown, but somehow I think it means that breakdown is still further away than it would be for some run of the mill closer.

All that having been said, and now being put aside, I really do like the addition of Cordero,the player, to the Cincinatti Reds.  While it is fashionable, and sensible, to go to the scrap pile to find your relievers, sometimes a team does need to spend to insure that they will get the part that they need, and I think this is one of those cases.  Cordero, for all his faults, is a very good reliever and will do a very good job in addressing the Reds primary weakness.  They weaken a better team in their own division while theoretically strengthening their achilles heel.  The Reds had the WORST save % in baseball (an abysmal 54.8%), and this should go a long way towards ameliorating that by lengthening the pen. It will also bring some zeal to the clubhouse and probably sell a few extra tickets.

Much like the Dusty Baker signing, this represents a likely upgrade from what the Reds would have had in 2008.  I don't like the bang-for-the-buck aspect of the move, but if Bob Castelinni wants to win now, or at least give the appearance that he's trying to do so, this is definitely a step in that direction.