Willy Mo for Arroyo

Hey CharlieH. Wait till you see Arroyo's stuff. Electric. Inconsistency has been an issue. Last year he won like 8-10 straight and then had a suspension that took him off track the rest of the year.
Willy Mo looks lke a kid with great tools, but terrble OBP. The Sox would like to think they can work on that, but not all players respond to change well.
Reds didn't seem to have room for him in their very good outfield and they really need pitching.
Time will tell who made out better, but both seemed to fill a need.
The sox wanted a RH outfielder with pop and they got one.

I'm a Red Sox fan and I was disappointed when I heard we traded Bronson away. He has been a key cog in our pitching staff for a couple of years now, he is great coming out of the bullpen for long relief, plus he plays guitar.

I'm very disappointed that we lost Bronson. I think he'll do very well in Cincinatti, you'll really like him alot. Nice guy, doesn't make waves in the clubhouse; solid starter or works well out of the pen. I don't know much about Pena other than his power ability and that he's a bit of a strike out king. I wouldn't have made the trade.

I understand that PAPI and Pena have become friends during the WBC---that can make a lot of things work specially with Trot Nixon so injury prone and the fact that Pena plays all three outfield spots.

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with Trot Nixon so injury prone and the fact that Pena plays all three outfield spots.

That and Trot has trouble with left-handed pitching.

Arroyo needs to focus more on pitching and not let the "music" thing be so much of a distraction.

Bottom line for me

Good trade for both teams-- they got what they needed

Typical Sox fans. I am a life long Sox fan and you've got to like the team and the uniform and understand that players come and go for all sorts of reasons. How many whiny fans said that Damon would never leave, now they're heart broken. I say good riddens. Bronson(first name basis I guess) plays the guitar, but his inconsistency got him traded. Wait till you see Pena play, he's only 24 and as Ortiz stated, he was not as good a hitter as Pena was he was 24. On this rare occassion the Sox actually have too much pitchng, and if Manny or Nixon does eventually leave, Pena is next in line.

Actually, it was Bronson's signing of a home-town discount that got him traded. Over the course of a season he's pretty consistent.

I agree dad10, he was a reliable starter.
Had a career high # of innings last year.

I think the reason he got traded tho, was because the Sox have more starting pitching and the Reds do not. He could end up #2 in the rotation with this move.

The home-town discount was sad. Took less money to stay and even joked that he didn't want to end up somewhere else in two weeks. Signed against the advise of his agent.

I won't miss the Music on every NESN braodcast, that is for sure!

So does Wily Mo Pena being the season on the bench?

Expect Pena to platoon with Nixon in right, playing when they're opposed by a lefty pitcher and wait for the fairly probable chance that Trot gets injured at some point. They want to get him more at-bats too though, so you may see him fill in here and there.

In Epstein we trust

Epstein does make a difference does he not ?

The BoSox now have the 2 worst defensive OF's in baseball...

Wily Mo is even worse than Manny...it will be fun to watch them both in the same OF...what a mess!

Blazer

Watching Manny every day I can tell you that he is not as bad as people make him out to be

Epstein....I'm cheering for him too...and the pre-season predictions/polls seem to very happy with the decisions he has made so far....

Well, not only did Bronson Arroyo pitch a good first game for the Reds, he's ahead of Pena in the Home Run stats too!

I'm a Red Sox fan and personally, I think we got the better out of this deal. Pena has tremendous power. It's true he strikes out a lot and has a low OBP and batting avg, but he was working this winter on changing that and I believe he hit .330 or something in a winter league. Arroyo was decent, nothing more. He had an average to blow average fastball, several variations of a curve, and a poor change up. Hitters often sit on his curve and thats when he gets hurt. He can be dominant at times, but he can also get shelled. Yes, Pena is a bad outfielder, but Manny is probably the most underated outfielder in the bigs. He's decent in Left, but plays balls off the wall better than anyone in baseball. He also has a very quick release. He did lead the majors in outfield assists last year.

Well, maybe Pena will come around and be the hitter he has the potential to be. But from everything I've seen so far of him, he has absolutley no clue of the strike zone vs the count . . . goes after (and misses) stuff with no strikes that isn't even close, way high, way outside, even if he did hit it he would never get a good piece of it so why go after it? This is stuff you teach in little league. Consequently pitchers don't have to give him anything - and they don't. His at-bats against the Orioles this weekend were downright embarrassing.

There's always going to be an adjustment period when a player switches leagues as he's seeing (for the most part) a whole new set of pitchers. As a Cards fan, I won't miss Willy Mo at all --- always seemed to do some clutch damage against us.