Jocketty Day II

I wrote some more stuff on Walt Jocketty for the Sunday paper. I talked to Jeff Brantley about him. Jocketty traded for Brantley in 1997. Brantley thinks it's a great a hire.

"He's a tremendous talent evaluator," Brantley said. "He sees the positives and negatives."

Brantley also doesn't think Jocketty's ego will get in the way of him doing a good job.

It will be interesting to see how it works out. Jocketty's obviously got Bob Castellini's ear. Castellini is very hands-on. He makes the final call in things like a potential Erik Bedard trade.

I also wrote a Reds Insider, talking about our favorite subject: Will the Reds add a veteran starter? I imagine Wayne Krivsky has or will shortly run the possibilities by Jocketty. I don't think the Bedard trade or a trade for Joe Blanton gets done. Signing a free agent is more likely. Pickings are fairly slim. The Reds have kicked the tires on a lot of guys. We know that's the case with Josh Fogg. It's probably the case with Jon Lieber and Livan Hernandez.