Redleg Trade Review: Austin Kearns and Felipe Lopez

July 13, 2006: The Cincinnati Reds trade Austin Kearns, Felipe Lopez and Ryan Wagner to the Washington Nationals for Bill Bray, Royce Clayton, Brendan Harris, Gary Majewski and Daryl Thompson. The 2005 Reds team was a team of transition. Following the 2004 season, all-time great shorstop Barry Larkin had retired, and Felipe Lopez had moved into the shortstop position. They had replaced most of their starting pitching staff as Jose Acevedo and Cory Lidle had been traded, and Paul Wilson only made nine starts in 2005 due to injury. Ramon Ortiz, Luke Hudson, and Eric Milton joined holdovers Aaron Harang and Brandon Claussen. The 2004 team had three starting pitchers with ERA’s over 5.00, but that didn’t improve in 2006. Three pitchers again had ERA’s over 5.00, with two over 6.00, but the Reds relievers and defense held on enough to lower runs allowed by 18. The big difference in 2005 was that their offense improved by 70 runs, or almost one-half run per gam...