It makes you long for the days of Rich Aurilia. The Reds traded Kevin Howard and Ben Himes to the Yankees for for Tony Womack. We get $900k, so we’re on the hook for $1.1 million in 2005. In the last five years, if you exclude the anamoly that was 2004, Tony Womack has never sported an OBA above .276. Yeah, I know he hit .307 in 2004, but this is a guy with a career OPS of 672. That’s not good in case you’re wondering.

On top of that, he’s never been a particularly slick fielding second basemen.

The only good thing is, we didn’t give much up. Howard probably would have been scooped up in the rule five draft. Himes is 24 and still stuck down in the lower reaches of the minors.

What’s really sad is, Womack could potentially hit leadoff because he’s “fast.” I hope this isn’t the case, but it shouldn’t surprise people to see it at the beginning of the year. If Dave Williams and Tony Womack are the best we can do, I saw we skip 2006 and go right to 2007.

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