Reds targeting Shields?

Tampa Bay Rays’ scouts were monitoring some minor leaguers in the Cincinnati Reds’ system this week, and now we think we know why. According to Buster Olney, the Reds would like to get their hands on James Shields.

“Among the pitchers that the Reds are targeting: TB’s James Shields. This could be why TB scouts evaluating CIN minor leaguers this week,” Olney tweets.

They better have a lot of good prospects, because the 29-year old Shields is having himself quite a season. He’s only 8-8 (dumbest stat in sports), but has a 2.60 ERA to go with 145 strikeouts.

The Reds will have to break out the top prospects to land Shields in a deal. He signed a four-year extension in 2009 and is has team-friendly salaries until that deal is up.