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Hall of Fame baseball writer Hal McCoy has retired from the Dayton Daily News after covering the Cincinnati Reds for 37 years. Hal's blog, though, will continue to be a must-read for Reds fans. He'll share his thoughts on the team this season and will file updates from Great American Ball Park. You also can catch Hal in print every Sunday in his popular Ask Hal columnHome > Blogs > The Real McCoy | Cincinnati Reds baseball news > Archives > 2008 > April > 02 > Entry
On to Day Two
Dusty Baker, welcome to Sinus Valley.
Baker was stopped up when he arrived at the ballpark Wednesday and said, “They tell me this area is bad for allergies. I’ve had ‘em all my life. I was OK all through spring training.”
Baker tweaked his lineup with two changes for Wednesday’s game against Arizona.
First base was manned by Joey Votto, who batted seventh in place of Scott Hatteberg, and catcher was manned by Paul Bako, batting eighth instead of Javier Valentin.
Several Reds took extra early batting practice and one was disabled shortstop Alex Gonzalez, a large brace still surrounding his injured left knee. It was the first time Gonzalez took batting practice on the field, although he said he has taken it in the indoor cages for about a week.
About Votto, Baker said, “I don’t want him on the bench too long. It would have been like three days off.”
Baker said Scott Hatteberg returns Thursday against Doug Davis, “Because Hattie is usually better against lefties than Joey has been. Joey will be, eventually. We have to play him sometime and I’d like to play him a lot more if he starts swinging better. That makes it easier.”
With David Ross on the disabled list (he is catching and DH-ing this week for the Class A Sarasota Reds), Baker said he is doing matchups, “Sort of,” with catchers Javier Valentin and Paul Bako.
“It isn’t an exact matchup,” he said. “A lot depends on what the opposing team’s speed is like. I knew Opening Day that Arizona wouldn’t run in the rain because the turf is bad. Ordinarily, that team has a lot of speed and they’d run more on Javier than Ross or Bako.”
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By steve t.
April 3, 2008 11:36 AM | Link to this
fact remains that this team still needs to be drilled in the art of little ball. waiting on the hr to score runs makes 80 wins our ceiling. 9th inning ab’s by Dunn & BPhill were encouraging team ab’s.
By JRed
April 2, 2008 10:09 PM | Link to this
Encarnacion endangered his big league career with the early error—and then launched a game-winning homer—after repeatedly failing to lay down a sac bunt in the same AB. Lesson learned—let this young man hit. And let Mr. Gonzalez rehab, a good long while.