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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 > 14 > Entry
EE: errors and exasperation
It isn’t true that Edwin Encarnacion spent his off day in Chicago burying his Cincinnati Reds jersey under the Harry Caray statue outside Wrigley Field (a beer can would be more apropos).
Some fans say EE should bury his glove in a toxic waste dump and throw his bat in there, too. But that’s harsh. Maybe true, but harsh.
Yeah, it’s early. Only 13 games into the season. But perhaps it is time the Reds do what they did last year, give EE the shock treatment and let him work it out in Louisville. It isn’t working out in Cincinnati.
Amazingly, the guy had a .500 career batting average with the bases loaded when the team muddled through Pittsburgh this weekend. Then he came to bat four times in three games against the Pirates with the bases loaded.
He made four outs. All four outs were the last out of the inning. And the fact he made two more throwing errors in one game says something. The errors didn’t lead to any runs, but what it says is that EE is distracted and frustrated.
Ryan Freel had two hits Sunday in the 9-1 embarrassment. Is it time to put him at third base? Can they Reds wait until Alex Gonzalez comes back from the compression fracture in his knee to put him at shortstop and move Jeff Keppinger to third base?
Probably it isn’t too early. He needs to get his mental game straightened out.
And then there’s Adam Dunn, he of the .167 batting average, one home run and five RBIs. Manager Dusty Baker gave him Sunday off, a good move.
He’ll be back in the lineup Tuesday in Wrigley Field against the Cubs, another good move. Dunn loves Wrigley Field and hits there as if he built the place. If the Reds don’t sign him to a multi-year contract (and I think they should) and he becomes a free agent, don’t be surprised to see him wearing a Cubs uniform in 2009. That would be bad for the Reds.
If Dunn doesn’t hit in the next three games, it could be a long year for him, too.
As we all keep saying, it’s only 13 games. But soon it is 26 games, then 52 games, then, “What happened?”
The painful thing is that the Reds are wasting good pitching. Everybody has said for years, “If the Reds only had pitching they’d be contenders.” They seem to have the pitching this year, if early returns mean anything, but the offense isn’t taking advantage of it.
And we all know what happens when the offense comes around. The pitching will go south. Count on it. That’s baseball. It’s why nobody can figure it out.
Now excuse me while I go to my favorite steakhouse in the country, The Saloon. The first time I walked in, actor George Clooney was sitting at the bar with Joe Nuxhall. Three different fans approached the bar at separate times and asked for an autograph - from Nuxy, not Clooney.
Smart folks.
The french onion soup is the best this side of Paris and the kobe steaks are better than Kobe Bryant.
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By MBT Men Shoes
July 9, 2010 10:11 PM | Link to this
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By Louboutin shoes
June 16, 2010 10:38 AM | Link to this
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By registry cleaner
June 16, 2010 10:11 AM | Link to this
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By best registry cleaner
June 14, 2010 8:56 AM | Link to this
This article is just what i need, thank you.
By Christian Louboutin
June 10, 2010 2:06 AM | Link to this
Nice
By sunglasses shop
June 5, 2010 10:53 AM | Link to this
Thans for the nice post.
By Mark
April 15, 2008 10:40 AM | Link to this
I am so tired of these morons who want to get rid of Dunn. Major league execs are paying top dollar for guys who can hit 40 homers, drive in 100 runs and score 100 runs. That’s Dunn. Who cares if he misplays a ball now and then? He had only six errors last year (NL Gold Glover outfielders Carlos Beltran and Jeff Francoeur each had five) and Dunn’s still only 28. Get off the Big Donkey’s back! Also, note to Hal: The DDN must have a nice per diem package for you to be able to afford the Kobe steaks at the Saloon.
By Pitching and defense
April 15, 2008 8:51 AM | Link to this
The people I hear wanting Dunn re-signed seem to not have heard the axiom about pitching and defense wins titles. Dunn has strong offensive numbers, but he is incompetent as an outfielder. You can’t have a defensive liability of this magnitude at any position. He is an AL DH candidate in my book.
By nyc
April 15, 2008 7:15 AM | Link to this
it’s time to sit EE down and let Ryan have a shot. I miss seeing that little firecracker in the lineup!
By Ted Lawson
April 14, 2008 7:18 PM | Link to this
Its my opinion that inconistant hitting lead to inconsistant pitching and that was a problem last year with the Reds. There is alot more hitters besides Edwin who isn’t getting the job done. We Kentuckians love Nuxall as well as George Clooney. He is a good Kentuckian.
By Gary Maloy Jr.
April 14, 2008 6:36 PM | Link to this
Adam Dunn? A Cub? Is there room for the huge lug in that tiny clubhouse? Maybe it’d be a good thing that he ended up there - they wouldn’t have enough room for 25 guys on the roster. He’d fill 3 or 4 lockers - especially with his massaging recliner. By all means, though, Dunner will start hitting, and he’ll be resigned. And I’m glad now that he wasn’t traded for Roy Oswalt as I have suggested several times. Heads up, people, the bats will awaken. I just hope the quiet bats don’t ruin the mental moxy of K-ueto and VazKuez.