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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 > 16 > Entry
No batting order changes - yet
Dusty Baker is a note taker, even if it is 4 a.m. and his wife is beside him sleeping the night away.
If Baker has an idea, on comes the light. Lest he forget it, Baker picks up a pen and jogs his idea onto a legal pad.
“My wife got mad at me for waking her up,” said Baker. “So now I’ve gone to a flashlight.”
Baker said several idea have popped into his head about the four-game losing streak his Cincinnati Reds dragged into Wrigley Field Wednesday night.
One of them, though, wasn’t splitting up Adam Dunn (.162) and Edwin Encarnacion (.186) in the batting order.
Not yet. Close? Maybe. But not yet.
Here’s the thing. With Dunn batting fifth and Encarnacion sixth, teams have figured out, “Why give Dunn a pitch to hit when Encarnacion is coming up behind him and Encarnacion is batting as if a base hit is a foreign language.”
For example, Dunn walked the first three times he batted Tuesday and it only cost the Cubs one. It was the second inning and after Dunn walked on a full count Encarnacion singled for a run.
The next two times Encarnacion grounded out.
Dunn has walked 16 times and Encarnacion has walked 10 times. Folks cry about Dunn’s strikeouts, but he has 11 to Encarnacion’s nine. Dunn’s on-base average is .407, Encarnacion’s is .340.
“A lot of walks that Dunn gets, he is getting one pitch to hit on that at-bat,” said Baker. “He either takes it or fouls it back. When he fouls it back, he is right on the pitch, but fouling it off. When you foul a pitch straight back, it means you are on it but swinging beneath it.
“Pitchers aren’t going to come at him, come at him and come at him,” Baker added. “With our situation here, it is not easy to flip-flop our lineup without having too many lefties batting in a row or splitting up our speed.”
Baker knows the problem.
“A lot of it falls on Eddie,” he said. “Where he goes is where we’re going to go. He is getting a lot of chances. We’ll stick with this lineup for a while and hopefully some of the guys come out of it. You can move guys around, but they still have to swing good.
“As far as protection for Dunn, I remember Hank Aaron telling me, ‘You’re my protection,’” said Baker. “I thought, ‘That’s not much protection.’ But he told me just to hit some singles and doubles and that’ll stop them from walking me. That’s what Eddie needs to do.
“It’s also why I had Jeff Keppinger hitting behind Dunn a couple of times (against lefthanders) to get some RBIs and he is our hottest hitter, but he is a prototypical No. 2 hitter and it messes up our batting order to drop him down.”
So Wednesday’s lineup was the same as Tuesday’s 9-5 loser.
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By MAC
April 19, 2008 1:15 PM | Link to this
Same problem; different season…what does this team do w/ AD? Even though he’s not a typically #2 hitter and has little to no speed, he walks a ton and it’s wasted if no one is there to hit behind him. Hopper & Kepp were outstanding last season hitting 1-2. Go back to what worked & hit AD 3rd to take advantage of his BB’s. Everyone else is PRN IMHO.
By 3putt
April 17, 2008 8:34 AM | Link to this
How about just not playing EE at all. To be as terrible a fielder and base runner as he is, he better hit the cover off the ball. If he can’t hit, especially in clutch situations, he is worthless. The Reds have wasted enough time and money with this clown.
By ohdave
April 16, 2008 9:09 PM | Link to this
No, Dusty, when you foul it back it means you didn’t hit it. There are no points for being “right on it”.
By fiveisalimit
April 16, 2008 6:45 PM | Link to this
Can’t continue to hit EE behind Dunn. Maybe hit him 9th and put Votto behind Dunn or switch Dunn and Phillips, but some shake up should be forth coming soon.