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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 > July
July 2008
Jocketty: No to Griffey’s option
General manager Walt Jocketty said the Cincinnati Reds were not going to pick up Ken Griffey Jr.’s option for next year, so when the Chicago White Sox came calling Wednesday - out of the blue - he seized the opportunity.
“The White Sox didn’t call me until Wednesday afternoon and there had been no contact before then,” said Jocketty. “Surprised? Yes, I was.”
The deal unfolded rapidly and was not agreed upon until after Wednesday’s game in Houston, “Then Kenny Williams (Chicago GM) and I both had to get in contact with our owners for approval, then I had to sit down with Griffey and make the proposal.”
Jocketty said he received no potential roadblock from owner Bob Castellini and Jocketty said, “He was supportive and said whatever I thought was best in the short term and the long term. We received a couple of players we can control for a years years. We are retooling.”
Asked if this was a signal of things to come, Jocketty said, “That would be right. Ken Griffey Jr. was a big part of this franchise, but we are beginning a new era to build a long-term winner. We’re building a young team and this trade supplements us with a couple of young players.”
Does the future include Adam Dunn, who was not traded.
“We’re going to call Jerry Hairston Jr. back early from rehab (Friday) and he’ll play center field. We’ll move Jay Bruce to right and have Dunn in left,” said Jocketty. “My best answer is this gives us an opportunity to look at what the future might be.”
With 12 free agents, including marketable pitchers like Jeremy Affeldt and David Weathers, some though the Reds might do more.
“We had a couple of other things we could have done, but we chose not to do them because we didn’t think they would benefit us in the long run,” said Jocketty.
Jocketty said he though Griffey was a bit surprised when told he was traded and added, “I saw a very talented player in Griffey. The fans of Cincinnati had a Hall of Fame player who has had a distinguished career and hit 600 home runs. Fans saw Wednesday (Griffey homered) that he is still a force and he’ll help the White Sox a lot.
“The White Sox needed another bat and an outfielder, plus Kenny Williams has had interest in Griffey in the past,” said Jocketty. “And we were not going to pick up his ($16 million) option for next year.”
Asked if Griffey’s problem with broadcaster Jeff Brantley hastened the trade, Jocketty said, “No, absolutely not.”
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TweetSenior: Junior received death threats
Father knows best and Ken Griffey Sr. knows what his son went through, things people don’t know.
How about death threats during Griffey’s first three years in Cincinnati?
“When Seattle wanted to trade him, Cincinnati was the only team to which he wanted to go,” Griffey’s father, Ken Griffey Sr., said today. “He received threats to kill his family, kidnap his kids. When his family didn’t show up at games on time, to start the game, I could see his demeanor change. He didn’t care about the game. You could see it in his face. He wasn’t the same until his family showed up at the game.
“That’s why he never wanted pictures taken of Melissa (his wife) or the kids, and can you blame him?” Griffey added.
And the injuries?
“People have no idea what he went through in his career,” Griffey said. “The first time he broke his hand in Seattle, it was bad, man. I thought he might miss two years. They put a plate in his hand and he was back in six weeks. Then a screw came loose in the plate and he screwed it back in himself.”
Then there were all the injuries in Cincinnati.
“I’m proud of what he did and he doesn’t owe anybody anything,” he said. “I know what he went through. There is no doubt in my mind that without the injuries he would be right there with Barry Bonds right now in home runs. No doubt.”
Senior said he could see the trade coming, “Because I know the direction of the team and I can see in the minors what’s coming up.”
Griffey, who works for the Reds as a scout, said Junior called him at 2 a.m. this morning to tell him he had been traded and that the team needed his approval. He wanted advice.
“I told him he had a great eight-year run in Cincinnati, nothing to apologize for. With the injuries, it was amazing he reached 600 homers. A great accomplishment. I told him the only thing he didn’t have was the ring and that he should go for it. The White Sox have a chance to get him that ring.”
Senior said Junior said softly, “OK, dad. Thanks.”
About Griffey’s feud with broadcaster Jeff Brantley, Griffey said, “Brantley played the game and should know better. If he sat down and got to know Junior he would appreciate him more. Fans boo when you mess up. They’ll boo. They don’t need a broadcaster telling them they should boo more.”
And that was it.
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TweetJunior’s 5 a.m. farewell to Marty
Broadcaster Marty Brennaman was shocked that Ken Griffey Jr. was traded Wednesday and the way he discovered the trade was even more shocking.
The Cincinnati Reds arrived from Houston to their hotel in Washington at 5 a.m. this morning. As it happened, Griffey and Brennaman were on the elevator together headed for their rooms.
“I was on the seventh floor and he was on the sixth,” said Brennaman. “When the door opened for his floor, he stuck his briefcase against the door to block it and said, ‘Can we talk a minute?’ “
When Brennaman said yes, Griffey stuck out his hand and said, “I want to thank you for everything. You were fair with me.”
Said Brennaman, “What’s this all about?”
Griffey said, “I’ve been traded.”
Brennaman thought it was a typical Griffey gag and said, “C’mon, Griff. It’s 5 a.m. and we’re tired and let’s just go to bed.”
Griffey pulled out his cell phone and showed Brennaman a text message Griffey received from his Cincinnati-based agent, Brian Goldberg, confirming the trade to the Chicago White Sox.
“I was shocked,” said Brennaman. “I’m still shocked.”
Asked if he thought Griffey’s recent problems with a fan and with broadcaster Jeff Brantley had anything to do with the trade, Brennaman said, “If anything, it might have brought it to a head.”
Nothing was said to anybody after Wednesday’s 9-5 win over the Astros. Baker mentioned no trade to any of the media, but Griffey was absent from his locker.
Baker said he had no idea the trade was made until after the game, after the media left the clubhouse, and nothing was said to anybody until Griffey told Brennaman, although Griffey privately said his goodbyes to teammates.
“Griffey told me if he had it to do all over, he wouldn’t change a thing,” said Brennaman. “He’d still come to Cincinnati. He thought it was important for him to wear the uniform his father once wore. It was rather touching.”
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TweetUgly ending to Griffey era
The love-hate relationship between Ken Griffey Jr. and Cincinnati is over. The era that began in 2000 with great hope when he arrived ended Thursday with much malice when he was traded to the Chicago White Sox.
It came just two days after owner Bob Castellini said general manager Walt Jocketty was not instructed to dump salary. Amazingly, they did NOT dump salary. The Reds are getting a major-league relief pitcher and a minor-league second baseman and are PAYING the $4 million still owed on Griffey’s contract.
In other words, the Reds wanted to get rid of him in the worst way and did it in the worst way.
Injuries curtailed what might have been for Griffey in Cincinnati, and many fans resented him deeply for it and expressed it in the stands and on talk radio. They blamed him for the team’s seven straight losing seasons that coincide with his arrival and looks as that streak will continue into an eighth year.
Griffey didn’t take criticism lightly. He is thin-skinned when it comes to criticism and responded — sometimes with unkind words to fans in right field. And sometimes he responded to criticism by the team’s broadcasters, Marty Brennaman a couple of times and lately Jeff Brantley.
“I’m a lightning rod for everything that happens around here,” Griffey often said and manager Dusty Baker said, “Yeah, he told me that, too.”
On the last homestand Griffey reportedly cursed out a fan in right field and the fan told an usher, who wasn’t going to report it until a security guard told him he heard what Griffey said.
Then came the throat-cutting gesture and the mouthed epithets toward Brantley in the broadcast booth last Saturday in Cincinnati.
Did any of this play a part in Griffey’s departure? Nobody is saying, but it is known that Castellini was not happy about either incident. When he made his surprise visit to Houston on Tuesday, he reportedly talked to Griffey about it.
One now wonders if the real purpose of Castellini’s Houston visit was to discuss the departure of Griffey.
Griffey always has said he wanted to end his career playing in Cincinnati and it was thought he would turn down any trade. But if you aren’t wanted, why stay?
He was on the other end of this kind of trade during the Jim Bowden/Carl Lindner regime.
Lindner, owner at the time, wanted Griffey traded to dump salary after the team signed him to a nine-year, $116.5 million deal, with a $16 million club option for 2009. At the time, Griffey was not a 10-and-5 guy (10 years in the majors, five straight with his current team), so he couldn’t say no.
But on the other end of the trade, San Diego’s Phil Nevin did have a no-trade clause and invoked it, so Griffey stayed.
Griffey nearly went to the White Sox in 2006, but the Reds reportedly backed out when the Sox weren’t willing to take enough of Griffey’s salary. Now they aren’t being asked to take any of it. Play for the White Sox, be paid by the Reds. Interesting.
It is a sad ending to what might have been. The injuries and age robbed Griffey of what he was in Seattle and the fans expected to see The Kid, the young player who made the All-Century team for the 1900s.
They saw only glimpses of the superstar. What they saw most was a fast-deteriorating player in his late 30s, a guy who could no longer run and no longer played defense with the style and grace of his youth.
Fans, though, expected $116.5 million worth of talent. Griffey couldn’t give them what they wanted because he couldn’t, and it ended up that the fans resented him and he resented the fans.
“I was loved more on the road than I was at home,” he said. “I preferred playing on the road because I was accepted more.”
He was accepted on the road for what he once was. He was judged at home for what he is now, a shadow and a shell of what he once was.
Even though he was no longer productive enough to be a No. 3 hitter, Baker kept him there most of the season, mostly out of respect. But it no doubt hurt the team.
Adam Dunn or Brandon Phillips or even Jay Bruce probably would be better No. 3 hitters. It was often wondered why Baker just didn’t make out a lineup card and put Griffey sixth or seventh. What could he do?
Griffey made a lot of noise early when there was talk that he would be moved from center field to right field. Eventually, former manager Jerry Narron moved him to right and Griffey grudgingly accepted it. He didn’t like it, but he played it and kept his mouth shut.
Griffey furnished some excitement in Cincinnati during his chase for 500 home runs and then 600 home runs. But that’s all he became — a guy chasing home runs and not much else.
He was going to be gone after this season, anyway, and the Reds are going nowhere this year, so it probably was the right move to send him on his way while they could and get something for him.
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TweetDunn happy where he is
The clock is ticking and Adam Dunn doesn’t hear it. And he is more than happy about it, more than happy that his name isn’t being included in trade chatter around the league.
When he hit two home runs Wednesday in the Reds’ 9-5 win over the Houston Astros, it gave him 12 for the month of July, most in the majors, and 26 RBIs in July, most in the majors.
It is no coincidence that The Big Donkey, as he is affectionately referred to by teammates and friends, had a July explosion.
For those who have wondered if batting coach Brook Jacoby does anything other than lean on a bat during batting practice and spit sunflower seeds, listen to Dunn.
To Dunn, it is no surprise that July has been productive after a late-June session with batting instructor Brook Jacoby.
“We tweaked a few things — I hate that word tweak, it’s like tendinitis — it means nothing,” said Dunn.
Whatever tweaking Jacoby did meant a lot.
“I’m being more aggressive,” said Dunn. “Since the end of June, seems like forever ago. I’ve been swinging at pitches I’ve normally been taking. Maybe it’s the ash bats, I don’t know.”
Despite the upsurge in his offense, trade talk with Dunn’s name in it hasn’t surfaced much.
“I love it,” he said. “I don’t want to ever hear them. I hate it. The only time I hear it is through the media guys. I don’t watch TV, I don’t read the papers and, hard to believe, I don’t listen to the radio.”
Told that not listening to talk radio was a good idea, he said, “You think?”
The trade deadline is 4 o’clock this afternoon and Dunn said, with his fingers crossed, “I haven’t heard anything. I guess that’s good.”
Of Dunn, manager Dusty Baker said. “That’s fine with me that he has carried us for a month. That’s what the big boys do. They carry people and Adam is swinging as good as I’ve seen since I’ve been here. It is very, very welcome.”
SOMEBODY ASKED, so I figured it out. When the Reds open a three-game series Friday in Washington at Nationals Park, it will be a new venue for me.
The question? How many parks have you covered major-league games in?
I figured it up. Amazing. When I cover Friday’s game, Nationals Park will be my 50th major-league park.
NATIONAL LEAGUE - New York 1, Philadelphia 2, Florida 1, Atlanta 2, Washington 2, Chicaago 1, Milwaukee 2, St. Louis 3, Houston 2, Cincinnati 3, Arizona 1, Los Angeles 1, Colorado 2, San Francisco 2, San Diego 2, Montreal 2, Puerto Rico 1.
AMERICAN LEAGUE - Tampa Bay 1, Boston 1, New York 1, Toronto 1, Baltimore 2, Chicago 2, Minnesota 1, Detroit 2, Kansas City 1, Cleveland 2, Los Angeles 1, Texas 1, Oakland 1, Seattle 1.
My favorite National League Park: San Francisco. Best view, best food, best aesthetics.
My least favorite National League Park: The Sewer Hole that is Shea. I’ve covered my last game there, thank Abner Doubleday. The Astrodome used to be my least favorite, especially after one night as the place was nearly empty and I was writing my story I felt something nuzzle my foot. It was a rat as big as house cat. The echoes of my screams probably still bounce around the Dome, now used for tractor pulls and rodeos.
My favorite American League Park: Fenway Park. It’s all about the Green Monster. The first time I walked into the park, in 1975, I walked up a portal on the first base side and the first thing I saw was the 37-foot high left field wall. Honest to gosh it took my breath away. It really did.
My least favorite American Leagjue Park: Toronto. Hate artificial turf. Hate roofed stadium (although I give a pass to Minute Maid because the park is so nice, really different. One of my favorites. When they open the roof in Toronto, the place looks like a giant bandshell, an oversized Hollywood Bowl. I expect the Beatles or Metallica to start a concert instead of the Blue Jays starting a ballgame.
Tick, tick, tick. The clock is running on the trade deadline. Dunn stays. Bronson Arroyo stays. No major trades. Am I wrong. We’ll see, won’t we?
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TweetGriffey’s off day not punishment
For the conspiracy theorists, Ken Griffey Jr. was NOT bench Tuesday as punishment or suspension for his gesture aimed at Jeff Brantley in the broadcast booth.
When the suggestion was made to manager Dusty Baker, he said, “That’s the biggest lie I ever heard.”
Some wondered why Griffey would not be in the lineup against righthander Brian Moehler, against whom he is hitting .297. “He hits this guy tonight (lefthander Wandy Rodriguez) even better,” said Baker.
“It’s like the day he dropped a fly ball in right field and was on the bench the next day,” said Baker. “Dropping the fly ball had nothing to do with it. His days off are planned in advance.”
REMEMBER Jerry Gil, the infielder/outfielder who hit so well last spring he almost made the team, but hurt his arm and had surgery?
Well, now he is a pitcher. Starting over. He is pitching at Class A Sarasota.
“Couldn’t hit the slider,” Baker said of Gil. “Now he is throwing 94-95 miles an hour and learning the slider and probably saying, ‘I can’t hit the slider so I’ll throw it and make somebody else’s life miserable.’”
Baker said when he signed out of high school and was sent to Class AA Austin, he came back to the dugout after one at-bat and asked, “What’s that pitch that when I start my swing it disappears off the end of my bat?”
Said his manager, Clint “Scrap Iron” Courtney, “That, son, is a slider and if you want to make the majors you’re going to have to learn how to hit it.”
One of Baker’s former teammates, Ralph “The Roadrunner” Garr was in Baker’s office Tuesday and after he left Baker said, “That man could flat-out hit.”
Baker said when they were together in Austin, manager Courtney had a pick-up truck and he said to Garr and Baker, “Whoever gets the most hits gets to ride in the cab and the other guy rides in the back.”
Said Baker, “I’d get a hit, Garr would get two. I’d get two hits and he’d get three, a little squibber on his last at-bat. I was in back all the time. Some days it rained and I was wetter than a duck.”
TRADE TALK: “Nothing on the horizon, nothing serious,” said Baker. When told about the New York Yankees traded pitcher Kyle Farnsworth for catcher Ivan Rodriguez, Baker said, “Man, the Yankees are constantly reloading. Every year, they reload.”
Word out of Colorado is that the Rockies want Josh Fogg back, that Colorado is a steadying influence on him and the Rox play well behind him.
Fogg says he hasn’t heard a word from his many buddies on the Rockies.
“I heard it a lot earlier in the year when I wasn’t playing, when I was just sitting around. But nothing now. Not a peep. As far as I know, I’m pitching for the Reds Saturday in Washington.”
AARON HARANG threw 50 pitches early Wednesday, a batting practice session in which Corey Patterson, Andy Phillips and Jolbert Cabrera were the batters.
All is well. He’ll do a side session Friday in Washington and if all goes well he’ll do a rehab start Monday for Class AAA Louisville of 70 to 75 pitches.
“If that goes well, I’d like to join the team and start pitching,” said Harang. “I have high expectations from myself and today went even better than expected. I threw all my pitches and everything was good except some rust on my off-speed pitches.”
Said Baker: “He threw pretty good and I was surprised with his location. It was really good. His velocity was good and his change-up was just OK. The ball was coming out of his hand free and easy.”
IT WAS SO hot in Houston today that I lit my cigar just by putting it in my mouth and inhaling.
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TweetCastellini makes surprise visit
Bob Castellini popped into town unannounced Tuesday and spent an hour in manager Dusty Baker’s office with general manager Walt Jocketty. He said he was in Denver and decided to drop in for some butt-propping.
Smoke was not detected coming out of the office. Baker walked out with his job in place, as did Jocketty.
“This is discouraging and frustrating,” Castellini said when he emerged. “We have talent on this team and we don’t want anybody to lose their confidence. We’ll take it one day at a time.”
That’s what has been happening, only mostly it is one loss at a time.
Castellini quickly shuffled aside any chance that Bronson Arroyo might be traded when he said, “I’d rather Bronson Arroyo be here next year than me.”
Said Jocketty to Castellini, “He has a chance to win more games than you.”
Then Castellini added, “He has been one of our shining starts here lately (Bronson).”
And does he still support Adam Dunn? “How can you not be a supporter of his power? He is probably having the best year he has ever had in major-league baseball.”
Is there a chance we’ll see him back next year?
“Is there a chance we’ll see you back?” Castellini asked.
“He’s not a free agent,” said Jocketty, meaning the writer, not Dunn.
So, the team is not in a salary dump mode headed into Thursday’s trade deadline?
“Walt has not been instructed to dump salary,” said Jocketty.
Castellini was, uh, rather blunt about the three-game series at home during which the Colorado Rockies dumped on the Reds three straight, outscoring them 23-3 and outhitting them 46-15.
“The Rockies series was rocky,” said Castellini. “Fellows, it was the worst series since we’ve owned the team. Now I’m here to give moral support. This is the time of year when you can lose confidence. That shouldn’t happen to a team of this calibre.
“These fellow are better than this - and the managers and the coaches - we’re all better than thisl,” Castellini added. “We have a lot of good things going on here. Mike Lincoln.”
What else?
“A lot of good things in general,” he said.
OK, HOW ABOUT trades?
“A lot of conversations, but nothing close,” said Jocketty, who admitted that he is probably initiating more phone calls than he is receiving. “I’ve had a lot of conversations, but if something happens it’ll probably be closer to the deadline (4 p.m. Thursday).
“A winning record is very importatn to us - we want to win,” said Castellini. “We’re taking it day-by-day.”
Said Jocketty, “To make a trade just to make a trade is a big mistake. To make a trade to take away from our club, it has to be something to help us now and in the future.”
CASTELLINI was asked about the Ken Griffey Jr.-Jeff Brantley affair - Brantley’s criticism of Griffey and Griffey’s response with a slash-throat gesture at the broadcast booth and some f-bombs after he hit a home run.
“It will be handled internally,” said Castellini. “It should stay internal.”
Asked if he thought his broadcasters were too critical, he said, “They’re still working for us. Sometimes all of us can get overcritical. I don’t think our five keys guys (broadcasters) are negative and I don’t think you beat writers are too negative - not from what I’ve seen in other citiies.”
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TweetWhy would you trade Dunn?
Who do you think has the most home runs in the majors since 2004?
A-Rod? David Ortiz? Albert Pujols? No, it is Adam Dunn with 196, two more than A-Rod, five more than Big Papi and eight more than The Great Pujols?
Easier question. Who has the most walks in the majors since 2004? Yes, it is Adam Dunn with 511, 10 more than Todd Helton.
Dunn is tied for the home run lead this year at 30 with Ryan Howard and is on pace (I hate the on-pace stat because the pace can rapidly fall off or rapidly pick up) for 46 homers and 109 RBIs.
That would give Dunn 40 or more homers for the fifth straight year and 100 or more RBIs for the fourth time in five years.
Since the All-Star break, Dunn is hitting .342 with four homers and 13 RBIs.
And still there are so many people out there who want him run out of town. They’ll pay the cab fare. I don’t get it. I just don’t get it.
Ryan Howard, who strikes out more than Dunn, could get the statue of William Penn off the top of City Hall if he asked for it in Philadelphia - and Philly is a tough sports town. Dunn probably couldn’t get a free bowl of Skyline chili in Cincinnati.
MANAGER DUSTY Baker sat down Ken Griffey Jr. and Edwin Encarnacion Tuesday, even though Griffey is on an 11-game hitting streak and has a career .297 average against Houston pitcher Brian Moehler.
“Everybody has been playing every day since the All-Star break,” said Baker. “We need to let some other people play, plus they’ll all probably be in there before the night is over.”
Corey Patterson was in center and batting leadoff, Jay Bruce was in right and batting fifth and Jolbert Cabrera was at third and batting sixth.
Said Griffey, “I’m hanging around with Cooper today - I’m recuperating.”
Baker also said he didn’t know it until he saw it on the Reds Media Notes, “That we’ve lost seven straight to these guys, going back to last year. That’s too many. Way too many.”
Bruce doesn’t particularly care for batting leadoff and when he saw Tuesday’s lineup he smiled and said, “All right, shaking it up today.”
Then Bruce plopped down at a laptop to type in about 70 names for free tickets and moaned about it.
Said Dunn, “Did you have DARE classes in high school? What was the motto? Just Say No!”
Dunn, by the way, batted third Tuesday with Griffey out of the lineup. Brandon Phillips was in his normal fourth spot.
“With his speed and versatility, Phillips is more of a No. 3 hitter than No. 4,” said Baker, perhaps envisioning things for next year when Griffey is gone. “I see Jay Bruce as a No. 3 hitter, too, and Joey Votto as a No. 5.
“You know we have a lot of guys on this team who are still learning how to hit,” he said. “Even though he already is a good hitter, Phillips is still learning. Eventually they’ll all figure it out for me (where to bat) by themselves.”
Meanwhile, Griffey was relaxing in a black easy chair when a commercial popped up on the TV: “Fuddrucker’s. One of my favorite places. Love the chicken cajun sandwich.”
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TweetOswalt: as in ‘O’ for Reds
All you people expecting rumbling changes and rampant housecleaning in the next few days on the Cincinnati Reds roster are in for a monumental disappointment.
Just because the Reds couldn’t finish second in a league of their own these days doesn’t mean general manager Walt Jocketty is going to walk into a room Thursday, the trade deadline, carrying a machete and a broom.
No house-cleaning is going to be done. Adam Dunn is going to stay. Bronson Arroyo is going to stay. No major parts will be missing after Thursday’s deadline.
As manager Dusty Baker said over the weekend, “I expect to have the same roster when we go to Washington (this weekend) as what we have right now.”
All those folks screaming to trade this and trade that for this and for that are out of touch with reality.
Other teams either want the young players, the future, or they want to take high-priced players (like Dunn, like Arroyo) and give nothing in return. Colorado talked about Arroyo, but the Rockies wanted the Reds to eat some of Arroyo’s salary.
Ain’t going to happen.
What is going to happen is that Jocketty is keeping close watch, just as he has done since replacing Wayne Krivsky, for the rest of the season. The off-season should be when the broom comes out of the closet and the machete comes out of the sheath.
Meanwhile, the Reds lost another one Monday night, their fourth straight loss and they are but a sniff and a whiff out of last place - a half game ahead of the Pirates.
So what did you expect? Roy Oswalt was pitching for the Astros. He could put an 8-by-10 color photograph of himself on the mound and half the Reds would go down swinging.
It was pretty much a sure thing that Oswalt would walk out of traction or have himself wheeled out of ICU to face the Cincinnati Reds.
Oswalt came off the disabled list Monday (hip adductor strain), knowing that the Reds turn to silly putty and mushy oatmeal when they see the name Oswalt.
Before Monday in Minute Maid Park, Oswalt was 19-1 for his career against the Reds and he could send his second-born to the mound and the Reds would melt.
Of course, Oswalt is 20-1 against the Reds now, even though he wasn’t very good, even though Adam Dunn hit a grand slam home run.
Oswalt still won, a 5-4 Houston victory that enabled the Astros to move past the Reds into fourth place in the National League Central and enabled the last place Pittsburgh Pirates to creep to within a half game of the Reds.
Oswalt gave up four runs and seven hits in five innings and the Houston bullpen cleaned it up from there — no muss, no fuss, just a little feather-dusting.
Reds starter Johnny Cueto needed 23 pitches to get his first out, never the portent of a good start and when that first out was recorded it was Houston 3, Cincinnati 0.
Oswalt shut the Reds out for two innings, extending Cincinnati’s scoreless innings streak to 16 straight.
An infield hit by Jay Bruce, a solid single by Ken Griffey Jr. that extended his hitting streak to 11 games (every game since the All-Star break) and a walk to Brandon Phillips filled the bases.
Dunn took Oswalt’s first pitch to left center over the yellow line for a grand slam, Dunn’s ninth career and second this year and his 30th home run this season.
That gave the Reds a 4-3 lead, but only until the Astros came to bat in the bottom of the third. Lance Berkman doubled and Geoff Blum crushed a home run to push Houston back in front, 5-4.
Said Oswalt, “The only bad pitch I made was the one to Dunn. I got angry with myself after that and pitched pretty good in the fourth and fifth. I was surprised with the command I had of my curve and fastball.”
Why should he be? It was his Patsy Reds.
And it stayed 5-4 as the Reds managed a miniscule two infield singles over the last six innings to lose for the fourth straight time.
“Two little bleeders for hits (after Dunn’s homer),” said manager Dusty Baker. “I’ve got a headache.”
Told that no matter how good or how bad he is, Oswalt finds a way to beat the Reds and Baker said, “Yeah, he found a way tonight. Been a long time since I saw a pitcher leave after five innings with a one-run lead and still win the game.”
The Reds had something going against Oswalt in the second when Brandon Phillips doubles and took third on Dunn’s single — two on and no outs.
But Oswalt, who had only four strikeouts, got three of them in a row at that point, whiffing Edwin Encarnacion, Joey Votto and Paul Bako.
“We knew with Oswalt coming off the disabled list that he would be on a limited pitch count (75) and we got those two runners on in the second,” said Baker. “Then he struck out the side.”
Cueto, as per usual, was gone early — not because he was knocked out but because he knocked himself out by needing 110 pitches for six innings.
“Thirty pitches in the first inning and that’s a lot of pitches,” said Baker. “He made two mistakes — an 0-and-2 pitch to Kazuo Matsui, the leadoff hitter, that got them started in the first, and a change-up to Blum that he hit out (two-run homer in the third.”
The Reds finished with eight hits, two each by Dunn and Phillips, plus a single by Griffey, giving him at least one hit in all 11 games since the All-Star break, during which the Reds are 4-7.
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TweetDeep in the heat of Texas
They say it is 92 degrees today deep in the heart of Texas. Pshaw and balderdash. It’s hotter than they thought hades once was.
That temperature probably came from George Bush Houston Interncontinental Airport, which has to be in Louisiana because when you pay they cab fare you realize you could have bought a BMW.
You know it’s hot when the cabbie hands you an ice cold bottle of water in an air conditioned cab and says, “You’ll need this.”
A bank thermometer four blocks from Minute Maid Park said 103. More like it. It is hot, hot, hot. I saw a dog chasing a bus and the dog was walking.
Spent the early morning at McCoy’s Fine Cigars. No relation. Just a coincidence. Mike McCoy, the proprietor, doesn’t even give me a discount, but it’s great place - plus leather chairs in which to sit and destroy a white label Montecristo Churchill.
And tomorrow I get to eat at Pappasito’s, my favorite Mexican restaurant this side of Juarez.
If you ever stay in Houston, get reservations at the Inn at the Ballpark, right across the street from Minute Maid. The entire hotel is a baseball theme. All the art in the lobby and the guest rooms is baseball. The designs in the carpeting and on the walls is baseball. They have a baseball library in the lobby.
You have to love Frank Sinatra, though. They play Ol’ Blue Eyes on the lobby stereo system, NON-STOP!
OK, some baseball. The roof is on over Minute Maid and the air conditioning is purring or we’d all be sititng in persipiration puddles.
Aaron Harang is making progress and one can tell because his sense of humor is sharp.
After throwing 31 pitches off the Minute Maid Park bullpen mound, Harang smiled and said, “Thirty-one pitches and 10 punchies (strikeouts). So, he threw one ball out of the strike zone?
“Yeah, a little low,” he said. “A border-line pitch, could have gone either way.”
In reality, Harang said everything went, “Real good, very good. It was going so good I was going rapid-fire and had to stop myself.”
Harang takes a bigger step on the path to recovering from his forearm injury when he pitches live batting practice Wednesday.
While manager Dusty Baker is encouraged, he isn’t looking for Harang’s return before, “10 days, maybe two weeks.”
Said Harang, “We’ll throw batting practice and go from there. I’ll probably have to do a (minor-league) rehab assignment because two weeks off without throwing — I mean, the first day I threw my shoulder had the normal stiffness and soreness until I threw again.
“I have to build my arm strength all over again,” he added. “I have to do that and build up my pitch count. We’re just going day-by-day and not get too far ahead of ourselves.”
FIVE REDS players live in Texas — Adam Dunn, Homer Bailey, Jay Bruce, Gary Majewski, Bill Bray — and some were scrambling for tickets.
“Only nine tonight,” said Bailey. “I’m lucky. I’m not pitching in this series, but check Jay Bruce.” Bruce, making his first appearance in front of the home folks, left 63 Monday.”
Dunn usually gets hit hard and left 21. Majewski left five, “For immediate family only. The first time I can in here when I played for Washington I left 70. What a zoo. I told ‘em all then, ‘Get ‘em now this one time, then you’re on your own.’”
Bray, who lives in Grapevine, left zero. What, no friends?
“Most of my friends and relatives live in Virginia, so I’ll get hit this weekend in Washington.”
JERRY HAIRSTON JR. reports to Class AAA Louisville today in Charlotte to play some rehab games to test his hamstring, with visions of joining the team Friday in Washington.
Do the Reds miss him? They are 28-17 in games he started.
“We’ll have him plays some shortstop and some third base and see how many days is necessary to get him ready,” said Baker.
AFTER EDINSON Volquez, Homer Bailey and Josh Fogg pitched only 12 1/3 innings of the 27 innings against Colorado, the bullpen is staggering.
“The off day (Thursday) will be real good for our bullpen, but what we really need in this series is two straight real good starts and three would be great,” said Baker. “But these guys (Houston) are no day at the beach. They have some guys in the middle of the lineup who can hit.”
WITH CUETO’S history of excessive pitches, good luck with that tonight.
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TweetWho invited the ‘27 Yankees?
Before delving into these words about The Lost Weekend, if you haven’t read the previous post about Ken Griffey’s gestures toward the broadcast booth Saturday, go back to the previous blog, “Of Griffey’s Gestures.”
Then come on back to this, if you have the stomach.
They gave away lunch boxes at Great American Ball Park Sunday, somewhat fitting in that the Colorado Rockies handed the Cincinnati Reds their lunch three straight days.
On Sunday, though, an 11-0 defeat, trash bags and barf bags would have been more apropos.
The Rockies, a team 13 games under .500 when they arrived, but hot, hot, hot since the All-Star game, exposed the Reds for what they are - a mediocre to a below mediocre team.
It appeared the 1927 New York Yankees made a rare ghostly appearance in Great American Ball Park this weekend — flattening, wrecking and destroying the Reds by 7-2, 5-1 and 11-0.
For the three games, the Yankees outscored the Reds, 23-3 outhit the Reds, 45-16, and outhomered them, 5-1.
OK, OK. So it wasn’t the ‘27 Yankees. But only a slight mistake in the eyes of the Reds.
The 2008 Colorado Rockies just bear a foreboding resemblance to the original Bronx Bombers and left the Reds in a befuddled puddle.
Since the All-Star break, the Rockies are 9-1 and have 11 or more hits in eight straight games (15, 16 and 14 against the Reds) and outscored their opponents, 76-32. The 45 hits are the most against Reds pitching in a three-game series since a three-game visit to Oakland in 2003 saw the Athletics bombard 51 hits in machine gun rapidity.
Before Sunday’s game, Reds manager Dusty Baker was on the phone with his sister, Tanya, and said, “She always calls me when we’re losing and says, ‘How are you? I know how you are when you’re losing.’”
After Sunday’s afternoon of destruction, Baker might have been on the phone, calling his sister back with one word: “Help.”
“We just couldn’t keep their leadoff man off base and when that happens it equals trouble,” said Baker, referring to Willy Taveras and Scott Podsednik, who were on base 10 times in the three-game series.
Meanwhile, Cincinnati leadoff hitters Jay Bruce and Corey Patterson were 0 for 13. In addition, No. 2 hitter Jeff Keppinger was 0 for 12.
“We knew they were hot coming in here and they were hot up and down the lineup,” said Baker. “Every time we made a mistake, whether it was hanging or in the middle of the plate, they whacked it someplace.
“They beat the hell out of us and I’m tired and I’m not even playing,” he added. “It’s tough to watch something like that. We’re capable of doing that. When is it our turn?”
The Rockies rocked Reds starter and former teammate Josh Fogg for three in the third and four in the fourth.
Troy Tulowitzki’s two-run single in the third gave the Rox a 3-0 lead, then Jeff Baker and Garrett Atkins each bombed two-run homers in the fourth.
“I didn’t throw enough strikes and the ones I did weren’t located very well,” said Fogg. “I lost command and paid for it.”
The Reds bolted out of town with a 4-6 record on the homestand, headed for three in Houston, beginning tonight, and three in Washington.
“They hit ‘em out of the park, they hit ‘em in the gaps, they hit ‘em through the holes,” said Baker. “We just got thumped.”
Adam Dunn had two of the Reds’ six hits and one of the two they had Saturday.
“They way they’re swinging the bats and then to get the pitching they got, well, that’s hard to beat,” said Dunn. “And when you’re down 8-0 before you blink, it’s awfully hard to do anything. Us not scoring runs is shocking to me, shocking any time we don’t score runs.”
The Reds stranded nine, leaving two on in the fifth, sixth and eighth. Edwin Encarnacion stranded seven runners and made another error.
For the three games Reds starters pitched only 12 1/3 of a possible 27 innings and the bullpen is about to start picketing the dugout with signs, “On strike, management unfair.”
Said Baker, “I’ve got to talk to (general manager) Walt Jocketty. The guys are dragging. I have to use them for more innings and on consecutive days more than I should.”
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TweetOf Griffey’s gestures
As former President George Bush once said, “Read my lips.”
That’s pretty much what Ken Griffey Jr. was mouthing to the radio booth Saturday night after he hit a home run. And for those who can (or those who can’t) read lips, yes, that was an epithet Griffey uttered as he make a cut gesture across his throat at home plate.
It was aimed at radio broadcaster Jeff Brantley.
“Oh, you saw that?” said Griffey. Yes, and so did the television world.
Griffey said he was upset that Brantley said Griffey was pouting because the Reds haven’t picked up his $16 million option for next year.
“If I was worried about money, would I have even come here in the first place?” said Griffey.
Brantley denies ever saying that on the air and, in fact, said he didn’t say it until he and Griffey had an early-morning chat Sunday in the players dining room. Brantley believes Griffey was angry over comments he made about the defense of the corner outfielders (Griffey and Adam Dunn).
Anyway, that’s the genesis of Griffey’s gesture. And do you know how I found out about this?
I was nearly Josh Fogg-ed in the press box Saturday night. With my eyes on my laptop as I wrote, I heard Reds PR man Rob Butcher yell, “Hal, duck.” I dropped my head and covered it with both hands. I felt the ball graze the hairs on the back of my hands.
The ball was fouled by Griffey.
After the game, I said to him, “I thought you were my friend?”
Said Griffey, “That wasn’t meant for you. That was meant to boxes down.”
Griffey didn’t know his foul ball nearly maimed me. He thought I was referring to his gesture toward Brantley.
JAY BRUCE, 0 for 11, took a seat Sunday, replaced by Corey Patterson. Said Bruce to Griffey, “A good, solid, benching.”
“No, no,” said Griffey. “You are getting a day off before you go home to Houston and have to deal with your first game in front of the home folks.”
Griffey was right on.
“Griffey knows,” said manager Dusty Baker. “That’s exactly why. Give him a day before he goes home. “Guys generally perform well near their hometown, but it can wear you down, too.”
Bruce produced a sheet of paper from an e-mail - his ticket requests for the three games in Houston, “65 the first game, 63 the second game, 53 the third game.”
“You know how many tickets I left for my rookie debut in Seattle, my first game?” said Griffey. “Two. One for my mom and one for the seat next to her for her purse.”
Baker also acknowledged that Bruce is on one of his bad-pitch chasing modes, striking out a lot on pitches outside the strike zone.
“He’s chasing that rabbit instead of stalking it,” said Baker. “You never catch a rabbit by chasing it. You have to stalk it.”
WHEN THE media walked into Baker’s office Sunday morning, he was finishing a phone call.
“My sister (Tanya),” said Baker. “She always calls when we’re losing. She calls and says, ‘You OK? I know how you are when you’re losing.’”
Baker then talked about getting only two hits Saturday against lefthander Jorge De La Rosa.
“We went fishing against him,” said Baker. “We went fishing but we weren’t catching anything. He was throwing a lot of bait at us.”
Dunn had one of the two hits off De La Rosa and said, “That guy had a 6.71 ERA. How can that be? I swear he was throwing a change-split-cutter. Really. I was on second base and that’s exactly what it looked like - a change-split-cutter.”
JAVIER VALENTIN walked into the clubhouse Sunday and saw a writer near his locker.
“You waiting for me?” he asked.
“Yeah, you’ve been traded,” the writer said, kidding.
“Where? To The Bahamas?” said Valentin.
Griffey, hearing that, popped up with, “If that’s the case, when you get there you will find me in your suitcase and you’ll have to buy some new clothes.”
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TweetThe view from the inside
Clubhouse Tales:
Colorado rookie third baseman Ian Stewart grew up in Southern California idolizing Ken Griffey Jr. He told Rocky Mountain News baseball writer Jack Etkin before Friday’s game that he would like to meet Griffey,.
When Etkin relayed the message, Griffey said, “Tell him I’ll hit a triple tonight and see him at third base - rattle one around in the right field corner that gets away from Brad Hawpe.”
Eerie, eerie, eerie.
That’s exactly what happened in the sixth inning - Griffey hit one into the right field corner that got away from Hawpe. As he popped up from his slide into third base, Griffey popped up and said to Stewart, “Hi, how are ya?”
On Saturday morning, Griffey was scrolling through his cell phone and said, “I got 36 text messages and 29 said, ‘You got a triple?’ And one said, ‘Who died in right field for you to get a triple?’”
Asked when his last triple was, Griffey said immediately, “Last year in St. Louis. Remember? I bet a certain teammate that I would hit a triple before he hit a home run. I won.” The teammate was Norris Hopper.
WITH 30 stitches still in place in his upper lip, Josh Fogg faces the Colorado Rockies Sunday, the team for which he pitched last year. Fogg and several of his former teammates had dinner Thursday, an off day, and Fogg said, “I told them I’ll keep the ball out of the middle of the plate and they keep the ball away from the middle of the field.”
MANAGER DUSTY BAKER was on his phone when the media walked into his office and was saying, “Yeah, order me these two Allan Eckert books - Blue Jacket and The Frontiersman.”
Baker was told that Eckert graduated from the University of Dayton and lived in Bellefontaine, not far north of Dayton.
“Somebody me told the stories about Blue Jacket and Tecumseh (about whom Eckert has written) and told me to read those books,” said Baker. “I like Tecumseh. He was one bad dude.”
BAKER HADN’T heard that the Los Angeles Dodgers had acquired Casey Blake from the Indians for a couple of minor-leaguers and said, “Blake is a good player. He’ll help the Dodgers. He can play anywhere. And it looks as if Cleveland is reloading again. They were only one pitch away from the World Series last year, right?”
And this year they are so far away from the World Series they need a telescope to see the top of the division.
PROFESSIONAL TENNIS players James Blake (No. 8 in the world), Sam Querrey and Mardy Fish, in town for the ATP tournament at Kings Island, took batting practice early Saturday - while Fogg stood safely behind the batting cage.
It was mentioned to Griffey that tennis players have to earn their money - they are paid on how well they do - and don’t have guaranteed salaries. Blake jumped on that one quickly and said, “We wish we had guaranteed salaries.”
AND THIS is a special request from Mr. Redlegs (Original), who has pleaded with me to find out about Gary Majewski wearing stirruped socks - a throwback to the 80’s. First of all, where did he find them?
“I asked the clubhouse guys if we had any and it didn’t take them long to find them,” said Majewski. “I guess (former manager) Jerry Narron wore ‘em.”
OK, why?
“I wore ‘em in Louisville, the whole teams does,” said Majewski. “I was going good down there so why change anything. Hey, I was horse-poopy wearing socks up here, so why go back to that. You know? If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”
BROADCASTER Chris Welsh, doing something constructive for once, made a paper airplane out of a stat sheet and sailed it out the broadcast booth window. It made a perfect landing in the press box and somebody said, “You never had that good control when you pitched.”
“Yeah,” he said, “But I threw just as hard.”
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TweetDon’t mess too much, Walt
Best trade the Reds have made in my 36 years: Frank Duffy and Vern Geishert to the San Francisco Giants for George Foster.
I was not yet covering the Reds when they acquired Joe Morgan, Cesar Geronimo, Jack Billingham and Denis Menke from the Houston Astros.
That, of course, is considered one of the best trades ever for the Reds, but acquiring Foster and sticking him in left field put at least the ‘G’ in The Big Red Machine.
AND THIS year’s non-waivers trade deadline (July 31) creeps closer and everybody wants to know who the Reds should trade.
Before we get into that, let me give you manager Dusty Baker’s take.
“I believe in miracles because I’ve lived them,” he said. “What would have happened if at the trade deadline last year the Rockies had traded away a lot of players? Yeah, that was a mirACLE, but it happened. It isn’t something likely to happey often, but it did happen.”
The Rockies, puffing and puttering along at the All-Star break, but won 26 of their last 36, their last 10 in a row, and found themselves in the World Series.
Baker said he gets the feeling owner Bob Castellini isn’t in a tent-folding mode or a toss-in-the cards mood.
“Every time I talk to him he has everything all mapped out, ‘If we do this and this happens and if we do that and that happens,’” said Baker. “I feel the same way. We’re playing real good baseball right now and we have a lot of games within the division coming up. We can either be in the thick of things or be way, way out of it.”
Baker said he is always interested in improving a team, if it can be done without destroying yourself.
“All team seem to be talking about right now is taking high-salaried players for no return,” he said. “I call it cherry-picking. Nobody offers anything of value.”
So, the feeling is, if Baker has his way, there won’t be a major makeover, if there is even minor tweaking.
And I couldn’t agree more.
Off the top, forget about Ken Griffey Jr. He can’t be traded without his permission and he isn’t about to say, “Permission granted.”
And for the legions who want Adam Dunn traded, I’m not in your camp. Griffey won’t be back next year, so do you want to lose both of your lefthanded corner outfielders?
As I’ve said over and over and over and over and over again: “Where are you going to find a guy who hits 40 homers, walks 100 times, scores 100 runs and drives in nearly 100 EVERY year? Nowhere, that’s where - unless the St. Louis Cardinals become delirious and trade Albert Pujols.
Folks blame Dunn for the team not winning while he has been here. His fault? Absolutely not. You build AROUND a player like him. You find some on-base guys, some high-average guys and sprinkle them around him. The Reds are doing that now with Jerry Hairston Jr. and Jeff Keppinger, plus future stars Jay Bruce and Joey Votto.
Dunn most likely is the player Baker is talking about when he says other teams want to cherry-pick, pluck away the high-salaried Dunn and sent nothing back in return. You don’t do that.
Trading pitchers was talked about here yesterday. Don’t do it. Don’t even talk about it. At least the starters. At this point, I wouldn’t trade much out of the bullpen, either. There is talk about David Weathers but he is pitching grandly and he is the veteran steadying influence in the bullpen, stacked with mostly youngsters.
To me, there are only a couple of moves I’d make. I’d trade Edwin Encarnacion, but only for quality young players no more than a year away from the majors. Encarnacion blows hot and cold, both offensively and defensively. They can play Jeff Keppinger at third and Jerry Hairston Jr. at shortstop.
If they could find a catcher, go for it. Catchers are easily found, but good ones are like the Rosetta Stone or the Dead Sea Scrolls. Where do you find them? But don’t sell the farm for one.
It’s time to stick with something. Seven straight years of losing with promises of things to come smells like rotten rutabaga. The nucleus is there. Some minor tweaks? OK. A major overhaul? Hey, it ain’t broken.
We all thought this team would compete coming out of spring training. I thought so. I still believe it is better than it’s record and it has 58 games to prove it.
If it falls completely flat, then GM Walt Jockety can spend his winter doing some heavy construction work. Right now? Just patch a few pot holes.
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TweetDon’t trade starting pitchers
Worst trade the Cincinnati Reds ever made during my 36 years on the beat: outfielder Paul O’Neill to the New York Yankees for outfielder Roberto Kelly.
Kelly was noteworthy only in that he was from Panama, and to make this deal equal the Yankee would have had to have thrown the Panama Canal into the deal.
We all know what became of O’Neill (superstar stud for the pin-stripers) and who knows what became of Kelly?
That trade was made because of raw nerves between manager Lou Piniella and O’Neill. Piniella thought a big boy like O’Neill should hit for more power and wanted him to hit more home runs. O’Neill resisted. He liked hitting .300 and hitting doubles.
I’ll never forget the day I was standing with Piniella behind the batting cage and O’Neill was hitting — spraying line drives. “Look at that. Big O’Neill. Big O’Neill my a**,” said Piniella, loud enough for O’Neill to hear.
Shortly after that, O’Neill was gone.
I bring this up because the trade deadline approaches and it is Be Careful Time.
There wasn’t a whole lot former GM Jim Bowden did that I liked, but there was a sign in his office with three words on it: “Pitching, pitching, pitching.”
The game starts and ends with pitching. And I loved the line pitcher Bob Gibson once threw out about his catcher, Tim McCarver: “The only thing he knew about pitching was that he couldn’t hit it.”
Anyway, there is no doubt there is interest in Bronson Arroyo. The New York Yankees, for one. Maybe back to Boston. Colorado is even interested, if the Reds will chew up some of the $25 million he’ll be owed in 2009 and 2010.
I say be careful. Pitching, especially starting pitching, is the rarest commodity on the baseball market. The cliche is true: “You can never get enough pitching.”
When Arroyo made his impassioned plea Wednesday to stay with the Reds, he listed the starting pitchers owned by the Reds with bright futures — himself, Aaron Harang, Edinson Volquez, Johnny Cueto, Homer Bailey, Daryl Thompson.
As somebody on this blog pointed out, “That’s six starters. They need five. Trade Arroyo.”
Does anybody out there really believe all of them are “for sures.”
I wouldn’t trade Volquez, but I’m not yet convinced after only a half a season. His last couple of starts were shaky and he is probably getting tired. He pitched winter ball, he came to spring camp under a lot of pressure to win a spot in the rotation and was pitching as if it was the regular season from his first spring start. Now he has thrown 122 inning this year.
Be careful.
Cueto is only 22 and has great stuff — but he is 7-9 with an ERA near five and has a flaw of throwing too many pitches. Will he get better? Remains to be seen.
Be careful.
Bailey, 22, has thrown two straight decent games and maybe he has turned the corner. Some people want to trade him. Is he close to becoming what the Reds thought when they drafted him No. 1? He appears in a better mental state and more receptive to guidance than he was last year or last spring. Is he what they thought?
Be careful.
Thompson, on the DL right now in Louisville, is only 22 and scouts say he has a lot to learn and isn’t major-league ready. He does, though, have promise.
Arroyo and Harang have shown they can pitch in the majors, they have the experience, and every team needs sound experience in the rotation. Arroyo has been up-and-down and is on a five-game winning streak.
You know another thing I like about Arroyo? He isn’t just a pitcher, as are most pitchers. He is a baseball player. He can bunt, field his position, run the bases (he is used as a pinch-runner at times) and can hit a little bit.
Anyway, the point here is that if I’m Walt Jocketty, I don’t trade starting pitching - unless it is somebody like Eric Milton, who was never suited to Great American Small Park. And I can’t fault the trade of Kyle Lohse - he was 9-12 with a 4.62 ERA at the time of his trade last year.
And the back of his bubblegum card is not stuffed with glossy numbers. But that, too, is an example of, “You never know,” with pitching. He is tearing it up in St. Louis and to me it is why you try to preserve as much starting pitching as possible.
The Reds have three 22-year-olds on the fast track - Cueto, Bailey, Thompson. Will all three be legitimate stars? Maybe. But doubtful. If one turns into a consistent year-by-year winner, that’s good. If two make it, that’s great. If three make it - well, don’t count on it.
The point, though? Don’t trade good pitching prospects. Of course, the Texas Rangers might question that, getting Josh Hamilton for Volquez. Both teams are happy with that one - and should be.
Could the Reds be that lucky to get a player of that caliber for one of their starters? Doubt it.
Everybody has been on the Reds for years and years and years (rightfully so) because they never develop a starting pitcher - Tom Browning being the last of any note and he was pitching before a lot of you were born.
Now they have three 22-year-olds out of their own system. Keep ‘em. Keep ‘em all. But be careful. Don’t trade Arroyo or Harang (or even Josh Fogg) just yet. It’s too early to tell on what is now The Little Three that could become The Big Three.
Two more years for those three kids and then a decision can be made. By then the contracts for Arroyo and Harang will be up and good decisions can be made.
So who does Jocketty trade - if he can.
Check in tomorrow.
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TweetArroyo: Please keep me
Remember when Bronson Arroyo’s favorite song had the words, “Please Come to Boston” in them. No more. He wants to stay right in Cincinnati and if he has to eat five-way chili over New England clam chowder, so be it.
Arroyo, hearing the rumors of possible trades by the Reds, including dumping him and his salary, made an impassioned plea to stay after he won his fifth straight game Wednesday, beating the Sad (Yes, Sad, not San) Padres, 9-5.
Arroyo pleaded his case strongly and, yes, friends in New York tell him his name is mentioned loud and often about Yankee pin-stripes.
“Honestly, if they trade me, they’re saying, ‘That’s it, we’re not going to build a winning team here,’” he said. “The starters we have have a chance to pitch here a long time, health-wise and age-wise.
“If they go ahead and trade me out now because of the salary I’ll make next year ($25 million in 2009 and 2010), then I feel they’re just cashing in the money for a losing team,” Arroyo added.
“When I see Bob Castellini I feel like he’s a guy who wants to win and I don’t think he is ready to say, ‘That’s it. I’ve put in as much as I want to put in, then go ahead and start tearing the pieces apart. I hope the vibes I get from him are for real. If it’s not, I’ll have another surprise coming my way.”
Arroyo sees Edinson Volquez, Johnny Cueto, Aaron Harang, Homer Bailey and Daryl Thompson and sees a glossy future, with him in the middle.
There are no thoughts now of returning to Boston and he says, “Definitely, the last two years we have not had the pitching we have now. Everyone around here feels like things are starting to roll and there is no reason to panic.”
My thoughts. Keep him. I’ve already forgotten about the 10 runs he gave up in one inning in Toronto. If he pitches most of the time the way he is pitching now he is worth. What say ye?
ARROYO beat 42-year-old Greg Maddux and it was probably Maddux’s last appearance in Cincinnati. Fans gave him a rousing sendoff, a standing ovation, and Maddux appreciated it.
“That was cool,” said Maddux. “I love Cincinnati. As a kid I went to two baseball parks, Dodger Stadium and Riverfront Stadium. I loved The Big Red Machine big-time and I used to sit in left field and watch George Foster.”
Maddux’s brother, Mike, a former major-league pitcher and now Milwaukee’s pitching coach, was born in Dayton.
THE FIRST Dusty Baker wanted to know Wednesday morning was, “Did you see Josh Fogg? He looks like Mike Tyson got him.”
Yeah, we saw him. Thirty stitches in his upper lip. Talk about a stiff upper lip. Amazingly, he could talk after taking the stitches when Joey Votto drove a ball off Fogg’s face during batting practice Tuesday.
“Never lost consciousness, never went down,” said Fogg. “Is that all Votto’s got?”
Well, it did knock Fogg out of his scheduled start Friday against Colorado. He hopes to be able to throw on the side Friday, then take his next turn.
With an off day Thursday, Baker had hoped to push all his starters back a day for an extra day of rest, but that won’t happen now. Edinson Volquez takes Fogg’s place Friday.
“He’s a lucky guy,” said Baker of Fogg. “He didn’t break any bones or lose any teeth.I’m always afraid of that. It’s hard to pay attention to everything that is going on during batting practice.”
Fogg was playing catch in short right field, “Where all the pitchers work out,” he said. “Somebody yelled heads up. I should have kept mine down. About to throw a ball. I turned when they yelled and I should have turned the other way.
“Have no broken bones, just a chipped tooth,” he said. “I’m waiting for it to stop bleeding. I could pitch Friday, but no sense rushing it and everybody can go on normal rest and let me heal a little bit.
“Nothing like this ever happened to be in baseball,” he said. “Plenty of stitches and scars from childhood, but nothing from baseball. I’ve never been hit in the face with the ball.”
As Fogg talked, there was a t-shirt hanging in his locker, on the front of which was: “Sorry - About Your Face.” Said Fogg, “I’m sure that came from Harang. I’ve seen him wear it.”
HOMER BAILEY has a message and a solid object waiting for the right person: “Tell him if I catch him I have a bullet waiting for him.”
Yikes.
For the second time this year, Bailey’s truck was broken into, “The first time in Louisville when they stole a radar detector.”
The second time was Tuesday night near his apartment.
“Let’s see there was Jay Bruce’s Cadillac Escalade parked next to my gray Dodge truck. Which one do you break into?” said Bailey. “My gray truck, of course.”
The amazing part is that they took nothing, just broke out windows, leaving a shotgun, money and an arrow holder in the truck.
Bruce walked by with a smile and said, “Didn’t get me and I had framed and signed jerseys of Derek Jeter and A-Rod in my car.”
BAKER related a funny story about heading for the airport before the All-Star game for the series in Chicago, riding in a friend’s car. The car broke down, but a policeman picked up Baker to take him to the airport.
“I was in the back seat, ducking down low so nobody would see me,” he said. “Then I got to the airport and my flight was canceled.”
As he talked, he was getting ready to eat some salmon he caught himself in Wisconsin over the All-Star break.
“They have a great chef upstairs and he fixes all the stuff I catch,” said Baker, telling a clubhouse attendant, “Be sure to have him fix some for all the guys who want it.”
There was a Father-Sons/Daughters game Thursday, but 9-year-old Darren Baker did not participate.
“He had his choice - the game or go fishing tomorrow on the off day,” said Dusty about his son. “He said, ‘Dad, that’s no choice. Fishing.’ He’s already played in seven Father-Sons games. And he had his choice. He is attending a summer math camp and I told him he could only miss one day.”
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TweetRose misses walk-off win
No matter what you think of Pete Rose - love him, hate him, no opinion - he remains a dedicated Cincinnati Reds loyalist.
He has been in Great American Small Park several time this year and was seated behind home plate Tuesday.
What he saw Tuesday, which is what he sees most of the time, certainly doesn’t remind him of The Big Red Machine and his days in Riverfront Stadium.
Frankly, it is probably embarrassing to watch the team from the city in which he grew up and the city for whom he played perform as such low efficiency.
Migawd - they lost to San Diego Pitiful Padres in Game One of this series then had to go 11 innings before beating them Tuesday, 4-3. The Padres waddled into town with baseball’s worst record and a six-game losing streak and are now putting a tight squeeze on the Reds.
Rose was sipping a soft drink in the sixth inning when Johnny Cueto struck out Chris Headley. But Paul Bako missed the pitch for a passed ball and Headley reached first. In the stands, you could see Rose’s cap-clad head rotating back-and-forth on a negative note, as if to say, “This is the team I used to play for?”
And Bako struck out four times. F-o-u-r. And yet he stroked the second most important hit of the night. He had struck out twice against San Diego starter Jake Peavy, 8-0 for his career against the Reds.
Peavy quickly got him 0 and 2 with two outs and the bases loaded in the fifth, the Reds down, 3-0. At the time, Bako was 5 for his last 48. And he was 14 for 78 with 30 strikeouts for his career against San Diego.
This time he rolled a 14-hop single up the middle for two runs.
I MUST SAY I second-guessed manager Dusty Baker on his decision to let Bako hit in that situation.
Baker had Joey Votto on deck to pinch-hit for Johnny Cueto, but if it were me, I would have pinch-hit Votto for Bako.
When the count went to 0-and-2, I said aloud, “No chance.” That’s when Bako rolled a two-run single up the middle. That’s why I’m in the press box sipping lemonade and Baker is in the dugout sweating his brain cells away.
Baker, though, admitted he nearly pinch-hit for Bako, thought about for the briefest of moments. But he was ready with the explanation. He started catcher Javier Valentin at first base and if he pinch-hit for Bako he would have only David Ross left to catch.
“That’s Freddy Kreugger stuff right there, you’re worst nightmare,” said Baker. “You fear when you have only one catcher.”
And he admitted that he could have pinch-hit Votto and put him at first, then moved Valentin behind the plate. But he didn’t.
“Just one of those things you have a feeling about,” he said. “But I was in the dugout going, ‘C’mon Paul, c’mon Paul.” It worked. Then he struck out his last two times.
Jeff Keppinger was 0 for 5 when he came to the plate in the 11th after Jay Bruce singled. He worked the count to 3-and-2, giving Bruce a running start when Keppinger pulled the ball for a game-winning walk-off double.
Belive this? The Reds lead the majors with 10 walkoff wins.
Asked if he thought as he walked to the plate, “I’m not going to go 0 for 6,” Keppinger laughed and said, “Oh, no. I’ll be honest. I thought about 0 for 6. I’m not back yet. I’m not hitting the ball squarely. But I got that one on the barrel, got the big one when we needed it.”
As he said before the game, “I make look dumb and stupid, but I’ m not as dumb and stupid as I look.”
JOHNNY CUETO put on one of his typical performances - 10 strikeouts and three walks while giving up three runs and four hits in six innings. But his travels covered 120 pitches and he was gone after six, leaving with 3-3 tie.
For the game, Reds pitchers struck out 18. After Cueto left, Jeremy Affeldt, Mike Lincoln (two innings), Bill Bray and Gary Majewski held the Pads to no runs and two hits over five innings.
Pete Rose missed most of that. He was long gone, perhaps tired of seeing all the strikeouts. The Reds whiffed 13 times - 31 K’s for the game.
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TweetOf lineups, bunts and guns
The conventional thinking when Joey Votto’s name wasn’t in Tuesday’s lineup was that he was battered, bruised and taped like a mummy.
In the last two days, Votto has run into two umpires chasing balls down the right-field line and collided with pitcher Francisco Cordero in a play at first base.
“No, he’s OK,” said manager Dusty Baker.
So why was Javier Valentin at first base?
“We need to give Javy a couple of starts to keep him sharp, plus he is one of only a couple of guys on our team with some success against (pitcher) Jake Peavy,” said Baker. “The other is Corey Patterson (5 for 11, one homer). I thought about starting him, too, but his last two starts would have been against C.C. Sabathia and Jake Peavy and that’s not fair.”
Whew!
Valentin, by the way, was 5 for 10.
THE SUBJECT was bunting after Baker sent up pitcher Josh Fogg to bunt Monday and he struck out.
“The dude is good at it, usually gets it down,” said Baker. “It was him or Bronson Arroyo and Bronson is pitching Wednesday. I don’t like to do that. I sent pitcher Mark Gardner up to bunt as a pinch-hitter the day before he was scheduled to pitch and he got hit on the elbow.”
Not only did Fogg not get the bunt down, he missed a sign, “The first sign he has missed all year,” said Baker. Fogg was given the slug bunt sign (square to bunt, straighten up, hit away). “But he missed it.”
Baker takes exception to those who think the Reds don’t practice bunting.
“Everybody has to bunt one to the left and one to the right before they start swinging away in batting practice,” he said. “And if I’m out there and they don’t do it, like if they bunt two straight back to the pitcher, I make them stay in there until they do it.”
AND THEN there was that awful at-bat that Jay Bruce had against San Diego closer Trevor Hoffman with two outs and the bases loaded in the ninth. Bruce struck out, swinging at three balls outside the strike zone.
“That was experience versus youth,” said Baker. “And Bruce had him 2-and-0 and 3-and-1, but then swung at that piece of (expletive) change-up. Bruce probably has never seen anything like that (Hoffman’s change-up). It happens to young players. Hopefully within a year or two Jay will spit on those pitches and say, ‘Nope, that’s not the ball I want to hit.’ “
Here’s an idea. Let him take batting practice against the change-ups of Edinson Volquez and Johnny Cueto.
THE DISCUSSION was home protection and Ken Griffey Jr. asked all the writers, “Do you have a gun, do you have a gun, do you have a gun?” Only one said yes (blush, blush).
Said Griffey, “I have an arsenal, and if the police ever need ammo they can knock on my door. Of course, my alarm system is a picture of Marty Brennaman from 1973 in my window instead of a Brinks sign in my yard.”
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TweetAnother strange and ugly night
Yes, it was the San Diego Padres - the worst team in major-league baseball (their record says so), even though they beat the Cincinnati Reds Monday to snap a six-game losing streak.
For the Reds, it is always, “Bring us your tired, your poor, and we’ll fix you right up.”
But Homer Bailey is a semi-happy hurler right now. He owns two straight good starts. No wins, mind you. But two good starts that the bullpen blew when he stood to win. And Monday’s was a monster.
Coco Cordero, alleged closer who makes $46 million, was given a 4-3 lead in the night and when the Padres quit running around the bases they were 6-4 ahead and Bailey’s win, poof, like Pierre’s mustache.
At this juncture, Bailey would have taken a win over the Aunt Hazel’s Butterball All-Stars.
He held the Padres to three runs and eight hits over 6 1/3 innings, walking two and striking out two. It isn’t something to sit down and write the Cy Young committee about, but it has to be a humongous boost to Bailey’s confidence.
That’s two good starts in a row and his last one, the last Sunday before the All-Star break was against Milwaukee - a legitimate team - two runs, five hits over 5 2/3 innings and a no-decision.
And now it is evident why Bailey wears cowboy boots. He is snake-bit and he doesn’t want the poison injected into his ankles.
“Gonna have to put snake guards on them,” he said with a smile, able to smile despite not having a ‘W’ next to his name since late April for Class AAA Louisville.
“He threw the ball good, good enough to win, big-time,” said manager Dusty Baker.
“If you make good pitches, good things are going to happen,” said Bailey. Well, usually.
The Padres struck for two in the first, three straight one-out hits that included a run-scoring double by Adrian Gonzalez and a sacrifice fly by Kevin Kouzmanoff.
“After they got two runs in the first inning, I just did everything I could to forget about it,” said Bailey. “Even in the first inning I thought I made good pitches that they were able to get the bat on.
“It was the first inning and I knew our guys would pick me up,” Bailey added. Edwin Encarnacion homered and Ken Griffey Jr.’s 606th homer gave Bailey a 4-2 lead (And did you see Griffey hand the batting helmet to the kid holding aloft a supportive sign after Griffey hit the homer? Nice. Very nice.
But Cordero expunged that lead in the flick of a few fastballs and a few sliders - actually a whole bunch of pitches, like 40 in one inning, only 18 strikes.
Can you say $43 million?
OK, SO I’VE COVERED baseball for 36 years and I see something every week I’ve never seen. And with the Reds it usually is some inventive base running gaffes. Like Monday.
The Reds had runners on second and third with one out when Bailey shocked the Tri-County with a double when everybody thought he would lay down his second straight sacrifice bunt.
Jay Bruce grounded weakly to first and David Ross, on third, broke for home and stopped. He was easily thrown out at third and Bailey, caught halfway to third, was thrown out at second - just your routine 3-5-6 inning-ending double play. I mean, Tinkers to Ever to Chance this wasn’t.
That reminds me of one of my favorite Jim Murray lines when he columnized for the Los Angeles Times. Describing the double play combination of the early expansion and awful Los Angeles Angels, Murray wrote, “The Angels double play combination is Fregosi to Asprmonte to Avalon Boulevard.”
Of the bizarre double play, a perplexed Baker said, “In all my years in baseball, I don’t think I’ve ever seen that one. Strange, very strange.”
TWO OF MY all-time favorite baseball writers died within the last week - Jerome Holtzman of the Chicago Tribune and Neil Hohlfeld of the Houston Chronicle.
Holtzman was retired but was historian for the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown. Holtzman wrote one of my all-time favorite books, No Cheering in the Press Box, a book, he signed for me and a book I read at least every two years.
Holtzman could be a gruff curmudgeon, but if he liked you, you were golden. He wrote always with a cigar stub between his lips and he hummed as he wrote. I sat next to him at a World Series one year and was entertained by the entire score from South Pacific, as hummed by Holtzman.
And there was the time during the playoffs that Holtzman was seated next to another Chicago writer, Dave Nightengale. They didn’t like each other much. The work space was tight and when one thought the other was encroaching, words were spoken harshly, chairs scraped backwards, and the fight was on.
A third Chicago writer said, “I don’t like either one of those Bozos. Let ‘em duke it to the death.”
Hohlfeld was a beat writer for many year for the Houston Astros, mostly when the Astros were the Houston Lastros or the Houston Disastros. Early one year, in April, when only about 10 games had been played, the ‘Stros were in first place.
Paul Meyer, beat writer for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, was needling Hohlfeld early in a game and Hohlfeld said, “Can’t talk, Paul. I’m covering a first-place team.”
Anyway, if you get the chance, read Holtzman’s No Cheerling in the Press Box. It truly is a classic.
I STILL THINK Reds owner Bob Castellini should hire me to do the half innings when the opposing team bats. I’m cheap. Every time I do the second inning with Marty Brennaman, the other team goes down 1-2-3…and quickly. Almost every time.
On Monday, it was 1-2-3 on six pitches. Marty asked me how Aruba was and I said fine and he said, “Nice talking with you. See you next time.” Next time when I go in the booth I’m going to ask, “Should I even sit down?”
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TweetBack to work, kicking and screaming
I’m b-a-a-a-c-k. Not happy about it, but I’m back from Aruba - kicking and screaming as they pushed me on the plane.
Great place. Great beach. Great sun. Great food.
One thing I wonder about - how did Aruba native Sidney Ponson develop his skills as a pitcher? Aruba is a small island, but try as I might, I could not find one baseball field. Not one.
I did find the casinos and that’s all I’ll say. The IRS might be monitoring. And my wife, Nadine, found the jewelry stories.
If you’re ever in Aruba, you have to eat at Simply Fish, a restaurant with tables on the beach in the open air. The seafood bouillabaisse may have been the best appetizer I’ve eaten. Anywhere.
So I’m back to work - tanned, fat and more tired than when I left. After missing the four-game split with the Mets, I get to watch the San Diego Padres, owners of baseball’s worst record and a six-game losing streak
So tell me, what does a player need with 14 pairs of baseball spikes? There were 14 orange Nike boxes stacked on top of each other next to Ken Griffey Jr.’s locker. Adam Dunn, though, had him beat. He had 25 black boxes of adidas shoes piled in three stacks next to his locker.
He didn’t care about shoes, though.
“What is this, July 21? Only 10 days to the trade deadline. Awfully quiet. Scary,” he said.
Dunn, though, was more interested in the upcoming NFL training camps. And when a story about Brett Favre surfaced on a clubhouse TV and Jerry Hairston Jr. said, “If I was GM of the Packers, I would have signed him last year.”
“And what do you tell the back-up quarterback who has waited and waited and now it’s his turn to play (Aaron Rodgers)?” said Dunn.
“I trade him to Tampa Bay where he could be No. 1,” said Hairston.
“And who is your quarterback at Green Bay next year when Favre leaves?” said Dunn.
“I draft one No. 1.”
“Who?”
“Some kid out of the University of Southern Illinois,” said Hairston.
“That’s what I mean. As a GM, you stink,” said Dunn.
Dunn was on a roll, shifting his attention to the lineup card. There was a Hairston leading off, but it wasn’t Jerry. His brother, Scott, bats leadoff for the Padres.
“I don’t know if I’d hang around if I couldn’t play because I was hurt and my younger brother had more homers than me (15-2),” said Dunn.
Hairston was asked if he gave the Reds pitchers a scouting report on his brother.
“They don’t need it,” he said. “Our scouting reports are good and our pitchers know him. They probably know him better than me. All I know is that he is very talented and that I went out to dinner with him Sunday night and he paid - for the first time.”
As far as news, it’s all about injuries with the Reds.
Hairston (strained hamstring) has it all planned.
“I ran the last couple of days in the pool (next to the training room) and I plan to run on the field Tuesday or Wednesday. If that goes well, I’ll play a couple of rehab games for Dayton and be ready next week in Houston. That’s my plan,” said Hairston.
Manager Dusty Baker said pitcher Aaron Harang is close to “doing some things in the next couple of days,” but he didn’t specify what “some things might be” to test his sore forearm. “He is doing a lot of cardio stuff so when he comes back he ought to be in great shape,” Baker added.
Pitcher Jared Burton isn’t doing anything yet, “Not until they get the inflammation out of his lat,” said Baker.
Somebody asked Baker what he wanted out of Homer Bailey tonight.
“Just a win,” said Baker. “A win for him and a win for us. I know he hasn’t had a win anywhere in a long time (April 27 in Louisville) and he knows that. Let’s just get him a win.”
If the Reds are going to do anything, the time is now, now, now. Their next 12 games are with bad, bad, bad teams — San Diego, Colorado, Houston and Washington - losers all.
Of course, they are 32-29 against teams over .500, but only 16-23 against teams under .500.
Figure that one out and let us know why that’s so.
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TweetGive me a (All-Star) break
Aruba, Jamaica, it’s where I wanna take ya.
Well, not all of you. I’d take some - but it is a week without baseball and nothing around the pool but cola and lemonade. Rum? Maybe a touch.
So today is it. Last post for a week. I’m leaving it in your hands. Be nice. Treat each other with respect. Give your opinions and respect others. And I’m still hearing moans about Griffey batting third.
Quit wasting breath and finger muscles typing it. It isn’t going to change.
Now, I can’t believe none of you astute observers have wondered the last two days why Jared Burton hasn’t pitched. They’ve kept it nicely under cover, hoping the Milwaukee Brewers wouldn’t notice.
Burton isn’t available. He’s hurt. How bad? Check back after the All-Star break.
It happened last week when he was pitching against the Nationals and a dispute broke out on the field. While the umpires and the Reds argued, Burton stood and watched. Didn’t throw any practice pitches.
When the on-field discussions ended, Burton threw a pitch and, “Ow.” Something under his armpit hurt. He tried to pitch in Chicago, but couldn’t extend, so he was shut down.
“With three days of rest here (in Milwaukee) and three days during the All-Star break, that gives him plenty of rest,” said manager Dusty Baker. “We’ll have him throw Thursday and see if he is OK or if we have to disable him and get help from Louisville.”
SPEAKING OF THE All-Star break, Baker isn’t wandering far from Milwaukee. He plans to go fishing on Sturgeon Bay in Dorr County, Wisconsin.
“Maybe I’ll run into Brett Favre,” said Baker. “Never met him, don’t know him, but he has always been one of my favorite quarterbacks.”
Baker also plans a visit to Lambeau Field, home of the Green Bay Packers, where he’ll admire the ghost of Vince Lombardi, one of his all-time favorite sports figures.
“I’ll walleye fish on Monday, smallmouth on Tuesday, drive to Green Bay on Wednesday and check out Lambeau,” he said. “Vince is one of my favorite coaches and favorite people. I might go there and get some of that old Packer spirit of winning - put it in a glass or a cup and bring it back here. I’m psyched. Got my camera ready.”
FIRST, THOUGH, there was the matter of meeting the Brewers and C.C. Sabathia Sunday. The lineup was stacked with as many righthanders as Baker could find, with Ken Griffey Jr. and Jay Bruce taking a seat.
“Big game today,” he said. “A two-under .500 or or a four-under .500 day. We can start the second half two under or four under. And we have the ultimate challenge in C.C.
“I don’t have many lefthanders in there,” Baker added. “Lefthanders might get C.C., but chances aren’t that good. Giving Junior the day off, even though he has hit C.C. pretty good.
“C.C. and Dunn are buddies, so we’ll see who gets bragging rights right there,” Baker added. “Brandon Phillips and C.C. were teammates (in Cleveland), so there’s bragging rights challenge. Corey Patterson has hit him pretty good, although he hasn’t hit much lately.”
So why is Patterson playing?
“I figure if we’re going to beat him, it will be a low-scoring game and we have to have some good defense in there,” Baker explained.
Aruba, Jamaica, that’s where I wanna take ya. See ya all in a week.
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TweetHairston finds a haven
Jerry Hairston Jr. is not only a catalyst, he is a catalytic converter and what he does for the Cincinnati Reds is cataclysmic.
Number sometimes lie, can be construed any way the interpreter wants, but Hairston’s are dead, solid platinum.
He had four hits and scored three runs in Miller Park Friday to help the Reds bury the Milwaukee Brewers, 8-2, lifting Edinson Volquez to his 12th victory.
And Adam Dunn contributed the heavy lumber with a pair of homers and four RBIs.
How important is Hairston?
When he plays shortstop the team is 20-10. When he bats leadoff the team is 18-13. When he bats sixth the team is 3-0. When he plays center field the team is 8-2. Right field? 2-0.
“Keep that center field, right field and batting sixth stuff under wraps,” said Hairston with a laugh. He prefers shortstop and leadoff — two spots he should be every day, every night, every game.
But it doesn’t matter where he plays or where he bats, his presence is majestic.
“You think one guy doesn’t make a difference?” said manager Dusty Baker. “They tried to tell me that in Chicago when we lost Derrek Lee. I know better.”
Hairston was sitting at home mid-spring, hoping for a job, when the Reds came calling and now he is hitting .344 with a .392 on-base average.
“Best I’ve played since 2003, right before I got hurt,” he said. “I really felt like I was turning the corner but I had a foot injury and when I came back I was like 4 for 50 or 4 for 70. I shouldn’t have come back.”
Volquez is 12-3 as he heads for the All-Star game and owns more confidence than any 25-year-old deserves to have. How confident? He is making predictions now.
“After I warmed up, I told Edwin Encarnacion, ‘I’m going to win this game. I’m going to have a very good game because I have great stuff.’”
Volquez said Encarnacion looked at him as if he were el loco. Then he added to the legend in the first inning with All-Star Ryan Braun batting.
“I told Edwin I was going to strike him out,” said Volquez. “Edwin told me, ‘You’re crazy, man,’ then I struck him out.”
Said Hairston of Volquez, “He is a tremendous pitcher with tremendous stuff. To think he is only 25. We are confident that we’re going to win when he pitches.”
Volquez went seven innings, giving up two runs, one earned, and six hits over seven innings, striking out 10, lowering his ERA to 2.29.
“I only told Edwin, nobody else, I was going to have a great night,” said Volquez. “All my pitches are going to be there and he was laughing at me.”
And Dunn is on one of his terror tantrums — five homers in six games.
When a writer asked about it, Dunn said, “You obviously are from Milwaukee? Yeah. You don’t see me often, dude. I got into these ruts where I take pitches that I should be hitting and swing at ones I shouldn’t.
“Right now I’m in one of those things that is just the opposite — I swing at pitches that I should be swinging at, seeing the ball good, and getting good results. I’m seeing it good and just swinging it,” Dunn added.
Seth McClung vs. Edinson Volquez seemed a monumental mismatch and it appeared to be just that in the first inning.
Hairston led the game with a single, Ken Griffey Jr. walked on a full count and Dunn propelled his 25th home run over the right field wall.
Quicker than you can say Bernie Brewer, the Reds were in front, 3-0.
Stayed that way, too, until the fourth when Hairston booted Braun’s grounder for an error and Prince Fielder launched a stand-and-watch (which he did) home run to left field, cutting Volquez’s margin to 3-2.
Volquez gave up three singles in the fifth, including a leadoff hit to McClung, breaking a streak of 0 for 38 by Milwaukee pitchers.
That forced Volquez to face Fielder, this time with the bases loaded. After he jumped ahead 2-and-0, Fielder rolled a weak grounder to second and the Brewers didn’t score.
“A change-up,” said Volquez. “My change-up hasn’t been there for three or four starts, but it was the best it has been in a long time.”
The Reds went feeble after the first, getting one hit off McClung in 5 2/3 innings after Dunn’s homer.
They broke through for a run against the Brewers bullpen in the eighth after Hairston led with a double, his third hit. With two outs and a 3-and-2 count, Griffey rolled a run-scoring single to right to make it 4-2.
Dunn’s second homer, his 26th, led the ninth against Eric Gagne, then Encarnacion pumped his 15th homer over the left field fence on an 0-2 pitch, pushing the cushion to four runs.
It didn’t stop there because Corey Patterson’s single, Hairston’s fourth-hit double and Jay Bruce’s two-run single made it 8-2.
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TweetDay-dreamin’ and night-schemin’
Cease, Halt, Stop, Quit.
C’mon, guys. Act like adults. Let’s don’t get personal on this blog. Name-calling is so beneath you. I like to think my readers are intelligent - and most of you are. The few that snipe at each other irritate everybody else.
We don’t want to read it. We don’t want to hear it. State your cases without aiming it personally at somebody. We all have our opinions and we’re all entitled to it.
Aruba in two days.
Personally, I’m tired of reading about taking Ken Griffey Jr. out of third in the batting order, the 3-hole. Whatever. We all know he isn’t what he once was. We all know he isn’t as productive as he once was. We all know he should be moved in the order.
But it isn’t going to happen. Not now, probably not the rest of the year. Dusty Baker puts him there and keeps him there. Right or wrong, that’s the way it is and screaming and hollering at each other isn’t going to change it. It’s a dead issue.
Move on.
Aruba in two days.
THEY CAME to their senses - well, the official scorer did. He changed his call from Friday night. Instead of an error on center fielder Mike Cameron, he gave Cincinnati’s Jerry Hairston Jr. a triple and an RBI.
Cameron lost the ball in the lights.
Aruba in two days.
HE WON’T HAVE to make a scoring change from what happened in the first inning Saturday night. Adam Dunn drove a two-out three-run home run off RHP Seth McClung. That’s 26 homers and 57 RBIs.
And it gives Reds pitcher Edinson Volquez a 3-0. Only once in his 18 starts has he given up more than three runs.
Aruba in two days.
IF I WORKED in Milwaukee and covered the Brewers I’d weigh 350 pounds. They have hot dogs, bratwurst, polish sausages, milkshakes, ice cream and all the soda pop you can drink behind the press box. You pay $8 when you walk in the door, then load up, baby, load up.
Aruba in two days.
VOLQUEZ GAVE up two hits in the bottom of the first, but struck out two and got a generous call at first base by umpire Bob Davidson on a ground ball by Corey Hart. I swear he was safe, then the replay showed they nipped him. Once again, the umpire is 99 44/100th’s per cent correct.
Aruba in two days.
MY MAN Jerry Hairston Jr. just disappointed me.
I just got off the air with Marty Brennaman and we talked about how the Reds are 7-and and have won six straight with Hairston batting first and Jeff Keppinger second.
Hairston then singled, his second straight hit. The guy HAS to be in the lineup every day. Somewhere. He is having a career year, plus he shows some fire in his belly and he is a pleasant always smiling presence in the clubhouse.
Then he tried to steal second base as Jay Bruce struck out. He stopped halfway and was caught. Instead of getting into a hot box - a pickle, as kids call it - he gave himself up, let himself be tagged, instead of running back and forth, forcing some throws. One of them might have been a bad throw.
That’s the kind of stuff that constantly bothers me with this team and I had hoped Hairston was above.
Aruba in two days.
MAYBE I should have kept my yap shut about Hairston. He just booted a ground ball for an error and Prince Fielder blasted his 18th home run to cut Volquez’s lead to 3-2. Milwaukee has hit at least one home run in 12 straight games.
Have I told you I’m going to Aruba???
THE BREWERS filled the bases in the fifth because McClung opened the inning with a single, ending a 0 for 38 streak by Brewers pitchers. With two out and two on, Edwin Encarnacion fielded a ground ball behind third and couldn’t decided whether to throw to first or run to third for the force. He chose the run to third and stumbled, failing to get there.
That, yikes, loaded the bases, yikes, for Prince Fielder, yikes. Volquez went to 2-and-0 on him, then the anxious Fielder grounder weakly and meekly to second, leaving it 3-2.
Griffey one-hopped the wall in right leading off the sixth. What did I say about umpires? Davidson called it far and Griffey was perched on second. First baseman Fielder and right fielder Hart protest vehemently, the umpires huddled, foul ball. Griffey then sturck out.
AH, THE SAUSAGE race. Back when the Brewers were a team like the Reds, consistent losers, the sausage race drew more cheers than anything in the game. Still draws big cheers. I bet on Polish. Hot dog won. I’m oh-for-Milwaukee.
Bet I win in Aruba. Not.
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TweetFogg-Keppinger 1-2 = 7-1
Something to ponder:
Since Jerry Hairston Jr. came off the disabled list, when he leads off and Jeff Keppinger bats second, the Cincinnati Reds are 6-0. Before that, they were 1-1.
So for the season, with those two batting 1-2, the Reds are 7-1.
“That’s a pretty good winning percentage right there,” said Hairston. Yeah, like about .875, which will win a pennant every year until the Apocolypse.
Nevertheless, on Saturday it was Keppinger’s turn to be the DS (designated sitter). Hairston was at shortstop and Edwin Encarnacion at third.
“Keppinger will be back in there tomorrow, said manager Dusty Baker. “C.C. (Sabathia) is a monster against lefthanders. Hey, he is a monster against righthanders, too, but he is really a monster against lefthanders, so I’ll stack my lineup with righthanders tomorrow.
As far as righthanders go, it won’t be a very high stack.
Keppinger is hitting right now - 13-61 (.213) since he came off the DL, but is what is important is the W-L work sheet?
WHEN PLAYERS arrived in the clubhouse Saturday there was a sheet of paper hanging on every locker. On it was a family photo of Jeremy Affeldt and his family from a magazine and there was a quote from Affeldt highlighted:
“Throwing a fastball over 100 miles an hour over and over and over puts a real strain on my arm.”
A hundred miles an hour?
“That was when I threw 98,” Affeldt said in self-defense.
Said catcher Javier Valentin, “Yeah, 98 in the dirt, then 98 over somebody’s head, then 98 three feet outside. What good does that do?”
MUCH WAS MADE of the error charged to Milwaukee’s Mike Cameron Friday when he obviously lost Hairstron’s ball in the lights and the game-tying run scored.
Everybody but the official scorer thought it should have been a hit, which is usually what is called when a ball is lost in the lights and the player doesn’t touch it.
Said Cameron, “I’d like to take the official scorer out on the field and hit him a bunch of fly balls in those lights and see how many balls he catches. I had two choices - duck away at the last minute or keep my head up and get hit in the face.”
Baker thought Hairston should get a hit.
“I knew right away what happened,” said Baker. “He lost it in the lights. Don’t they usually score that a hit?”
Ken Griffey Jr. appeared to lose two balls in the light - one he caught and they other whizzed over his head for a run-scoring double by Casey Hart.
“This park has more little nuances for a center field to consider and battle than any park I’ve played in,” said Cameron, one of the players the Reds sent to Seattle for Griffey.
Milwaukee manager Ned Yost was talking about his Brewers, but he could have been talking about the Reds, too, when he said, “The All-Star break is like a milestone. You go strong uphill from there or you go strong downhill from there.”
Baker rolled out something he said earlier about the approaching break:
“This game tonight is big, really big. We have to play hard through tomorrow. As I said before, this is like a basketball game - we need to hit a three-pointer, steal the inbounds pass and hit another three-point and run to the lockerroom at halftime (the All-Star break), then come back smokin’ and catch (the New York Mets) when they’re easing back into things.”
Let’s hope nobody gets called for an offensive foul.
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TweetComing out of the Fog(g)
The sea gulls outside my hotel window are raising a ruckus. Sea gulls? In downtown Milwaukee? Makes me feel as if I’m in San Diego.
And the game tonight made me feel as if I am in San Diego. The Milwaukee Brewers played like the Padres - three errors, giving up a run without giving up a hit in one inning, an error by center fielder Mike Cameron (he lost it in the lights) gave up the tying run and a wild pitch let in the winning run.
The Milwaukee Padres?
Hey, the Cincinnati Reds take any charity given these days, including victories gift-wrapped in blue and gold ribbon.
There was something noteworthy in this game.
I liked the way Josh Fogg pitched. When he filled in last Saturday for Aaron Harang, he shut down the Washington Nationals. That was a big ho-hum. Eric Milton could shut down the Washington Nationals.
And did you hear the New York Yankees are interested in signing Milton? Man, the Bronx Bombers are desperate. But then maybe Milton is another Ryan Dempster or Kyle Lohse. Take him out of a Cincinnati uniform and he might become a lefthanded Bob Gibson.
On Friday, Fogg was facing The Big, Bad Brewers in their own playpen, a lineup of big-time hitters.
Fogg gave up a home run in the first, then nothing more. No more hits for 5 1/3 innings. That was enlightening.
Maybe the Reds have found their No. 5 starter. Maybe they should keep him. It certainly doesn’t cost much.
I was as dubious as anybody else when he went 1-2 with a 13.09 ERA in his first three starts, then was banished to the bullpen to collect rust.
He made note of that after Friday’s game - he was only given three starts. Homer Bailey was given three starts before he was dispatched back to Louisville. Daryl Thompson was given only three starts before he was re-routed back to Louisville.
Maybe the Reds are rushing to judgment on some of these guys. And maybe not. But here is what Fogg said and it carries some merit.
It was Fogg’s second straight solid start since spending an inordinate amount of time on the disabled list with a back that recovered long before he was permitted to come back.
He made five rehab starts in the minors to prove his back strong enough for the rigors of the majors and has made the most of it.
He made three starts earlier this season and was 1-2 with a 13.09 ERA, then handed a hall pass to the bullpen, where he wasn’t used much.
In his last two starts he has pitched 11 1/3 innings, giving up four runs and seven hits.
“The key to my success is I’ve been getting ahead of hitters,” said Fogg. “If I’m falling behind, it’s going to be a long night.
“I didn’t get in the groove early-on, didn’t have enough starts to get in the groove,” he said. “I got taken out after three starts and didn’t have a role in the bullpen and wasn’t really utilized.
“To be able to go down and get those five starts in the minors on rehab was big for me. I got my command back and got in my groove on the mound,” he said.
In other words, Fogg is not longer in a fog.
Unlike me and MLB.com’s Mark Sheldon, trying to find our way around Milwaukee’s five years of construction-destruction.
They are re-doing the interstate interchanges downtown and, frankly, you can’t get nowhere from here. Even a cab driver told me, “The traffic pattern changes every day. They close different streets every day. You just can’t find your way around.”
Sheldon and I discovered that Friday trying to get from Miller Park to downtown. We wandered through some seedy parts of town before we found our way.
We finally did. Maybe Fogg has, too.
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TweetCall him Bad Luck Bailey
Homer Bailey says he is not a gambler, but when he arrived in Milwaukee early Thursday he went to the Potawatami Casino, close to downtown, for some entertainment and the removal of $200 from his wallet.
“It just shows I still have bad luck,” he said with a laugh.
What irritated him, a smiling irritation, was that he watched Milwaukee All-Star outfielder Ryan Braun walk up to the roulette table and place one $25 chip on ‘8.’
“That’s it. One bet. Twenty-five bucks on ‘8,’” said Bailey. “What happens? It hits. More than $800 for him. I never have that kind of luck. I’m donating money.”
What brought it up was that Bailey was talking about his luck, the lack thereof this season both at Class AAA Louisville and with the Reds.
I didn’t even get the question out, but he knew what I was going to say when I started my question with, “I know numbers are not that important in the minors, but how frustrating is it…”
I never finished.
“Very,” he said. “It is frustrating.”
I was going to ask him about the frustration of not winning a game in either the minors or the major since April 27. He knew the question.
“You are out there and you are throwing better than you have in a long, long time and there is a broken bat hit here, a missed communication there and you’re getting ‘Ls’ even though you’re feeling better than you ever have,” said Bailey. “You start questioning yourself.”
Bailey was in the clubhouse Friday, two days before he faces C.C. Sabathia Sunday afternoon and he appreciates that the Reds brought him in early this time.
“Last time they called me up it was a day game in Philadelphia and I got in at 1 that morning,” he said. “It’s much better this time and this way.”
When it was mentioned about his matchup, he laughed and said, “Oh, yeah. Doesn’t matter. Doesn’t matter.”
During spring training, every time it was Bailey’s turn to pitch it was against the New York Yankees or the Boston Red Sox.
For those screaming for the head of pitching coach Dick Pole on top of a base, Bailey is crediting him with a major turnaround.
“I’ve thrown a lot better since I went back,” he said. “I’ve cut down on walks and I’ve had more strikeouts,” he said. “I’m feeling a lot better about the way I’m throwing.”
And his velocity is up.
“Before I went down I worked on a few things with Dick Pole and that has a lot to do with it,” he said. “My off-speed pitches have been better, too. Dick and I worked on my balance and if you’re in balance I guess everything gets a little better.”
The last time Bailey pitched, he threw 82 pitches in six innings - an economical outing, but his bad luck persisted.
“I had a lot of bad luck the last inning, then I got pulled for a pinch-hitter because we were playing a National League team (No DH). We were down by one and it was my turn to bat so I was pulled for a pinch-hitter and I hadn’t even gotten loose yet.”
His luck certainly didn’t change when he drew Sabathia.
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TweetStrain for Harang, off to DL
They held the news until the last pitch of Thursday’s game, but at least it was semi-good news.
The MRI on Aaron Harang’s sore right forearm came back negative and was diagnosed as a strain. He will be re-evaluated next week.
But he also will be placed on the disabled list, said general manager Walt Jocketty, who was pleased with the diagnosis.
If he recovers, he can come off the DL, which means he would miss one turn after the All-Star break.
“The MRI was negative, classified as just a strain of the forearm,” said Jocketty. “So that’s good. We’ll shut him down, put him on the disabled list, let him rest. He was told not to throw for a week, but we’re confident he’ll get right back into it.”
Said manager Dusty Baker, “That’s great news on Aaron. This is what the doctor thought. Just a strained muscle. That’s huge news. He was instructed not to pick up a ball for a week. Rest it. Treat it. Work out. Train. And come back smoking.”
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TweetIt’s Homer vs. C.C. on Sunday
Some nuggets while awaiting the outcome this afternoon of the MRI on Aaron Harang’s forearm:
HOMER BAILEY will start Sunday against the Milwaukee Brewers and C.C. Sabathia. GM Walt Jocketty talked with Louisville manager Rick Sweet, pitching coach Ted Power and director of player development Terry Reynolds for their opinions.
It was Bailey over Daryl Thompson, even though Thompson pitched a good one Tuesday against the Lehigh Valley IronPigs (love that nickname) — six innings, one run, five hits.
“We sent Thompson back down to work on some things,” said Jocketty, a reason not to bring him back yet. You don’t want a pitcher working on things in a major-league game.
“They tell me Homer is throwing the ball good down there,” said manager Dusty Baker. “All I see are statistics and that never tells the whole story. That’s why we checked with Sweet, Power and Reynolds.”
Bailey might be pitching well, but he isn’t getting results. He hasn’t won a game anywhere since April 27 for Louisville (0-3 in four starts with the Reds this year) and that winless stretch covers 13 starts.
“Well, he is certainly due,” said Baker with a sly smile.
BAKER, BY THE WAY, was an excellent major-league hitter but he said Thursday that Wrigley Field was his least favorite park, mostly because they played all day games then.
“I grew up in Sacramento and it was so hot most of our games were at night,” he said. “I could see the stitches and the rotation better at night. I couldn’t see nothin’ here in Wrigley. And because the ‘400’ sign on the center field wall is off center, more to the right, it always appeared to me that the mound was off kilter, more to the left than straight ahead.”
ADAM DUNN received a phone call shortly after C.C. Sabathia was traded to Milwaukee by the Cleveland Indians. Now that he is in the National League, Sabathia has to hit — and is a good hitter.
“Do you believe it? He called me and asked for some of my bats,” said Dunn. “I told him, ‘No way.’ He wanted me to bring some to Milwaukee. Why, so he could use ‘em on us? I didn’t pack the kind he likes.”
Sabathia took one of Dunn’s bats when the Indians were in Cincinnati and later hit a 400-foot home run with it.
WHAT I HEARD from Ken Griffey Jr. in a 10-minute chat Thursday morning in the pre-game clubhouse:
“When I made that dive Tuesday trying to catch Aramis Ramirez’s triple, I didn’t hurt myself, but I think I left my spleen out there.
“I’ve only flown commercially three times since 1996 (the team flies charters and Griffey has a time share in a private aircraft for his personnel journeys).
“Do you think we can mix in a ‘W’ today?
“Let’s introduce C.C. Sabathia to the National League the right way Sunday.”
OK, SO MAYBE some of you should have asked your grandfathers what a gonfalon is? It is a flag, as in a pennant. A team tries to win the gonfalon.
YEAH, I’m old, real old.
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TweetThey’re not batty about Cincinnati
First of all, enough of the oft-repeated and unfounded opinions that Dusty Baker ruined Mark Prior and Kerry Wood when he managed the Cubs.
Knowledgeable folks from Chicago dispute that Baker ruined Wood or Prior. Hey, Wood and Prior dispute it themselves, so that’s good enough for me. Wood remains close friends with Baker.
And by the way, maybe somebody should ruin some more pitchers. The guy Baker supposedly ruined, Wood, recorded his 23rd save of the season against the Reds Wednesday.
Somebody ruin me, please.
It just isn’t true, but fans who believe everything they hear keep repeating it. Both Wood and Prior were experiencing arm problems before Baker even landed in Chicago.
So let’s not transfer those thoughts to Cincinnati and blame Baker for anything that happens to Aaron Harang.
Over the last three years Harang has pitched 211 2/3 innings, 234 1/3 innings and 231 2/3 innings - and Baker wasn’t here. So if something dastardly comes out of the MRI of Harang’s forearm today, don’t blame Dusty.
That said, so much for the Reds becoming born again contenders on this trip.
For those who got excited because the Reds swept four from the Washington Unnaturals, well, those Nationals are like the old Washington Senators, about whom it was once written: “Washington - first in war, first in peace and last in the American League.” (There were in the American League then).
The Reds are now playing Real Baseball teams and, frankly, they aren’t good enough to compete. They aren’t close to being as good as the Cubs and probably not close to being good as the Brewers.
What I feared on this trip was that the Reds might do something goofy like win five or six or four of six and delude themselves and their fans into thinking they can still compete this year for the ol’ gonfalon (ask your dad, kids).
But by losing their first two to the division-leading Cubs, it is self-evident that - all together now - “This is not a very good baseball team.”
Now general manager Walt Jocketty can start looking to made trades for 2009 and beyond.
But he has a major problem: the players he would like to trade are not what other teams want, mostly overpriced and underachieving. The untouchables are the players other teams want and Jocketty can’t trade those if he is trying to build.
He has a major challenge. He worked magic in St. Louis and I’ve been looking for his sorcerer’s hat. Haven’t found it yet. Not even a magic wand. He’ll have to do it on his own.
OK, it’s nearly midnight and Wrigley Field is empty and the press box is a sauna. Outside in Wrigleyville, one can still hear the fans singing, “Go Cubs go, Go Cubs go,” a catchy tune fans begin singing after every win.
I’ve been hearing it a lot lately. Even in my dreams.
I can remember back in The Big Red Machine Days when Cincinnati TV icon Ruth Lyons had folks on her show singing, “The Whole Town’s Batty, About Cincinnati, What a Team, What a Team, What a Team.”
Right now I’m saying the same thing: “What a team.”
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TweetHarang to undergo MRI
Ah, we all knew it, didn’t we?
Aaron Harang returned to Cincinnati on Wednesday and will have an MRI on his right forearm, the forearm that he said didn’t bother him when he walked seven Cubs in 4 1/3 innings Tuesday, the forearm that caused him to miss his turn Saturday against the Washington Nationals.
Prediction, here? Hate to be a predictor of gloom, but could it be Tommy John ligament replacement surgery in his immediate future. An MRI today will determine exactly what it is.
I’m no doctor, but it’s past history. Remember when Ryan Dempster pitched for the Reds and was so bad fans called him Ryan Dumpster? Well, when he was with the Reds he lost command of his pitches - just like Harang - because of forearm tightness. He ended up with Tommy John.
But Harang and, so far, Dr. Tim Kremchek believe it is only muscular and that the ligament is fine.
Harang has not been the same since he threw 108 pitches in 5 1/3 innings in San Diego May 22, then came back three days later to pitch four innings in that 18-inning game the Reds lost.
Some also think it might have been Harang pitching on his regular turn the next time through the rotation after throwing 166 pitches in a four-day span.
Harang - and the Reds- remain optimistic that it is no more than a muscular problem.
Harang said he was fine during the game, had a great long toss session before the game and a great bullpen before the game - no pain.
He said he woke up at 5:30 this morning and the forearm had stiffened up again. He went back to sleep until 10, then called trainer Mark Mann. Mann talked to Baker and general manager Walt Jocketty and it was decided to send him back to Cincinnati.
“Same area of my forearm,” he said. “It is obviously something that didn’t completely go away.”
Asked if he is worried, Harang said, “No, because from the examination I had last week the doctor said from the tests he’d did on the ligaments I’d be screaming if there was something wrong there.
“He thought it was just muscular,” Harang added. “We’re hoping with rest and treatment it’ll be all right. We’re just going to check to see that there is no structural damage.”
Said Baker, “Harang said he is having more discomfort than usual. We’re going to see what’s wrong and we hope it’s muscular and rest will calm it down. That’s what the Cubs did with Carlos Zambrano earlier this year and he’s OK now. It’s been a month to six weeks now that he hasn’t been the real Aaron Harang.”
Harang was supposed to pitch Sunday in Milwaukee against C.C. Sabathia (That’s enough to make anybody feel woozy), but now that start will be taken either by Daryl Thompson or Homer Bailey.
I WOULD HAVE had this report quicker, but when I got to the Wrigley Field press box today every seat was occupied. By tourists. And the tour guide kept them there for 20 minutes with tales of Wrigley.
They just started this recently - tours during homestands, at $25 a head.
With their payroll, the Cubs probably need the money. After all, they only sell out every home game.
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TweetHarang says he’s fine, but we wonder
So what’s the matter with Aaron Harang?
Something, obviously. Something bad, obviously.
Harang usually has the Chicago Cubs nibbling Cracker Jack out of his palm in Wrigley Field, where he was 4-1 for his career when he walked to the mound Tuesday.
What followed was painful to watch, unless you are a Bleacher Bum from Wrigleyville, almost as painful as what Harang MUST be feeling in his arm.
In only 4 1/3 innings, Harang walked a career-worst seven batters. He gave up two home runs. He strained his way through 108 pitches - only 58 for strikes.
Something is wrong. Something is obviously wrong.
Harang missed his scheduled start Saturday with tightness in his forearm. He pitched Tuesday as if Dr. Tim Kremchek was standing over his shoulder, scalpel in hand.
Something is wrong. Something is obviously wrong physically, something that might have to be fixed medically.
If that’s the case, they might as well roll the tarp onto Great American Ball Park and leave it there. Game over.
If it’s not the case, if there is nothing physically wrong, then Harang has deteriorated faster than a Cremesicle in the sun.
Manager Dusty Baker was asked if something is wrong with Harang and he said, “He hasn’t said anything to us.”
Pitching Coach Dick Pole said, “I asked him if he is OK and he said nothing is bothering him. I hate it when a pitcher warms up great in the bullpen and that’s what Harang did.”
And Harang himself?
“I’m fine. I have no problems physically,” he said. “Some days you wake up feeling good and some days you wake up feeling like trash. Sometimes when you wake up feeling like trash is a day you pitch. But it isn’t anything physical.”
Harang was stunned when told he walked seven.
“I walked seven? (Expletive). That’s terrible,” he said.
Asked if the All-Star break will be welcomed by him, he said, “Yeah, it will. A couple of more extra days of rest will do everybody some good. A lot of it is mental. It’s a long season and people talk about the physical strain, but it’s a mental strain, too.”
Especially when your record is 3-11 and you seem to get worse each time out.
It might be over anyway - one game into the most important trip of the year. The beating in Game One of the six games in Chicago and Milwaukee dropped the Reds 11 1/2 games out of first and five games under .500.
Put that champagne back for more aging, as you’ve done the last seven years. This team is NOT only NOT going to contend, it is NOT going to finish .500.
Ah, such hopes. Dashed on the banks of Lake Michigan, where the beer flows down Clark, Addison, Sheffield and Waveland.
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TweetChicago clubhouse confidential
Made a bad tactical error for this trip. Trying to save my wife, Nadine, from having to wash all my short sleeve shirts (OK, sometimes I do them myself) when I return from this trip and immediately leave for Aruba, I packed only long-sleeved shirts.
So here I sit in the Wrigley Field press box in a pool of perspiration, my glasses fogged up and my arm pits rated ‘R’ for rank.
The clubhouse isn’t much better. The Cubs keep the visitor’s clubhouse at about 80 and it is so small that players sit on top of each other. And sweat.
“They try to wear us out before we even play,” said Ken Griffey Jr.
Small? I’ve seen bigger broom closets. And the closets have more room, even filled with brooms, than the visitor’s have in their clubhouse. When the media is in there before games, it is a chore to stay out of people’s way. Or get run over.
A few years ago, former Reds pitcher Joey Hamilton was having a bad streak. I was standing as tightly up against a pillar as I could get, trying to stay clear, but Hamilton said, “Doesn’t the media have anything better to do than stand in here and get in the way?”
Hamilton and fellow pitcher Gabe White were inseparable buddies, but White went on my Good Guys list forever when he heard Hamilton say what he said and White said, “Hal can stand anywhere he wants. He can stand in my locker. In fact, he can wear my uniform if he wants.”
Thanks, Gabe.
MARTY BRENNAMAN rode the bus from the hotel to Wrigley Ton uesday, as he always does. But he had company, somebody from Reds security accompanied Brennaman - just in case.
When the Reds were here in April, Brennaman called Cubs fans the worst in baseball after they threw a dozen baseballs on the field after an Adam Dunn home run. Brennaman has received nasty e-mails and threats.
“Hey, I got here Sunday night and he wasn’t with me. I took my grandkids and Thom to the Navy Pier, walked all around,” said Brennaman. “Nobody said anything. At the Pier, though, when we got to the ticket window, Thom walked away and and the ticket-seller said, ‘Hey, I know him. Isn’t he a broadcaster?’ “
Told it was Thom Brennaman, the guy said to Marty, “That’s the guy who ripped on our fans.” Said Brennaman, “No, sir. That was me. You’ve got the wrong Brennaman.” Marty said they had a pleasant 15-minute talk.
Marty was wearing a bright red shirt Tuesday and Griffey said, “Why don’t you just paint a target on yourself?”
Said Brennaman, “That’s why I wore it. If they want a piece of me, they know where to find me. I offered to sing Take Me Out to the Ballgame in the seventh inning, but they turned me down.”
Griffey laughed and said, “I’m no longer Public Enemy No. 1 here. Hey, they might even cheer me.”
Maybe I have a scoop for you. I heard the Cubs were about to announce a trade that they acquired Oakland pitcher Rich Harden for Matt Murton, Eric Patterson (Corey’s brother), Sean Gallagher and another minor-leaguer.
By 5:15 Chicago time, nothing had been announced.
“I talked to Jim Hendry (Cubs GM) last night and asked him if he is working on something to top Milwaukee and he said no,” Reds GM Walt Jocketty said with a laugh.
But Milwaukee getting pitcher C.C. Sabathia from the Cleveland Indians was no laughing matter to Reds manager Dusty Baker.
“Wish we could have gotten him,” said Baker. “And, hey, I’d still like to have him (Sabathia is a free agent after this season if the Brewers don’t sign him). I’d love to have him, for his bat as well as his pitching. I just wish they hadn’t traded him into our division. We still have a lot of games left with Milwaukee.”
And the Reds face him Sunday in Cheeseville. Or is it Brewtown?
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TweetChicago: Italian, pizza and steak
Chicago, my kind of town — with appropriate apologies to Frank Sinatra.
Kobe steak at The Saloon, my favorite steakhouse in America. The first time I walked into the place George Clooney and Joe Nuxhall were seated together at the bar.
Italian at Papa Milano’s, just off Rush Street. Not my favorite Italian place — that goes to Mama DiSalvo’s in Dayton and Charley Gitto’s in St. Louis.
And good ol’ Wrigley Field, baseball’s monument to old-school baseball, flappers doing the Charleston and Al Capone.
It isn’t the best place to work, but it is to watch baseball. There are no elevators to the press box. To get there you walk up the ramps, then up two flights of stairs. It didn’t hit me too much until last year when I was on crutches after having half my left knee removed.
After the game, to get to the clubhouse, you go down the ramps — with the egressing crowd, most of them Cubs fans singing about how much they love Chicago. They are entitled.
For the Cincinnati Reds, the next three days isn’t about pizza and steak and Italian. It is about Wrigley, though. It is work time.
They’ve won 10 of their last 16 to climb out of the NL Central cellar into the almost lofty heights of fourth place. Mostly that’s because Pittsburgh and Houston are in free fall and the Reds took advantage of the crippled and anemic Washington Nationals.
Give the Reds credit, though. They did what they should do. They beat up on the bad team, as they need to do and didn’t do earlier in the season.
They’re still 10 1/2 games behind the Cubbies, though — not much ground gained there. But now is their opportunity. They have three games Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday against the first-place Cubs.
And if that’s successful, they can pile up more hay with three games in Milwaukee against the second-place Brewers.
If they can go 4-2 — 2-1 at each stop — they can go to the All-Star break feeling good about themselves as they play golf, fish or hang out with the kids.
If they blow this one — if they go 0-6 or 1-5, pack the bats and balls and work toward making this team better. Now. Don’t wait. If they can get within, say, seven games of first place, then the games after the All-Star break might actually mean something.
Don’t be delusional, though. They did lose two of three to the Pirates at home before sweeping four from the Nationals.
As one scout told me, “That’s a bad team when everybody is healthy. With all the injuries they have, about half the team doesn’t even belong in the majors.”
He was talking about the Nats, not the Reds.
So it starts Tuesday with Aaron Harang against Ryan Dempster, another of those many former Reds pitchers who have resurrected their careers in other uniforms. Dempter is 9-3.
What concerns me (and privately some of the Reds) is the fact that Harang had to miss Saturday’s turn to give a tight forearm two days of extra rest. They say it is of no concern, that he had this two years ago and a skipped turn solved it.
Harang, though, hasn’t pitched well recently and who knows if two extra days will cure what ails him. Without him the second half, well, pack those bats and balls. Harang is 4-1 for his career in Wrigley, so that’s a plus.
Johnny Cueto faces Carlos Zambrano, also 9-3, on Wednesday. For some reason, as good as Zambrano is, the Reds have beaten up on him many times, so that’s another plus.
At least Cubs fans won’t aim most of their venom at the Reds. That honor will belong to Marty Brennaman, the broadcaster who called some Wrigley fans morons during an April visit.
When Adam Dunn hit a home run, not one baseball flew back on the field — as is the custom in Wrigley. About a dozen baseballs flew onto the field. Brennaman went into an on-the-microphone tirade.
He received tons of hate e-mails. Marty loves this stuff, though, and is unconcerned and said, “In fact, I’m looking forward to going there.” He has appeared on Chicago radio and TV since then and has praised Chicago fans as great and knowledgeable fans, “except for the morons.”
Hey, should be fun. On to Chicago. Big decision, though. The Saloon first, Papa Milano’s first, or Chicago-style pizza? I might even take my laptop with me.
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TweetVolquez yes, Griffey no
It is unusual, but not unheard of, for teams to take batting practice on a day game after a night game — unless you are as bad as the Washington Nationals. Then it is pretty much mandatory.
The Reds also took batting practice Sunday and actually have taken it a lot.
When Ken Griffey Jr. saw that the Reds were taking batting practice Sunday morning in the draining heat and humidity, after a night game, he said, “We’re 10 back in the standings, but we’re 12 ahead of everybody in batting practice taken.”
Then he should be immensely happy right now. He DIDN’T — that’s DIDN’T — make the All-Star team, beaten out at the last moment by a flurry of votes for Milwaukee’s Ryan Braun.
No batting practice in Yankee Stadium for Griffey. He can now happily take his family to the Bahamas during the All-Star break — which he prefers. He knows he didn’t deserve it this year anyway, other than fans wanting to see a future Hall of Fame superstar.
He has been an All-Star 13 times.
Edinson Volquez has never been an All-Star. He is now. He was named to the team, despite a slowdown in his production over his last four starts, a slowdown that could have cost him the spot.
Amazingly, Kyle Lohse (10-2), did not make it.
Volquez and manager Dusty Baker discussed the possibility that he might not make the team.
With three mediocre starts before Sunday’s bad start-good finish appearance, Volquez could feel the All-Star game slipping through the fingers that throw that devastating change-up.
He was not good at all Sunday in the early going against the pathetic Washington Nationals and manager Dusty Baker has noticed slippage in his last three starts.
Volquez gave up three runs and five hits over six innings. but in the early going he put his team down, 3-0, with an awful third innings — three runs, two hits, three walks and a hit batter.
After Adam Dunn’s three-run homer tied it, Volquez retired the last nine Nationals — an All-Star performance after an All-Awful start. And the Reds scored a couple more before he left for a pinch-hitter and made Volquez the winner. He’s now 11-3.
“We have to watch Volquez,” said Baker. “He hasn’t thrown quite as good over his last four starts. This is new territory for him. What’s the most innings he has thrown in the big leagues?”
Volquez pitched 34 big-league innings at Texas last season, but 179 combined innings in the majors and minors.
“Yes, he threw more in the minors, but that’s not as much intensity, not as stressful inning as they are up here.”
So what if Volquez didn’t make the All-Star team after folks were saying a month ago that he was the possible All-Star starting pitcher?
“I talked to him about it and he told he isn’t worried about it,” said Baker. “He told me he is not worried about it because he just wants to win.”
Now he doesn’t have to worry about it. But how about Brandon Phillips?
“When you are a second-division team, which we are right now, your odds of having a bunch of guys on the All-Star team aren’t good. That’s just how it is. If we had a bunch of All-Stars, we wouldn’t be in second division,” Baker added.
Volquez, 25, is pitching in his first full year in the majors and was beaming after the game.
“This is great because I’ve got my mom here and I’m going to take her to the All-Star game. I’m excited because it is my first full season in the big leagues and I made the All-Star game.”
There is a question whether he could start the All-Star game, depending on what Baker does. He said they may push Volquez back a day, “And then he probably wouldn’t be able to start, but if we keep him on his regular schedule (Friday in Milwaukee), he could start (Tuesday in Yankee Stadium).”
Volquez, of course, would love to start, “If they give me the opportunity, I would. Everybody talks about me maybe facing Josh Hamilton (for whom Volquez was traded from Texas). I don’t know what can happen because he is a great hitter and a great player. I’ll throw my best stuff to him.”
Baker, though, believes it is important to save Volquez’s arm. But he knows the importance of an All-Star win for the NL, too.
No argument there whatsoever. But Phillips belong on that team — for his defense alone. He hasn’t made an error in 77 games and only one all season, making fabulous and head-turning plays nearly every game.
And his offense lately has been All-Star quality. If he played in New York, they’d be talking about him and Madonna instead of A-Rod and Madonna.
Phillips had two more hits and a walk Sunday and has hit safely in 13 of his last 15 games and is creeping back toward .300.
“It’s all good,” said Phillips. “I don’t worry about it. It is what is, man, it is what it is.”
It is a pile of horse pucky, is what it is.
And Griffey?
“If you can’t hit a lefthander, you bunt,” he said. “If you can’t hit a righthander, you bunt. If you can’t go to the All-Star game, you go to the Bahamas.”
Permit me to leave you with one other Griffey-ism Sunday morning.
“I tell my pitchers I’m good for two sprints a game in the outfield to chase down balls. That’s it, no more. Just two.”
He’s kidding, he’s kidding. But he isn’t kidding about being on a boat in the Bahamas when they play that game in Yankee Stadium a week from Tuesday. And I’ll be in Aruba myself. Happy All-Star-ring, y’all.
By the way, Washington’s Wily Mo Pena didn’t make it, either. I can remember so many fans ripping on me when he played for the Reds and I wrote he would never be a good player and should be traded.
Now I just broke my arm patting myself on the back.
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TweetFourth of July Goof-up
How many demerits do I get for a Fourth of July faux pas?
For some reason, I plopped a Toronto Maple Leafs hat on my head this morning, a hat I purchased when I visited the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto.
As I walked into the clubhouse, Ken Griffey Jr. looked at me and said, “That’s unpatriotic right there.”
Knowing not of what he spoke, I said, “What?”
And he said, “Wearing a hat from Canada on the Fourth of July.”
When I mentioned it to manager Dusty Baker, he laughed said, “Well, Canada Day was July 1, you’re just three days late.” Good answer, I thought. And I told that to Griffey, who promptly said, “That’s you. Always three days late.”
Then pitching coach Dick Pole walked by and said, “Bonjour, Hal, bonjour.”
I surrender. No mas, no mas.
STOPPED in the Washington Nationals clubhouse before Friday’s game and before long a corner was filled with Austin Kearns, Aaron Boone, Dmitri Young and Jose Rijo. Also in the room were Wily Mo Pena and Felipe Lopez.
As Young sat down, he said, “I’m coming to this corner to be with the Reds Alumni Association. All I need is blond hair.” When Young played for the Reds, he dyed his hair orange-yellow, which really turned off old-school manager Jack McKeon, who said, “All he needs are platform shoes and flappy collars.”
Said Boone, “You know what this weekend is? It is the Throwback Reds vs. the Reds.
WHEN KEARNS leaves the stadium today, a surprise awaits him - not one he will welcome. When he drove to the park Friday, Kearns thought it would be funny to park in Adam Dunn’s personal spot in the garage. So he parked it and locked it.
Then Dunn arrived and saw Kearns in his spot. What did he do? What any red-blooded male would do when somebody takes his parking spot. Parking rage.
Dunn deflated all four tires and slabbed peanut butter under all four door handles. “He thought it was pretty funny to take my parking spot,” said Dunn. “Let’s see how funny it is when he wants to leave in a hurry after the game.”
ANYBODY EVER wonder what has happened to Brandon Larson, the Reds No. 1 draft pick in 2002 and who not only was a bad third baseman, his career average was .179 for 109 major-league games?
Kearns received a text message recently from Larson, somebody he hadn’t heard from in ages: “How ya doin,’ man? Hope you’re staying healthy. By the way, do you have any bats I can have? I’m playing independent league ball.”
Speaking of Larson, a Triple-A Hall of Famer (I made that up), Kevin Barker reached 227 career RBIs for the Louisville Bats Thursday, tying Larson’s career record for the Louisville franchise.
SOME NEWS, too.
Pitcher Aaron Harang has some tightness in his forearm, so he won’t take his turn Saturday in the rotation. His place will be taken by Josh Fogg, with Harang moving back to a Tuesday start in Chicago.
“Nothing serious,” said Baker. “He had the same tightness in his forearm a couple of years ago and I’m told he skipped one turn and then was fine the rest of the way.”
Ominous, very ominous.
Fogg has spent the last month rehabbing a sore lower back in the minors and said, “I spent a month in the minors and that went good. Now it’s time to test the big leagues again. My first round in the big with the Reds was not too successful (1-2, 9.85 in four starts and seven relief appearances). Let’s see if the second round can be better.”
For those wondering about the seriousness of Norris Hopper’s elbow injury this season, well, he is going to undergo Tommy John elbow surgery Tuesday - done for the season.
“That’s the reason I had to pinch-hit lefthander Paul Bako against Pittsburgh lefthander John Grabow the other night,” said Baker. “Hopper couldn’t do anything but pinch-run and maybe bunt. He winched every time he took a swing.”
Hopper said his elbow began bothering him the first part of May, “And I tried to play through it but it was unbearable. When they said it should be getting better it was getting worse. Hey, this comes along with the game. Injuries are part of it. It’s how you bounce back.”
The surgery is Tuesday and Hopper starts rehab work on Wednesday, “And I should be ready for spring training next year.”
THERE ARE some rumors floating out there that David Weathers is about to be traded to the Florida Marlins, or some other team.
“Haven’t heard anything about that,” said Baker. “Nothing at all. Hey, I hear talk about Aaron Harang, too, and that ain’t gonna happen. Teams are swooping in to pick the cherry trees of teams they think are out of it.”
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TweetThompson: back to Louisville
They pulled the trigger on Daryl Thompson and if D-Train can find his way back to Louisville, he’ll be pitching for the Bats again. Of course, he doesn’t have to take a subway so he’ll find his way.
One night after taking a beating from the Pittsburgh Pirates, Thompson was optioned back to Class AAA Louisville.
His roster spot was taken by infielder Andy Phillips - and isn’t that bizarre? The Reds lost him on waivers to the New York Mets after the Reds designated him for assignment while they were in Yankee Stadium.
GM Walt Jocketty said at the time that he hated to lose him. Well, the Mets quickly put Phillips back on waivers and the Reds claimed him back.
Hopefully, his luggage catches up.
“Yeah, Andy Phillips is back,” said manager Dusty Baker, “after a very short stint in New York. Very short?”
Maybe the Reds just loaned him to the Mets.
So what does this mean for the Reds rotation? They don’t need a fifth starter until a week from Saturday in Milwaukee. And it is most likely that spot will be taken by Josh Fogg.
Fogg’s back is OK (“It’s been OK for a month,” he said) and he has been stretched out. His last three rehab starts were 8 1/3 inning, a complete game and 8 shutout innings, all more than 100 pitches.
And Thompson?
“He’s close, real close,” said Baker. “Most guys with his experience have command problems, throwing strikes. He was throwing strikes, but he was up in the zone. He was throwing middle of the plate strikes.
“He is not afraid and has tremendous desire and athleticism,” Baker added. “For his best sake, well, he is one of the best guys in our future plans. He has to tighten his slider a little bit and that will make everything else better.
“We like him and just think how far he has come since spring training,” said Baker. “He’s come up the ladder rather quickly. With his future and what we think of him, we thought it is in his best interests to go back and tighten things up.”
DESIGNATED DAY OFF? With a lefthander pitching tonight for the Washington Nationals, Adam Dunn is the guy who got the GSB, as the team likes to call it - a good, solid benching.
Jerry Hairston Jr. and Jeff Keppinger were 1-2 in the order, with Hairston in center and Jay Bruce in left, but with three righthanders pitching for the Nats after tonight, Dunn will return.
Baker admits Hairston and Keppinger are the best 1-2 situation for the team, but they won’t stay in the lineup that way.
“This is chance to have Hairston and Keppinger at the top,” said Baker. “But like I keep saying, with everybody back we have pluck one of them out of there and put out the best lineup we can come up with for that day. With the American League, it was a lot easier with the DH. We could play everybody.
“Ideally, yeah, it is best for us to have Hairston and Keppinger one-two. Ideally,” he said. “They’re really good hitters who can handle the bat and they give us flexibility.”
But every game isn’t an ideal situation, in Baker’s mind, for Hairston and Keppinger batting 1-2.
WITH THE Nationals in town, GM Jim Bowden is along for the ride and the former Reds GM is a big advocate of new Reds GM Walt Jocketty.
“I’m a big fan of Walt Jocketty’s,” said Bowden. “They hired the right guy. If they give him the leeway, and it looks as if they are spending money, he’ll do a good job. He’ll do what he did in St. Louis.”
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TweetLethargy permeates GABP
Several scouts from other teams over the past couple of weeks have said, as I related before, that Daryl Thompson is not quite ready for prime time.
On Wednesday, against the lowly Pittsburgh Pirates, that assessment might have struck home.
Thompson gave up hits to the first five Pirates in the top of the first. He lasted only 4 1/3 innings, giving up seven runs and eight hits, two of them home runs.
This isn’t to say I’m ready to throw him out with the dishwater — not yet, even tough he gave up four runs and eight hits in five innings in his previous start in Toronto.
If the Reds truly are building for the future (didn’t we hear this back in 1999?), then a 22-year-old pitcher certainly can learn on the job while working for a last-place team going nowhere — except to defeat when they hit the road, or play at home, or play a team below .500, or play a team wearing black, blue, red, green, rust, orange, teal, purple or fuschia.
Thompson said he couldn’t keep his fastball down. The Pirates kept it up — pounding it all over GABP.
The thing is, the Reds were able to come back in the second take the lead, 5-4. Jay Bruce led the first with a homer, Dunn hit a solo in the second and Bruce banged a three-run shot in the second.
That was it. From the third through the ninth the Reds had no runs and four hits and the Pirates piled on.
“We need to keep plugging along and it’ll all come together,” said Bruce. “Those two home runs don’t mean anything when you lose. We have the pieces here.”
Well, he’s young and knows not exactly of what he speaks. A few pieces? Yes, a few. But this puzzle has more holes and missing pieces than if the grandkid tipped the box over the toilet and flushed.
When somebody told Bruce to hang with ‘em, Bruce smiled and said, “Hang with us.”
This second straight defeat to the Pirates, dropping the Reds even deeper into the depths and dregs of the NL Central, earned manager Dusty Baker a post-game visit from CEO/owner Bob Castellini.
He wasn’t carrying cabbage or tomatoes from his warehouse, so we assumed there was no fruit and vegetable throwing.
“He comes down once in awhile, not often,” said Baker. “He came down to say, ‘Hey, man. We know what you can do. Keep your head up.’ I told him, ‘Our heads are down tonight but they’ll be back up tomorrow.’ “
Is B.C. frustrated? You bet.
“We’re all frustrated,” said Baker.
I know one thing, I’m sure Castellini is sorry he said in front of the world on the TV cameras the day after he fired GM Wayne Krivsky, “We will not keep losing.”
Since then the Reds are 30-35 and, yes, they’ve kept on losing and will continue to keep on losing. Book it, Dano.
As one Major League scout told me BEFORE Wednesday’s game, “This is not a high-energy team.” That’s for certain and it doesn’t lead to a high-energy press box, either. Pass the No-Doz.
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TweetKnee surgery for Gonzalez
For about 35 seconds Wednesday, I had a scoop.
Alex Gonzalez is having season-ending knee surgery Monday.
He was sitting by himself at his locker and I stopped to chat, asking him, “What are you doing?” He smiled and said, “Just killing time.”
Killing time? I asked how his rehab was coming and what he was doing baseball-wise to better strengthen his knee.
“Baseball stuff? Nothing,” he said. “Just killing time until Monday.”
Monday? What’s Monday, other than an off day.
“Surgery,” he said. “I’m shutting it down. I don’t want to wait another two months to see if it gets better. I want to get it done now and start rehabbing it so it will be better in November and Decemeber. That way, I won’t miss any more spring training. I don’t want to miss any more spring training.”
Gonzalez has one year remaining on his three-year contract for $5.375 million. He has a a mutual option for $6 million in 2010 with a $500,000 buyout.
Gonzalez hasn’t played a game this season, injuring his knee the first week of spring training. And he played only 110 games last season.
The scoop I had lasted only until the other writers saw me talking to Gonzalez and swooped in. But that’s the way it works. Sometimes I wish I could get players in private for interviews.
NO SOONER did I turn away from Gonzalez than I ran into pitcher Josh Fogg. He is still on rehab, but he drove from Louisville to Cincinnati on his own, without being told to do so.
“The workout facilities are better here than in Louisville,” he said. “Plus my wife and kids are here.”
Fogg pitched eight scoreless innings for Louisville on Tuesday and has pitched 8 2/3, a complete game and eight innings in his last three rehabs — throwing more than 100 pitches each time.
He is on rehab for a sore lower back, which hasn’t been sore for a month.
“I’ve been ready for a month,” he said. “What’s next for me. You’re asking the wrong guy. Nobody has said anything. If you hear anything, let me know.”
EDWIN ENCARNACION remains mystified as to why he was ejected Tuesday night on a play at third base by umpire Chad Fairchild.
Encarnacion slapped a tag on Pittsburgh’s Ryan Doumit on a play at third and Fairchild called him safe. Then, two seconds later, he ejected Encarnacion.
“First, I tagged him twice. Once on the butt and once on the hip,” said Encarnacion. “And I didn’t say anything to the umpire. Nothing. I didn’t have a chance to talk. He threw me out before I talked. I didn’t have a chance to talk. I’ve never seen that, never seen anybody get thrown as quickly as that.”
Fairchild said he ejected Encarnacion for throwing his glove, “But I didn’t throw my glove.” Encarnacion raised it and slapped it against his side, but didn’t throw.
“If he looked at the replay, he knows he made a bad call,” said Encarnacion.
FORMER MIAMI UNIVERSITY/University of Michigan football coach Bo Schembechler was at a Columbus dinner one winter and encountered Dusty Baker.
“I like the way you manage, like a football coach,” Baker said Schembechler told him.
Baker said he asked Bo how he decided who to pick when he had players of the same ability, “And he told me, ‘It’s in the eyes. You can read it in the eyes.’ “
One of my first newspaper beats was covering Miami when Schembechler coached there. He even permitted me into some of his pre-game and post-game locker rooms and I remember after one particularly displeasing defeats, Bo blistered the paint after the game as his players shrunk inside their pads.
After he finished, he saw me standing in the corner of the room and he said, “And you can’t print all of that.” Well, no I couldn’t. Subtract the swear words and the unprintables and he didn’t say a thing.
When I was offered the Reds beat and told Bo I was leaving college football coverage, he sneered and said, “Why do you want to cover baseball. That’s a sissy sport (and Bo was a great high school baseball player at Barberton, Ohio, high school.
I didn’t say anything, but years later Bo became president of the Detroit Tigers and I encountered him in Detroit when the Reds played the Tigers in an interleague series.
“So, Bo,” I said. “How does it feel to be president of a team in a sissy sport?”
He didn’t answer, but he also didn’t stay with the Tigers long, either.
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TweetA tale of pitching coaches
A day off and a fortunate choice, judging by what happened at Great American Ball Park Tuesday — a 6-5 11-inning loss to the Pittsburgh Pirates. Back to last place.
Amazing. They tied it in the ninth, they tied it again in the 10th, they have the tying and winning runs on base in the 11th after scoring a run, but with two outs Corey Patterson is at the plate.
Need I say more? Game over. Reds lose.
Some of you keep calling for the removal of pitching coach Dick Pole and want Leo Mazzone to replace him. Mazzone was the pitching guru for that great pitching staff in Atlanta during the ’90s.
Permit me to point out this little gem. Everybody knows Greg Maddux is one of baseball’s all-time best pitchers, right? No question.
Maddux pitched when Mazzone was pitching coach in Atlanta and he pitched when Pole was the pitching coach for the Chicago Cubs.
Guess who Maddux said was the best pitching coach he ever worked with?
“Dick Pole is the best pitching coach I ever had,” said Maddux.
That’s good enough for me.
Some of you would like to see Mario Soto as pitching coach. And there is no question he would be a good one, especially with the Latin players. He already is a mentor to Johnny Cueto and Edinson Volquez.
But Soto prefers working mostly at the Reds academy in his native Dominican Republic with occasional tours of the Reds’ minor league teams and an occasional stop with the Reds to counsel Cueto and Volquez.
To me, Soto was one of the best pitchers in Reds history, a mean son-of-a-sea serpent on the mound who wasn’t afraid to throw inside and knock down hitters who got too comfortable in the batter’s box or dug in too deeply with their spikes.
And he did it basically with two pitches — a better-than-average fastball and a change-up some people say was the best change-up in baseball history — a pitch he taught Cueto.
Soto suffered from pitching for some of the worst teams in recent Reds history. The year they lost 101 games (1982), Soto was 14-13 with a 2.73 ERA. They finished last again in 1983 and Soto was 17-13 with a 2.70 ERA. They were fifth in 1984 and he was 18-7 with a 3.53 ERA.
Now that’s what you call some kind of pitching.
Soto once came within one out of a perfect game, but with two outs in the ninth George Hendrick of the St. Louis Cardinals hit a home run off him, “Because I was stupid enough to shake off the catcher and throw a dumb slider,” he said.
What kind of competitor was he?
Dave Bristol, a former Reds manager, was a master bench jockey, throwing epithets and insults at opposing players. When he was a coach with another team he was on Soto unmercifully from the dugout when Soto was pitching.
It wasn’t a good day for Soto and when he got knocked out of the box he went to the clubhouse telephone and phoned the other team’s dugout, challenging Bristol to meet him under the stands.
Bristo’s momma didn’t raise a stupid son. Bristol refused and when the game was over he hid in the clubhouse while Soto was outside the door demanding his appearance.
“If I showed up, he would have killed me,” said Bristol.
Bristol was deathly afraid of snakes — any kind, even the common garden snake. One spring training, when Bristol was coaching third base for the Reds, a player surreptitiously slipped a rubber snake into the coaching box between innings.
When Bristol went to the box and saw the snake, he set a 20-yard dash record to the dugout and refused to return to the coaching box until somebody removed the rubber snake.
“Rubber, ceramic or papier mache, I ain’t going anywhere near no snake,” said Bristol.
When Bristol managed the San Francisco Giants, they went into a long losing streak and before one road game Bristol scheduled an early practice. He scheduled two buses - one for the practice and one for the time when the bus would regularly leave.
Said Bristol, “The first bus is for all those who need extra practice and it leaves at 1 p.m. The empty bus leaves at 5 p.m.”
Bristol was the manager of the Reds in 1968 when I covered my first major-league game. I was a sub that day for our regular beat writer, Jim Ferguson. Gary Nolan was suffering from a sore arm and was scheduled to throw in the bullpen that day and Ferguson told me, “Be sure to ask Bristol how Nolan did.”
The Reds won that day, 1-0, so after the game I trudged to the clubhouse and with the other writers went into Bristol’s office. Trying to be the great reporter, I asked the first question. “How did Nolan do today?”
Bristol bristled. His face turned red. He sputtered and spluttered. “We just won a great g-damn game, 2-1, and you’re asking me about g-damn Nolan?”
Scared the beejezus out of me. I think I covered four more games before I ever asked Bristol another question.
Many years later, when Bristol was back with the Reds as a coach, I told him that story about being a cub reporter covering my first game and how he blasted me into silence for several games.
Bristol laughed and said, “I used to love to intimidate young reporters.”
Man, did it ever work.
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Tweet
