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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 > 2010 > March > 07
Sunday, March 7, 2010
So it DOES rain in Arizona
GOODYEAR, Ariz. - One of the selling points for the Cincinnati Reds to move their spring training headquarters from Florida to Arizona was that somebody told them it never rains in Arizona. Isn’t that supposed to be Southern California?
Anyway, today was Sunday. And it rained. It rained last Sunday and the Sunday before that. In fact, it has rained every Sunday since the Reds opened for business in their new mansion-like estate in Goodyear.
This rain caused the cancellation of an exhibition game today in Maryvale against the Milwaukee Brewers. When somebody told manager Dusty Baker it has rained every Sunday, he said, “Sounds like the name of a good song - It Never Rains In Arizona Except On Sunday, a good blues tune or a Van Morrison tune.”
So the Reds have played two games and had one rained out. In their last six years in Sarasota, Fla., the Reds had two games rained out.
To make up for lost action, the Reds and Brewers scheduled a ‘B’ game for 9:30 (Mountain time) in the morning and Homer Bailey will pitch.
Bronson Arroyo was scheduled to pitch today, but he’ll be moved back to this afternoon’s 1:30 game against Kansas City. After Arroyo’s two innings, Cuban defector Aroldis Chapman makes his exhibition-game debut, probably in front of a large national media audience.
Asked if Chapman might be nervous pitching in The Big Arena for the first time, Baker smiled and said, “Why? This kid has pitched in front of the world (World Baseball Classic) and pitched for food. Why would he be nervous pitching a spring exhibition game?”
And Arroyo doesn’t mind the inconvenience. It’s actually a convenience - he doesn’t have to make a bus trip. “I get to pitch at home,” he said. “Let’s hope I go two innings, six-up and six-down - although I doubt that.”
Arroyo hates pitching in day games and nearly all games in Arizona after day affairs and he said, “As long as I get a couple hours of sleep I’ll be OK.”
OK, SO DO YOU want to get into the newspaper? I need Ask Hal questions for my Sunday feature in the Dayton Daily News. Ask about anything. Type ‘em nicely, sign your first name and where you are from and e-mail them to halmccoy@hotmail.com.
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TweetWhere oh where are the Reds’ bats?
GOODYEAR, Ariz. - Is it too early to clang the alarm bell after two exhibition games?
What the Cincinnati Reds have done in their first two games, both against the Cleveland Indians, strikes a tone of familiarity.
They’ve lost to the Tribe 9-2 and 4-2, scoring four runs in 18 innings. They’ve been outhomered 4-1. They’ve stranded 13 runners. They’ve struck out 18 times and walked only twice.
In other words, they way they’ve swung the bats wouldn’t crush a scorpion or even daze a coyote.
Stop me if you’ve heard all this before, as in last year and the year before and the year before, ad nauseum.
The only homer produced the only two runs in Saturday’s 4-2 defeat, a two-run blast by Miguel Cairo, a guy trying to win a spot on the bench.
And after Mike Lincoln’s shakedown cruise Friday was a four-run, seven-hit affair over only 1 1/3 innings. Johnny Cueto, Saturday’s starter, gave up four runs and four hits in two innings, including a two-run home run by Andy Marte.
THE BRIGHT side of the day, played in sun-drenched Goodyear Ballpark and 76 degrees, was the performances of the team’s two top young pitching prospects - Travis Wood and Mike Leake.
Wood followed Cueto with two runless, hitless innings, giving up a walk and striking out one. Leake followed Wood with one perfect inning, striking out one.
Are these two young pitchers pure competition for the No. 5 spot in the Reds’ rotation, along with well-seasoned Matt Maloney?
Wood, 23, was the Reds No. 2 draft pick in 2005. He is 35-25 for his five-year minor-league career and was a combined 13-5 last year at Class AA Carolina and Class AAA Louisville, 4-2 with a 3.14 ERA in eight starts for Louisville. He dominated at Carolina - 9-3 with a Southern League-leading 1.21 ERA for 19 starts.
Leake, 22, was the team’s No. 1 draft pick last June and was a late signee, so he didn’t pitch in the minors. He was 40-6 with a 2.91 ERA for 63 appearances (47 starts) at Arizona State University. He pitched for the Peoria Seguaros in the Arizona Fall League last year and was 1-2 with a 1.37 ERA in six games (five starts).
Wood is a possibility while Leake is an unproven long shot starting from an outside gate, but manager Dusty Baker puts them on a double-high pedestal.
“Wood and Leake are not only young arms, they are pretty advanced pitching-wise,” said Baker. “Location, movement, change of speeds. They pitch older than their age, I think,” said Baker.
If nothing else, they are picks-to-click for the future.
THE ARIZONA weather is expected to turn nasty Sunday, threatening a game in Maryvale against the Brewers - an all-day rain predicted with temperatures in the high-50s, a threat to wipe out Bronson Arroyo’s first start of the spring.
If the game is played, it would behoove the Reds to pack a few warm bats.
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