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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 > March > 12 > Entry
Cueto the Reds’ ace?
This one stunned even me — because I’ve been covering this team for 36 years and I don’t think I’ve ever heard anything this strong from a scout.
A scout who once pitched successfully in the major leagues and whose opinion I trust implicitly, has seen young Johnny Cueto pitch every time he has pitched this spring. BEFORE Cueto’s appearance Wednesday night against the Phillies this scout said:
“Cueto is that team’s ace. Right now.”
Yikes. Pretty strong stuff, huh?
Then Cueto pitched the last four innings of a 6-1 win over the Phillies, and even when he is less than glamorous he is pretty cute.
With a new shaved head, Cueto hit the first batter he faced and gave up a bloop single to the second hitter he faced. Then he got a double play and a pop-up.
Then he pitched a 1-2-3 inning with two punchouts and when his night was over his line was: 4 innings, 0 runs, 1 hit, 1 walk, 1 hit batsman, two strikeouts. And this didn’t come against a Phill-in Phillies team. It was the big boys — Ryan Howard, Pat Burrell, Chase Utley, Jimmy Rollins, Geoff Jenkins — everybody but Richie Allen and Richie Ashburn.
The kid has style and pizz-zazz and is confident enough in himself to shave off his straggly hair when he was doing good and risking a dose of bad luck from the Superstitious Gods.
“He ain’t Samson,” said manager Dusty Baker. You could have fooled the Phillies, who took some swings that looked like Delilah twirling a broom. He threw 49 pitches, 33 for strikes.
Other good news:
Bill Bray made his first spring appearance and the left-handed relief pitcher went one inning, giving up one hit. But he needed only 13 pitches, throwing 10 strikes, to get through it.
“I just wanted to accomplish two things: no pain and throw strikes.” He couldn’t have done it much better.
Then there were the two late signees, refugees from Baker’s old Chicago Cub teams. Outfielder Corey Patterson played center field and Jerry Hairston Jr. played second base, 10 days after signing minor-league contracts.
Patterson beat infield hits his first two times up and Hairston crashed a home run his first time up.
It was a night to light up Baker’s eyes.
OFF TO THE DESERT
The Cincinnati Reds took another step forward toward sticking their feet into the Arizona desert sand Wednesday when the City of Goodyear met the deadline for coming up with funding.
Goodyear, Ariz., had until Thursday to prove to the Reds that it could come up with the financing — $33 million — for the Reds to move to their fair city/burg/town for spring training, joining the Cleveland Indians to share the facility.
Where the money is coming from was not revealed, but Goodyear assured the Reds that the money is available, and now city council must approve the deal April 7, believed to be a rubber-stamp affair.
“It is not a done deal, but it is another positive step and now we march on in the process,” said Reds negotiator John Allen. “We still have a few i’s to dot and t’s to cross.”
Now that money is not an issue, negotiations continue as to just what the Reds are getting as a co-tenant with the Cleveland Indians in the new $75 million stadium.
“We have to make sure we are getting the same thing in our MOU (memorandum of understanding) as the Indians are getting,” said Allen, explaining that an MOU is akin to a lease.
Meanwhile, Sarasota is trying to fix the toilets in Ed Smith Stadium.
EARLY CUTS
Nothing sent shock waves through the premises this afternoon when the Reds trimmed their spring training squad.
Left-handed pitcher Alexander Smit was optioned outright to Class A Sarasota. Right-handed pitchers Richie Gardner and Tyler Pelland were optioned to Class AAA Louisville, while catcher Chris Koski, left-handed pitcher Matt Maloney and left-handed pitcher Adam Pettyjohn were reassigned to minor-league camp.
The spring roster is at 57 and expected to dwindle fast.
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Comments
By redfuture
March 13, 2008 8:57 PM | Link to this
Bailey will also have a dominating performance or two before spring training is over. If history is an indicator his command is better than EV’s. If Homer winds up justifying a rotation spot EV will go to the pen.
By Y-City Jim
March 13, 2008 3:23 PM | Link to this
Imagine if Bailey can go to Louisville and get greater command of all his pitches and comes up in a couple of months. Bailey knows he has the stuff. Just get some control of it.
By Kevin
March 13, 2008 2:36 PM | Link to this
All of this hype may actually benefit Bailey just from shifting “the next star” pressure to Cueto. I think that within the next couple years the Reds may have an above average rotation for the first time in a while.
By jarrod
March 13, 2008 10:38 AM | Link to this
in 20 or so years of watching the reds i cannot say that i have been as optimistic about a guy from system as cueto. you really feel with his velocity, control, and past success that he could be among the best and a perennial winner. once bailey comes along it will seem like the “bizarro” reds compared to what we’ve watched for the last decade (all hit no pitch).
By Dave from Louisville
March 12, 2008 11:54 PM | Link to this
Matt Maloney has 17 innings pitched above AA, give him a break. Next year hopefuilly their will be only one spot up for competition, Harang, Cueto, Arroyo, and Bailey…..with Belisle a solid #5. If all goes as planned, this is a very bright future.
By Nick
March 12, 2008 4:27 PM | Link to this
I believe that Matt Maloney is the biggest disappointment so far this spring training. I was hoping that he would have a good showing so that next year he might compete for a SP spot. Oh well, he still has a bright future. My number 2 disappoitment is obviously Homer Bailey. No need to justify that statement.