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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 > 20 > Entry
Baker gets his dessert
On Tuesday night, Ohio State football coach Jim Tressel was having dinner at Bella Roma, an Italian restaurant on Siesta Key near Sarasota. On Wednesday, he received his dessert - the announcement by quarterback Terrell Pryor that he is going to be a Buckeye.
On the same day, Cincinnati Reds manager Dusty Baker was talking about what amounts to his dessert, something he has looked for all spring.
That would be rookie pitchers Johnny Cueto (the pie) and Edinson Volquez (the ala mode).
A national writer, Bill Madden of the New York Daily News, started his conversation with Baker by saying, “I’ve been reading about your pitching, sort of coming out of nowhere.”
Said Baker, “Well, not really. It is out of nowhere for people who didn’t know them. Like I always say, and in the beginning of the spring, as I learned from the Dodgers, you look for a surprise guy that you didn’t count on. We have a couple of ‘em…maybe.”
Baker, as he should, is still hedging his bet on Cueto and Edinson in case they have late-spring meltdowns, but these two Dominican Dandies look for real.
“You have to give our scouting department credit for this so far,” Baker added. “They did their work in the trade for Volquez from Texas for outfielder Josh Hamilton. There are a lot of teams that would have liked to have had Josh but the package wasn’t right. And you still don’t know if the package is right until you have some final results coming in.”
Even with the spring success of Volquez that has him on a direct path to the rotation, some fans still lament the loss of Hamilton, who is hitting close to .500 and put together nine straight hits at one juncture this spring. And, yes, he is battling an injury - the second reason they traded him (injuries). The first reason was Volquez.
“That’s why they call it a trade,” said Baker. “A good trade is when both teams benefit. That’s a trade. Nobody is out to get the better of the other team. It isn’t who got the better of the trade or who ripped who off. You want it to work both ways.”
Does that remind anybody of the name Gary Majewski? But I digress.
Of this deal, Baker said, “They’re happy and we’re happy. And when both sides are happy that makes it easier for organizations to trade with one another in the future.”
Bake was asked if he worries about glossy springs by young pitchers like Cueto and Edinson, only to see them fumble and flounder when the season begins.
“Quite honestly, I worry more about hitters having great spring with no track record than I do pitchers,” he said. “If pitchers are throwing their breaking balls and changeups over the plate, now they are going to do about the same once the season starts. But a hitter who had done a lot of hitting in the spring - well a lot of pitchers aren’t getting breaking balls over the plate and they’re hitting fastballs. So you worry about hitters when pitchers starting getting control of their breaking ball.”
Yes, that means that Josh Hamilton probably is feasting on fastballs. But there is a slight downside to this. Both Cueto and Edinson pitched in winter ball and came to camp already in command of all their pitches, far ahead of the hitters.
Will the hitters catch up to them? Only the season will tell and that’s not far away.
“Our guys are showing both - change of speeds and some gas (Cueto at 97-98 and Volquez at 94-95),” Baker said. “If you don’t have the gas, you can step on that pedal all you want to and you don’t have no gas, know what I mean?
“And I’m not worried because these guys show composure,” he added. “They’ve gotten out of trouble.”
The Hamilton deal? Well, we all know the price of gas.
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By Giveusabreak
March 21, 2008 12:03 AM | Link to this
Yep, I know what you mean Skipper—For every gallon of gas Patterson supplies, he’ll leak two gallons!For each thing he does well; he will do two things to beat you!Trade Patterson, Coffey and Belisle for a starter—and call Jay, quickly.
By Deaner
March 20, 2008 10:44 AM | Link to this
Dominican Dandies… I like that!