Madison graduation 2012
Warren County CC graduation
New Miami graduation 2012
Hall of Fame baseball writer Hal McCoy has retired from the Dayton Daily News after covering the Cincinnati Reds for 37 years. Hal's blog, though, will continue to be a must-read for Reds fans. He'll share his thoughts on the team this season and will file updates from Great American Ball Park. You also can catch Hal in print every Sunday in his popular Ask Hal columnHome > Blogs > The Real McCoy | Cincinnati Reds baseball news > Archives > 2008 > April > 02
Wednesday, April 2, 2008
Sit him down…oops
This is why anybody who knows baseball (and I should know better after 36 years) shouldn’t make rash judgments and harsh criticisms on the short term. And it is also why baseball is such a great game.
In the ninth inning of Wednesday’s game, BEFORE Edwin Encarnacion missed two sacrifice bunt attempts with the Reds down by two runs with no outs and two on, I wrote what you can read just below.
Fortunately, I didn’t post it until I watched Encarnacion bat. After failing on his bunt attempts, he crashed a three-run game-winning walk-off home run.
Here is what I wrote up until then:
It’s only two games into the 2008 season, but isn’t it time for a benching?
For the second straight game - and they’ve only played two games - third baseman Edwin Encarnacion made a costly throwing error, something that is seemingly inbreded into his psyche. Catch the ball, throw it away. Catch the ball, throw it away.
The Cincinnati Reds finish the three-game series against Arizona Thursday afternoon and if Ryan Freel isn’t at third base, then Jeff Keppinger better be there with Juan Castro at shortstop.
Encarnacion needs to sit and watch and pontificate. He needs to take extra ground balls and make extra throws before batting practice - the way former manager Jerry Narron did with him before every home game.
Offensively, he walked his first two times up on Opening Day, but has gone 0 for 5 since then, striking out his last two times.
(Insert here a rather large, important home run) My bad.
His throwing error on Opening Day led to an unearned run in the first inning of a 4-2 defeat. His throwing error in the fifth Wednesday led to two unearned runs.
So, you play manager. Does Encarnacion start today? Does Ryan Freel start at third? Does Jeff Keppinger start at third and Juan Castro at short? Or do they bring back Jolbert Cabrera to play third?
Guess what? Encarnacion will be at third base this afternoon.
But he still needs to work on his throwing - at least I can salvage that out of this night.
Permalink | Comments (149) | Post your comment |
TweetOn to Day Two
Dusty Baker, welcome to Sinus Valley.
Baker was stopped up when he arrived at the ballpark Wednesday and said, “They tell me this area is bad for allergies. I’ve had ‘em all my life. I was OK all through spring training.”
Baker tweaked his lineup with two changes for Wednesday’s game against Arizona.
First base was manned by Joey Votto, who batted seventh in place of Scott Hatteberg, and catcher was manned by Paul Bako, batting eighth instead of Javier Valentin.
Several Reds took extra early batting practice and one was disabled shortstop Alex Gonzalez, a large brace still surrounding his injured left knee. It was the first time Gonzalez took batting practice on the field, although he said he has taken it in the indoor cages for about a week.
About Votto, Baker said, “I don’t want him on the bench too long. It would have been like three days off.”
Baker said Scott Hatteberg returns Thursday against Doug Davis, “Because Hattie is usually better against lefties than Joey has been. Joey will be, eventually. We have to play him sometime and I’d like to play him a lot more if he starts swinging better. That makes it easier.”
With David Ross on the disabled list (he is catching and DH-ing this week for the Class A Sarasota Reds), Baker said he is doing matchups, “Sort of,” with catchers Javier Valentin and Paul Bako.
“It isn’t an exact matchup,” he said. “A lot depends on what the opposing team’s speed is like. I knew Opening Day that Arizona wouldn’t run in the rain because the turf is bad. Ordinarily, that team has a lot of speed and they’d run more on Javier than Ross or Bako.”
Permalink | Comments (2) | Post your comment |
Tweet
