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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 > April > 03 > Entry
Cueto era begins
The Johnny Cueto Era began with a bang Thursday - 10 bangs, actually.
The 22-year-old rookie retired the first 15 Arizona Diamondbacks before giving up a leadoff home run to Justin Upton in the sixth. And that’s all he gave up.
He pitched seven innings, giving up the one run and one hit, no walks and he struck out 10, the most for a pitcher making his major-league debut since Milwaukee’s Steve Woodard struck out 12 in 1997.
Boston’s Dice-K struck out 10 in his debut last season. That, too, was in seven innings. To demonstrate how pitch-poor the Reds have been forever and ever, amen, Cueto’s is the first (and maybe only) Reds rookie to strike out 10 in his debut. Major League records only go back to 1900 and there are no recorded incidents of a Reds rookie striking out as many as 10 in his debut.
Cuteo was spinning the radar numbers at 96 miles an hour with his fastball and freezing hitters with 84 to 86 miles an hour changeups. And he was happy to utilize a generous strike zone by umpire James Hoye.
When he had thrown 92 pitches (68 for strikes) after seven innings, manager Dusty Baker called it a day - an extremely successful day - and brought in David Weathers to protect Cueto’s 3-1 lead.
Weathers walked three and vacated for RHP Mike Lincoln, who gave up a sacrifice fly and ended the inning with a strikeout. Then closer Francisco Cordero worked his magic for a 1-2-3 ninth, his first save for the Reds, a 3-2 victory.
Cueto, 22, flashed his boyish smile and was a calm as a placid sea as he talked through his mentor and interpreter, Mario Soto.
Did he have the rookie pre-game jitters? “No.”
Was he confident? “Very.”
What was he thinking before the game? “That I’d throw seven shutout innings.”
What did he think after he gave up the home run? “Go back to throwing the way I was throwing before. No more runs, work harder.”
Manager Dusty Baker said he heard players in the dugout say, “We haven’t seen this in a long time.” Said Baker, “They’ve never seen a lot of things they are going to see from this young man.”
The one-hitter and the 10 strikeouts were impressive, but what turned on Baker was zero walks, “Because when a team hasn’t seen a pitcher that contributes to a lot of strikeouts. But no walks is impressive because he wasn’t too sharp in his last two spring starts.
“And I was very impressed by what he did after losing the no-hitter on a home run,” said Baker. “It didn’t bother or upset him. I’ve seen a lot of guys give up a no-hitter and lose it because that’s what they wanted.”
Hey, fans, wait until you see Edinson Volquez.
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By jarrod
April 4, 2008 4:40 PM | Link to this
when i posted the “aces” comment i arranged mine in order of time rather than in the manner of a depth chart. if i were doing a depth chart i think i would go rijo, soto, harang (just because harang needs a few more years), browning, harnish, jackson, shourek. harang could top this list with a few more good years and cueto could theoreticaly top them all.
By ROGER DOTY
April 4, 2008 2:24 PM | Link to this
SEEMS LIKE WE’VE HEARD THIS SONG ABOUT HOMER BAILEY BEFORE. REMEMBER THE LYRICS TO THE RYAN WAGNER SONG AND DANCE ROUTINE.
By justin
April 4, 2008 12:27 PM | Link to this
“since soto it probably goes jackson, rijo, shourek, harnish,harang.” Jackson - 1 “Ace-like” season Shourek - 1 “Ace-like” season Harnisch - 2 “Ace-like” seasons Rijo - 4 “Ace-like” seasons Harang - 2 “Ace-like” seasons Browning - 5 “Ace-like” seasons I would go Rijo, Browning, Harang, Harnisch, Jackson, Shourek. Of course, none of that really matters. I am just glad we can entertain the notion of having two or three pitchers worthy of the title “Ace”.
By Kurt Frost
April 4, 2008 11:04 AM | Link to this
Tom Browning wasn’t an ace?
By Dave
April 4, 2008 9:42 AM | Link to this
Hal, If Johnny Cueto goes like this all season and if Edinson Volquez is even half as good doesn’t that make Homer Bailey expendable for trade maybe for a good catcher or whatever is needed?
By jarrod
April 4, 2008 9:29 AM | Link to this
since soto it probably goes jackson, rijo, shourek, harnish,harang. granted, some of these guys only had a couple of good years but for a period of time they were aces. but he does hit on a good point that ace pitchers have seldom been here since soto.
By justin
April 4, 2008 8:41 AM | Link to this
“The Reds haven’t had a real ace since Mario Soto.” Aaron Harang?
By Matt Webb
April 4, 2008 7:50 AM | Link to this
“The Reds haven’t had a real ace since Mario Soto.” Danny Jackson? Jose Rijo?
By bill
April 4, 2008 7:46 AM | Link to this
Don’t get your hopes up fans!
By Steve Checkosky
April 4, 2008 5:12 AM | Link to this
I was at the Louisville-Syracuse game yesterday. Homer started. Although he only gave up one run in seven innings of work, he clearly is not ready to succeed with the Reds. Command is still a problem. He seldom got his first pitch over for a strike. His fastball was consistently in the 88-92 range, very hittable. He only struck out only two. There were a lot of hard hit balls that were caught. He looked like an average AAA pitcher, not a big time prospect.
By Scott Hoerner
April 4, 2008 2:16 AM | Link to this
Thank you Gary for taking care of Noodles for rest of us. I believe you pretty much covered it. Most of his nonesense we can let slide. But I think most of us agree there is zero tolerance for Hal-bashing of any kind. He is our HOF scribe. And I’ll be double-diddly-danged if I will put up with some punk besmerching a legend.
By Gary Maloy Jr.
April 4, 2008 1:17 AM | Link to this
By the way, Noodles, “…Cueto’s is the first (and maybe only) Reds rookie to strike out 10 in his debut. Major League records only go back to 1900…” When I go back and read the passage you criticize, I can’t say it’s a question of semantics, either. Our “Hal-of-Famer” is simply justfying the first sentence with the second. That is, he is leaving an opening for what may have happened prior to 1900, as no one knows what happened prior to the compilation of such statistics. Dare I say it is your reading comprehension that is at question here, and not Hal McCoy’s use of the language?
By Gary Maloy Jr.
April 4, 2008 1:10 AM | Link to this
Noodles, you should watch yourself. If you’re going to criticize, you should make sure you don’t make any mistakes yourself. There is absolutely nothing wrong with Hal grammar. One can ask about the semantics of the sentence, though. But my take on it is that blogging is a different journalistic genre than reporting. As far as your comment about the recordbook and 1900: by asking the question you ask, you only prove that you’re not a real baseball fan. Anybody who knows anything at all about baseball knows that detailed statistics were first compiled from 1900. It’s like all these new stats that sabermatrics has given us the past 15 years which didn’t exists prior to these statgeeks decided to tweak the raw information they sat with. Now, Noodles, why shoot the messenger when you’re upset with the message? Why, but the way, must you butcher the name of one of the greatest Reds pitchers of all time? Leave Noodles Hahn alone, already. And finally - Johnny K-ueto. I can’t wait to see Volquez tomorrow, and let’s fast forward to Johnny K’s next start. I’m far too optimistic for my own good (year-in and year-out, I mean) but these kids are really stoking me. If it continues like this, we’re attending World Series games in GABP this year!
By ohdave
April 3, 2008 9:36 PM | Link to this
Johnny K-ueto!
By Deaner
April 3, 2008 7:37 PM | Link to this
Yeah… WOW! I love the Homer Bailey comment. And Noodles… you must have some serious self esteem issues.
By Joe B.
April 3, 2008 5:09 PM | Link to this
Hey Noodles Dahn, are you in the Baseball Hall of Fame? Please stick to the performance on the field not in the blog. What, Hal didn’t have time for your perfect grammatical conversation once? Get over it buddy!
By Nick
April 3, 2008 4:35 PM | Link to this
I think we might have a young Pedro Martinez on our hands ladies and gentlemen.
By Homer Bailey
April 3, 2008 4:09 PM | Link to this
Did Hal just cut-and-paste from the article about my debut last year? Things went well after that…
By Noodles Dahn
April 3, 2008 3:50 PM | Link to this
Awesome debut. The Reds haven’t had a real ace since Mario Soto. This kid has a lot of potential. Some nitpicks: “Cueto’s is the first (and maybe only) Reds rookie to strike out 10 in his debut.” That’s bad grammar and it makes no sense; if he’s the first, he has to be the only, since the game just happened this afternoon. Also, “Major League records only go back to 1900”? What does that mean? Is that the arbitrary cut-off in the record book? Stat’s certainly have been compiled back to the beginning of the NL in 1876.
By Gary Maloy Jr.
April 3, 2008 3:32 PM | Link to this
I’m stuck for words. Is it enough to say “Wow!”