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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 > 14
Monday, April 14, 2008
Bad news for Gonzalez
It looks as if Jeff Keppinger will be manning the shortstop position for the Cincinnati Reds for at least another month, maybe more.
Injured shortstop Alex Gonzalez had an MRI today and it showed evidence that the compression fracture in his left knee is still there.
While he will be able to take batting practice and ground balls, he has been told he won’t be able to run for at least two to four weeks.
That means Keppinger stays at shortstop and if the Reds want to do something about Edwin Encarnacion, they’ll have to play Ryan Freel or Juan Castro at third base. Or they could call up somebody from Louisville - Jolbert Cabrera or Andy Green, both of whom had outstanding springs.
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TweetEE: errors and exasperation
It isn’t true that Edwin Encarnacion spent his off day in Chicago burying his Cincinnati Reds jersey under the Harry Caray statue outside Wrigley Field (a beer can would be more apropos).
Some fans say EE should bury his glove in a toxic waste dump and throw his bat in there, too. But that’s harsh. Maybe true, but harsh.
Yeah, it’s early. Only 13 games into the season. But perhaps it is time the Reds do what they did last year, give EE the shock treatment and let him work it out in Louisville. It isn’t working out in Cincinnati.
Amazingly, the guy had a .500 career batting average with the bases loaded when the team muddled through Pittsburgh this weekend. Then he came to bat four times in three games against the Pirates with the bases loaded.
He made four outs. All four outs were the last out of the inning. And the fact he made two more throwing errors in one game says something. The errors didn’t lead to any runs, but what it says is that EE is distracted and frustrated.
Ryan Freel had two hits Sunday in the 9-1 embarrassment. Is it time to put him at third base? Can they Reds wait until Alex Gonzalez comes back from the compression fracture in his knee to put him at shortstop and move Jeff Keppinger to third base?
Probably it isn’t too early. He needs to get his mental game straightened out.
And then there’s Adam Dunn, he of the .167 batting average, one home run and five RBIs. Manager Dusty Baker gave him Sunday off, a good move.
He’ll be back in the lineup Tuesday in Wrigley Field against the Cubs, another good move. Dunn loves Wrigley Field and hits there as if he built the place. If the Reds don’t sign him to a multi-year contract (and I think they should) and he becomes a free agent, don’t be surprised to see him wearing a Cubs uniform in 2009. That would be bad for the Reds.
If Dunn doesn’t hit in the next three games, it could be a long year for him, too.
As we all keep saying, it’s only 13 games. But soon it is 26 games, then 52 games, then, “What happened?”
The painful thing is that the Reds are wasting good pitching. Everybody has said for years, “If the Reds only had pitching they’d be contenders.” They seem to have the pitching this year, if early returns mean anything, but the offense isn’t taking advantage of it.
And we all know what happens when the offense comes around. The pitching will go south. Count on it. That’s baseball. It’s why nobody can figure it out.
Now excuse me while I go to my favorite steakhouse in the country, The Saloon. The first time I walked in, actor George Clooney was sitting at the bar with Joe Nuxhall. Three different fans approached the bar at separate times and asked for an autograph - from Nuxy, not Clooney.
Smart folks.
The french onion soup is the best this side of Paris and the kobe steaks are better than Kobe Bryant.
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