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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 > June > 16
Monday, June 16, 2008
Who’s next in the No. 5 spot?
For those with their shorts snagged over my comparison of Homer Bailey to Eric Milton, the comparison was merely the propensity that both have for giving up home runs. Nothing more.
I wasn’t saying that Bailey’s career will follow the path of Milton’s. Some of you are correct - Bailey is only 22. But soon he’ll be 24, then he’ll be 26. Then what? Time is running out for him to come up with a major-league curveball and change-up.
A lot of you should listen to Mr. Redlegs (Original) when he posts. He ALWAYS makes sense and is always one who reads the post closely and doesn’t jump off the deep end.
Homer’s Odyssey with the Cincinnati Reds is a strange one and so far it is something close to a Greek Tragedy — although Homer Bailey is a Texas cowboy, not a Greek philosopher.
Bailey should not be with the Reds right now — manager Dusty Baker knows it, the Reds front office knows it, perhaps even Bailey knows it.
He was an emergency plug-in, a guy with a 4-4 record at Class AAA Louisville, an ERA near four and he hadn’t won a game for the Bats since April 30.
But the No. 5 spot in the Reds rotation is a black hole — Matt Belisle didn’t work out and Josh Fogg didn’t work out.
Bailey was the reluctant choice, a grasp at catching a miracle in a mayonnaise jar — but mostly because the choices are few.
Fans scream about the Reds selling Justin Lehr and Tom Shearn to Korean professional teams, but the Reds had zero choice. Both had it written into their contracts that if a Japanese or Korean team offered them contracts the Reds had to let them go.
They both went.
Bailey is 0-3 with an 8.76 ERA for his three starts in Cincinnati. He has given up six homers in 12 1/3 innings and was publicly hanged Sunday by the Boston Red Sox, three homers in 2 1/3 innings.
Why did it happen? For the same reason the Reds didn’t really want to bring him back in the first place — he needs more time to work on his curveball and his change-up.
Even Baker said, before Bailey arrived in Cincinnati, “We would have like for him to spend more time down there, but we’re in an emergency status.”
Some fans suggest putting Jeremy Affeldt into the rotation. He was a starter in Kansas City early in his career and came to the Reds camp this spring promised a tryout in the rotation.
That didn’t work and he was put in the bullpen. It would take time for him to stretch out his arm now so he could pitch more than two or three innings, so plopping him immediately into the rotation is not an option.
Andy Pettyjohn is 7-2 at Louisville and Matt Maloney is 6-3, but both have high ERA’s — 4.84 and 4.92 and that’s in Triple-A.
The best option probably is 22-year-old Daryl Thompson, the same age as Bailey with a lot less experience.
Bailey’s turn pops up this weekend in Yankee Stadium. That’s probably not going to happen. Running him out there for more abuse would wreck what little confidence he has left.
Some suggest the Reds should do to Bailey what the Texas Rangers did to Edinson Volquez in 2007 and what the Toronto Blue Jays did to Roy Halladay in 2001 — send him back to Class A for shock therapy.
Maybe starting over would work, maybe not. What he definitely needs is to come up with a major-league curveball and a major-league change-up or he may vanish into the mist where so many high draft picks disappear.
For now, though, do the Reds want to throw another youngster into the lion’s den, this den being Yankee Stadium?
Thompson faced the Yankees during spring training at Legends Field, packed with 11,000, and struck out the side. Later in the spring he faced them again and went 1-2-3 — the only two innings he pitched for the Reds last spring.
Hey, it’s only Yankee Stadium and maybe Thompson can have the same attitude third baseman Gene Freese espoused in 1961: “To hell with the Yankees, to hell with New York and to hell with Babe Ruth.”
And now I’m going to enjoy the rest of the day off - a respite from the harangues about Dusty Baker and Ken Griffey Jr. and lineups and batting orders. My wife is cooking some ribs on the grill and I can smell them now.
Or is that odor emanating from Cincinnati?
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