Home of the Week
Madison graduation 2012
Warren County CC graduation
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 > 18
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
Of Votto, Hopper and Bailey
Surprise, surprise, surprise.
-A new leadoff hitter, for a day.
-Outfielder Norris Hopper was activated before Wednesday’s game.
-Pitcher Homer Bailey was sent back to Louisville (0-3, 8.76 ERA), but his replacement in the rotation for Saturday’s game in Yankee Stadium was not named. Best guess: 22-year-old righthanded rookie Daryl Thompson, although one NL scout who saw him recently said, “That kid is not ready for the majors, not even close.”
When Jerry Hairston Jr. and his fractured thumb scanned Wednesday’s lineup card and saw the leadoff hitter, he said, “Oh, my.”
Ken Griffey Jr., not in Wednesday’s lineup nor will he be Thursday, told the night’s mystery leadoff hitter when he walked into the room, “Hey, Rickey. The writers want to talk to you.”
The leadoff hitter is Joey Votto.
“Votto leading off today,” said manager Dusty Baker. “Corey (Patterson) wasn’t getting on base and Jay Bruce is struggling some. I asked Votto if he had ever led off and he said, ‘No,’ but I told him just to do his thing. It’s just a temporary thing and Thursday we’ll do something else against a lefthander.
“Some day Votto is going to be batting 3, 4 or 5 and I explained to him that I wasn’t crazy about hitting seventh one year (Votto’s normal spot) when I hit 30 home runs. But that’s an important part of my lineup because you can’t have too many low average guys at the bottom of your lineup or you make it too easy for the other team.
“I pulled some stats on Joey and he is hitting better seventh than anywhere,” Baker added. “He is hitting .333 in the seventh hole. .186 in the six-hole, .267 in the five-hole and .154 in the four-hole. So maybe he might not quite be ready to move up in the order like we all want him too.”
And what does Rickey Votto think about it? He laughed as he headed to his dressing stall with the writers following and said, “They want to talk to Rickey?
“Don’t know. Never done it, that I can recall,” he said of batting leadoff. “Dusty said to do the same I always do, but just do it from the leadoff spot, right?
“Maybe it is because I was doing so bad in the seventh spot, but if he feels like I can help the offense, or whatever, I’ll do my very best. That’s a crazy thing. Putting me in the No. 1 spot probably won’t make a difference, but I hope it does.”
Votto smiled and said, “Pay attention, I’ll steal second, third and then steal home. Gee-zuz, no!.”
And Griffey? Last time it was general soreness. Now it is general illness. He said he hasn’t felt good since Saturday, even though he pinch-hit Tuesday and struck out. Asked if he could pinch-hit Wednesday, he said, “I hope not. I hope we have enough runs that I don’t need to do that.
“It started Saturday and I can’t focus long distances,” Griffey said. “Flu-like stuff. It is probably more dehydration than anything.”
SOMETHING FOR CERTAIN: Homer Bailey is listed as Saturday’s starter in New York on the Reds probables. Won’t happen. He won’t make that start. Who will? Stay tuned.
MARIO SOTO is in town. He’ll be with the team the rest of this homestand, then in New York over ther weekend, “Then I’m going back home.”
Permalink | Comments (38) | Post your comment |
TweetBaker’s TWO reasons for Patterson
One might label this one: “Beating the opposition the punch,” or, “A guilty conscience.”
Before he was asked by the media after Tuesday’s game, Cincinnati Reds manager Dusty Baker brought it up himself, saying he knew people wandered why.
Oh, yeah?
So why did Baker permit Corey Patterson, a lefthander hitting .193, bat against Dodger lefthander Joe Beimel, a pitcher against whom Patterson was 1 for 13 with six strikeouts.
At the time, there were runners on second and third with two outs and the Reds trailed, 2-1. Patterson bounced meekly to second base.
Baker said his reason was two-fold:
ONE - He said at the time he didn’t believe Ken Griffey Jr. was available (out of the lineup with a virus), although Griffey pinch-hit in the ninth - and struck out.
And he said Patterson hits leftanders better than righthanders. Untrue. Patterson is hitting .167 against lefthanders and .199 against righthanders. Clearly, he hits neither.
TWO - Baker said he had no outfielders. Andy Phillips played outfield in spring training, but not since, and Baker said it would be unfair to him. Still, he could have played right field for a couple of innings, with Jay Bruce moving from right to center.
And shortstop Jolbert Cabrera played 16 games in the outfield for Louisville. He could have moved from shortstop to right and Paul Janish inserted a shortstop.
To me, those are feeble reasons, Illogical reasons.
Anyway, that’s Baker’s story and he is sticking to it as we sit in the press box at Great American Ball Park awaiting the second game of the Dodgers series.
The thing is - nobody is hitting. The Reds are hitting .178 on this 2-5 homestand. They’ve scored 2.3 runs a game. They are hitting .075 with runners in scoring position and are 0 for their last 11.
My Aunt Opal could hit better than that with her ironing board - and she is in a wheel chair.
The lineup hasn’t been posted yet, but if Patterson is in there I won’t be able to write tonight because there will be a mess on my laptop.
Permalink | Comments (35) | Post your comment |
Tweet
