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 > 2009 > June > 25 > Entry
It’s official: Bailey pitches Saturday
As if everybody didn’t already know, including Homer Bailey, the Cincinnati Reds made it official today: Bailey pitches Saturday in Cleveland.
The wait to make it official is because general manager Walt Jocketty prefers to inform the player first, and they don’t inform the player until it’s time to pack and go.
That is in case something happens between the time the player is informed and it is time for him to pitch, such as an injury.
Bailey, 8-5 with a 2.71 ERA at Class AAA Louisville, gets his second start of the year for the Reds and the first-round draft pick in 2004 gets his second chance this year against the Indians.
He made a one-start cameo appearance on May 23 and it did not go well. Bailey gave up six runs on three hits and six walks in 4 2/3 innings in Great American Ball Park. He hasn’t won a big-league game since 2007 when he was 4-2 with a 5.76 ERA in nine starts.
Last year he was 0-6 with a 7.93 ERA in eight starts.
At Louisville this year, he has won five of his last six starts with three games in which he gave up no runs and one in which he gave up only one.
Has he improved?
Bailey faced the Columbus Clippers on June 12. Using his newly acquired split-finger fastball he pitched 8 2/3 innings, giving up six hits and one run while walking two and striking out nine.
Clippers pitching coach Scott Radinsky told Columbus Dispatch writer Jim Massie that the split-finger “was dropping like a Kamikaze on a battle ship” and he had never seen him better.
Reports said Homer was throwing 94 in the first inning, 95 to 96 in the middle innings and 97 in the ninth. And the baseball doesn’t move any quicker in Columbus than it should in Cleveland.
Permalink | Comments (7) | Post your comment |
Tweet
Comments
By RC
June 26, 2009 9:18 AM | Link to this
We’ve gotten used to thinking of Homer as trade bait instead of a potential starter. So many failed attempts make it impossible to consider him the star of the future anymore. But this whole “third pitch” thing makes this callup very intriguing to me. And Homer is still young and cheap, so if he comes up here and has three or four decent starts, I supect that makes a Homer trade less likely and an Arroyo and/or Harang trade -much- more likely.
By Florida Buckeye
June 26, 2009 8:34 AM | Link to this
One of the things that has never come up w/r to Homer is that he doesnt seem to adapt to the differences in the strike zone at AAA and in the Bigs…He throws “quality” strikes which get called as balls, and it screws him up…so much so that he just grooves fastballs down the middle and, WHACK, there they go…Solution: He needs to spend more time up, and get used to the strike zone, and the pressures of NOT getting borderline pitches called…and then TRADE HIM!
By MAC
June 26, 2009 5:15 AM | Link to this
I can’t think of any successful ML pitcher who thrives by throwing only a FB? This is especially true when the Pitcher can’t locate it very well or change speeds off of it! Can Bailey make quality pitches (locate) the FB where he needs to and wants to??? Can he throw a quality off speed pitch for a strike and or as a K out pitch? Can Bailey hold runners on base and do those two things well? If so, I think Bailey can be successful. If not, leave him on the farm until he can or package him for a missing piece.
By JB
June 26, 2009 2:19 AM | Link to this
Well,at least this time it’s more than 1 start,i really think he’s ready now because of that.Micah better be worried
By Rick M of Anderson Township
June 25, 2009 11:14 PM | Link to this
For the month of June (all games from June 1 thru June 25) Ramon Hernandez, 10-for-74, .135 BA, 2 HR, 8 RBI’s, 12 walks….Ryan Hanigan, 20-for-61, .328 BA, 0 HR, 4 RBI’s, 8 walks.
By Bill from Florida
June 25, 2009 8:28 PM | Link to this
Good for Homer, he has tried hard and he deserves this chance. I hope it’ll go better this time so he can definitely stay in the majors. GO HOMER and GO REDS!!!
By TeddyR
June 25, 2009 6:56 PM | Link to this
Do you suppose this might be his last chance? I keep hearing his biggest challenge is mental ! Do his own thing??