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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 > 2009 > July > 31
Friday, July 31, 2009
Hey, hey - don’t read all about it
For those who are masochists - or maybe you are Rockies fans - go ahead and read this blog about Friday night’s game, another monotonous loss by the Cincinnati Reds, which has become a way of life.
The Real News is in the previous blog and if you haven’t checked it out, scroll down and read about the Scott Rolen trade, the Jerry Hairston Jr. trade, Edinson Volquez probably blowing out his elbow and Bronson Arroyo talking about when he used amphetamines and andro.
Better stuff than this garbage about another loss from a team that is failing like banks.
They had a fireworks show after the game, as they do every Friday, and the smoke left over should be bottled and released before tonight’s game. Maybe the Rockies won’t be able to see.
Anyway, here it is: Rockies 5, Reds 3 - subtitled: A David Weathers Meltdown.
WAS AN IRONIC message being delivered from the baseball gods to Cincinnati Reds general manager Walt Jocketty after he traded two of the team’s top pitching prospects earlier in the day?
Jocketty traded third baseman Edwin Encarnacion and tossed in young pitchers Josh Roenicke, a future closer, and Zach Stewart, a future starter to coax Scott Rolen away from the Toronto Blue Jays.
Fast forward a few hours and the Reds and Colorado Rockies are tied in the eighth inning when 39-year-old David Weathers arrives from the bullpen. All week prior to the trade deadline Weathers believed he would be traded.
Instead, there he was in the eighth inning, giving up home runs on back-to-back pitches to Chris Iannetta and Carlos Gonzalez, the runs need to hang a 5-3 defeat on the Reds.
“It’s not the first time I’ve done that and I’m sure it won’t be the last,” said Weathers. “But when your team is scuffling, like we are, that’s the last thing you need.
“We’ve found every way you can to lose a ball game,” he added. “That’s the one thing about this team. Nobody is pointing fingers, because really nobody can. It has been a collective unit.”
Joey Votto and Branon Phillips went back-to-back in the sixth inning against Hamilton’s Aaron Cook to tie it, 3-3, only the second time this year the Reds have hit back-to-back home runs.
Justin Lehr, making his major-league starting debut, gave up three runs, seven hits and six walks in five innings, but was not the pitcher of record as the Reds lost for the 10th time in 11 and games and fell a dozen games under .500.
Lehr loaded the bases with no outs in the first and two scored, one of the runners issued a walk. The Rockies didn’t get a hit in the second but scored a run because Lehr walked three in a row.
“I had a nice start, the first two pitches for strikes,” said Lehr. “Then I begin pressing when I missed badly. It’s a little different. I pressed, tried to be too perfect.
“There were a lot of variables, a lot of different things, a lot to take in in one day,” Lehr added. “I could have given us a better chance to win without the walks. Two of the guys I walked scored.”
MANAGER DUSTY Baker gave a lukewarm endorsement of the 32-year-old righthander.
“He threw the ball pretty, got out of some trouble,” said Baker, playing two men short because of a wrist injury to Willy Taveras and the trade of Jerry Hairston Jr. and no player replacing him. “He had quite a few walks and usually he doesn’t walk people like that.
“We came back to tie the game, had a chance to win, but Weathers hung a slider and the next guy homered and that was the ball game,” Baker added. “Dave wasn’t trying to hang that slider and threw a couple of quality pitches that just missed to go 3-and-2.”
The home runs came from the No. 7 and No. 8 hitters and Baker said, “We got killed by the bottom of the order. They have a potent offense, but you don’t expect to get beat by the bottom of the order with all the big boppers they have at the top.
“Just goes to show you that anybody with a bat in his hands is dangerous,” Baker added.
MEANWHILE THE Rockies are managed by Hamilton native Jim Tracy, who took over on an interim basis when Clint Hurdle was fired and the Rockies were 18-28. Under Tracy, Colorado is 38-19.
Yet the Rockies remain eight games out of first place in the National League West. They should be in the NL Central. Why? They’ve won 12 straight over NLC teams
I LOVE JIM Tracy, a great guy. A great guy when he managed the Los Angeles Dodgers and a great guy when he managed the Pittsburgh Pirates. A most affable man. Ask him a question and you get an answer four ways from Sunday.
Sometimes he reminds me of Ray Knight, about whom I once wrote, “If you ask Ray Knight for a drink of water he gives you Niagara Falls.”
That’s Tracy, too. But his drenching from Niagara Falls is a pleasant deal.
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TweetOf trades, elbows, andro and amphetamines
IN A NUTSHELL (a very big walnut), here is what happened with the Cincinnati Reds today.
-They acquired third baseman Scott Rolen from Toronto for third baseman Edwin Encarnacion, pitcher Josh Roenicke and pitcher Zach Stewart. The Reds also get cash to get relief from Rolen’s $11 million pro-rated salary this year and $11 million next year.
-They traded Jerry Hairston Jr. for a minor-league catcher, 20-year-old Chase Weems, who will report to the Class A Dayton Dragons.
-Pitcher Edinson Volquez, scheduled for a simulated game today, didn’t complete it. He walked off the mound clutching his elbow. The Reds aren’t saying it - yet - but don’t be surprised if he has to undergo Tommy John surgery and will miss next year.
-Pitcher Bronson Arroyo confirmed that he told a Boston newspaper that he wouldn’t be surprised if his named showed up on the list of 104 players who tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs in 2003.
OTHER THAN THAT - just a quiet day at the ol’ ballyard.
It’s big news when a guy admits taking amphetamines and androstenedione, it’s bigger news when a team loses what is arguably its best pitcher and it’s bigger, bigger news when the team adds an All-Star player.
Said general manager Walt Jocketty, “Trading two young pitchers was a stumbling block, but we finally gave in to get Rolen. We felt there are a lot of things Scott will provide for this club that was lacking - leadership on the field with the players. He is a veteran and I had a lot of experience with him when we were together in St. Louis. He’ll bring a lot to our club. He is still playing well - a good RBI guy and plays good defense. He’ll be a big asset.
“Edwin Encarnacion was part of it because with Scott coming, there wasn’t a place for Edwin to play here,” Jocketty added. Rolen will bat fifth in the Reds’ order behind Brandon Phillips.
“The Yankees were looking for versatility and it was an opporunity to get Jerry in a pennant race,” Jockett added. “We had very good reports on (catcher) Weems, a guy we had interest in during the draft a couple of years ago and didn’t get. He was a high school kid out of Columbus, Ga., a lefthanded hitter.”
Adding more on the Rolen deal, Jocketty said, “The type of character he brings will help our organization - a guy who will be big part of this organization this year and in the future. I hope he’s here for quite a while. He is signed one more year and we’ll talk after he gets here to see how things work out.”
VOLQUEZ was supposed to pitch a simulated game but at 3:37, early into his session, he grabbed his elbow and walked off the field.
“It’s very disappointing,” said manager Dusty Baker. “My trainer told me there was a 50/50 chance this could happen. He said he felt some tightness - not in the same area, but in the same muscle. Now it’s back to the drawing board all over again. That’s one thing I wasn’t expecting and now he has to see the doctor to assess what is best for him now and for the future. We want to get him back healthy, especially for next year. I’m very concerned, but I have full confidence in Dr. Tim Kremchek and full confidence in modern medicine.”
AND NOW Mr. Arroyo. He admitted he took Andro (the Mark McGwire drug) from 1998 until it was banned in 2004 and that he took amphetamines until they were banned in 2006. Arroyo laughed when asked about the furor he caused and said, “That’s what happens when you spread the truth.
“From 1998 to 2003, I took andro,” he said. “That was the big year of Mark McGwire and he had the stuff sitting in his locker and everybody was made aware of the fact that he took that stuff and so everybody went out and tried it.
“I took it in the Arizona Fall League that year and I felt like I could hit my head on the rim of a basketball hoop because me and Mike Lincoln would see our therapist and then go shoot hoops until midnight or one in the moring,” Arroyo added. “I felt unbelievable on the stuff. So I took the product from differerent companies until ‘03 when they told me that it could give me a positive test. So I don’t take it any more.”
Arroy said he switched to creatin and vitamins and proteins, things I always took. Amphetamines?
“Ah, man, yes. Of course I took a damn greenie before a day game, a freakin’ 12:35 game and facing Johan Santana? You think I ain’t gonna take a greenie? C’mon,” he said. Then when they were banned in 2006, he quit taking them, too.
“Honestly, I’d love to take nothing,” he said. “I’ve love to wake up in the morning and have some cereal and fruit, then have a good lunch and take a multi-vitaman for the day. The reality is, I’m not going to be as good of a major-league pitcher if I do. I can’t do those other things until I retire. Until then (he banged on a small door on his dressing cubicle), this is filled with sh—. I’m going to continue to take the (legal) stuff.”
Arroyo said he told the Boston writer that anybody’s name could show up on the list of 104 from 2003 because some of the stuff players took was called protein supplements, “And you think you know what’s in a can of protein from GNC, but you don’t know unless you take it to a lab and get it tested by a scientist.”
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TweetReds acquire Rolen, Hairston traded
Third baseman Scott Rolen is coming and third baseman Edwin Encarnacion is going. Also going is Jerry Hairston Jr.
Rolen was acquired today in a trade with Toronto that sends Encarnacion to the Blue Jays. Hairston was dealt to the Yankees for minor league catcher Richard Weems.
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