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 > August > 15
Saturday, August 15, 2009
Reds sign Leake, No. 1 draft pick?
The Cincinnati Reds have not announced it, but there are reports that they have signed their No. 1 draft pick, Mike Leake, out of Arizona State University to a $2.27 million deal.
Leake, a righthander, was 16-1 last season.
In addition, the Reds signed their second draft pick, a supplemental pick - Southern California righthander Brad Boxberger for $857,000.
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TweetLineup card scribbling: 101
Let’s re-visit the making out the lineup card discussion.
What the heck, what else is there to talk about? The Bengals? Yeah, right. First, though, how about this headline in the Philadelphia Daily News when the Eagles signed Michael Vick: “Watch Your Dogs!”
And then there was a sign held by a fan outside the Eagles’ camp today: “Watch your beagles, Vick’s with the Eagles.”
OK, the lineup card. Manager Dusty Baker was asked a legitimate question before Saturday’s game when he asked about the absence of Wladimir Balentien from the lineup Friday and Saturday, despite a seven-game hitting streak?
Baker was asked, “Is he OK physically?”
Said Baker, “Yeah. He’s playing tomorrow. I can’t play everybody. He was supposed to play Saturday but Gomes hit three home runs Friday, so I had to play him. Laynce Nix has been swinging good.
“The guys we’ve been facing are tougher on righthanders than lefthanders, especially this guy today (righthander J.D. Martin). Lefthanders are hitting .400 off him and righthanders only .200. That kinda answers that, doesn’t it?
“I have to go with the matchups - guys who can’t get certain guys and guy who have the greatest chance to succeed against that particular pitcher. I wasn’t asked about Jonny Gomes, too. This guy today throws a lot of breaking stuff, a lot of stuff not conducive to Jonny’s swing,” Baker said.
“That’s a big part of my job - to match up guys the best I can,” he added. “Except for guys like Brandon Phillips and Joey Votto, who play every game. I have to match guys up to pitchers and swings.”
About Balentien, Baker added, “I haven’t seen him play center field, but his speed is not conducive to defense and I have to consider defense out there, too. When I was playing Balentien, I didn’t have good match-ups for Dickerson.
“I talk to the players about all this, but as manager I don’t have to talk to anybody about anything,” Baker said. “It’s just I’ve always done as a manager. As a player you always like to know why things were done.:
Uh, well, OK. Is it really that complicated. I’m no manager (my card expired in 1982), but it just doesn’t seem THAT complicated, especially when you’re 156 games under .500 and 14 games out of first place on August 15.
CHATTED WITH Washington Nationals pitcher Craig Stammen Thursday and wrote a story that appears Sunday in the DDN and on the web-site.
What a nice kid. He’s from Versailles, up north from Dayton on the fringes of our circulation lines. And he attended the University of Dayton.
And he’s a great story - not on the 40-man this spring, called over from minor-fleague camp to pitch a game, made an impression, now he is in the bigs in the Nationals rotation.
THE GAME is under way and Chris Dickerson led the bottom of the first with a double. Wily Taveras, thankfully not leading off, is batting second. He tried a sacrifice bunt, which should be something he can do, but he bounced it off the plate and it hit him, an automatic out.
Personally, I can’t recall a Reds team in recent history that is as fundamentally self-destructive as this Reds team. If there is one way they can mess things up, then that’s the way it gets messed up.
Joey Votto walked and Brandon Phillips flied deep to left for the second out. Dickerson tagged and headed for third. Why? Why? Why? You NEVER make the third out at third base. And he should have been out, but the throw eluded third baseman Ryan Zimmerman.
No matter, Laynce flied to center and the Reds didn’t score - and fundamentals be damned.
And we’re in the third inning and the Nationals just batted around against Johnny Cueto and scored six runs after Adam Dunn hit an opposite-field home run in the second inning.
This game, of course, is over. Can we just start Sunday’s game now?
As for Dunn, who received a lot of cheers and a smattering of boos as he circled the bases, may he hit many more. As I said over and over when he was traded to the fans who wanted him out of here, “You never know what you have until it’s gone.” They trade Dunn and then they bring in somebody older, Scott Rolen, to provide some punch
Makes no sense to me, but the last time I was general manager my Eldora Speedway softball team finished second three years in a row - just couldn’t beat the Dayton Merchants.
ANYWAY, Cueto is gone - 2 2/3 innings, seven runs, eight hits.
Anybody remember me asking last spring, “What has Johnny Cueto done to earn an automatic spot in the rotation before spring training began?” I thought as a young kid with one year of experience that he needed to win a spot. Well, he is i8-10 right now and showing not much that is better than his 9-14 rookie year.
OH, MY. Joey Votto just singled a run home but rounded first too far and was thrown out. Now Vott is even infected with this awful stuff.
I’m beginning to think this team couldn’t spell fundamentals if you spotted it the fun, which it certainly isn’t having these days.
Enough. It’s 7-1 after three and unless the Reds rediscover a pulse and come back to win, you won’t hear from me the rest of the night. I might be snoozing.
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