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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 > 2010 > July > 26
Monday, July 26, 2010
Bailey: Three good and one awful
UNSOLICITED OBSERVATIONS from the press box in Fifth Third Field, watching Homer Bailey do his rehab assignment for the Class A Dayton Dragons and wondering, “What are the Reds going to do with Bailey when he’s ready to pitch?”
Bailey, wearing his pants high the way he did for the Dragons in 2005 and wearing uniform No. 37, faced the Quad Cities River Bandits. Ironically, the Reds No. 1 draft pick in 2005 was facing Shelby Miller, the No. 1 draft pick by the St. Louis Cardinals last June. He was 3-4 with a 4.04, which may be why he is still pitching in low-A and the Reds No. 1 draft pick last June, Mike Leake, is pitching in the majors.
The Dragons, though, weren’t up to adding any misery to Miller’s record. He shut them out on three hits for seven innings. Incredibly, the Dragons are on a 14-game home losing streak and wouldn’t you think they’d win one by accident?
And Bailey? He pitched four innings and gave up three runs and four hits with a walk and five strikeouts - but the naked numbers don’t say it all.
For three innings, he was as pitch-efficent as one could possibly be - 30 pitches, 24 strikes, no runs, one hit. In the second inning he threw nine pitches, seven for strikes. In the third inning he was perfect - six pitches, six strikes.
“A new me,” he said with a smile.
Then came the fourth inning and it took Bailey 29 pitches to get through it. He gave up three runs and three hits.
He was finished after four innings, but went to the bullpen and threw ten more pitches in front of Dragons pitching coach Tony Fossas.
“The first three innings were pretty good,” he said. “I knew the fourth inning was my last inning so I tried to do too much. I did the one thing I’ve been telling the young pitchers here - don’t try to do too much. Early on, I pounded the zone and I felt physically well. All in all, I’ll take a lot of positives out of this and I know I have a little more work to do.”
Bailey’s next two rehab starts will be for the Class AAA Louisville Bats, but he enjoyed his return to his roots in Dayton.
But there is a crimp in all this. When Bailey is ready, will the Reds be ready for him. Will there be room in the rotation? Bailey isn’t concerned with it.
“All I’m concerned about right now is getting healthy, getting to the point where I can help the team by doing whatever they want me to do, even pinch-run,” he said. “Anything to get back on the field.
“I saw what I needed to see in the first three innings then had a mental lapse in the fourth,” he said. “It was good to be back in this stadium - a good fan base and a good show always. I was mechanically off in the fourth inning - another reason I went to the bullpen to work with Fossas. I didn’t want to leave that in the back of my mind, no bad muscle memory.”
But getting on the field and on the mound was Bailey’s biggest piece of happiness. He has been on the DL with shoulder tightness since May 24, with one previous rehab start for Louisville that ended poorly and set him back.
“I was just so excited to get back in a game,” he said. “I’ve been watching them for so long. Deep down we’re all still kids and watching the games pulling for the Reds wears on you knowing you’re not able to contribute.”
And Bailey said he worked with Fossas on sharpening his slider, a pitch he doesn’t use much.
“I got a lot of help from Tony while I was here, really working on the slider, because that’s not a pitch I use a lot. Sometimes a curveball can cause a little more stress on your shoulder so I have to have a better slider and he really helped me out with it.”
I LOVE GOING to Fifth Third Field, where Dragons president Bob Murphy and his staff do an unbelievably excellent job and a stunningly fine venue. If you are baseball fan and you can’t have fun at a Dragons game then you can’t have fun anywhere - and even if you aren’t a baseball fun.
Confession time. When they announced that Dayton was getting a low Class A franchise in the Midwest League, just 60 miles from Cincinnati, I wrote in my infinite wisdom, “It’ll never fly. Minor league baseball in Dayton can’t make it. Too close to Cincinnati and the big leagues.”
Now, 11 years later, with every game sold out for the entire season - all 11 years - with a waiting list to purchase tickets, well, I was never so wrong in my entire life. And happy about it.
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