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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 > 30
Friday, July 30, 2010
All quiet on the Reds’ trading front
Dusty Baker sat down in his office chair Friday afternoon to begin preparations for a three-day homestand against the Atlanta Braves.
After six games on the road in Houston and Milwaukee, the Reds are home for only three games, then head out again for three in Pittsburgh and three in Chicago.
Instead of putting a Reds cap on his head, Baker should have been looking for a sailor’s hat.
“I feel like a sailor on three-day liberty,” he said. “Come home, wash your clothes, kiss the wife and kids and sail away.”
THE SUBJECT was trades and it was mentioned that the Texas Rangers had acquired shortstop Cristian Guzman from Wasington, the same Rangers who acquired Cliff Lee from Seattle.
“I thought they didn’t have any money,” said Baker. Good point. Aren’t the Rangers in bankruptcy?
As for the Reds, all is quiet on the banks of the Ohio River. Not even a juicy rumor - and you can discount the one internet report that the Reds are interested in Chicago Cubs pitcher Ted Lilly. At this point, just hours away from Saturday’s 4 p.m. non-waivers trade deadline, the Reds appear dormant.
Asked if he thought the Reds already have the parts to hang in for the long run, Baker quickly said, “We’ve been hanging for four months, know what I mean? And the longer you hang, the more you think you can hang. The longer you hang the more you think you should be hanging in the first place.
“We thought we were pretty good leaving spring training and we haven’t changed that opinion,” Baker added. “If anything, the longer you hang around the more confident you should become and you should be.”
As for trades, Baker added, “It’s not like (GM) Walt Jocketty hasn’t been trying to do something. It’s just that you see there hasn’t been much done in baseball period, unless guys change their mind in the next 24 hours or so.”
BAKER IS PLEASED that the Houston Astros traded pitcher Roy Oswalt to the Phillies instead of the Cardinals, although he would have preferred they had traded him to, uh, Texas.
“If he was going to go somewhere, I’d just as soon see him go to the American League, but at least they did send him to another division,” said Baker. “That gives Philadelphia a tremendous boost because they’ve already won eight or nine in a row and their pitching already has been holding them together. And so - as it is in the real world, the rich get richer.”
DISABLED PITCHER Aaron Harang threw 35 to 40 pitches off a mound Wednesday, his first throwing venture since before the All-Star break and reports no ill-effects in his problem back. He is still seeing a chiropractor, “To get some normal adjustments, and I’ve been doing running drills with the orange cones and today I’m going to take batting practice.”
His next throwing session, though, remains up in the air until he talks with pitching coach Bryan Price, although he said, “I just felt the normal soreness after throwing and exercising, nothing unusual.”
Said Baker, “He says he feels good and it is nice to see that good look on his face again.”
IT WAS ON television for all to see in Milwaukee when Travis Wood walked off the mound and headed for the dugout after the second out of the inning. The cameras showed manager Dusty Baker laughing and shaking his head and later showed Wood grinning in the dugout after he retired the next hitter for the third out.
What Wood didn’t know is that a teammate did the same thing this week, only there were no cameras to record it. Homer Bailey, pitching on rehab for the Class A Dayton Dragons, recorded the second out of an inning and walked toward the dugout.
The thing of it is, when Wood walked off the Milwaukee mound, catcher Ryan Hanigan left the catcher’s box and was headed for the dugout, too. In Bailey’s case, he was The Lone Ranger - none of those Class A player vacated their position. Said one Dragon, preferring anonymity, “I wanted to tell him, ‘Hey, you have to get three outs in Class A, too, not just two,’ but I don’t know him that well and didn’t know how he’d take it.”
Wood, humorously trying to cover his tracks, explained it this way: “I was trying to sell it to everybody that that was the third out. Hey, it’s easier when you only have to get 26 outs instead of 27.”
THE CLUBHOUSE staff was passing out All-Star t-shirts to all the Reds before Friday’s game and every All-Star’s name was on the back. When the attendant reached Jonny Gomes’ locker and asked if he wanted a shirt, Gomes said with a laugh, “Yeah, extra-large. And my name should be on the back, dammit.”
SPEAKING OF t-shirts, when Joey Votto reached his locker Friday there was a red shirt on his chair and on the front it said, “Keep the ball, Throw a Cubs fan.” When the Reds visit Chicago next weekend, Votto can expect a vitriolic reception from the Bleacher Bums after Votto said he doesn’t like Cubs fans.
WHEN THE Reds play the Braves Saturday night in Great American Ball Park, it is Homer Bailey Bobblehead Night. And where’s Homer? Oh, he’ll be pitching a game on rehab in Louisville, about 90 miles south of GABP. Why don’t they just ship those bobbleheads to Louisville and pass ‘em out down there?
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