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 > 2010 > October
October 2010
Rangers’ deep wounds are self-inflicted
UNSOLICITED OBSERVATIONS from The Man Cave while watching the Texas Rangers use all their six-shooters to puncture holes in all their feet, a slew of self-inflicted wounds during a 9-0 loss to the San Francisco Giants in Game Two of the 2010 World Series.
It was ugly, uglier and ugliest - a 2-0 game in the eighth that turned into a 9-0 obliteration when the Giants ripped the Texas bullpen like cheap sheets during a seven-runeighth.
I’m building a real hate-on for San Francisco shortstop Edgar Renteria.
Back in 1997, Renteria had the game-winning hit for the Florida Marlins in Game Seven of the World Series to beat my beloved Cleveland Indians. He was 21.
Thirteen years later, at age 34, Renteria provided the only run through the first six innings with a majestic home run that was headed for the Oakland Airport when last tracked. It came in the fifth inning off Texas starter C.J. Wilson.
Then he put two emphatic nails in the Texas coffin in the eighth with a two-run single during a seven-run inning.
Renteria’s homer was the only run off Wilson, who had to leave after facing one batter in the seventh inning due to a blister. Wilson walked Cody Ross to start the seventh before he left. Ross came around to score when Jose Uribe singled to right off Darren Oliver, but that run was charged to Wilson.
BUT IT FINISHED as a 9-0 win for the Giants, only the sixth time this year baseball’s best-hitting team has been shut out. The Giants take a two games to none lead and the scene shifts to Arlington, Tex. for Game Three Saturday.
WHAT FANS received in Game 2 of this year’s World Series was what fans expected in Game One and didn’t get. They expected a starting pitcher’s duel in Game One between San Francisco’s Tim Linceum and Texas’ Cliff Lee. What they got was an 11-7 Giants win and 25 hits in the game.
Game Two was the direct opposite - from Wilson and especially San Francisco starter Matt Cain. Just call Cain Untouchable.
He pitched 7 2/3 shutout innings, extending his scoreless streak to 21 1/3 innings this year in three postseason starts.
It was evident that it was Cain’s night and San Francisco’s night in the Texas fifth when it was still 0-0. The Rangers’ Ian Kinsler hit one off the top of the center field wall. Boink. Normally a ball hitting on top of the wall skips over it for a home run. This one bounced up in the air and back onto the field for a double - the only extra base hit off Cain in his three postseason starts.
That was a leadoff double, but the Rangers didn’t score.
The Rangers had runners on second and third with one out in the sixth, but Cain got Nelson Cruz to foul to first and Kinsler to fly to right. Say good-night, Rangers, because a Texas-sized meltdown unfold in the Giants’ eighth.
It was started by Texas relief pitcher Derek Holland. He threw 13 pitches and 12 were balls, 11 in a row, to walk three and force in a run. Then his replacement, Mark Lowe, walked the first batter he faced - four straight walks - to force in another run. And the inning spun on and on until seven runs crossed the plate.
Rangers executive Nolan Ryan sat in the stands and had to have nightmarish flashbacks, back to the early portion of his career when he had nights when he couldn’t find home plate with a stethoscope and binoculars.
The Rangers have been hopelessly outmatched in the first two games, outscored 20-7, and desperately need the comforts of home and they need it right now.
SPEAKING OF the 1997 World Series, as president that year of the Baseball Writers Association of America, one of my duties was to be official scorer of the World Series.
Florida third baseman Bobby Bonilla booted a ground ball (I thought) and it was ruled an error. Bonilla didn’t think so because it kissed off his glove on the short hop.
Hey, if you are a major-league third baseman, you make that play (I thought). Some of my peers thought the call a bit harsh and that’s why I’m glad I was never a full-time official scorer. Players would be mad at me nearly every game.
Permalink | Comments (1) | Post your comment |
TweetA baseball ‘earthquake’ in San Francisco
UNSOLICITED OBSERVATIONS from The Man Cave while creating smoke clouds with my good friend Murray Greenberg with our cigars - and no fog in San Francisco can compete with what we do to my garage:
With humblest apologies to Pete Rose, Game 1 of the 2010 World Series is exactly why I would never, ever bet on a baseball game.
During the season, the worst team in baseball can beat the best team in baseball - no matter where the game is played and no matter who is pitching.
WITH CLIFF Lee facing Tim Linceum in Game One, the guessperts figured a 1-0 game, or maybe 2-1, or at the most, 3-2. Take your pick on which team.
When it all ended, Lee and Lincecum were both gone early and there were 18 runs and 25 hits on the AT&T Park scoreboard.
TONY BENNETT, 84, warbled a wonderful rendition of God Bless America before the bottom of the seventh. He should have been singing San Francisco - as in, ‘I left my heart in San Francisco,’ changing the words to, ‘I lost my lead in San Francisco,’ in sympathy for the Texas Rangers.
The Rangers scored a run in the first and another in the second off Lincecum for a 2-0 lead, only to see the San Francisco Giants score two in the third off Lee to tie it, 2-2.
THEN CAME the earthquake, a tsunami of runs by the Giants in the fifth. They scored six times, five after there were outs, including a three-run home run by Juan Uribe.
The Giants won, 11-7, taking a one-oh lead in this World Series. World Series? There were six errors in this game.
Freddy Sanchez, a former batting title champion when he played for the Pittsburgh Pirates, set a record with doubles in his first three World Series at bats. He had four hits, leaving only 21 for the rest of the guys on both teams.
WATCHING the Giants in the World Series reminded me of 1989 - the Earthquake World Series. I was there - and thought my baseball writing days were over.
It was before a game in old Candlestick Park and I was on the phone to my office, standing behind my chair in the press box. Suddenly the press box began shaking and my cup of coffee toppled. I told the office, “We’re having an…,” and the line went dead.
I looked up at the light towers in center field and they were swaying like palm trees in a hurricane. It seemed as if the press box, tucked under the upper deck roof, bent forward as if to fall onto the field. And then it stopped, as plaster fell from the roof and cracks appeared in the stadium concrete.
With all electricity gone, there were no lights in the city. Freeways were closed because bridges were down. I wandered around side streets, thinking I’d follow the lights to downtown San Francisco and my hotel. No lights. Pitch black. A 20-minute drive took me three hours to negotiate.
Cliff Lee, who was 7-0 in postseason play for his career, must have felt as if the ground was shaking under his feet on this night.
Permalink | Comments (1) | Post your comment |
TweetWhy I HAVE to root for the Rangers
UNSOLICITED OBSERVATIONS from The Man Cave after a brief hiatus to attend my granddaughter Staci McCoy’s wedding to Michael Taylor and to attend a family party for the second birthday of my grandson Beckett, the best-dressed 2-year-old since Sergio Armani was two.
Quick aside: While attending Staci’s wedding, Beckett’s mother, Tammy, whipped out a new iPad and handed it to Beckett. He wasn’t yet 2. You kidding me? The kid quickly began pushing and sliding apps and icons on the iPad, making everything work. Embarrasing? I don’t even know what an ‘app’ is.
HOW I DECIDED for which team to root during the World Series:
Scene: The Man Cave.
Characters: Wife Nadine. Husband Hal. (She often pops into The Man Cave and without looking up from her sudoku says, “Oh, sports. What a surprise. Do you ever watch anything but sports out here?”) Well, yeah. Late at night when sports are over I watch Forensic Files and Snapped and 48 Hours on ID and Pawn Stars - all that good stuff.
Conversation:
NADINE: So you are going to root for the Texas Rangers, aren’t you? (Before this year, she thought the only guy who was a Texas Ranger was Walker.)
HAL: Why would I do that? I’m a National League guy. I’ve covered the National League for 38 years. Now if the Cleveland Indians were in it (pause for raucous laughter)…
NADINE: You cover the Cincinnati Reds. Not the National League. And the Reds aren’t in it.
HAL: Yeah, but San Francisco is in it. They have the best ballpark in the majors. I love Fisherman’s Wharf, Sausalito, Market Street, The Embarcadero, clam chowder, bay scallops, the Golden Gate Bridge, Anchor Steam, Mitchell Brothers.
NADINE: Mitchell Brothers?
HAL: Don’t ask.
NADINE: The Giants have that weird-looking pitcher with the long stringy hair - that Tim Lancome guy.
HAL: That’s Linceum. Lancome is that stuff you line your eyebrows with. And Bronson Arroyo has long, stringy hair and you swoon over him.
NADINE: He’s cute. And he plays the guitar.
HAL: So why are you wanting me to root for the Rangers?
NADINE: Because they’ve never been in the World Series.
HAL: They were when they were the Washington Senators back when The Big Train pitched. But, I know, that was a different Washington franchise than the one that became the Texas Rangers. That Washington franchise became the Minnesota Twins and now there is another Washington franchise that used to be in Montreal.
NADINE: What are you babbling about? Why can’t teams stay in Washington? I love Washington D.C. And how can a big train be on a baseball field. Isn’t that cheating?
HAL: Washington’s slogan used to be, “First in war, first in peace and last in the American League.”
NADINE: But isn’t Washington in the National League. I know that because Adam Dunn plays there.
HAL: Uh, never mind.
NADINE: And I REALLY like Texas because Josh Hamilton play for them.
HAL: Why, because he used to play for the Reds?
NADINE: Yeah, that, but didn’t you see and hear him when the Rangers beat the New York Yankees and he was the MVP. His speech was so touching, so humble. And his teammates sure love him. They drank ginger ale on the field in deference to his substance abuse problems. That was so cool. It brought tears to my eyes and I saw you wiping your eyes, too.
HAL: I had a thread in my eyes and can you keep the puppies off The Man Cave couch. Cooper is chewing the frayed ends and I get the strands in my eyes.
NADINE: I don’t know anybody on the Giants, so why should I root for them?
HAL: Cody Ross played briefly for the Reds and he played in the championship series as good as Hamilton played.
NADINE: Isn’t he that guy with the really short pants? Don’t they have seamstresses to make all their pants fit? And most of those guys have pants that are baggy and drape over their shoes. That’s gross.
HAL: Well, he didn’t play for the Reds, but the Giants have this really good closer named Brian Wilson. And you’re always complaining about Cincinnati’s Coco Cordero.
NADINE: Brian Wilson? Isn’t he a bit old? I remember him as the lead singer with the Beach Boys.
HAL: OK, OK. I surrender. The Rangers it is. Good points. Josh Hamilton is the best story out there - that and the fact the Rangers have never been there. Now can I watch this Boise State game?
NADINE: Why is their field blue…?
FINAL NOTICE: The last Ask Hal of the season is in Sunday’s paper, your last chance to get your question in print in Sunday’s DDN. Need those questions now. Send them to halmccoy1@hotmail.com. And thanks so much to all of you for making it a great success once again.
Permalink | Comments (15) | Post your comment |
TweetThe MVPs all have a Reds Connection
UNSOLICTED OBSERVATINS from The Man Cave while feeling no different at 70 than I felt at 69, except it sure as hell sounds a lot older.
Anybody else notice that the two likely MVPs this year have Cincinnati Reds connections and that a likely NLCS MVP has a Reds connection?
Joey Votto is odds-on to win the National League MVP and former Reds outfielder Josh Hamilton, now wowing ‘em for the Texas Rangers, probably will win the American League MVP.
And San Francisco’s Cody Ross briefly wore a Reds uniform and is now hitting home runs left and right for the Giants.
On April 24, 2006, the Reds traded pitcher Ben Kozlowski to the Los Angeles Dodgers for Ross. He immediately injured his finger and batted only five times for the Reds (one hit) and on May 26 he was sold to the Florida Marlins. The Reds presumably used the money to buy a few rosin bags and pine tar rags.
MANY CONTINUE to wonder why the Reds traded Hamilton after they took a gamble on him when he came back from substance abuse rehabilitation and showed he is, indeed, a five-tool player.
Wayne Krivsky, general manager at the time and the guy who brought Hamilton to Cincinnati, insists the trade merely was made because the Reds were in desperate need of starting pitchers and Edinson Volquez, a pitcher with a high ceiling, had worn out his welcome in Texas. They once demoted him from the majors to Class A.
There may have been other factors. Some players on the Reds resented the fact Hamilton received special attention - a baby-sitter on the road in the person of Johnny Narron, a brother to then Reds manager Jerry Narron. Johnny was brought in specifically to be Hamilton’s ever-present shadow on the road.
Second baseman Brandon Phillips spoke out against Hamilton’s “fair-haired” treatment during a personal appearance. Other players expressed resentment, too.
Whether that played any part in his trade remains nothing more than conjecture.
As for me, I thought The Hamilton Story was a fabulous one, overcoming all he went through to become a star - which he would have in Cincinnati, too. And I saw nothing wrong with the baby-sitting and, in fact, admired Hamilton for admitting he needed constant companionship and, yes, supervision with all the temptations on the road.
AS MOST of you realize, I am a huge Cleveland Browns fans and probably should be upset with Pittsburgh’s James Harrion for knocking two players out of Sunday’s game. And I should be happy that he was fined $75,000. I’m not. Neither of Harrison’s hits was intentional and he was not penalized during the game for either hit.
I mean, c’mon. It’s football. It’s a violent game. Helmet-to-helmet contact is going to happen. Fining Harrison $75,000 was absurd.
REDS GENERAL MANAGER Walt Jocketty is in Arizona for the General Manager’s meeting, contemplating what he must do after the World Series ends.
That’s when he has to decide which options to pick up and which to not pick up.
What will he do? He has said the team will pick up Bronson Arroyo’s option. And he said the team most likely will pick up the option of outfielder Jonny Gomes. They will.
He will not pick up pitcher Aaron Harang’s option and it is doubtful he’ll pick up the option of shortstop Orlando Cabrera. Catcher Ramon Herandez didn’t play enough games to have his contract automatically vest, but it is likely the Reds will bring him back - at least until catcher Devon Mesoraco gets a little more time in Triple-A and is ready for the majors by mid-season.
THE BUILDING BRIDGES/Hal McCoy Baseball Clinic last Saturday at Fifth Third Field was a huge success - at least in my eyes. Just to see more than 100 smiling faces learning baseball makes it worthwhile.
Energetic and enthusiastic University of Dayton baseball coach Tony Vittorio runs the clinic with a smile and an iron hand and the kids love it.
Many of the kids didn’t have baseball gloves, but Vittorio collected used gloves over the past year and passed them out to kids who didn’t have one. The clinic is free and each kid received a hat, t-shirt and a glove, if they didn’t have one. Sinclair coach Steve Dintaman was an instructor, along with his players, UD’s players and Wright State’s players.
What did I do? I stood behind the batting cages and watched with a broad smile of satisfaction and proud and honored to have my name attached to such a worthy event.
MY 70TH BIRTHDAY was a hoot. My good friends, Murray and Tammy Greenberg, had a dinner for me with a special appearance by an Elvis impersonator and a Marilyn Monroe impersonator. She sat on my lap and in a breathy voice - like the one the real MM used to sing to former president JFK - sang happy birthday to me, singing, “Happy birthday, Hall of Famer, happy birthday to you.” Cool.
My good friend Jeff Gorden bought me an official No. 12 Cleveland Browns game jersey with ‘McCoy’ on the back - one worn by QB Colt McCoy. My good friend John Robison gave me a box of Padron Anniversario 64s, one of the best cigars in the world. And I received some cigars in the mail from Marty Grunder, a driving force in Building Bridges.
I also received a card from Dave of Miamisburg/Centerville/Beavercreek - and, yes, he is a REAL person, not my alter ego.
My wonderful wife, Nadine, gave me an expensive watch but the band was a mystery. Nobody could figure out how to open and close it, so I had to go back to James Free jewelry and, with a red face, ask, “How do you work this thing?” And while they were at it, they taught me how to tell time.
ONLY TWO more chances to get your question in Ask Hal in Sunday’s DDN. There will be one this Sunday and one next Sunday and then we’re finished until next spring. Sned ‘em NOW to halmccoy1@hotmail.com - and thanks for the continued great support.
Permalink | Comments (41) | Post your comment |
TweetThe BIG seven-oh and a short Bucket List
THE BIG seven-oh arrives this week and I don’t feel a day over 75, but I count my blessings — like still having all my hair, even though it has gone from brown to silver when I wasn’t looking.
So I began thinking, and that can be trouble. But I thought maybe it is time for my Bucket List.
First, though, I thought about all I have been privileged to witness in my lifetime as a sports writer, most of it before I became a baseball writer in 1973.
BECAUSE OF my career, I was able to play golf twice at Augusta National, home to the Masters after I covered the even in which Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus and Gary Player participated. And several times I played at Firestone Country Club in Akron. I played the Ohio State Scarlet course during the Big Ten Football Skywriters tour and eagled the first hole. Then on the second hole I put up a big, fat snowman, an ‘8.’
LEGENDARY UD basketball coach Don Donoher let me attend practices when I covered the Flyers and I played horse and one-on-one with basketball great Don May at UD Arena. Once in a while he even let me score a basket or two or put an ‘h’ or an ‘ho’ on him before burying me. I was fortunate to cover the Flyers when they won the 1967-68 NIT.
WHEN UD still played Division I football in the 60s, former head coach John McVay permittd me to attend practices and eat traing meals with the team. I kicked field goals during practices at Baujan Field, very short ones, and ran a few pass patterns.
I DROVE a stock car (to victory) in a celebrity race at Kil-Kare Speedway and rode around Indianapolis Motor Speedway in a USAC stock car with A.J. Foyt and rode around Charlotte Motor Speedway in a NASCAR stock car with Benny Parsons. They wouldn’t let me drive because I probably would have driven so slow the cars would have toppled off the high banks.
I RODE IN a car around the streets of Detroit with a young fighter named Cassius Clay - later named Muhammad Ali - and, no, I didn’t spar with him, to my great fortune, even though some people think I’m punch drunk.
I SHAGGED fly balls and took grounds balls several times during early-afternoon extra practice sessions in several major league ballparks with the Cincinnati Reds, with Pete Rose hitting balls to me. I took batting practice once at Al Lopez Field in Tampa during spring training.
I WAS IN the dugout for a spring training game with the Reds when Jack McKeon managed and he permitted me to call a few plays late in the game. If Barry Larkin had run harder I would have had a stolen base for my managerial career, but he was thrown out.
I COVERED the Cleveland Browns in 1964, their last championship season, and was thoroughly intimidated by Jim Brown. I covered Ohio State football in the 60’s and was thoroughly intimidated by Woody Hayes. I covered Miami University football in the early 60’s and coach Bo Schembechler permitted me to listen to one of his halftime oratories when his team played poorly and his team was thoroughly intimidated.
I COVERED the Cincinnati Royals of the NBA in the ‘60s when Oscar Robertson and Jerry Lucas were teammates. I was thoroughly intimidated when I interviewed Wilt Chamberlain in the nude (him, not me).
I SAW UD’s diminutive guard, Donald Smith, score 52 points in Chicago Stadium and I saw a very tall skinny kid named Lew Alcindor, later named Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, play for UCLA in that same venue. If they had the three-point basket when Smith played he would have scored 65 that night.
So, I guess my Bucket List, as far as sports, is relatively short because I was so fortunate to be able to do so much in my fantasy world as a frustrated athlete.
I COVERED 34 World Series, the Masters, PGA, U.S. Open, a few Super Bowls, the Rose Bowl, the Stagg Bowl, Ohio State football and basketball, UD football and basketball, Miami football and basketball, the Cleveland Browns, the Cincinnati Royals of the NBA, several NCAA Final Fours, the Indianapolis 500, the Daytona 500 and many long forgotten evens like the old Dayton Classic tennis tournaments and the Dayton 500 at old Dayton Speedway.
What’s left?
I have covered major-league baseball in 51 different stadiums and ballparks. There are two new ones I’d like to sit in - the new Yankees Stadium and Target Field in Minneapolis.
While I love horse racing and have been to Del Mar, Saratoga, Arlington and, uh, River Downs, I have never seen the Kentucky Derby in person. My wife wants to go, probably to see the women’s hats and sip mint juleps because she doesn’t know a trifecta from a trimester or a furlong from a fur coat.
She also wants to go to an Indiapolis 500, which I covered seven times, even though she doesn’t know a carburetor from a carbuncle (neither do I).
My Bucket List after that pretty much is out of my hands because it depends upon the success and failures on others.
What I’d like to see before I sit down in The Great Press Box in the Sky (and I might get there soon if I hold my breath for these to happen):
The Cleveland Browns win the Super Bowl, the Cincinnati Reds win the World Series, Ohio State win the National Championship, UD win the NCAA, the U.S. win the World Soccer Cup, the Columbus Blue Jackets win the Stanley Cup and a horse named The Real McCoy win the Kentucky Derby.
Permalink | Comments (32) | Post your comment |
TweetSo now for whom do we root???
UNSOLICITED OBSERVATIONS from The Man Cave while watching the rescue of the Chilean miners - and with the news full of Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran and North Korea, how uplifting is the Chilean story?
So now what I do?
There are no more Cincinnati Reds games to write about, no more breath-holding when Coco Cordero comes into a game, no more wondering how many more clutch hits Joey Votto will provide, no more wondering how bad Scott Rolen’s back is.
Even the postseason turned on me.
All four teams I was pulling for in the NLDS are gone. Eliminated.
—I wanted the Reds to keep winning because, well, they ARE the Reds and I wanted to keep working.
—I wanted the Atlanta Braves to win because retired manager Bobby Cox is one of my all-time favorite baseball people. We shared many cigars in his clubhouse office. But I am glad Fredi Gonzalez is replacing him. He’s another accomplished cigar aficionado.
—I wanted the Tampa Bay Rays to win because I love it when an under-budgeted team that uses players from its own system to prevail over the big boys like the Richie Rich’s of the baseball world - the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox.
—I wanted the Minnesota Twins to win, for the same reason I pulled for the Rays. And the Twins seem to put a winning team on the field every year with homegrown talent, only to fall short in the postseason.
SO NOW what?
Here’s what I want — the San Francisco Giants and the Texas Rangers in the World Series, just to make the TV people wring their wrists because they won’t have the big-market Philadelphia Phillies and New York Yankees to pull in the cash for them.
I was torn during the Rays-Rangers series. Texas had never won a postseason series and the Rangers have Josh Hamilton, another of my favorite people in baseball, a guy who dragged himself from the dregs of drug abuse to turn his life around and help turn the Rangers around in the process.
Tell me again why the Reds traded him. Actually, we never did get a solid reason, other than the Reds had a chance to get pitching help in the personage of Edinson Volquez.
WHO DO you want to see in the World Series? Why? Who will win? Why?
Don’t sell the Giants short in the NLCS against the Phillies. The Giants pitching staff is nearly as good as the Phillies.
What I don’t like about the Giants is that they are a mish-mash of players obtained from other teams, a lot of them at mid-season or later.
For this year they brought in Mike Fontenot, Pat Burrell, Aubrey Huff, Cody Ross, Freddy Sanchez, Edgar Renteria. But give the Giants credit. They remade the team and made it a winner.
SOME OF YOU have pointed out that I was wrong in the my previous blog about salaries on Bronson Arroyo and Francisco Cordero. Sorry, you are wrong. Yes, Arroyo’s option for next season is $11 million, but he had some incentives clauses and he made them all so his option is for $13 million, as I pointed out. I said Cordero makes $12 million next year AND $12 million for 2012. The club holds a $12 million option for 2012 and if he has a mammoth year - which closers historically have after a down year - the Reds could (and probably would) pick up that option.
JUST BECAUSE the Reds are done for this year doesn’t mean that Ask Hal is done. We have three more weeks and I still need those great questions and I need some for this week. Send them to halmccoy1@hotmail.com.
Permalink | Comments (28) | Post your comment |
TweetNow it’s time for the ‘money game’
Now comes the unpleasant part of major-league baseball — m-o-n-e-y.
With the economy in a mess and people begging for jobs, it is difficult for fans to identify with high-paid athletes and, yes, I’ll say it - overpaid athletes.
But it isn’t their fault that management is willing to pay obscene money to guys who were fortunate to be given physical skills to play a game.
So let’s not criticize or ostracize or any other -cize Joey Votto when his salary escalates in one year from a half-a-million to, oh, five or six million.
It’s the way the game is played these days.
And now that the Reds failed in the post-season, it is time to play the even trickier off-season game - negotiating contracts.
THE OFF-SEASON challenge begins with first baseman Votto, probably the National League MVP, which pumps many more dollars into his future.
Votto was baseball’s best value in 2010, making only $525,000. But he is arbitration-eligible and everybody knows what happened after Philadelphia first baseman Ryan Howard won the MVP and was eligible for arbitration.
Howard won a $10 million decision. Howard was Rookie of the Year before winning the MVP. Votto was second in the voting his rookie year, losing out to Chicago Cubs catcher Geovany Soto when Votto probably should have won it.
Nevertheless, industry insiders peg Votto’s arbitration worth in the $7.5 million category for 2011.
WHAT THE REDS would like to do is lock up Votto with a long-term contract. But when asked late this season if he is interested in a multi-year deal right now, Votto gave a polite, non-committal, “I don’t know.”
Maybe he wants to wait it out for when he becomes eligible for free agency in 2014, which might be a gamble on his part. Most likely, a long-term deal for the Reds would cost them $75 million over five years.
For those who fear Votto won’t sign and might leave, rest easy. Can’t happen. He isn’t eligible for free agency until 2014, so regardless of what transpires either through arbitration or a long-term contract, he can’t leave the Reds - unless he is traded - until 2014.
VOTTO IS THE major issue confronting the Reds right now.
They have another significant player in his first arbitration year in outfielder Jay Bruce, who $440,000 this year and is headed for a raise to $3 million or $4 million if he qualifies as one of the Super-17 arbitration guys.
Definitely headed for arbitration are pitchers Bill Bray, Johnny Cueto and Edinson Volquez, unless they and the Reds agree to contracts before their cases are heard.
There are ways for the Reds to lop money off the roster:
—For sure they won’t pick up the option of pitcher Aaron Harang, who made $12.5 million this year. The club option is for $12.75 million. There is a $2.5 million buyout, so they will save $10.25 million by saying good-bye.
—Shortstop Orlando Cabrera made $2 million in 2010. There is a $4 million mutual option for 2011 with a $500,000 buyout. If the option isn’t picked up, the Reds save $3.5 million, but that is predicated on whether they think Paul Janish is ready for prime-time. If not, they would have to invest money to find another shortstop, either through free agency or a trade.
—Catcher Ramon Hernandez was paid $3.9 million in 2010. The club has an option in 2011 for $3.25 million that would have kicked in automatically if he appeared in 120 games. He played in only 97 games, so the Reds could save $3.25 million by not picking up his option. Is Ryan Hanigan ready for full-time duty? Is former No. 1 pick Devon Mesoraco ready for the majors after a half-season in Triple-A?
—Jonny Gomes made $800,000 this season and the team has a $1.75 million option for 2011 with a $200,000 buyout. If they don’t pick up that option, they save $1.55 million if they think Chris Heisey is their next left fielder. If not, they would need to find one via free agency or trade.
—Most likely, the Reds will pick up the option of Bronson Arroyo, who made $11.6 million. The option is for $13 million with a $2 million buyout. The team could save $11 million by buying him out, but where do they find a pitcher who wins more than 15 games every year and pitches 200 innings? —Brandon Phillips is signed and gets a $4 million raise from $7 milliion to $11 million. Scott Rolen actually is signed for less money, dropping from $7.7 million this year to $6.5 million. Closer Francisco Cordero has two more years on his deal, but he takes a cut next year, too, from $12.125 million to $12 million in 2011 and $12 million in 2012. Relief pitcher Arthur Rhodes was a bargain at $2 million this season and is a free agent.
—Aroldis Chapman, who signed a $30.25 million deal to join the Reds, will make $1 million next year and relief pitcher Nick Masset is signed for $1.25 million.
—Seven players on the roster are one to three-year players and will make between the $450,000 minimum and $600,000: Homer Bailey, Juan Francisco, Ryan Hanigan, Chris Heisey, Logan Ondrusek, Drew Stubbs and Travis Wood.
NOW IS THE time when owner/CEO Bob Castellini once again digs deep into his pockets and passes out the greenbacks and as unpleasant as it may be to most of us, it
Permalink | Comments (62) | Post your comment |
TweetA sad finish, but it’s just a beginning
An observer once said, “Bob Gibson was the luckiest pitcher I ever saw. Every time he pitched, the other team never scored any runs.”
And so it was for the Cincinnati Reds against the Philadelphia Phillies during a shatteringly brief three-game cameo appearance in the NLDS.
Every time a Phillies pitcher pitched, the Reds didn’t score any runs. And it goes back to the last series the Reds played in Philadelphia during the regular season - two straight 1-0 defeats.
So, with a 4-0 defeat in Game One of the NLDS and a 2-0 loss in Game Three, the Reds were shut out four of the last five times they played.
“They are a very lucky team to have those three guys (Roy Halladay, Roy Oswalt, Cole Hamels),” said first baseman Joey Votto, a legitimate MVP candidate who had one hit and one RBI (on a sacrifice fly) in the three games. “Those three alone can probably take them to the World Series and maybe win it.”
Outfielder Jonny Gomes, who had zero hits during his two games, was astounded by the whipping the Phillies put on the Reds.
“We didn’t think our bus was stopping here,” he said. “We had our eye on the prize. We did take a bite of the pie and enjoyed the taste.”
But the Phillies yanked away the pie before the Reds could enjoy it and Gomes said, “Give that organization credit over there. They’ve put together a championship-quality team. They were in the World Series two years in a row, but what did they do? They dumped Cliff Lee and added two aces (Halladay, Oswalt).”
Jay Bruce shoved credit toward the Phillies, but said the Reds aided and abetted their own destruction - they made seven errors, three more errors than they scored runs in the three games.
“Bottom line, our offense didn’t show up when it needed to,” said Bruce, referring to the National League’s best offense in nearly every category. “They pitched great, they have three aces. They pitched great, yes, but if we want to win we have to show up with our bats.”
Votto, though, didn’t want to dump too much credit toward Philadelphia and distract from what the Reds did - putting together a winning record for the first time in a decade and making the postseason for the first time since 1995.
“They have twice the payroll we have and they are former world champions,” said Votto. “We have a long way to go and we’re young and we did great this year.”
Perhaps the most striking (make that striking out) facet of the Reds’ loss was the fact that former Phillie Scott Rolen was 1 for 11 with seven strikeouts and, fittingly, after Votto, the potential tying run in the ninth, grounded into a double play, Rolen struck out to end it.
Four hours before Game Three Sunday, manager Dusty Baker had Paul Janish at shortstop and Orlando Cabrera on the bench with his ouchy oblique.
Cabrera, though, said he took massage treatments the last two days and felt better. And he talked his way into the lineup, “Because for now I have to play, if I can. This could be my last time in the postseason and I have to take advantage of it.”
So, as bad luck would have it, the baseball always finds the weak link. With two outs and two on in the top of the first, Philadelphia’s Jayson Werth grounded to short for what should have been the third out.
But Cabrera’s throw was high and pulled first baseman Votto off the bag for a throwing error as an unearned run scored.
And that was all Cincinnati starter Johnny Cueto would give up until Chase Utley barely cleared the right-center wall in the fifth for a two-out home run to make it 2-0.
Cueto pitched five innings and gave up two runs, one earned, walked one and struck out two - numbers that were nice, but not matchable to Cole Hamels.
“They pitched, they really pitched,” said Baker. “You know pitching is the key and they threw three excellent pitchers against us.”
Utley was the boo target of 44,599 fans, the most ever to stuff Great American Ball Park, because they thought Utley faked getting hit by a pitch in Game Two. And his home run in Game Three didn’t help.
But after it was all over, Utley was full of flowery words for the vanquished Reds.
“The Reds have a very good team,” he said. “The sky is the limit with those guys. They seem like they know how to win, so they’re going to be pretty good in the future.”
The sky is the limit. Right now all the Reds feel like is that maybe the sky fell on their heads.
For Brandon Phillips, the only guy in the Reds lineup who acted as if he knew which end of the bat was proper to hold, said it succinctly: “It stinks to lose, but it stinks even more to give away two games the way we did. We didn’t give away games during the season, so this really stinks.”
Nevertheless, who picked the Reds to win the National League Central? Nobody. Who picked the Reds to finally have their first winning season since 2000? Hardly anybody. Who picked the Reds to beat out the St. Louis Cardinals and make the playoffs for the first time since 1995? Nobody.
So despite the ugliness of their first dose of playoff potion since ’95, the Reds have arrived. They arrived early and they aren’t going away.
As Votto said, “We’re young and we’re inexpensive and this experience is invaluable. We have a chance to be good for the next few years.”
Wasn’t it a great ride?
Permalink | Comments (82) | Post your comment |
TweetCabrera talks way into Reds’ lineup
Shortstop Orlando Cabrera, after private treatment at his home Saturday and Sunday, talked his way into the lieup Sunday for Game Three.
Manager Dusty Baker originally had Paul Janish at shotrstop, batting eighth but about two hours before game time that lineup card was put in the shredder and the new one had Cabrera in at shortstop and batting eighth.
“I had to convince my way into the lineup and I have to prove it batting practice, but I feel much better,” said Cabrera of his troublesome oblique that has been painful for the last couple of months. “I had two treatments of about an hour each, with a 45-minute rest period. It was like a massage and the guy’s name is Andy.
“This is the playoffs, the postseason, he said. “I feel like I have to play if I can. This could be my last time in the postseason so I have to take advantage of it,” he said.
Permalink | Comments (37) | Post your comment |
TweetTampa Bay shows Reds: it can be done
Dusty Baker sat in his office four hours before game time, his eyes on his flat screen HD TV attached to a far wall, watching the Tampa Bay Rays en route to winning their second straight over the Texas Rangers to level their ALDS series at 2-2.
It gave him hope. It spoke of good karma.
Tampa Bay was worse off than Baker’s Cincinnati Reds. Like the Reds, they lost their first two games, but the Rays lost them at home and had to win two straight in Texas to take the series back home. The Reds lost their first two in Philadelphia and now have the next two (or at least one) at home.
“Now you got (David) Price vs. (Cliff) Lee and oooo-eeee,” said Baker. “You get yourself a big tub of popcorn, sit down, enjoy the movie.”
And his Reds? He hopes his movie isn’t a ‘B’ spoof that ends badly.
“All is possible,” he said. “We can do this thing. You have to believe it, No. 1. But it starts with - you have to get a good pitched game (from Johnny Cueto) and you have to play defense, which we usually do, and that’s part of your pitching. And it’s the team who gets the timely hits.”
EVEN THOUGH a lot of the fans haven’t been on Baker’s side, he has a fervent wish entering tonight’s game.
“I saw a bunch of people outside the stadium on my way in wearing Bengals stuff (the Bengals-Buccaneers game was underway down the street) and I wonder if they are going to change into Reds stuff?” said Baker. “We’d like to win tonight big-time. Everybody here deserves two games here at home. I don’t want to disappoint everybody. All the people I’ve talked to are still pretty positive. We need everybody positive, from top to bottom.”
Baker made a couple of lineup changes - one out of necessity. Orlando Cabrera’s oblique is still painful, so Paul Janish was at shortstop. And he dropped Brandon Phillips out of lead-off, dropping him to second, and putting Drew Stubbs at lead-off. And Jonny Gomes was back in left field after Laynce Nix started Game Two.
“We’re fortunate,” said Baker. “Janish has been an excellent fill-in for us. And he has had pretty good success against Cole Hamels, too, so maybe things will work out they way they are supposed to. Janish is good at what he does, the guy can play some shortstop. I’ve been blessed to have two good ones. You always want a true back-up shortstop on your team and we have that.”
Baker said Phillips is only 2 for 22 for his career against Hamels, “And this is the best lineup we can put out there with Cabrera out. Phillips has had a hard time with Hamels so far. People wondered why I played Nix over Gomes, but Nix had good success against Roy Oswalt - 9 for 19 with two homers and three doubles. Off of Hamels, Brandon is 2 for 22, and that’s rare for Brandon because he usually hits left-handers quite well. Maybe Brandon will figure him out today. If Stubbs gets on base, a threat to steal, Hamels might have to pitch Brandon differently.”
And so it went, four hours before a game the Reds had to win. Positive vibes from the manager’s office.
WHEN ROY HALLADY was trying to complete his no-hitter in Game One, late in the game Joey Votto twice stepped out of the batter’s box just as Halladay was about to deliver a pitch, trying to disrupt his rhythm. It didn’t work.
The next day Votto approached Halladay and apologized by saying, “I’m sorry I did that, but it’s all I had.” Halladay laughed.
Permalink | Comments (4) | Post your comment |
TweetTo err is human - but four times???
UNSOLICITED OBSERVATIONS from The Man Cave thinking that I dare not permit the Cincinnati Reds hold the Yuengling or the Montecristo White Label because on this night they would sure drop it.
The best defensive baseball team in the National League kicked the baseball around Friday night like a World Cup soccer team and probably kicked away their chances to advance beyond the National League Division Series.
Four errors. Three hit batsmen. A mental mistake on a throw by third baseman Scott Rolen. Drew Stubbs getting picked off first base. No runs scored after the fifth inning. This was a meltdown to rival Three Mile Island, which isn’t that far from Philadlephia’s Citizens Bank Park.
It all added up to a 7-4 defeat to the Philadlephia Phillies on Game Two of the NLDS, put the Reds down 0-2 and on the Eve of Destruction, just one defeat away from quick extermination. It’s three straight wins or the uniforms, bats and shoes get put away until spring training.
And it all started so well on this night.
ON THE SECOND pitch of the night from Roy Oswalt, Brandon Phillips crash landed one into the upper deck in left field, ending the Reds’ string of 30 straight scoreless innings in Citizens Bank.
Then they made it 2-0 in the second inning without a hit because Phillies’ second baseman Chase Utley made two throwing errors.
It became 3-0 in the fourth when Jay Bruce it one into the upper deck in right and it blossomed to 4-0 in the fifth on Joey Votto’s sacrifice fly and they had rid themselves of the spectral ghost of Roy Oswalt.
IT LOOKED GOOD, Oh so good for the Reds. Bronson Arroyo was in control - four shutout innings and a 4-0 lead. It was money in Citizens Bank, right.
Then it eroded like the mud slides on the Pacific Coast Highway.
This is how it all slipped away, mostly because the ball kept slipping away from Reds’ defenders:
THE THIRD: Phillips, who had three hits, singled. Orlando Cabrera singled and the Reds had first and second with no outs. Votto flied to left, Scott Rolen struck out, Laynce Nix struck out. Rolen is 0 for 7 with five strikeouts in the two games.
THE FIFTH: The Phillies had two outs and a runner on first. Shane Victorino grounded to Phillips at second. The ball bounced off his chest for an error. Placido Polanco grounded to third and the ball bounced off Rolen’s chest for an error. So the Reds two best defenders, two guys who could win Gold Gloves, made back-to-back error to fill the bases. Chase Utlley drilled a two-run single, cutting the Reds lead to 4-2.
THE SIXTH: Arroyo walked Jason Werth. After Jimmy Rollins popped out, manager Dusty Baker pulled Arroyo for Arthur Rhodes. Arroyo, angry at himself for the walk or for being pulled from the game, tossed a cup of water across the dugout. Rhodes got the second out, striking out Raul Ibanez. After Werth stole second, Rhodes hit Carlos Ruiz with a pitch.
Logan Ondrusek replaced Rhodes and he hit pinch-hitter Ben Francisco, knocking off his batting helmet, to fill the bases. Baker stuck with right-hander Ondrusek against left-handed Shane Victorino and Ondrusek walked him, forcing in a run to cut the lead to 4-3.
THE SEVENTH: Aroldis Chapman arrived and after he slipped two high-velocity fastballs past Utley he hit him with a pitch - nicked him or grazed him. It looked as if he might not have been hit, but neither catcher Ryan Hanigan nor Baker argued, so it must have hit him - the third hit batsman of the night.
Chapman absolutely embarrassed Ryan Howard, freight training three fastballs past him for a strikeout. Werth grounded to third, an easy out at first. But Rolen decided to try for a force at second and Werth was called safe. Phillips argued. Baker argued. The umpire won and the Phillies had runners on first and second with one out.
Rollins lined one to right, directly at Jay Bruce. Easy out, right? Well, Bruce never saw it, lost it in the lights. The ball whizzed past him and he was charged with an error as Utley scored. But did he he? It appeared he missed third base but nobody in the Reds dugout caught it.
Meanwhile, center fielder Drew Stubbs retrieved the ball Bruce lost in the lights and fired to Phillips, the cut-off man. But he dropped the ball for another error as Werth scored to put the Phillies in front, 5-4. Two errors on one play. Two errors for the night by Phillips, who had four errors ALL SEASON.
Game over.
Four errors. Three hit batsmen. Six walks. Stubbs picked of first base. Two hits to start an inning but no runs. A bad choice on a throw by Rolen. A ball lost in the lights. It all adds up to a major problem for the Reds.
And Johnny Cueto becomes the savior - the guy who pitches Game 3 Sunday against Cole Hamels. Win or go home. As simple as that. Then they can try to figure out how to beat Roy Halladay Monday in Game 4.
Permalink | Comments (42) | Post your comment |
TweetReds objective: discover home plate
ON THURSDAY’S off day, the Cincinnati Reds needed to gather in their hotel lobby and take a team field trip.
They needed to go somewhere to purchase miner’s lamps for their batting helmets, GPS systems to hang on their belts and, for good measure, maybe hire one of those tour guides at the Liberty Bell.
Anything to help them find home plate at Philadelphia’s Citizens Bank Park. And maybe manager Dusty Baker can pass out a printed description: “It’s white, it’s shaped like a house and it is buried in a round brown dirt area.”
WHEN THE Reds take the field Friday for Game 2 of the NLDS against the Philadelphia Phillies, they will have played 30 straight innings in Citizens Bank Park without scoring a run. Not one.
During their previous visit to Philadelphia in July, they were shut out in their last two games of the four-game series and didn’t score in their last three innings of the second game. And then, of course, they not only didn’t score a run in Game One of the NLDS Wednesday, they didn’t get a hit.
It’s the big rhinoceros sitting in the middle of the clubhouse that nobody wants to notice or acknowledge.
The 30-inning draught was mentioned to manager Dusty Baker and he acted as if the Reds had been scoring at will in what is clearly a hitter’s ballpark.
“I didn’t know that and I’m hoping my boys don’t know it,” said Baker. “I’m not going to tell them. Anybody who has ever been in a slump knows that the more you count, the worse it gets. Like I said, I didn’t know about the 30 straight scoreless innings. And even though I’ve been told, I still don’t know.”
But it’s here. It’s fact. And it’s the anvil the Reds carry on their shoulders going into Game Two, desperately needing a victory to keep from going 0-2 down in this best of five series.
And there is worse news. The Reds must face Roy Oswalt, a guy pitching better in September than Halladay has been pitching - and that is a most frightening thought for the Reds country.
The Reds know their history against Oswalt and it is something like when Argentina took on the United Kingdom in 1982 over the Falkland Islands - one of the world’s all-time mismatches, until Halladay took on the Reds.
BEFORE THIS season, Oswalt’s career record against the Reds was 23-1 while he pitched for the Houston Astros. The Reds beat him twice this year, but Oswalt wasn’t Oswalt. He knew he was going to be traded and he was pitching for a bad team and his attitude wasn’t the best.
Once he was traded to the Phillies, he became their best pitcher - better than Halladay and better than Cole Hamels. He is 5-0 for the Phillies in Citizens Bank Park. Baker is making one lineup change, putting left-hander Laynce Nix in left field in place of Jonny Gomes. And he might juggle the batting order, replacing Brandon Phillips at lead-off with Drew Stubbs to put some speed at the top of the order.
BAKER, THOUGH, must do his best work in the pre-game clubhouse - somehow make his team forget that they were no-hit in their first postseason game since 1995, convince them it was just one loss and that if they can win Friday the series will be 1-1 with the next two in Cincinnati.
It is up to pitcher Bronson Arroyo to keep Philadelphia’s booming bats quiet and it is up to the position players to not play like a 12-point buck staring into the headlights of an onrushing 18-wheeler on the interstate.
While much has been made of this team’s resiliency, and I wrote it wouldn’t surprise me to see the Reds lose the first two and come back to win the next three - I’m calling a do-over on that one.
They’re going to have to face Halladay again in Game Four on Monday - if it goes that far. And that’s a bad, bad thing. Halladay showed Wednesday he can throw strikes in the dark, with the lights out. And I fear he will put out the lights on the Reds. So, yes - the Reds need to win Friday. Their baseball lives depend upon it.
There is more bad karma that hasn’t been mentioned. The Reds are working on a six-game losing streak in the playoffs - four straight to the Braves in the 1995 NLCS, one game to the New York Metsw in a wild-card playoff game in 1999 and Wednesday’s defeat.
AND JUST because it is postseason time doesn’t mean I don’t need Ask Hal questions. Need ‘em. Now. Right away. Send them to halmccoy1@hotmail.com.
Permalink | Comments (36) | Post your comment |
TweetOh, no - Halladay throws a no-no
UNSOLICITED OBSERVATIONS from The Man Cave while wondering who gets fired for forgetting to pack the Cincinnati Reds bats.
The Reds knew that Roy Halladay would be a difficult character to solve. But a no-hitter? Are you kidding me? A no-hitter against the best-hitting team in the National League?
A no-hitter and it nearly was a perfect game. The only baserunner was a walk to Jay Bruce with two outs in the fifth inning. And the only hard-hit ball was a line drive out to right fielder by relief pitcher Travis Wood.
It was only the second no-hitter in postseason history and the other was a perfect game thrown by New York Yankee Don Larsen against the Dodgers in 1956 - 44 years ago when the Dodgers were in Brooklyn, not Los Angeles, and the game was televised in black-and-white.
Hallady was a strike-throwing machine during his 104-pitch effort.
THE REDS began the game trying to work the count, trying to make Halladay build his pitch-count so that they could rid of him by mid-game and get into the Phillies suspect bullpen.
All that did was permit Halladay to get ahead in the count and put the Reds hitters in deep holes. They changed tactics, going after Halladay’s early pitches.
He had nine 0-and-2 counts. NINE.
So how’d that work? Not well. They couldn’t make contact and when they did they killed every worm in Citizens Bank Park with ground ball after ground ball after ground ball.
IF I SAID it once, I said it over and over and over again - a hundred times, like a broken record, like Memorex, like a nagging spouse:
Bronson Arroyo needed to start Game One of the National League Division Series and Travis Wood needed to be in the rotation.
Manager Dusty Baker, pitching coach Bryan Price and general manager Walt Jocketty got their heads together and decided to pitch Edinson Volquez in Game One and to put Wood in the bullpen.
Volquez had never pitched in the postseason. Volquez can be jumpy and jittery. Volquez overthrows when adversity strikes.
Arroyo was the team’s best pitcher all year, a 17-game winner. And he has postseason experience - a natural to pitch a Game One when nerves are frazzled.
And the left-handed Wood nearly pitched a perfect game against the Phillies this year.
AS FEARED, Volquez suffered a meltdown and didn’t get out of the second innings. His first pitch of the game was an indicator: It was so high and so far outside that Jimmy Rollins couldn’t have reached it with a Viking oar.
Volquez only gave up one run in the first inning and hadtwo outs and nobody on in the second - the last outs he would get on this dreary day.
He walked Carlos Ruiz, seemingly no big deal because pitcher Halladay was coming to the plate. So Volquez laid in a nothing fastball on the first pitch and Halladay whacked it into left field for a single - and the world caved in on Volquez.
Three runs scored before Baker relieved Volquez of his duties after he used 56 pitches to retired five batters and give up four runs.
THAT’S WHEN Baker brought in Wood and, of course, he was outstanding. He pitched 3 1/3 innings and gave up one hit and an intentional walk. No runs.
The worst part is that Wood is used up, won’t be able to pitch in Game Two, is unavailable until Game Three Sunday.
But on this night, it didn’t matter. The Reds could have pitched Cy Young or Sandy Koufax or Bob Gibson or Curt Schilling and it wouldn’t have mattered. No with Doc Halladay slinging unhittable pitches at the Reds all night.
ARROYO GETS to pitch Game Two Friday and, uh, guess what? The Reds get to face Roy Oswalt, who owns a 23-2 career record against the Reds. Perhaps the Reds will get a hit.
Permalink | Comments (70) | Post your comment |
TweetUPSETS: They happen over and over and over
—Nobody expected David over Goliath.
—Nobody expected a horse named Upset to beat Man O’ War in 1919.
—Nobody expected Truman over Dewey in 1948.
—Nobody expected the USA over Russia in the 1960 Winter Olympics hockey tournament.
—Nobody expected the New York Jets over the Baltimore Colts in the Super Bowl in 1969.
—Nobody expected the Cincinnati Reds over the Oakland Athletics in four straight in the 1990 World Series.
—And nobody expects the 2010 Cincinnati Reds over the Philadelphia Phillies in the National League Division Series.
I do.
I’ve watched this Reds team all year, watched them overcome adversity due to injuries, watched them fall behind in game after game, only to find a way, watched manager Dusty Baker mix, match and juggle before sending his team out for another victory.
I’ve watched the team acquire Scott Rolen and Orlando Cabrera, two guys who most thought were over-and-done with their careers, only to fit snugly into this roster and become not only contributors, but major contributors.
I’ve watched this team gamble mightily by putting Mike Leake, less than a year out of college, into the starting rotation and make a dazzling start to his career that landed him a story in Sports Illustrated.
I’ve watched Joey Votto come back from depression and anxiety attacks to become the National League’s Most Valuable Player - in my humble opinion.
I’ve watched Jay Bruce and Drew Stubbs trip over their toes at the start of the season, but Baker stuck with them and they gradually got better and better until by the end of the season they were big pieces in the grand scheme.
I’ve watched 39-year-old Arthur Rhodes breeze through the first half of the season out of the bullpen, hardly giving up a run. Then he developed planter’s fascitis in his foot and continued to limp to the mound and record big out after big out.
I’ve watched Jonny Gomes, unsigned after last season but re-signed during spring training, become Mr. Clutch with one of the best batting averages in baseball with runners in scoring position.
I’ve watched extra players like Miguel Cairo and Paul Janish and Laynce Nix come off the bench to fill in where needed and play almost as well, sometimes better, than the regulars they replaced.
I’ve seen rookies like Aroldis Chapman and Travis Wood and Logan Ondrusek and Chris Heisey arrived from Class AAA Louisville to play like they’ve been there and done that.
I’ve seen veteran pitcher Bronson Arroyo win 17 games and provide leadership to an incredibly young pitching staff - helping Leake, Wood, Johnny Cueto and Edinson Volquez smooth our bumpy rides.
I’ve seen two guys with the same initials, RH (Ryan Hanigan, Ramon Hernandez), share the catching and put together the league’s second-best offensive statistics from the catching position. And both are defensive dandies. And neither one complains about the other taking away playing time.
I’ve seen Coco Cordero record 40 saves, doing his job without a whimper when booed lustily because of his propensity for making most of those saves escape acts that make Houdini’s escape acts seem trivial.
And I saw the 1990 World Series. Like the Oakland A’s, the Philadelphia Phillies are NOT invincible. Roy Hallady, Roy Oswalt and Cole Hamels DO lose games. Ryan Howard, Jimmy Rollins and Chase Utley do have days when they don’t get hits.
That’s why what the next thing I’ll be seeing is the Cincinnati Reds beating the Philadelphia Phillies
Permalink | Comments (71) | Post your comment |
TweetWood won’t start in the first round
Cincinnati Reds manager Dusty Baker pulled off a bit of a stunner Saturday when he said Edinson Volquez will start Game One of the playoffs instead of Bronson Arroyo.
He pulled off another one Sunday when he said Travis Wood will not be part of the starting rotation, even if the Reds play the Philadelphia Phillies, a team overstuffed with lefthanded hitters and a team against whom Wood pitched eight perfect innings when the Reds visited Philly.
“Wood and Homer Bailey, our least experience pitchers, will work out of the bullpen,” said Baker. “Wood gives us four lefties out of the bullpen and both Wood and Bailey are potential Game Four and Game Five starters, if needed.”
Baker said this rotation was set up predicated on the team playing Philadelphia, but won’t change even if they don’t play the Phillies.
Asked why Wood wasn’t facing the Phillies, Baker said, “That was the first time Philadelphia ever saw him, not to take anything away from Wood. And they didn’t have Chase Utley, or Placido Polanco, or Carlos Ruiz - and they weren’t scoring runs at the time.
“Wood is a gutsy kid, but he and Homer are the least experienced,” Baker added. “We have a young staff, period, other than Bronson and this will be a different atmosphere. The noise level and intensity will be different. Everything. This will be more electricity and intensity with cheering and jeering and there might be some spitting - things they’ve never experienced in their lives.”
WHY VOLQUEZ in Game One and Arroyo in Game Two and Cueto in Game Three? Baker wants to split up Volquez and Cueto, both hard throwers with similar stuff, so he is inserting soft-throwing Arroyo between them. And Cueto will be pitching Game Three at home, “Where he has had tremendous success this year,” said Baker.
Arroyo shrugged his shoulders when asked if he is OK with not pitching Game One and he said, “Either way, I don’t care.”
Said Baker: “Volquez, Arroyo who is a little softer in between and then Cueto, who is excellent at home.”
Baker said he’ll use 11 pitchers in the first round: Arroyo, Volquez, Cueto, Wood, Bailey, Coco Cordero, Arthur Rhodes, Arolids Chapman, Nick Masset, Bill Bray and Logan Ondrusek.
THE POSITION roster remains in flux, depending upon the health of Layne Nix and Jim Edmonds, two veterans Baker would prefer to inhabit his roster.
“We have what we have available, but we’re also hoping to have what we don’t have, which we don’t know yet,” Baker said, seemingly talking in riddles.
What he meant was that they have a good roster, but they hope to make it better with Nix and Edmonds, if they are healed enough to be included, a decision the Reds don’t have to make until 10 a.m. on the day of Game One.
“I know it sounds crazy, what I just said, but it makes sense to me,” Baker said. “I’m not quite Yogi Berra yet. But we just have to see.”
Baker said Nix is closer to playing capability than Edmonds, but there is still time because Game One isn’t until Wednesday - or Thursday - depending upon whom they play.
Asked about the instability of who or where or when his team might play, Baker laughed and said, “Hey, we asked for the playoffs, didn’t we? We can’t ask for where we want to go. I just hope we aren’t headed somewhere and then have to turn around in mid-air and head somewhere else.”
After a 15-year absence from the playoffs, though, the Reds would agree to play in Fiji at 4 a.m.
Permalink | Comments (46) | Post your comment |
TweetThe ‘Sweet’ life in the minors
If there is a more personable man in professional baseball than Rick Sweet, I’d love to meet him. Never has a man been more aptly named because his last name describes his disposition.
Sweet is the manager of the Cincinnati Reds’ Class AAA affiliate in Louisville and he is a man who deserves a major-league managing job.
With Louisville’s season completed, Sweet is with the Reds these days and it is an enlightening delight to chat with him.
AND THIS is life in the minors.
At one point the Bats had only two catchers, Corky Miller and Wilkin Castillo. Chris Denove was called up from Carolina but hadn’t arrived by game time.
So Sweet, who manages the team AND coaches third base when the Bats bat, also became a bullpen catcher, strapping on the gear.
The team was in Columbus and it was time for Aroldis Chapman to warm up. Even though Sweet was a catcher in his playing days, he thought as he squatted to catch Chapman, “I really don’t want to do this.” His life passed before his eyes and he feared for his hands. “Fortunately, just when Chapman got loose and was just beginning to throw hard, Denove showed up,” he said. He gladly turned over his glove to Denove.
Before that happened, though, “I was seated in the bullpen, managing the team from there with my shin guards on,” he said. “Fortunately the bullpen was just down the left field line beyond the dugout.”
There was a close play at second that went against the Bats and the next thing anybody knew there was a gray-haired guy in shin guards running out to second base to argue with a startled umpire, who said, “You can’t come out here like that.”
SWEET SAID there was an important period this season when the Reds needed a starting pitcher and they called him for advice, expecting him to recommend Travis Wood or Matt Maloney.
He didn’t. He recommended Sam LeCure, “Because he was pitching the best at the time. Wood and Maloney were pitching OK, but LeCure was pitching the best.”
So it was LeCure who was called up and pitched, as well as Sweet said he would, although LeCure endured the misfortune of constantly facing the other team’s No. 1 and received no run support.
“And both Wood and Maloney understood, they knew LeCure was pitching better than they were,” said Sweet. “But it put them on focus, they got better. They wanted to be the guy the next time somebody got called up.”
Sweet, a baseball lifer, owns 1,515 minor-league victories as a manager in the systems of Seattle, Houston, New York Mets, Montreal, San Diego, Detroit and Cincinnati. His wins are fifth all-time in the minors - and it is time somebody gives this guy a chance to manage a major-league team.
JOEY VOTTO was given a day off Saturday and manager Dusty Baker said, “Yeah, he looks a little bit slow, a little bit off. He’ll play tomorrow. We’ll play everybody about five innings these last two games. I want to play some of the other guys who have a chance to make the playoff roster, give them some at-bats.”
BAKER SAID he and general manager Walt Jocketty, “Pretty much have our playoff scenario figured out. We have to talk to some players before the media is told. We have some of it figured out, but it won’t all be figured out until we have a practice Monday. We have to see the health of some of the guys. We have most of the pitching figured out.”
With some many days off between games, Baker indicated the Reds will use three starting pitchers in the first round best-of-five, probably against the Philadelphia Phillies. If it is the Phillies, the guess is that the starters will be Bronson Arroyo, Travis Wood and Edinson Volquez.
“With Roy Hallady, Cole Hamels and Roy Oswalt, the Phillies have three No. 1s,” said Baker. “We have some guys who eventually will be No. 1s, but aren’t now. But Halladay wasn’t a No. 1 when he started out, either.”
Asked if he would carry 10 or 11 pitchers, Baker said, “I can’t say. If I say, I don’t want my pitchers to start figuring it out. They’ll start counting and they can count pretty good. We’ll tell the media tomorrow (Sunday)”
Permalink | Comments (5) | Post your comment |
TweetArroyo wants to stay in Cincinnati
When Bronson Arroyo and his guitar arrived in Cincinnati, acquired from Boston for outfielder Wily Mo Pena, Arroyo left his heart in Boston. He even sang about his love affair for Boston.
That’s changed now. His love affair is with Cincinnati and any day now he may break out in song about his new adopted city.
And he wants to stay. That, of course, is up to the Cincinnati Reds, who hold an $11 million option for next season. Either they pick that up or they pay him $2 million and tell him to go away.
That, of course, would make him a free agent. That’s why Arroyo believes the Reds will pickup his option, rather than let him go and get nothing but a first-round compensation draft pick.
“I’ve had a couple of conversations with them about a new contract - one in spring training and one in August,” he said. “They want to ride everything out until the end of the season.”
Asked if he wants to come back, he said, “Yes, of course. I’d like to be here for a few more years. We have a young club with the opportunity for success down the road and I’m comfortable in my surroundings and I enjoy the city. I’d like to be here for at least three more, but it all depends on what they want.
“Compared to some other guys in the game, my salary isn’t that hefty. I know this isn’t the biggest market in the world. I know I’m not going to get $15 million a year like Derrick Lowe did and my numbers are as good as his,” said Arroyo, who was 17-10 this year, his third straight season of 15 or more victories and sixth straight year of more than 200 innings.
“They have to pick up my option, not matter what, even if they planned to trade me,” he said. “They have to pick it up. If they let me walk for free ($2 million), they’d be giving me a huge lottery ticket. And they wouldn’t get anything for me. But just because they pick it up doesn’t mean I’ll be here.”
Manager Dusty Baker knows Arroyo’s value, his veteran presence on a young staff. After Arroyo’s 17th win last night, Baker said, “He had a great year - 17 wins and with any luck he could have won five or six more. With Arroyo you know what you are going to get every year - more than 15 wins, more than 200 innings.”
BAKER IS holding out hope that veteran Jim Edmonds will recover enough to participate in the playoffs - if not the first round, then the NLCS if the Reds survive.
Edmonds still isn’t playing and probably won’t the rest of the regular season, “Because we don’t want to get him in there and have him go backards when he is just now coming forward,” said Baker. “And we don’t know how forward. We have to decided if it might be better to wait for the extra week and the next round.
“No matter what, he will be traveling with us and doing stuff, if he can,” Baker added. “You like his expertise because he has been down this road many, many, many times. And he has already helped Jay Bruce and Drew Stubbs on playing the outfield, how to approach at-bats, different scenarios. It helps to have a veteran player re-enforce things the coaches and I have said on a daily basis.”
BAKER LOOKED around his office Friday and said, “Hard to believe this is the last week of the regular season. I haven’t had to think about packing up for what I’m going to do this season. Normally, you’d see a bunch of packed up boxes in here. Now all you see are champagne boxes.”
ROSTERS CAN be changed after the NLDS and again after the NLCS - players can be added and subtracted.
“Some of the guys not on the 25-man roster will travel with the team and some will set up a stay-in-shape staging area in Arizona so they can continue to work in case we need them,” said Baker.
While some folks wish the Reds could avoid the Philadelphia Phillies in the first round, leave it Jonny Gomes to put it differently.
“Let’s play the Phillies,” he said. “Let’s get rid of them. That would really build some momentum and maybe it would be clear sailing from there.”
Gomes also was perplexed by some people complaining about the Reds smoking cigars in the clubhouse as part of their victory celebration.
“What’s that all about,” said Gomes. “This is our private room, our clubhouse. Nobody but us in here. No fans in here. I’d like to see ‘em try to buy a ticket to get in here.”
PLAYERS have asked teammates to sign some strange thing, but pure-Californian Mike Leake, whom Baker refers to as, “The surfer boy,” has a red skateboard in his locker and he is asking teammates to sign it.
TALKING ABOUT how the NL West and the wild card may not be decided until Sunday - or even by a two-tiered playoff, Baker said, “This is what you really call going down to the wire. The most memorable year I have as a player is 1980. Houston had a three-game lead on us (the Dodgers) with three to go. We swept them three games to force a one-game playoff and they beat us.
“That was taught me to never give up or assume that you ever have anything won or lost,” he said. “As long as your not mathematically eliminated, you have a chance, slim as it may be. You still have a chance.”
Permalink | Comments (8) | Post your comment |
Tweet
