What can the Reds possibly do?

By Hal McCoy | Friday, November 6, 2009, 12:03 AM

The Empire won, as expected - even though it was the first time since 2000, even with baseball’s highest payroll every year since their previous championship in 2000.

I refrain from calling the New York Yankees the Evil Empire because they are playing within the rules, as skewered as the rules may be.

Their payroll this year was $220 million. Last winter they spent $450 million to sign three players to multi-year contracts - pitchers C.C. Sabathia and A.J. Burnett, plus first baseman Mark Teixiera.

What to do? What to do? Here is an idea. Let’s break up the majors into two leagues - The Big Bucks League, for those teams who want to pay more than $100 million in salaries and The Spare Change League for those who want to pay less than $100 million.

This year, The Big Bucks League would have 11 teams:

1. NY Yankees $220,097,414

2. NY Mets $145,367,987

3. Chicago Cubs $134,058,500

4. Boston $122,435,399

5. Detroit $119,160,145

6. LA Angels $118,964,000

7. Seattle $112,053,666

8. Philadelphia $111,209,046

9. Houston $102,996,414

10. Chicago Sox $100,598,500

11. LA Dodgers $100,008,592

Absurd? Maybe so. Maybe it makes as much sense as the way things are done right now.

THAT BRINGS US to the Cincinnati Reds and what they can do? Disband? Join the Class AAA International League? Drop back 15 yards and punt?

Under current rules, there is no way, none, zip, nada that the Reds can ever win.

Some might say, “Well, the St. Louis Cardinals compete every year and their payroll this year was only $87.5 million.”

The Reds had the 17th highest payroll (out of 30) at $73.5 million, so what’s another $12 million? Well, it is a whole bunch when you don’t have it. And it is a whole bunch when your attendance took a horrendous downturn last season.

And the Reds front office already is on record as saying they won’t increase payroll. Probably it will be reduced.

What can you do when you start things off with four players owed $46 million next year - closer Francisco Cordero ($12 million), pitcher Aaron Harang ($12 million), pitcher Bronson Arroyo ($11 million) and third baseman Scott Rolen ($11 million)?

That leaves $27 million for the other 21 players and with the average salary in major-league baseball at $3.27 million, where does that leave the Reds? Mostly standing with empty cash bags.

General manager Walt Jocketty needs to do two things as fast as he can this winter: (One) Trade Cordero. (Two) Trade Harang.

By trading Cordero, the Reds not only save $12 million this year, they save $13 million next year. An expensive closer for a sub-mediocre team is an unnecessary evil. It’s a job Nick Masset can do.

By trading Harang, the Reds save another $11 million. Harang has had two straight down years, but he is still marketable. Several scouts told me late last year that their teams would be happy to deal for Harang.

BUT FOR 2010, that’s still only a savings of $23 million, which isn’t going to buy you much on the free agent market. Just look at how much the Yankees paid.

The Reds could only afford middle-of-the-road free agents and then they’re taking a chance. Will the guy be good or will he be an expensive flop. It’s one reason Jocketty says the Reds won’t dabble much in the free agent cash parties. And I don’t blame him.

There is only one way the Reds can win a division title. Every player, and that’s every player, has to have a season that is better than the back of his baseball card. How often does that happen? The nth of never?

They could get by with the same year from first baseman Joey Votto. If they can talk catcher Ramon Hernandez into taking a cut from his $8 million option and sign for maybe $3 million and he has a career year, that would help.

Brandon Phillips needs to return to his numbers of two years ago, not the year he had last year and he has to eliminate all the selfish things he does and the things he does that distracts from the team.

They need a better hitting shortstop than Paul Janish - and good luck with that.

They need Scott Rolen to hit more homers and hit .300 and stay healthy all year - and good luck with that.

They need to sign Jonny Gomes, who hit 20 home runs in about half a season. Indications are, though, that they won’t offer him arbitration.

They need Drew Stubbs to be the player he was in September and that’s possible. They need right fielder Jay Bruce to prove he can hit major-league pitching, something he hasn’t come close to doing that last season-and-a-half.

They need Arroyo to pitch even better than he did last year, pitch all year the way he did the second half. They need Homer Bailey to be the pitcher he was the second half. They need Johnny Cueto to come around the way Bailey did.

Those are all Big Needs - and good luck with that.

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Of Aruba, Pole and Lee/Hamels

By Hal McCoy | Tuesday, November 3, 2009, 12:09 AM

Aruba is nice this time of year - or any time of year. Spent six days there last week and it was 90 to 92 every day, not a drop of precip and the heat was kept down by a persistent cool breeze off the cobalt blue ocean just a few yards behind the hotel.

If I had stayed away from the casinos, where I firmly believe they have figured out a way to cheat at blackjack, it would have been a perfect vacation.

I mean, how many times did I have a wager between $25 and $40 in front of me with two face cards in my possession with the dealer showing five? Then he would pull an ace for 16 and another five for 21 to beat me - time after time after time after time.

Then on the next hand, with a $10 bet, I’d draw a blackjack, just to keep me interested.

Where was 007 when I needed him?

If you go to Aruba, steer clear of the casinos, but don’t miss restaurants like Sole Mare, Papiemento’s, Simply Fish (tables on the beach with torches lighting the tables), El Gaucho and, for ambiance to watch the sunset, The Lighthouse.

TALKED TO Dick Pole this week, the pitching coach the Cincinnati Reds unceremoniously fired late in the season. Why couldn’t they at least wait until the end of the season?

Pole, a Michigan resident, is in Florida this week to undergo hip replacement surgery. After 22 years as a coach he says he won’t pursue another job, “Unless somebody comes after me.”

I know many of you called for his removal all season and wanted hitting coach Brook Jacoby gone, too. Well, you got half of what you wanted.

To me, it is almost always sad to see a dedicated, hard-working guy lose his job. Perhaps when you are with somebody every day and get to know them personally, your view becomes fuzzy.

All I know is that Pole worked hard and knew his job. Usually, when a manager or coach is fired, it is because his players or pitchers underachieve.

To me, though, most of the Reds pitchers were pitching to their capabilities, perhaps everybody but Aaron Harang, who has struggled the last couple of years. Bronson Arroyo blossomed under Pole, as did Edinson Volquez. In fact, Volquez was upset when Pole was fired.

After many false starts, Homer Bailey turned it around the second half of last season. Didn’t Pole have something to do with that?

We all know how obstinate young Bailey can be and Pole refused to coddle him - and it probably cost him his job.

One problem with the Reds is that CEO Bob Castellini listens to too many people and some of them have axes to grind or let personalities sway their opinions. One of them got Castellini’s ear about Pole and Pole was axed (pole-axed?).

A manager and a coach is only as good as his players/pitchers, and I saw improvement from the Reds pitching staff under Pole.

WILL THE PHILLIES be brave enough to bring back Cliff Lee on three days of rest if the World Series goes seven games and give him the ball Thursday?

It is probably their only chance. If it goes seven - and I believe it might - it will be Cole Hamels’ turn to pitch. I wasn’t there to hear the quote or put it into context, but I’m mystified about his quote, “I can’t wait for the season to be over.”

If that’s what he said and what he meant, I don’t want him pitching the deciding game of the World Series. You would more like to hear him say, “I wish the season would never end.”

With the way he pitched in his last start against the Yankees, well, it looked as if he wanted the season to end.

What do you think? Should Lee pitch Game 7, if there is one?

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The Phillies are NOT the Big Red Machine (yet)

By Hal McCoy | Friday, October 23, 2009, 06:37 PM

Before I depart for Aruba Saturday and a week’s fun on the beach and at the pool as Official Bikini Observer, let me weigh in on the nonsense I’m reading and hearing about the Philadelphia Phillies as The Little Red Machine.

Pshaw and balderdash.

Just because the Phillies are only the fourth National League team in history to win back-to-back National League pennants doesn’t mean they are on a level with The Big Red Machine.

They aren’t even The Little Red Machine yet.

Oh, yeah. They’re good. Very good. But don’t lay the BRM or LRM on me until they win two straight World Series, as the 1975-76 Cincinnati Reds did, or they go through the playoffs and World Series without losing a game, as the ’76 Reds did that included a sweep of the Phillies in the League Championship Series and a sweep of the New York Yankees in the World Series.

And the ’76 Reds won the NL West by 10 games.

Want to play the lineup comparison game? OK, here is how I seee it:

Catcher: Johnny Bench over Carlos Ruis in a landslide.

First Base: Ryan Howard over Tony Perez,

Second Base: Chase Utley/Joe Morgan. That one is probably a wash.

Shortstop: Jimmy Rollins on offense and Davey Concepcion on defense.

Third base: Pete Rose over Pedro Feliz, not even close.

Left Field: George Foster over Raul Ibanez, by a wide margin.

Center Field: Shane Victorino on offense and Cesar Geronimo on defense.

Right Field: Ken Griffey Sr. over Jayson Werth because Griffey was a better all-around player.

Starting pitching: The Reds Don Gullett, Gary Nolan, Jack Billingham, Pat Zachry and Fred Norman against Cole Hamels, Cliff Lee, Joe Blanton and Pedro Martinez, to me, is flip a coin and call it.

Relief pitching: Rawly Eastwick, Will McEnaney, Clay Carroll Pat Darcy and Pedro Borbon were better than Brad Lidge, J.A. Happ, Chad Durbin and Ryan Madson.

Anyway, that’s my opinion? What’s yours? It’s something to discuss while I’m eating, drinking and being merry for a week.

The blog returns the first week in November and will appear two or three times a week throughout the winter.

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Time for umpire challenges in baseball

By Hal McCoy | Wednesday, October 21, 2009, 07:50 PM

When I lost a good portion of my vision a few years ago, a few helpful folks suggested, “Now you can be an umpire.”

And judging by what I’ve seen so far in the playoffs this year, maybe they’re right. The umpires so far have missed more calls than a teenager with their cell phones turned off.

Don’t get me wrong. I love umpires and some are good friends - like former umpire Bruce Froemming, who is now a major league umpire supervisor who watches games and grades the work of umpires, and Randy Marsh, who lives across the Ohio River from Great American Ball Park.

The job is tough, almost impossible. But these guys get it right - most of the time. I can’t count the number of times I’ve sat in the press box and watched a play with my naked eyes and said, “He missed that one.” Then I watched replays and realized, “He got it right.”

When the NFL and NCAA put in replay challenges, I thought it was an awful idea. But now that I’ve watched it a few years, I believe it is a great tool.

Isn’t the idea to get it right? And with the amazing technology available, why not use it?

Which brings me to baseball. It’s time for replay challenges, especially after watching about 10 incorrect calls so far in this postseason, including two missed calls Tuesday by umpire Tim McClelland in the ALCS involving the New York Yankees and the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.

Tim McClelland is a crew chief and an excellent umpire, but he blew two easy calls in one game Tuesday, plays that could have been called right if replay was used.

Cincinnati Reds manager Dusty Baker is against replay and says, “It takes the human element out of the game and the human element is a big part of our game.”

Maybe so, but isn’t getting a call right more important, especially when it might decide the outcome of a game?

I never thought I’d ever say this, but the time is now for replay to be available. My proposal would to be give managers three challenges a game on every umpire’s call except balls and strikes. If a manager believes an umpire missed a call, he tosses a red hankie onto the field.

All this would require would be a fifth umpire seated in the pressbox with instant replay in front of him. Yes, baseball games already are too long, but what’s another ten minutes if it means getting a call right?

And if a game goes into extra innings, the replay calls are in the hands of the fifth umpire - he would review any close call and if it shows the call was missed, he reverses it.

Before technology in sports television became so sophisticated that if the catcher has a mole on his left check it is visible in your media room, they didn’t use enough close-ups and isolated cameras to show if a call was right or wrong.

And not so long ago, the home team was told not to show close plays or controversial plays on their scoreboards. But in recent years, that isn’t the case and all close plays are shown on the board, sometimes to the embarrassment of umpires, who have no access to replays. They see the play unfold and make a quick decision - usually getting it right. Usually.

Somewhere down the line, when an umpire makes a wrong call that costs the home team a game and it is shown on the scoreboard, they’ll have a European soccer riot on their hands.

So I say, with a heavy heart, install replay challenges.

Any of you have a better idea as far as different replay challenge systems? Or do you like it the way it is, permitting mistakes by umpires to possibly determine the outcome of an important game?

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Is Price right for the Reds?

By Hal McCoy | Sunday, October 18, 2009, 12:41 AM

So you can put away your “Hire Dave Duncan” signs. The Cincinnati Reds hired former Arizona Diamondbacks coach Bryan Price as their pitching coach, shuffling aside Class AAA Louisville pitching coach Ted Power and special assistant to the general manager/minor-league pitching instructor Mario Soto.

I’m not certain Soto even wanted the job - he told me during spring training he wasn’t interested in a full-time job. But by snubbing Power the Reds could lose him. If another organization comes calling - and they will - Power probably is gone.

And who is Price?

He is 47 and never pitched in the majors. He was 31-29 during six minor-league seasons, pitching only 11 games as high as Class AAA in the Angeles and Mariners organization.

But he does have two Major League Coach of the Year awards - Baseball Weekly’s Coach of the Year in 2001 when he was pitching coach for the Mariners and Baseball America’s Coach of the Year in 2007 when he was pitching coach for the Diamondbacks.

Me? I would have preferred Power or Soto or even the return of former Reds pitching coach Don Gullett, but my general manager’s card expired years ago.

FOR SOME of you who asked, my favorite National League cities to visit:

If you want rain, go to Pittsburgh any time the Cincinnati Reds are in town and there will be enough precipitation to ruin three pairs of Cole-Haans.

If you want people, go to New York City and wander around Times Square, where on any day and at any time there will be enough people to populate a third-world country and enough nationalities for a U.N. meeting on 42nd street.

If you want heat, go to Houston, the air-conditioning capital of the world. When you emerge from an air conditioned car and into the Houston humidity, your glasses immediately fog over and your shirt turns into a soggy rag.

Those are just a few of the things embedded in my mind after traveling for 37 years with the Cincinnati Reds. If I had all the time back I spent in the nation’s airports I could add ten years to my life.

So, after much thought based on a liftetime away from home while spending time in mostly National League cities, here are my five favorite places:

SAN DIEGO — In 37 years, I saw it rain in San Diego one time and it was at a game. When they rolled out the tarpaulin to cover the field it came apart in shreds because it hadn’t been used and it had rotted away.

San Diego weather? Sub-tropical perfect. It used to be fun ducking south of the border for a Tijuana visit and a bullfight (just once — too gruesome, no matter what Ernest Hemingway writes).

Or you can visit posh La Jolla for exquisite dining at night (don’t miss Donovan’s Steakhouse) after spending the day on a fantastic beach.

And when the nags are running at Del Mar, it is one of the best horse racing emporiums in the country. When Lou Piniella managed the Reds, I once had to drag him out of the place in time for batting practice because, as he said, “I’m hot,” after hitting four winners in the first five races.

The new Petco Park is one of my favorite ballparks with all the nuances in the outfield, including the old warehouse down the left field line that houses some choice seats.

SAN FRANCISCO — A culinary delight. If you’re there a week, you can eat in a different restaurant every night and have unforgettable meals. One of my favorites is the Cathay House in Chinatown, and it’s worth it to walk through Chinatown after a meal.

The trip across the Golden Gate bridge is breathtaking and worth it to cross it to get to Sausalito and a seafood meal at Scoma’s. As you dine on the world’s best sea scallops, you look out the windows across the bay at the skyline of San Francisco.

And if you’re lucky, as I was one night, Sharon Stone might be dining at a table next to you.

Then drive the hills of Sausalito where famous artists and writers have multi-million dollar houses on stilts propped against the hills, just waiting for an earthquake.

The ballpark, AT&T Park, is my favorite, mostly because of the view of San Francisco Bay beyond the right field wall and the smell of garlic fries cooking right next to the press box.

CHICAGO — The city has everything New York has, without the hassles. I always stayed on the Magnificent Mile of Michigan Avenue and mostly window-shopped because the prices in those stores are far beyond my means. A guy can dream.

There is nothing better than Chicago-style pizza and there isn’t a better steakhouse in existence than The Saloon behind the John Hancock Tower. The first time I wandered into the place, strictly by accident, Joe Nuxhall and George Clooney were seated at the bar. With Nuxy there, I knew I was in a good place to eat (and drink).

The Lodge, a musty bar just off Rush Street that has peanut shells on the floor, is a baseball writers hangout and the Old-Style is always ice cold.

And, of course, there is Wrigley Field, baseball’s real Field of Dreams (and Nightmares for Cubs fans).

DENVER — Where else can you get buffalo meat loaf and buffalo chili? Do not order the prairie oysters. Trust me. Coors Field is in LoDo (lower downtown) and there are enough bars and restaurants within two blocks of the park to satisfy Dean Martin.

And where else can you look beyond center field and see the majesty of the snow-capped Rocky Mountains in the middle of summer. Just a half an hour away and two miles up are Central City and Blackhawk, old silver mining towns that are now casino towns, a mini-Vegas.

I once left a casino at midnight after it had snowed four inches and crept down the two-lane road with numerous switchbacks. At the bottom of the mountain in Denver it was 72 degrees.

Coors Field is a favorite, too. Where else do they have to keep the baseballs in humidors to compensate for the thin mile-high air and where else is there a micro brewery in the right field corner?

ST. LOUIS ¬— Yeah, I know. Downtown is deserted at night and they turn the traffic lights to flashing yellow and flashing red at sundown.

But the town has my favorite Italian restaurant, Charlie Gitto’s. My last trip there I ate lunch three straight days at Gitto’s and ate the same thing, sausage linguine.

There is a new casino downtown, right across the street from the domed football stadium and several other casinos up and down the Mississippi. I expect them some day to turn the Gateway Arch into a casino.

My favorite hotel, the St. Louis Westin, is directly across the street from Busch Stadium and it’s a place where you feel as if you are in your own bedroom rather than a hotel room.

Busch Stadium? You can have it. Nothing special, except that Albert Pujols plays there.

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La Russa? No. Duncan? No.

By Hal McCoy | Tuesday, October 13, 2009, 04:11 PM

For those with their fingers crossed, hoping that the Cincinnati Reds can land Tony La Russa as manager and Dave Duncan as pitching coach, well, uncross them.

To use the vernacular, it ain’t gonna happen.

If La Russa continues, he’ll continue in St. Louis - a much better situation than he’d have in Cincinnati. The Reds’ situation involves massive rebuilding and La Russa doesn’t want that. He is 65 and wants to win NOW.

Staying in St. Louis is his best option and it would not surprise me if he is offered - and accepts - a two-year extension for a raise above the $4 million he made this year.

And if La Russa is available, the Reds would have to fire current manager Dusty Baker and eat his $3.5 million contract for 2010. Do you really think the cash-strapped Reds could invest about $9 million to pay a manager and a fired manager next year?

Doubt it.

AND DAVE DUNCAN?

Pretty much the same argument. Duncan is 64 and probably doesn’t want to spend time learning an entire new pitching staff and working with pitching prospects. And he makes more than $1 million with the Cardinals.

Yes, he was upset that he learned about the trade of his son, Chris Duncan, from the media this year instead of from the Cardinals front office. And, yes, he had issues with the team’s farm director over how pitchers were handled in the Cardinals minor-league system. Are those enough to drive him away from a winning organization that pays him handsomely?

I doubt that, too. And he has been with La Russa since 1983 at Oakland, the Chicago White Sox and the Cardinals. If La Russa re-ups in St. Louis, so will Duncan.

THE TOP candidate in Cincinnati should be Class AAA Louisville pitching coach Ted Power, who has been interviewed for the vacant spot with the Reds. All the pitchers handled by Power love the guy. And here’s a warning: If the Reds don’t make him their pitching coach, Power will be gone. He’ll seek opportunities elsewhere.

MEANWHILE, look for some shakeups in the Reds front office - and soon. When Walt Jocketty took over, he kept pretty much everybody who was in place. But he also started bringing in his own people, such as former Seattle general manager Bill Bavasi, former Pittsburgh general manager Cam Bonifay and super scout Jerry Walker.

They’ve been observing and working in Jocketty’s inner sanctum, but changes are coming and that’s natural. People brought in by former GM Wayne Krivsky are vulnerable, especially with the team in financial straits and fat needing to be trimmed.

People like farm director Terry Reynolds, assistant general manager Bob Miller, scouting director Chris Buckley and others could be re-assigned to lesser roles and could be leaving for other teams.

Front office people like J. Harrison and Scott Nethery, guys brought in by Krivsky, were once highly visible but were nearly invisible this season.

Yep. changes are a-comin’.

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The Real McCoy, Ask Hal (To be continued)

By Hal McCoy | Sunday, October 11, 2009, 12:16 PM

Retirement is for the birds, except I’ve never seen a robin or a sparrow sitting in an easy chair wearing a T-shirt and boxer shorts while eating Fritos.

I don’t officially retire from the Dayton Daily News until October 31, but with baseball season over for those with leanings toward the Cincinnati Reds (no playoffs - again) I have had a week’s dose of watching sports on TV until my eyes are bleary and my posterior is numb.

My fingers, though, are itchy. I need the laptop on my lap and hopefully I can keep the Fritos from between the keys.

If you read the Dayton Daily News this morning (Sunday), you already know I’m going to continue doing some writing for them. I won’t be an employee of the DDN, but I’ll be a free agent, a contractor, a contributor.

The DDN and I have come to an agreement whereby The Real McCoy remains alive. During baseball season I’ll do at least five blogs a week and I will continue doing my Ask Hal questions and answers from the fans that appear in the paper every Sunday and online.

In the off-season, I’ll do a couple of blogs a week (and if you know me, probably more) and a few special assignments.

No, I won’t be traveling with the Reds as a baseball beat writer. Anything I do comes out of my own pocket. But I will make some cameo appearances at Great American Ball Park to gather some inside information and do some interviews to take you inside the clubhouse and dugout.

The DDN provided me with a driver last year, a fine gentleman named Larry Glass. He lives in Fairfield and loves baseball, has been involved in the game all his life, including coaching national championship youth teams.

Get this. Larry lives in Fairfield, at least an hour from my home in Englewood. Because of my vision problems, I can’t drive. For nearly every home game last season, Larry drove from Fairfield to Englewood and picked me up. He then drove down to Cincinnati and stayed with me at the games, sitting next to me in the press box.

After the game, he drove the 1:15 from Cincinnati to my home, dropped me off, then drove the hour back to Cincinnati. That’s about 4 ½ hours of driving every day, leaving his home shortly after noon and getting back to his home after games sometime near 2 a.m.

Amazing. And he did it all for just gas money and a press pass. Even more amazing, he has agreed to drive me any time next season when I want to go to Great American Ball Park.

While I won’t be in the inner circle as a traveling writer, I know I can entertain and inform you with 37 years worth of experiences and I can utilize contacts I’ve made through the years.

While we’re at it, Ask Hal continues for the next three weeks, so keep those great questions coming.

In addition to the work for the DDN, I have a couple of other things going that will keep me attached to the baseball world and I’ll let you know if and when those materialize.

So I’ll be doing more than emptying Fritos bags and burning up cigars in my Man Cave. I look forward to keeping in touch with all you great, great fans who have supported me through the yeas.

In the meantime, pass the Fritos.

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