Loading ...Hal McCoy, on the Juan Castro trade: “What a great acquisition.”
Marty Brennaman: “You and I are on the same page.”
Great? Marty is the best baseball broadcaster I’ve ever heard (with the possible exception of Vin Scully), but he is becoming increasingly difficult to listen to. The conversation above, which took place during the second inning of Friday’s game against the ChiSox, was the most asinine thing I’ve heard in my life.
McCoy sometimes has the same quality as your example illustrates.
Amen. We get accused of being too negative around here, but it’s very rarely a personal attack, which seems to be all Marty can do. I just don’t know what market he’s trying to serve.
This makes the list for Today in Marty’s Boners!
Prospectus says:
I’ve been generally impressed with Wayne Krivsky’s early moves, but this has to be one which leaves you scratching your head. No, not sending Stevens away, that’s cleaning up after the nifty Phillips pickup. No, instead, I’m wondering why anyone would send anything to anybody to get a player so profoundly incapable of helping a club as Castro is. What’s he for? Defensive replacement work? That’s what this team could have gotten from Ranier Olmedo. A bat so limp that Quinton McCracken would finally have a non-pitcher he could pinch-hit for? Or is it a matter of doing his old boss in Minnesota a favor? Whatever it was, or whatever combination of those things it might be, it does absolutely nothing for the club’s chances, while wasting a 40-man roster spot that could have been employed some other way.
The last season Castro was here he saved more than one game with some fancy late/last inning glovework.
Methinks this is more of a wake up call to EE/Lopez. Castro will probably have a positive effect, or maybe the acquisition will light a little fire under them.
Recently I noted the dynamics (or really, the static repetition) of the 2nd inning conversations between Marty & Hal.
It’s “First Pete and now Repeat.” One says something either snide, or a very backhanded compliment. The other says, ‘Absolutely right, could not agree more,’ then piles on a little more, and it just becomes a feedback loop of insufferability.
What I’m really surprised at is how this team’s strengths and weaknesses are being evaluated. I would have thought that the things most responsible for any struggles the Reds have had this season have been 1)Horrid bullpen performance, and 2)Inconsistent offensive production. In that order.
I can think of one loss off the top of my head, which was blamed on that missed catch by Quin-Ton but had much more to do with the fact that the bullpen gave up two runs in the one inning it was asked to pitch, and the fact that the offense scored zero runs that night.
A bad defensive club can be ugly and difficult to watch, but sacrificing a lot of offensive contribution for a small amount of defensive aptitude (at best) is just a bad way to go about improving the team. We can go on about how Brandon Phillips was picked up for his glovework abilities, but he would be hurting the team if he had not suddenly and inexplicably turned into a .300 hitter.
Hire Castro as a coach, or play him at short in 9th innings or something, but for god’s sake don’t give him a starting role.
And damn it, when are they going to put a real reserve outfielder on this team? Why is McCracken still in a Reds uniform?
If I’m Rey Olmedo, I have to be discouraged at this point. It’s evident, even through a change in administrations, that Olmedo isn’t going to get a chance with this organization.
I’m discouraged by it. Olmedo isn’t a world-beater, but he’s young, athletic, with a good glove and a little bit of a bat. In other words, he’s the perfect backup infielder.
Follow-up on my faulty memory – that game I remembered was actually an unholy union of two games: a 2-0 loss vs. Philadelphia (in which McCracken made the error, and bullpen later allowed an inherited runner to score) and a 3-0 loss in Arizona (which featured the great outing by Milton, a bad inning from Coffey, but no unearned runs). Both losses had more to do with the bullpen and offense than with the defense.
we all said “what’s the point?” of the ross trade, too. and we all kind of wondered about phillips. this time around, i’m going to wait for the player to prove us wrong. (maybe i’m just biased; i always liked castro.)
Exactly what kind of wake up is Castro providing to EE and Lopez? Like he’s going to take any starting job?
I like Marty a lot. Listening to him as a child made me a baseball fan. Having said that, he is increasingly turning into a grumpy old “In my day” kind of guy. Hal is no better.
Juan Castro doesn’t make this team better. The only thing that makes it saleable, is that we didn’t give anything up. Not that anyone would.
regarding marty’s negativity:
If you’re interested in seeing the other side of the spectrum, tune in to the WGN team. Those guys are the biggest homers alive.
If I turned the volume down and brought in the biggest white sox fan I could find and told him to provide play by play, he’d probably provide more insight into this game than these clowns do.
Very true.
As for Castro, the difference between the Phillips and Ross trades is that CASTRO WAS ON THIS CLUB FOR FOUR YEARS!!! It’s not like Krivsky is going out on a limb to give a failing prospect his big shot. This is Juan Castro.
He also makes a million dollars.
I like Marty a lot. Listening to him as a child made me a baseball fan. Having said that, he is increasingly turning into a grumpy old “In my day” kind of guy.
This describes my feelings towards Marty perfectly.
Further thoughts…
I grew up listening to Marty, and once I realized that I was never going to play for the Reds, I wanted Marty’s job. And not just in the same way that kids want to be a fireman…I actually spent a year working at an AM radio station, the flagship station for the University of Virginia Sports Network. I was able to work, on-air and off, on several sports, including baseball, men’s and women’s basketball, football, and soccer. I loved it, and for a time, I thought I would pursue that career.
Then I got into a decent law school, and decided I couldn’t turn it down.
But the point is that Marty has meant a lot to me for a long time. And though he still paints the picture of a game better than anyone, I’m a little saddened at what he’s become. He’s a bitter know-it-all, and it’s not always easy to listen to him.
That bothers me, because at one time, I wanted to be Marty Brennaman.