Loading ...From McCoy’s game story:
Clayton was a bit defensive, especially after he was booed heavily by the smallish crowd of 25,127.
“I was far away from the bag, behind the bag, and I had to get to the bag (for the force), then throw a perfect throw,” he said. “I’m not perfect.”
This is just preposterous (except for the “not perfect” part). One, Clayton was exactly three steps from the bag once he picked up that ball. I just went and re-watched it on Tivo to make sure. If he hadn’t paused for 5 minutes to stare at Phillips, he’d have had the time to make a crappy throw and let Hatteberg come down with it. Second, it was Russ Martin, the catcher, running to first – and Martin almost fell down coming out of the batter’s box. Clayton most certainly did not need to make a “perfect” throw.
Anyone who watched this game knows that Clayton’s excuses are as silly and pathetic as his performance has been lately (0 for 4, with 4 groundouts to short, tonight, including a game-ending GIDP, not to mention the bubble-blowing incident from Sunday).
When the trade went down, we all read this:
Reds manager Jerry Narron was particularly excited about picking up Clayton, a solid defensive shortstop and noted clubhouse leader whom Narron worked with in Texas.
“He’s a veteran guy [who] knows how to play the game correctly,” Narron said of Clayton. “One thing we’ve got to do to win here is to make the routine play [and] play solid defense consistently, and Royce has proven that he can do that.”
I think I’ll take Jerry Narron’s next scouting report with a grain of salt.
Note: Fay’s game story only mentions the ump’s bad call, not Clayton’s goof, the booing, or the snarly excuse. AP (via ESPN.com) has a version of the quote. The official site has a third version of the quote, and their headline writer doesn’t like Freel. On Dodgers official site, Grady Little gives Furcal (the baserunner forced at second) credit for everything.
Clayton’s terrible. Most of us knew he was terrible when the Reds got him. After initially being a tad successful offensively (post trade), he’s cooled off and his defense has been atrocious.
And now he’s blaming others for his mistakes (his quote sounds to me like he felt that Phillips should have been at 2B).
SHTD!
I’ll say it again in Chris’s thread. We have to do something meaningful and convincing to get this taken care of. We have a division and a pennant to win and Royce Clayton is not our guy. For a start of ideas… see the end of last nights game thread. Input people. We need our strong Free Edwin/Cage Clayton message to be heard from on top.
A little more booing, and he might go the way of Danny Graves. He seems to have pretty thin skin.
The guy either isn’t concentrating on the game, whatsoever, or he’s having a hell of a time communicating with his teammates, because he’s been out of position a lot. Looks as lost as Lopez on his worst days.
Excellent entry, Chris.
I think Clayton will soon go the way of Tony Womack. Its bad enough when a player contributes nothing on offense, but for them to not even be an average defensive player is umm… indefensible. Worse yet, it is HE that is taking the place of Edwin Encarnacion in the lineup, if you believe that Aurilia should be the shortstop.
UGH! The worst player on our team (bench and all) is our starting shortstop!!!
Fay (Cincinnati Enquirer) chose not to quote Clayton at all, making more a point of the ump getting the call wrong than Clayton’s awful play and excuse.
We all disagree on a lot of issues on this board but I think we ALL agree that Clayton can’t play.
Game-goers, land on Clayton hard. Drive him out of Cincinnati. It can be done! His performance last night was on a par with mine, in my slow-pitch softball game. We expect more from paid professionals.
Hal is a slappy for the organization.
Bring on Juan – I’ll take his gliding efficiency and weak bat any day over Clayton.
I call for everyone to stand and boo at every Reds game the rest of the year any time you hear his name (Clayton that is, not Narron).
i say boo both of them until edwin plays everyday
Castro will probably get the start tonight as he is 3 for 6 against Penny. Aurilia should be on the bench as he is 1 for 10 against Penny. EE will probably get the start, if only for one night.
Correction, Aurilia is 1 for 8 against Penny. It is Clayton that is 1 for 10 against Penny.
So aurillia and Clayton or in the starting lineup then. I think Jerry will go with his heart on this one. They’ll come around and start hitting this guy.
:: note sarcasm ::
Just remember:
“He’s a veteran guy [who] knows how to play the game correctly,”
I think I would rather have Felo’s bobblehead at short than Clayton….
Of course, Royce could always be the next shortstop with his own bobblehead, the series could be called “the power of sedition”, after all the fans walk out.
Let me apologize now for my “bobblehead fixation”. I’ll try to avoid any more references to them in future posts. Of course if we had a bill brasky bobblehead then…nope, not gonna’ finish that one.
Jerry Narron should be fired! How in the world he can keep sending Majewski out there is beyond me. If Narron is not managing this club, we have 10-15 more wins easily! He needs to stop managing with his heart and start using his mind. Come to think of it, that might not be an upgrade.