Loading ...Remember how we were talking about how disastrous the last road trip was? Well, can you imagine a worse homestand than this one? (The answer is yes. Imagine if the Reds hadn’t come back from that six-run deficit on Monday. They’d be winless on the homestand.) I can’t even fathom that this team has lost 19 of 24 ballgames. Unreal.
Kirk Saarloos takes the mound today, trying to begin the process of salvaging something out of this week. A win today and tomorrow wouldn’t make things right, but it would help a little.
For the Buccos, young Zach Duke will be pitching. Duke has a lot of talent, and pitched fairly well against the Reds during the season’s first week, but he has been up and down this season. I’d like to see the Reds touch him up for a few runs early.
I’ll be at the old ballyard again with the family. Hope today is a good one….
2-0 Pirates and still no one out. And Jason Bay is up. This is awful.
Homer Jason Bay. 5-0.
Hee… Hee… 5-0 no outs… Just like old times… Let’s start cleaning house starting at the top…
The crowd should be starting a Homer chant… Chad, you watching the Blackberry? See if you can make this happen.
c’mon, i just know we can get an out!
LOL
7 straight batters have reached base. Saarloos leaves without getting an out – 9 innings of bullpen work are coming up. I can’t even be near this anymore. I’m going to go bury my head in a book.
So sorry, Chad. I feel like we sold you a bill of goods. I hope your kids were entertained – did you take any trips through the misting system out in RF? I always thought that looked pretty cool.
I will have a full report later, but I will say that we were fortunate to miss most of the top of the 1st. At the precise time that Bay was hitting his homer, Joe Nuxhall was saying hello to my son.
More later….
How cool! I’ll keep my ear tuned into the crowd in the background on the radio, and if I hear a “We Want Homer” chant, I’ll know you came through.
Tuning in a little late, but the Reds have picked up right where they left off. Good night.
I will see if I can get the chant going.
The Reds were 149-175 under Dan O’Brien. That’s a .460 winning percentage.
Under Wayne Krivsky (assuming they lose again today), they’re 98-115 – an identical .460 winning percentage.
Hey, if Chad started the “We Want Homer” chant while they were on offense, that’s ok, it’s working there too. EE and Dunn back to back jacks.
Great. Score 3, give 3 back. Sure am glad I’m tracking this on gameday and actually watching it.
Well, it looks like those wanting Narron fired will get their wish – and sooner rather than later. Management will have to placate the fan base, and as the saying goes, you can’t fire 25 players. While I’m not sure canning Jerry will change much, it’s the preferable response to the pressure. If the Pirates sweep, expect the announcement Monday evening or Tuesday morning. Your new interim manager? Bucky Effin’ Dent.
I would hate to see Homer brought up as a response to all this. He deserves better and he’s not the answer short term.
What Homer deserves is a promotion. How is he going to learn to get out players who can hit his fastball, until you promote him to a level where there are players who can hit his fastball. A little bit of adversity is not going to crush Homer Bailey.
Tom,
I respectfully disagree. He’s 21. If he’s brought up now, he’s being cast as The Savior by the FO. What if he fails? Or is just average? Can you say for certain how that will affect him? Why risk it on a lost cause? This team is a bad team that’s going nowhere despite the FO’s brave assertions that “.500 is second place in this division”. (Your 2007 Reds’ new marketing slogan: “Striving mightily for mediocrity.”)
If you don’t like those reasons, the how about this? Why start Homer’s service clock so we might finish fifth? If you want to see what he does with big league hitters, bring him up in September after a season at AAA limiting his time.
I think at this point, in terms of ‘starting his service clock’ it makes no difference whether Bailey is brought up now or next April. Perhaps someone more knowledgeable regarding the rule about “super-two” players can confirm.
Here comes Majewski! I am shocked to check in and discover that the Reds have really been fighting for this game and are down 11-9 after seven innings.
IIRC, a player who logs 130 days of continuous service would be eligible for arbitration after his second full season in the majors. If I read my calendar correctly (which I didn’t before the previous response), after today, there are 126 calendar days left in the 2007 season.
So scratch the clock argument. That is so last week.
Well, we’re nothing if not generous. Once again we score 3 in the home half only to give 2 of them back (w/1 out and a runner on first) in the top of the…wait for it…eighth.
Jeebus. Gotta learn to type faster with this team.
I’m not suggesting they promote him to save the franchise, and it is the Red’s job to market such so that is not what the fans expect. I could give a crap what it will cost Castellini to keep Homer down the road if they start his service clock now. If he’s successfull he’ll earn more that Castellini has anyway. I promote him because AAA is obviously not a challenge for him and I believe he needs to experience a bit of adversity to complete his development process. He obviously still needs some work on his breaking pitches and command. Problem is that he can always go back to throwing his fastball by batters in the minors whenever he needs to. He wouldn’t be able to do that in the bigs. I’m also about sick of hearing about how we need to handle him with kid gloves and be all worried about his psyche. Give me a break, it’s baseball, it’s all about ups and downs and overcoming them. Worse case the Reds continue to lose like they are, Bailey learns a lesson, and goes back to AAA for a bit to regain his confidence and to finish polishing his command and breaking pitch. Sounds like something that’s happened to just about every major league pitcher.
Tom,
We’ll agree to disagree on Home. OK?
Woohoo…. One game closer to cleaning house.
Well, in a season like this, you take your baseball joy where you can. The Los Anaheim Whosis of Whatsis just swept the Yankees at the Stadium. It’s not as good as the Reds winning, but any season in which the Yanks falter isn’t all bad. Maybe this week will feature a house cleaning on the Ohio and an eruption of Mt St Steinbrenner.
For posterity: final score 14-10 Pittsburgh.
“Dammit Red, don’t you know how I hate losin’ to the Pi-rates?”
I’m curious, heard this on one of the Sports Squawks this AM, and it may have some merit. It the Reds were to trim some aged veterans and recall Votto, along with one of Livingston/Dumatrait, and possibly even McBeth. Would this be sufficient to market to Joe Fan that they’ve thrown in the towel for this season, and take any undue pressure off of Bailey to be the savior? What do you think?
How is it that someone with “Phil Rizzuto” in his moniker can be anti-Yankee?
He wasn’t watching.
I certainly think it’s time for the youth movement in general. None of the over-35 crowd is going to be part of the next Reds’ championship team, even Griffey.
Now what that means in practical terms I don’t know. I certainly think management needs to level with the fans on the state of the franchise and the work to be done.
My objection to calling up Bailey was if that were the only move and were to be cast as “the fix”. Jettisoning Conine and Stanton, trading Hatte, etc and filling those slots with the younger players that are MLB-ready is a different mind set (and the right one IMHO).
Doug Melvin took over the Brewers in 2003 and told the fans that he would build a winner but it would take time. That season the Brewers went 68-94 while the Reds went 69-93. Since then Melvin has built the young nucleus of a contender around guys like JJ Hardy, Prince Fielder, Ben Sheets and Red-killer Bill Hall. They just brought Ryan Braun up to play 3rd after he ripped AAA to pieces, And they’ve got Gallardo (sp?) ready to join the starting rotation. In the same 4-plus seasons, the Reds have … well, played 4-plus seasons of losing baseball.
Rather than hear “win now” from Castellini and Krivsky last spring, I would have preferred what Melvin did. Win now hasn’t worked and the roster is, through acquisitions and contract extensions, largely of Krivsky’s making.
So it’s time for a new direction. My biggest question is whether Krivsky and his staff have the talent evaluation skills for the task.
How is it that someone with “Phil Rizzuto” in his moniker can be anti-Yankee?
Short answer: It’s a poor attempt at a bad pun combining my first name with one of my favorite rice dishes in the world.
Longer answer: I started “following” baseball as a 4-year-old in 1952. Unless you lived in a city with a MLB team (I didn’t), you were either a Yankee fan or rooted for whichever NL team you thought had the best chance of beating them.. The kids who were Yankee fans were always the kind that had wagons with flawless red paint and if it got chipped their parents bought them a new one. They always wanted to be associated with the winner and generally were obnoxious little twits. (I’m not talking about kids in NYC who grew up fans because they grew up with the team, or became fans because their dads and granddads were fans.)
But I grew up in Chattanooga, Tennessee, where no kid had an excuse for being a Yankee fan. Now couple that with the fact that I think Phil Rizzuto was one of the worst choices for the Hall ever, and it all makes perfect sense – at least if you aren’t too sober.
Gary Majewski’s “Operation Shove it Up Their A–” isn’t off to the best start.
So…if and when Narron gets the boot and Bucky Dent takes over on an interim basis, who is the next manager of the reds? I don’t see Girardi in red, but Brenly? Baker? Bowa? Pena? Frank Robinson?
That’s a big bunch of “ugh.”
I suppose Buddy Bell could be in that mix, too.
If Bucky #@$&!(% Dent would be the choice to manage the Reds even in an interim capacity, I don’t want Narron fired.
According to this website:
The cutoff for “super-two” status (referring to players with between two and three years of service who are eligible for salary arbitration) is not fixed; all players with at least 2 years and 0 days of service but no more than 2 years and 171 days (2.171) of service are ranked in descending order by total service time, and the top 16% are granted super-two status. The cutoff is usually somewhere between 2.130 and 2.135; to the best of my knowledge, it’s never been below 2.120, so a player recalled after June 5th or so is in the clear.
So…if and when Narron gets the boot and Bucky Dent takes over on an interim basis, who is the next manager of the reds? I don’t see Girardi in red, but Brenly? Baker? Bowa? Pena? Frank Robinson?
The answer to your question, I hope, is “none of the above”. Brenly’s managerial acumen was on full display in the 2001 series. No young club, particularly a young stud pitcher like Homer, should be trusted to Dusty “Proven veteran” baker (See Wood, Kerry and Prior , Mark). Nor should a young clube be haded to a red a$$ like Bowa. See the Rob and Rany on the Royals archive for Pena. Frank is a nice sentimental choice, except to my knowledge he’s never buried the hatchet from the trade.
I read elsewhere today that the O’s are “considering” bringing back Davey if they can Perlozzo. So that takes my choice out of the running (assuming he would come back after the way the Reds and he parted).
The last two interim managers were eventually awarded the job full time. If Dent takes over and the reds play in the .500 neighborhood from here on out, or if the bring up the kids and they play well under Bucky, my guess is Bucky gets the job in 2008.
Besides, think how it will drive all the Red Sox fans crazy when we met Boston in the World Series in 2010
Thanks, Ethan. I was close but no cigar.
I think if you don’t believe Bucky Dent in the interim, you’re fooling yourself. I don’t think they have “manager’s in waiting” as they did when Bowden was here…so Dent’s the choice.
My concern is that he gets them to start playing better, then is rewarded with the job next year, then they stink again, wash, rinse, repeat….
My concern is that he gets them to start playing better, then is rewarded with the job next year, then they stink again, wash, rinse, repeat….
But that wouldn’t be Dent’s fault unless his decisions are egregious. If he gets the current roster to play well and then next year they stink, the blame rests on the individual that responsible for roster construction and that is the GM.
It’s Krivsky’s job to recognize the team’s weaknesses and make the moves to correct those. If he hands Dent the same roster next year that finishes this year despite recognized flaws, the burden is on him.
I’d vote Ron Oester for Manager. That guys a bad ass.