Finally, our long, cold winter is over: baseball is back!
No, Joey Votto isn’t starting, and Jay Bruce and Homer Bailey are on their way to Louisville. None of that matters too much. I’m even going to try not to get too upset at the fact that our leadoff hitter today sports a sub-300 on-base percentage.
It’s Opening Day, a day for those gooey, “Field of Dreams” baseball fans among us to celebrate the return of our national pastime. I’m one of those fans, and I can’t wait for the first pitch.
Great pitching matchup on day one, with two studs on the mound. The Reds will send Aaron Harang out to face Arizona’s Brandon Webb.
Here’s hoping the Reds start the year off the right way. As an old guy said to me a few years ago on Opening Day: “you can’t win them all unless you win the first one.”
Indeed. I’ll be at Great American Ballpark enjoying the game along with at least two other Redleg Nation editors. Expect plenty of coverage and reaction throughout the day here.
Comment away! There’s a lot to be excited about today.
Mike Lincoln is one of the new relievers for the 2008 Reds. He was signed on February 5th of this year to a minor league contract and invited to spring training. After posting a 5.25 ERA in 12 spring training innings, he was named to the opening day roster.
Lincoln was first drafted by the Minnesota Twins in the 13th round of of the 1996 draft out of the University of Tennessee. He posted decent seasons at Single-A Fort Myers in 1996, after the draft, and 1997. John Sickels included him in the 1998 STATS Minor League Scouting Notebook and gave him a grade C-.
You won’t see him on many prospect lists, and there is reason for that. His control is legitimately outstanding, and you can’t argue with his win-loss record or ERA at Fort Myers last year…The problem is, control is all he has: he doesn’t throw hard at all…Lincoln’s strikeout rate was much higher in college, so there is a chance, albeit an outside one, that he could continue pitching well as he moves up.
Dusty Baker has announced his Opening Day lineup for the Reds:
Corey Patterson CF (I just threw up in my mouth)
Jeff Keppinger SS
Ken Griffey Jr. RF
Brandon Phillips 2B
Adam Dunn LF
Edwin Encarnacion 3B
Scott Hatteberg 1B
Javier Valentin C
Aaron Harang P
Other than Patterson leading off, I don’t have a problem with this lineup. If I were making it out, I’d probably switch some players around, and drop Patterson to the #7 spot in the lineup, but it’s alright.
Corey Patterson serving as the leadoff hitter for my favorite team is an absolute disaster.
For what it’s worth, since the lineup has been announced, I won’t be accepting any further entries on that question for our “MLB 08: The Show” PS3 giveaway. There are three other ways to win a copy, however, so go on over there and submit your entry immediately.
Now that Jerry Hairston, Jim Brower, and Jolbert Cabrera have been reassigned to minor league camp, the Reds have trimmed their roster down to 28. According to John Fay, Matt Belisle will start the season on rehab and David Ross will begin the season on the disabled list. Since Mike Stanton is due to be released at any time, that brings us to 25 healthy players, and results in the following Opening Day roster:
Catchers
Javier Valentin
Paul Bako
Infielders
Joey Votto (kudos to Dusty)
Scott Hatteberg
Jeff Keppinger
Brandon Phillips
Edwin Encarnacion
Ryan Freel
Juan Castro (ugh)
Outfielders
Adam Dunn
Ken Griffey, Jr.
Corey Patterson (ok, if he’s not leading off, which he will be)
Freel
Norris Hopper
Pitchers
Aaron Harang
Bronson Arroyo
Johnny Cueto (sweet)
Edinson Volquez (sweet)
Francisco Cordero
Jared Burton
Todd Coffey
Kent Mercker
Jeremy Affeldt
Mike Lincoln
David Weathers
Josh Fogg
It’s that time of year. With a tip of the cap to Justin, I present to you another new Reds blog with some real promise. Big Red Latrine promises to bring you “news that flunks the smell test,” including this gem about Gary Majewski’s mullet.
John Dewan, the defensive evaluation whiz, posts a “Stat of the Week.” Last week, he looked at bunting. Of course, the Reds’ Norris Hopper figures prominently in the section on bunting for a hit:
When bunting for a hit, the leaders are (listed in order of most bunt hits):
Willy Taveras
Rockies
37 for 52
.712
Norris Hopper
Reds
18 for 26
.692
Juan Pierre
Dodgers
17 for 46
.370
Luis Castillo
Twins-Mets
13 for 21
.619
Corey Patterson
Orioles
12 for 24
.500
Gerald Laird
Rangers
10 for 20
.500
Jose Reyes
Mets
10 for 25
.400
The best bunters hit well over .500 when bunting (the 29 players with 5 or more bunt hits in 2007 batted a collective .545 when bunting).
Hopper is good at bunting. The sad(?) thing is - bunting accounted for 34 points of his .329 AVG, and 31 points of his .388 SLG. I don’t know how valuable a bunt single is — I would guess it’s a tiny bit more valuable than a walk (Pros: The risk of error and excitement bonus; Cons: No pitch count damage or “lost command” frustration). No matter how he got there, though, Norris Hopper had a nice .371 OBP, which is just fine for a $300k leadoff hitter. (New leadoff man Corey Patterson’s 10 bunt hit (in 20 attempts) made up 10 points of his .269 AVG.
I find this utterly fascinating. It’s the Apollo 11 landing site, and the moon-walk activity of Armstrong and Aldrin, superimposed on a baseball diamond. (Hat tip to Dave Studeman at THT).
Jose Capallan - back to Boston ($25k spent for 0.0 IP), Bill Bray - sent to L’Ville, Andy Phillips - reassigned to minor league camp.
Rosecrans takes the Bray move as a sign that both Stanton and Mercker may make the team. I’m still skeptical (hopeful?) that the Reds won’t keep three lefties in the pen, especially when at least two of the three aren’t too good.
UPDATED:Erardi reports that Stanton will be released. That should leave us with a bullpen of Cordero, Weathers, Mercker, Affeldt, Coffey, Burton, and Belisle. Who knows if that will be effective, but there’s depth behind those guys, for the first time in a long time.
Doug Gray, of the excellent RedsMinorLeagues.com has started a new site, this one is focused entirely on breaking down the fascinating but incomprehensible (to me) Pitch f/x data. Doug explains:
Fittingly, it’s called redspitchfx.com. Definitely worth keeping an eye on. Here’s Doug’s first post (hope he doesn’t mind me bogarting half of it, but what better way to tell you what the site’s about):
What is pitch f/x?
The pitch f/x system was created by Sportsvision and basically its a set of camera’s that calculate many different variables of each pitch of each game across Major League Baseball. It calculates pitch start speed, pitch end speed, the amount of break, where the ball is as it crosses home plate and several other things.
. . .What is this website going to do with the data?
I plan on breaking down something each day of the season using the data. Maybe breaking down the starting pitchers games to see why their results where what they were. Once the season gets well underway, breaking down specific players to show their strengths and weaknesses.
We’re rolling now. This episode features a discussion of Jay Bruce and Homer Bailey, their respective demotions, and what to expect from these guys during the 2008 season. In addition, we have part two of a very interesting interview (here’s part one) with Redleg NationSpotlight Player Matt Klinker. He’s a great kid, and I’m sure you’ll enjoy the conclusion of this interview.
Once again, check back this weekend, when we’re planning to present a podcast roundtable on the upcoming season featuring several of our editors here at Redleg Nation.
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