Loading ...The Cincinnati Enquirer actually suggests this morning that “pitcher” Josh Fogg and his 13.09 ERA may be at the end of his rope in Cincinnati. Dare to dream:
Fogg’s spot in the rotation might be in jeopardy.
Asked if the Reds might have to go to the minors to get help, Reds manager Dusty Baker said: “We might. That’s tough.”
The Reds have three young starters pitching well in the minor leagues. Homer Bailey is 2-1 with a 1.42 ERA in three starts for Triple-A Louisville. Matt Belisle is 3-0 with a 1.09 ERA in three minor-league rehab starts. Daryl Thompson is 2-0 with an 0.51 ERA at Double-A.
Thompson is pitching brilliantly in AA, but he’s not a legitimate option for the major league rotation yet. Matt Belisle is probably the first in line for a callup, and Redleg Nation is fine with that. Pretty soon, however, Homer Bailey is going to force the Reds’ hand if he keeps pitching well at Louisville.
It’s nice to have options in situations like this; that hasn’t always been the case here in Cincinnati. Of course, we’ve always maintained that signing Fogg and handing him a rotation spot was not a great idea in the first place, since there are/were better options available.
For what it’s worth, Dusty Baker sounds like he’s fed up with Fogg:
Fogg’s line: two-plus innings, seven hits, nine earned runs, two walks and three strikeouts. He’s gone 10 innings and allowed 17 runs in his three starts for the Reds. That punches up to a 13.09 ERA.
He left the bullpen with six innings to cover on the second day of a stretch of 16 games in 16 days.
“He usually doesn’t go that short,” Baker said. “But he doesn’t go deep into games either.”
Indeed.
Another lefthander this afternoon and then Sheets on Friday; Reds could be staring at a 7 game skid come Saturday.
For the record (since future generations will surely be poring over these comment threads), I admit to thinking it was an okay idea to sign Fogg for the #5 spot at $400k. The guy stinks, but in a fairly predictable, 85 ERA+ type of way. But given the other options in-house, there’s no need to fool around with this sort of bullpen- and spirit-killing nonsense.
Ok to compete for the #5 spot. But given this performance and the positive options sitting in AAA, let’s not give him 7 starts before making a change.
This may be a gross generalization of pitchers, but it’s the young guys who perform the best in the first half of the year, while the vets have the stamina to finish strong. Based on that useless presumption, I’m still in favor of keeping as a long man for the time being. Lincoln isn’t much better since he’s just a 2 pitch guy. Wasn’t it Baseball Prospectus that said this team would only have a shot if the young guys played?? Bring up Bailey of course, Belisle if you’re going to dump Fogg, and Bruce if you are serious about winning. I find myself hating Dunn and Griffey for no good reason other than they are blocking Bruce. I need to chill.
I’m sitting on pins and needles checking the wires every five minutes to see which pitcher the Reds will bring up. Belisle seems the logical(if not the smart) choice. Homer is the future and seems to have fixed some of his wildness. Thompson is an intriguing guy who seems to have caught Dusty’s eye. That may not be a good thing the way Dusty handles pitchers.
Only Thompson and Bailey could legitimately improve(or destroy) a fantasy team.
Belisle will be called up because he’ll be the fifth pitcher and they can skip him now and then. Could you imagine the uproar if the Reds skipped a start from Bailey or Thompson?
Last nights drumming aside, the Reds biggest problem isn’t pitching by and large. Their offense has been worse, but the biggest problem is the have very little margin of error. All cylinders have to be firing and even though you are looking at a team that is less than 10 games over .500, which would probably win the division. Guys like Dunn, Griffey, Patterson, and Encarnacion have major flaws. Having said that they can be valuable as long the things they do well, they do them very well. Right now they aren’t.
Give Fogg another start, and see what happens. I think he would be a decent long man if nothing else.
They should consider bring Belisle and Bailey up and ditching Coffey and Fogg.
We have no long relievers. We really need one with the young guys that don’t go deep.
Seeing Thompson’s progress, and yes it’s AA, but I had to check…..Seriously, what happened to this guy and this guy
And the thing is, Lefty, look at those salaries. Lopez and Kearns combine for $9.9 mil this year with Kearns on the hook for $10 mil in 2009. That’s right: $10 million!
I’m not saying Fogg should be removed from the roster, but since Belisle is healthy now, I think Fogg should be in line behind Belisle for starts.
Plus, it doesn’t seem that there’s a long reliever in the bullpen. It toko 5 different guys to finish off 6 innings in Fogg’s start. It still surprises me that Affeldt didn’t go a little longer. With the possibility of early exits (be it like Fogg’s start, lengthy rain delay, injury, ejection, whatever) you’ve got to have someone in the bullpen that can get you past the 5th or 6th inning.