Loading ...Hal McCoy isn’t impressed with the 2009 Reds:
Maybe the recent past has hard-boiled me. But all I can see for the 2009 Reds is a ninth straight losing season, more greens and no dessert.
Before spring training, I thought they hadn’t improved much from last season’s 74-88 fifth-place team. After watching seven weeks of spring training, I’m convinced. They haven’t improved.
McCoy may be right about this. Of course, he hasn’t been right about too many things over the last few years, so forgive me if I don’t take his word for it.
More than almost anything, I want to Bailey to succeed just to see how Hal handles it. But it’s hard to see this team improving a whole lot.
These guys must be impressed:
http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/blog/big_league_stew/post/NL-Central-preview-Can-anyone-step-up-and-chall;_ylt=AphUETM8ur2NzrYgnvjdaUYRvLYF?urn=mlb,152900
One has the Reds finishing 2nd and the other picks them 3rd. I hope they have improved enough to be in contention, but I am not sold on it yet. The guy on SI.com picked them 4th.
In this particular case, it is hard to blame Hal for thinking the Reds have no shot. They’ve managed to go from a great offense/no pitching team of a couple of years ago (that lost) to a no offense/good pitching team this year. It seems they can’t find a good middle ground.
I think the Reds will end up pretty much where they were last year. Sad to say but I don’t see a rosy future in 2009 for the Rojos. Player development is all well and good but you have to have some studs in the everyday lineup and right now, well…., where are they? .300 hitters? Maybe one or two…. three at most and a couple of them may play the banjo. 35 homers in a bandbox? Joey and who else? The lack of punch was very obvious this spring. Crossing your fingers that EE will get it together, that Dickerson will be the real thing, and that Gonzalez won’t be on the disabled list all year is tantamount to buying a lottery ticket. There’s more to consider this Sunday morning but why bother.
Look at the other teams in the division and the league. Can you see the Reds beating out the Cubs? No way. Absolutely no way at all. The Cubs have the punch throughout the lineup that the Reds just dream of. And can you see the locals having more wins than the Mets, Phillies, Dodgers, or Diamondbacks? Again no way. So there goes the Wild Card. So what’s left?
I guess playing for .500 is what is in vogue this year in the Queen City. That’s an improvement but is that why Big Bob has invested so much of his cabbage? I don’t think so. And will heads roll if the Boys don’t live up to breaking even? I think we all know the nswer to that one.
What I do see is:
a. EE playing himself out of Cincy and a trade/promotion breeds a new third sacker;
b. The costly but ineffective closer putting himself in the line of fire;
c. The Big Kid coming up to play first with Votto heading to left scenario happening around the All-Star break;
d. The fans calling for Dusty Baker’s head pretty much all year;
e. The overall pitching not being as good as expected.
f. The offense being mediocre at best until the shakeup at first and third as set forth above.
5th place. Maybe 4th. And a really upset Bob Castellini with major moves happening towards the trading deadline.
For the sake of my friends in the organization, I certainly hope I’m wrong. But it looks this way to me. Yikes!
Let the games begin.
Hal’s right about the offense. I do agree pitching and defense wins pennants but a team has to be at least in the mid of the pack offensively to be competitive. 2 Runs a game won’t even begin to get it done. I sure hope I’m wrong.
You hit several things right on the head, World. If EE’s defense continues to be as bad as it has this spring, he’s either moving to another position or out of Cincy. I think the starting pitching may be as good as advertised but I’m beginning to doubt the bullpen.
I’m calling for Baker’s head now
Off topic
but you can wipe the sweat from your foreheads
Sheffield signed with the mets
How can you not be worried:
>After Taveras, a combination that includes Chris Dickerson and Jerry Hairston Jr. will man the No. 2 hole. The middle of the order has Votto batting third, Brandon Phillips batting fourth and Bruce batting fifth. The rest of the order is Edwin Encarnacion, Alex Gonzalez and new catcher Ramon Hernandez.
“I like the way it feels,” Baker said of the order.
http://cincinnati.reds.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20090402&content_id=4109028&vkey=news_cin&fext=.jsp&c_id=cin
World: The one that jumps out at me is about the pitching. I think people are putting a lot of faith in a rotation that wins about 10 games each given the offense of the past. Harang was a hard-luck loser often last year. Expect to see four more hard luck losers with this anemic offense.
So much for Taveras not automatically batting leadoff…
Of course, I think we knew that going in.
Well yeah, he does play CF.
Wow, MLB trade rumors is ruporting Gomes is out and Nix and McDonald both made the roster. Did I miss that earlier?
Post and link:
Here’s what I know so far:
IF Adam Rosales and LHP Bill Bray were optioned to Triple-A Louisville. Jonny Gomes was reassigned to the Minor League camp. That last move totally shocked me. I thought Gomes was as good as in when I left camp a couple of weeks ago and will try to learn more about the thought process behind it.
That also means shortstop Paul Janish and lefty Daniel Herrera made the team.
“I’m excited and fired up to be here,” Janish said. “Being on the Opening Day roster, for whatever reason, has such implications to it, so it’s a good thing. It’s huge because it makes me feel like they have a lot of confidence in me too to start the year here.”
There are still some extra players in the clubhouse so I’m not sure on the final 25-man roster just yet.
Outfielders Laynce Nix and Darnell McDonald were both given new numbers (16 and 17, respectively) and were unpacking lockers. Looks like they’re in.
http://marksheldon.mlblogs.com/archives/2009/04/janish_herrera_make_it_arroyo.html
Wow…no Gomes. I guess if a HR situation calls for the bench it will be Owings hitting. I am very surprised McDonald made it over Gomes.
Hard to analyze meaningless spring statistics, but then again, at this point any way to spin the offense and have it end up positive (or at least somewhat positive) is ok by me…
http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/preview09/news/story?page=09expertpicks
A couple of ESPN talking heads like the Reds.
Jayson Stark has them listed as his dark horse club and Enrique Rojas has them winning the NL Wildcard and losing to the Yanks in the World Series (?!).
Personally I think .500 would be a good start and possible if things come together. Problem is that with what is known about this year’s club, we could just as easily lose 100 games. Hopefully this will be building year, but like many others, I don’t have much faith in Dusty Baker and think he is way overrated as a manager. (I thought they should have just Pete Mackinin a full season instead of getting Baker, who I think poorly handled things with the Cubs, let alone blew game 6 against the Angels in the World Series with a couple of dumb changes.)
No one on the MLB network had the Reds any higher than 3rd. I gotta go with that too. With Carpenter healthy, the Cards will finish second.
[...] Redleg Nation, Hal McCoy is not impressed with the 2009 Reds. The Nation writer hopes Hal is wrong again, but Hal [...]