Loading ...A scout and an executive volunteered in separate conversations Wednesday that the Reds are not playing hard — an odd development, considering that manager Dusty Baker is known for getting the most out of players. The scout said that first baseman Joey Votto and right fielder Jay Bruce were the only Reds consistently running hard to first base. …
Anyone else noticed this? I’ve seen Brandon Phillips dogging it to first a couple of times (and that’s nothing new), but I can’t say I’ve seen it from anyone else.
Sounds like nonsense to me, something to fill column inches for Rosenthal.
I’m fairly certain that Taveras, Dickerson, Votto, Bruce, and Hairston have all been busting it down the line on a regular basis. Hernandez is just slow in general. This definitely sounds like a fabrication to me.
I’ve seen Gonzalez and Hernandez not conistently running hard to 1B. Gonzalez I can somewhat understand if the knee is still an issue.
Dusty has a reputation for getting the most out of players?
Did you see Hernandez run from first to home plate when Gonzalez hitted a double? The man is slow but he was going full speed.
Rosenthal is high. They’re playing plenty hard.
However, they do tend to roll over a little bit when they get down. But it’s a young team.
Janish has been doggin’ it big-time. We better bring up Rosales. Also, the Gapper has been doggin’ a whole lot it, so let’s get rid of that thing, too.
(doggin’ it a whole lot, I mean)
i disagree with this assessment, though alex gonzalez’s speed down the baseline does remind me of the speedster that was (pre-satellite installation) bo diaz. too soon?
I agree with most of you guys. Rosenthal is blowing hot air.
If they weren’t playing hard, everyone would have noticed. If there’s one thing Cincinnati fans won’t stand for, it’s a player who isn’t playing as hard as Pete Rose.
(Except for Brandon Phillips, I guess. I think he’s immune to this phenomenon.)
Probably all BS
and really what does “getting the most out of players” have to do with playing hard?
Dusty gets credit (and I wonder why) for being a players manager basically because he managed a couple old washed up players who were once good and 1 or 2 of them had good years again under him.
but I don’t remember those players playing any harder.
from the games I’ve seen every player has been running hard (Hernandez running as fast as he can to beat out that infield single for example and I forget which Reds pitcher I was surprised to see running hard to 1B on a ground out) and playing hard with the exception of Phillips….but Phillips has always been a slacker and more concerned with being cool than anything else. Last year when EE was getting hammered for not running a ball out and if I remember right even benched for a game, Phillips was not running it out half the time. There were clear double standards.
Oh and one more thing. The Reds have been damn inconsistent so far this year. Having terribly sloppy games followed by a good game. Every aspect of the game, hitting, pitching, defense, etc has at one point (already in this short season) looked great and then soon after looked awful. I have to wonder if this “not playing hard” is some old scout saying, “they played a crappy sloppy game”…which they have….they’ve also played some good games.
Phillips does not run it out…Hernandez is lazy, but other than that I haven’t seen much.
Still a little early to identify a slacker problem.
Phillips is a slacker.
Sitting with a .500 record with a .222 batting average and mediocre pitching performances. Sloppy yes, but lazy…..probably not. With the record and stats being what they are it shows players are taking walks, sacrificing, doing the, dare I say it, little things which contribute to victories. Problem is, we don’t have anyone who can do big things…..
RE: “Problem is, we don’t have anyone who can do big things…..”
we do….Harang, Vazquez, Votto and Bruce can do BIG things. The issue is that 3 of those guys are really young….Bruce and Votto playing their 1st full season. We just have to be patient.
Lets not forget, that while the offense has been bad Votto has been GREAT!
.387/.457/.645. Votto has also been helped by Dickerson and surprise surprise Taveras getting on base.
is the only way he’s measuring “playing hard” is by running hard to first base? That almost seems like a bad measure to me. There is a lot more that goes into playing hard than hustling down the first base line, it’s certainly a part of it, but not the whole thing
The only non-hustle things I’d address (and this is league wide) are running harder on double play grounders. They assume these plays are a gimme for the defense.
Giving good at bats is hustle, not giving up hits to bottom of the order batters is hustle too. By those standards, Bruce and Volquez are the biggest dogs on the team. Rosenthal needs to go sniff around some other team if this is what we can expect from his Reds coverage.
Yeah, with all the Pete Rose/Ryan Freel Reds fans around if this team was not hustling it would be prominent in every article/discussion/blog post out there. Methinks it was a slow news day, or he watched 1/2 an inning and drew a sweeping conclusion.
excluding Griffey of course