Loading ...I dunno, there’s just something about Jonny Gomes. I really like the guy. Wish he could get in the lineup more often.
That linked piece by Mark Sheldon also has news about the impending return of Alex Gonzalez. He’ll be back tomorrow, in Chicago. Get excited, Reds fans!!!
That’s just great about Gonzalez…just means less time for Gomes and Dickerson because now JHJ will be playing RF or LF.
Would you call going 1-13 a success for AGon in AAA? Compared to his ML stats, I say yes!
Think of it this way guys. This is the last season we’ll see Gonzo in a Reds uniform. That should brighten your day.
Gomes really deserves more playing time. The Reds may go ahead and get Gonzo locked up for two more years soon.
I’d like to get drunk with Jonny Gomes.
He does seem like a very good guy. I also think he’s a great hitter! I’d actually like to see him in there every single day and see what he can do. I mean, there’s a chance he could turn out to be like the next Carlos Quentin, but we’re just not giving him the chance!
I hope they are rushing gonzalez back so they can trade him. He now plays average defense to go along with his below average bat. I don’t get how Gonzalez is the starter no questions asked but janish gets no playing time despite playing much better defense (what do they think Janish can’t hit .220 like gonzalez does?)
They should go ahead and cut Nix, everyone has figured out the guy can’t hit any type of off speed pitch.
Nix can’t hit the low and inside pitch.
Unfortunately for Janish, in his small sample of games his errors seem to come at very unfortunate times.
Sorry, but Janish sucks. No bat and a talented choker at SS. I think the hope with Gonzo is that he proves he can play a little and we trade him. If the Red Sox can trade Lugo, we can trade Gonzo.
So who does that leave at SS ?
JHJ. I like him but he’s not even a SS. WE NEED A SS !!!
Gomes every day would be better than Nix. Nix killed us last nite. Major league pitchers have figured him out: low and inside breaking stuff. He can’t lay off and he can’t hit it. (Remember that line from A League of Their Own ?).
One problem with the Jay Bruce injury is that it’s meant more of Nix.
What if Gomes could put up numbers like .270/.370/.500 playing every day? That would be HUGELY valuable (and exactly what this team needs, too)! Even w/ a below average glove, I’d take that out there starting in LF or RF every single day.
And he might be able to do that… but we’ll never find out. He’s been labeled a platoon backup (similar to Hanigan getting labeled a backup) and Dusty is so stubborn and closed-minded that he just won’t change.
I’m really getting fed up w/ this — Gomes could be a really savvy (and cheap) signing, who turns out to be hugely productive, and we’re not giving him the chance!
CF Dickerson
C Hanigan
1B Votto
RF Gomes
SS Phillips
3B Encarnacion
LF Nix
2B Sutton
I would run that out there EVERY DAY possible, for at least a month, and see what happens. We would learn something useful about a lot of those guys, and I’d bet money we’d score more runs too.
You guys are saying the same things about Gomes now that you said about Nix 4-6 weeks ago
Dan, to move Phillips to ss would be ridiculous you don’t move your gold glover away from his position and will see how Hanigan performs over these next couple of weeks. But there is no doubt that we need a ss.
For the record, I’ve been on the Gomes bandwagon all along, even back to before the Reds signed him. I’m enamored w/ his power and OBP ability — exactly what this team needs.
And Jeff, I disagree. Ozzie Smith would’ve been a GREAT second baseman, I’m sure… but he was a great shortstop too, and that’s more valuable (b/c it’s harder to find).
Brandon has good quickness, good hands, and a strong arm — those are the makings of a good shortstop! And if he works out, he’s instantly more valuable (b/c good SS’s are more rare than good 2B’s).
Plus, the Reds system is filled w/ guys who it sounds like might stick at 2B but definitely don’t work at SS. Slide Phillips over to SS and let’s see who could work at 2B. Personally, I want to see what Drew Sutton can do, but there are plenty of others who might work.
Anyway, that’s my thinking. I certainly don’t think it’s “ridiculous.” On the flip side, I think it’s way too conservative and risk-averse to not even consider him at SS just b/c he’s so good at 2B. Like I said, what if someone early on had tried Ozzie at 2B? I bet he would’ve been world-class at 2B. Any good shortstop would.
A creative manager would try Phillips at SS now that the season’s slipping away. An effective manager might encourage a reluctant Phillips by telling him the move would help make up for his well-publicized loafing incidents.
A stubborn manager ain’t doin’ neither.
I honestly do not remember the same bandwagon for nix that I do for Gomes. I do remember a lot of support for a Gomes/Nix platoon to let Dickerson play CF and get Willie out of the lineup. Anything that gets Willie out of the lineup would be worth it.
But to answer the larger point, it is absolutely possible that with more exposure Gomes will struggle or prove he can’t consistently hit RHP. But what do we have to lose at this point? It is not like there is a younger/better player on the roster we would be taking ABs from and it is possible he could prove his recent run is not just a small sample size illusion. Lets take the chance and find out. Willie and JHJ are certainly not long term answers at this position.
Moving Phillips to SS is OK with me if it’s the only way we can get a good SS. But it’s a very difficult midseason adjustment. In September 2006 Phillips played a few games at SS, the idea was to play him there the rest of the season.
As expected he started making errors (2 in his 2nd game, I think) and with the Cardinals collapse the Reds were back in quasi-contention so he got moved back to 2nd.
If you’re going to make that change, do it right. Have him play nothing but SS in spring training.
As for Phillips, I am reluctant to make a position switch mid-season, I think I remember reading something that such moves increase injury risks significantly. I wish we would have done it during spring training and moved on Orlando Hudson to give us a guy to get on base at the top of the lineup. But since that is water under the bridge, what do we have to lose if he is willing to give it a try? There is not an answer at SS on the roster or in the upper levels of the system right now. We either are going to have to make a move for one, or get creative and try and develop a solution internally.
Phillips at SS, O. Hudson at 2B — starting back in spring training — would’ve been a very very savvy move, in my book.
It also would’ve been giving up on Gonzalez, which clearly the team was not ready to do at the time.
Actually there was a clamor for playing Nix over Dickerson in LF when CD got off to a slow start and Nix was hot.
A lot of that was simply “play the hot hand.”
Then we learn that Dickerson is better in CF and he comes out of his funk, changing the clamor to “bench Taveras.”
In any case Gomes and Nix are not comparable. Gomes has a ML track record, not all of it good, but a record. Nix has no record whatever of success at the ML level, few of us thought he could keep it up.
And has been said many of us liked Gomes even when he slumped in spring training.
We’re not all frontrunners !
1 – I agree. I don’t recall anyone clamoring for Nix to play every day. I do recall people clamoring for Nix to play over Taveras w/Dickerson moving to CF.
2 – to move Phillips to ss would be ridiculous you don’t move your gold glover away from his position
It’s worked out OK for the Rangers….twice.
Buehrle pitching a perfect game through 8…
If moving Phillips to SS would bring a solid bat into the lineup at 2b, I’d be all for it. However, when was the last time you remember the Reds making a trade for an established starter? I’m sure that they have from time to time, but usually they trade prospects for players that have been disappointments in someone else’s organization. Every great once in awhile a Phillips is obtained but more often than not its a player that’s with the Reds for a season or two and then is lost in the sands of time. I know the budget has a lot to do with that but I think that more often than not its a bottom feeder mentality that needs to be purged from this organization.