Random Reds Rumblings

[CincyRedsFan30]

Observations and comments from today's (Thursday's) game. After some scalping, me and my friends got to sit in row of LF right near the foul pole:

*Freel looked good today. Fairly solid at 3B and had a couple nice looking hits. Seemed to provide some more spark to the top of the order and took more pitches than he has at times recently (more on that in general in a minute).

*Hatteberg looked more comfortable in the two-hole. I think that's big for him.

*Griffey looked locked in...Groundhog Day I know...but he had some stuff to show for it this time. I was a bit disappointed that they didn't make an announcement in regards to him tying "Period" Palmeiro on the all-time HR list. His bat action is very crisp right now and he seems to be moving free and easy. Nice to see.

*Phillips should not hit fourth. Sort of a broken record, but he is simply a six-hole hitter...not a two, three or four hole hitter. He gets his hits and everything, but he continues to swing at pitches that almost touch the ground and rarely works counts well.

*Dunn looked great today. He seems to be coming out of that slump he was stuck in for a while after that injury issue. He is spraying pitches all over the field and his swing looks quick again. He also looks decent in the outfield right now. Getting better jumps for sure.

*Hamilton is going through a minor slump right now. He is definitely too anxious at the plate and it shows. He must have been watching Phillips too closely one night recently and decided to imitate him. I know he has the eye though and he should come out of it.

*Castro...hitting seventh...three pitches and see you later...mostly ugly AB. Good to balls he could get to at SS but didn't have many he had to show range on today. Please no more of him starting. That's about it.

*Ross was pleased when he got that HR to CF, as he clapped and pumped his fist. His OPS is going up slowly but surely and he is looking a little better. I wouldn't be surprised to see him continue hitting some HR in some games coming up soon, as his swing is a little better. His bat is getting through teh zone faster and he is able to at least foul off more pitches to hang around and wait for that fastball he likes to crush.

*Harang did not look good today and frankly I'm starting to get a little worried about him. He does have a great DIPS ERA and everything, but it is about more than just the Runs, hits, etc. etc. that is worrying me. His fastball only hit 90 and not that often today and he was around 87 or 88 most of the game. I told my friends in the 1st inning when I saw him not getting over that speed that he could well have a pretty poor game today and he sure did. He was able to get away with things more early as the 'Stros didn't seem locked in on that slower fastball and he was throwing a bit more in the way of off-speed type stuff, but as he started throwing more fastballs they started catching up to him and he got lit up. I also noticed throughout the game (and particularly soon before he came out of the game when I mentioned that he better be watched carefully for a quick meltdown) that he was pulling off of the mound with his delivery. Not compact and free and easy like he usually is. I'm not sure he has any serious arm problems or anything, but I think he could have something minor. He needs to work on getting that fastball back into shape. I might even consider letting him skip a start if the off days work out right. I think he needs it.

*Coutlangus looked tough again. Of course I know Jerry would pull him after recording one out (see the thread on him not letting pitchers stay in as long as they could for some very strange reason). Lots of movement, lots of poise and good results. Still has some control issues to work on, but he is young and shoudl only get better with time.

*I made a booooo sound when Stanton was brought in after Countlangus was (inexplicably) taken out. I could see right away it was going to be another Stanton Special today and it sure was. Just awful. I don't know what else to say. No velocity, no movement, no nothing. As close to batting practive as you can get. Just missed giving up a Grand Slam (about two feet foul to our right from LF).

*Weathers was a little better, though he wasn't particularly great. More movement but left a few right over the plate and almost served up the long ball (just missed also).

*Why does Stanton get to stay on the team but Edwin goes? I don't mind Edwin getting sent down at this point, but if they are going to send him down for poor performance, why can't they DFA Stanton and eat his salary? He has nothing right now.

*What a difference a day makes in terms of overall team plate discipline. Better swings to keep AB alive, more taking of pitches out of the zone and just better AB in general. And we scored a lot of Runs. Amazing, isn't it?

*Some guys in the first row right in front of us were talking to Carlos Lee in LF throughout the game and he kept turning around and smiling and giving them the thumbs up, because they kept chanting his name and clapping toward him, etc. Pretty funny.

[redsrbetter]

Once again you bring the heat man. Thanks for the analysis.

I particularly like what you said about Harang. Or at least I thank you for seeing a problem. Hopefully Narron sees this as well. I didn't get a chance to see yesterday's game, but it doesn't sound like Harang is doing well. He was in the running for pitcher of the month for April. But we can all agree that he just doesn't look as dominant this season. If he couldn't even touch 90 yesterday, something has got to be wrong. Very interesting observation. I see no reason why management will not treat this as something to take caution on.

Thanks again CRF. +rep

[CincyRedsFan30]

Narron has outdone himself this time.

Awful lineup (Keppinger should have started over Castro) and terrible managing.

Reds get the first two on against Saito in the 9th (on good AB against a Saito who didn't look quite like himself tonight).

Gonzalez at the plate with runners on 1st and 2nd and 0 outs and Narron has him BUNT and he pops out on the first pitch. Even if he had gotten the bunt down, it would have been 2nd and 3rd with 1 out and Dunn would have been intentionally walked to load them up for CASTRO.

As it was, Dunn grounded into a FC to make it 1st and 3rd with 2 outs and Castro ended it with a typically awful AB.

Basically Jerry was having Gonzalez bunt to bring Castro up with the bases loaded and 1 out (and apparently he had no intentions of PH for him with Keppinger, who has hit the ball well lately in the minors).

Just incredible. The rest of the division lost tonight and we didn't gain a game and now get to face Penny, Wells, Peavy and others on this road trip. This could put the final nail in the coffin.

[CincyRedsFan30]

BTW, back to the free-swinging hitting tonight after a refreshing one-days respite yesterday.

And Salmon pitched a 1-2-3 9th inning and induced those strikeout things. Coutlangus has had a couple good games lately (as I've highlighted in my scouting reports).

Neither comes in with the Reds leading and needing to hold a lead though. Too young and they throw too hard.

Make it all end.

[missionhockey21]

Didn't you feel confident against Saito with bringing up big bad Juan Castro to the plate?

[CincyRedsFan30]

Oh yeah!

Isn't Jerry also brilliant for sticking Dunn 6th again and having Castro right behind him. One of our actual threats in a watered down lineup tonight gets stuck ahead of a player hitting well under .200 and getting on base at only a sliightly better clip, not to mention slugging at a wretched level.

You have to almost wonder if Narron is wanting to get fired with Krivsky in LA attending this series.

[redsrbetter]

I am pretty much done with thinking this team has a shot this year. Time to simply chalk this one up and just concentrate on developing young talent?

[missionhockey21]

May 13th, no matter how hot the Brewers are, teams do go through slumps. If we had the Astros or some other team neck and neck with them, maybe then, but it's still early enough to have a big hot streak go in hand with a big cold streak from them. Of course all of this positive thinking is useless as long as Narron is at the helm.

[missionhockey21]

Doing the game thread on the Padres forum:

http://www.strike3forums.com/forums/...st-legend.html

[CincyRedsFan30]

Valentin catching and Belisle had an awful start.

Shocking.

Nonsensical.

[CincyRedsFan30]

And another thing, unless this trip gets so bad that it's hard to imagine(though isn't it there already?), I wouldn't expect to see Narron fired.

From what I've heard, June 1 is likely the earliest he will be fired unless this trip changes some minds.

[missionhockey21]

And another thing, unless this trip gets so bad that it's hard to imagine(though isn't it there already?), I wouldn't expect to see Narron fired.

From what I've heard, June 1 is likely the earliest he will be fired unless this trip changes some minds.

We'll then hire Dent, who I would give a 75% chance of keeping the position and if not we will hire a former mediocre manager who is on somewhere as a bench coach or a hitting coach and will come over and do a job similar to Narron. Because god forbid this organization learns that spending money up top on the personnel you hire to coach and lead this organization, with actual records of success and good reputation, might be a way out of this mess.

[CincyRedsFan30]

John Fay's blog:

Fool's Gold?

Yesterday -- after taking a 7 or 8 on the first hole -- I hit a hit a 5 wood to within 12 feet on a 177-yard par 3. Just missed the birdie putt and tapped in for par. If you watched that hole, you might be under the mistaken in impression that I'm a good golfer. I'm not. After that hole, I went back to usual array of shanks, pulls, slices and 3 putts.

The reason I bring this up is after watching the Reds in the final game of the recent homestand -- the 9-5 win over Houston -- you might have been under the mistaken impression that the Reds were about to roll. But after that win, they went back to usual array of missed opportunities, bullpen blowups, strikeouts and bad starts.

Both Doc and I talked to Bob Castellini that day. An optimistic guy by nature, he was convinced that a turnaround was in the offing. Looking back it would have been much more interesting to get his take if the Reds hadn't won that day.

The good news for Big Bob is good percentage of people are still ticked off. That shows that apathy hasn't set in yet. But it's only a few losses away. After that win, it seemed like a major shake-up was a ways away. Now, my guess is if the don't win two or three of the final five games on the trip, we could see something.

As for the moves, I'd make Marcus McBeth the closer and put David Weathers in the eighth. I'd rather get to the ninth than see games blown in the eighth. If McBeth works out, it's a huge bonus. I see the Chad Moeller move as indictment of Javier Valentin's pitch selection. Jerry Narron has questioned it a couple of times this year.

[CincyRedsFan30]

It sounds like even Jerry has had enough of Valentin's pitch selection.

The question is why was I able to notice how awful he was since the beginning of the year (especially with Belisle) yet Jerry wasn't fully decided until today?

The scouting/advance scouting for this team is still atrocious. I thought Krivsky would have hired a few knowledgeable scout buddies by now, but obviously not.

[CincyRedsFan30]

And on another note, a friend of mine I just talked to about watching the game tonight, etc. said that he just heard a little bit ago on Mike McConnell's show on WLW that he had heard from someone (at the station?) that Narron MIGHT be gone by the end of the week if they don't win like 4 of 5 of these games or something. Of course he isn't really a "baseball guy" (although despite what he thinks, Narron isn't either), but that is interesting. Maybe this awful start to the trip is causing Krivsky/Castellini to reconsider? I am going to get lunch in a few and will see if Willy is talking about this at all. I still wouldn't count out June 1 at the earliest though, because that was teh most recent word I heard.