Reds Insider: Mariners 3, Reds 2

Sunday, June 24, 2007

Mariners 3, Reds 2

Bronson Arroyo looks life Bronson Arroyo '06. Ken Griffey Jr. hits two home runs and the Reds still lose. The ugly season keeps getting uglier.

The Reds are 0-4 in the last four series and they could have won all four with a win in the final game, so what I'm saying is they're defying the law of averages on their way to badness.

Then you have the whole Norris Hopper late scratch deal. Jerry Narron says he wanted to get Javy Valentin at-bats at DH. Junior Griffey says 10 minutes later that he asked to play right field.

I've got to believe Griffey's explanation. But I don't understand why Narron didn't simply say that.

Griffey also came right out and said he'd like to end his career here. He didn't exactly ask for a trade, however.

“I always thought I’d be back,” he said. “I just didn't know when. As an athlete you always want to retire with the team you started with. . . I’m no different than anyone else.”

“But I think I've got a few more years. I don’t think it’s any time soon.”

Griffey has another year on his Reds contract and the club has an option for 2009.

“That’s a lot of decisions that have to do with the front office,” he said. “All I can do is keep playing. If something happens, it happens. Right now, I've got to try to win as many games as I can with team I’m playing for now.”

12 Comments:

at 9:57 PM

Anonymous said...

John, I believe this makes it "official". They not only play like the worst team in baseball - now they have the absolute worst record in all of major league baseball.
I don't know the answer but suspect the lack of leadership is a big factor. Griffey (a fabulous talent) is in the position to be that leader but apparently doesn't see it that way or want to be that. Narron?... I enjoy watching & respect a lot of the players, even ones that are currently struggling. Just my 2 cents.

at 11:30 PM

Anonymous said...

If the Mariners manned up and offered a package for Griffey the Reds would accept, I doubt Griffey would block a trade to Seattle. It seemed like this weekend made him want to go back. If the M's don't try to trade for him, then they are nuts.

Btw, fire Narron.

at 12:09 AM

Anonymous said...

Junior gets #600 with the Reds this year and then he gets his wish to return to Seattle and we get a couple good pitching prospects from the Mariners organization. A win-win deal.

at 1:19 AM

Anonymous said...

18 games under and sinking towards the inevitable worst-in-baseball record but since we have the worst manager in baseball I hope genius Bob won't be too surprised when we're 30 games under .500, or 40 games under .500. Given the last week's higher highs and lower lows, apparently losing is okay with Bob! Marty B. said the Reds are on pace to lose 100 games this season. I think Narron will lose more than 100 games (I know, he doesn't bat or field or pitch, he just sits in the dugout making odd lineups out and pretending to be a real manager)

How does 62-100 sound, Reds fans? If it sounds bad, stop ATTENDING HOME GAMES UNTIL NARRON IS CANNED! Bark more loudly and more often and Bob will take the dog OUT! (It works in every MLB city where a horrid manager gets entrenched). I wish one of the players would grow a backbone and speak out about how much the other players can't stand playing for Narron and how he's a lousy leader, strategist, and motivator.

While I'd love to see JR string 50-HR seasons together in 07, 08, and 09 and give baseball a real and really exciting pursuit of the all-time HR mark in 2011, it's painfully obvious that JR's trade value has just peaked, and if the Reds don't trade him soon, they're just plain stupid--if in fact they could get genuine un-majewski-like pitching talent for Griffey.

You know the next pinging hamstring or bone cracking sound is due any day from GAB. Summer inevitably brings heat, humidity, and Junior on the DL. If you find a team willing to ignore history and deal the Reds a great pitcher for JR, the Reds simply MUST make the deal, or we'll be watching JR on a last place team for the remainder of his career (or until Narron is fired, whichever comes first).

at 9:49 AM

Scheidt said...

Truthfully as a Reds fan and a fan of baseball I think Jr.'s jersey in the Hall should be a Mariners. He has done many wonderful things in Cincinnati, but we all know him as the Kid who played in Seattle. We are very gratefull he came home to play, but in the end the world knows him as a Mariner.

at 10:21 AM

Anonymous said...

I want to start a campaign here to get the Reds to bring back Tony Perez as hitting coach. I liked Brook Jacoby when he played for the Indians, but he is not getting the job done as a coach. The lack of clutch hitting seems worse now than it has been in years. We're talking 1982----and this years team has more experienced players than back then. Ask any player who they would listen to more, a former all-star or a Hall of Famer, I think the answer would be obvious. Plus it would be a fiesta for the fans to see number 24 back where he belongs after some 14 or so years since that idiot Bowden fired him in the coldest, most cowardly way possible.
While we're at it, fire Dent and Pole as well, since they aren't making much headway either. Ron Oester would make a good tough guy to Jerry Narron's nice guy----O would put the fire under the team when they need it. Make Ted Power the pitching coach. I don't know if he'd instantly fix evrything, but somehow I don't think Pole is reaching the pitchers. The pitching is worse this year than it has been for a while. If Pole is supposed to be one of the best pitching instructors around, shouldn't the Reds be better than they are? Or is it all hype?

at 12:39 PM

armoderate said...

I'm not defending Narron, but everyone thought he did a great job in 2005 and 2006. What's changed? Well to some extent its the players we have. Who's in charge of those decisions? It's the owner and the GM. Can we blame them entirely? Probably not. We all can remember how insane the free agent bidding war was this winter. What concerns me is do we have in place good talent evaluators and is our minor league management preparing quality big leaguers who stay in the majors when they are brought up? Narron needs to go, but will that change the Reds horrible year? Probably not. Other things must also take place. The owner must also strengthen his farm and general management and put in place a realistic budget to have a quality product.

at 2:16 PM

Anonymous said...

I didn't think Narron did anything special in 2005 or 2006. He stunk then and he stinks now. This year has only reinforced that conviction. The Reds appeared to be contenders last year but Narron's lineup changes were still ludicrous. I'd like to see BOB, WAYNE, and JERRY exit the Reds ASAP. They're never going to bring this town anything but ridiculous trades and a losing team!

at 2:22 PM

Anonymous said...

I just don't know what else to say that hasn't already been said a thousand times. A very, very disappointing year. The Reds have to be (along with the White Sox) one of the biggest disappointments of the year. A very underachieving team.

I'll see you again on opening day next year, I can't take watching this team take the field the way they are playing.

at 7:20 PM

Anonymous said...

It seemed painfully obvious from the comments Junior made both before and after the game that he wants to go back to Seattle. Perhaps it was due to the emotion from all the love he got from the team and the fans, but it was very telling for a guy who is so often guarded with the media to come out and say he'd like to finish a Mariner when he's still got one, possibly two years left as a Red unless they trade him. For him to go anywhere else after 2009 would mean he'll still be playing after age 40. It actually struck me as sad after being reminded how great he was in Seattle that his legend has taken such a hit due to the injuries here. For a guy who was, with all respect to Bonds, the best player of his generation to seem happiest at the prospect of playing in a place he asked out of eight years ago tells me he doesn't want to be in Cincinnati and probably regrets coming here to begin with. If that's the case, It would have been better for everyone had he played his whole career in Seattle. John, or anyone else, did you interpret this the same way?

at 11:27 PM

Anonymous said...

Griffey doesn't want to be here? Why do you say that? Just because we're last in the Dismal Division:

SF 32 42 .432
Balt 32 43 .427
Wash 32 44 .421
Tex 31 45 .408
KC 30 46 .395
Cin 29 47 .382

And that was before tonight's games (KC is clobbering LAA and Texas beat the Tigers) so Griffey is on the worst team in baseball, with the worst manager-GM-owner combination in baseball. So what? Junior and the Reds have no place to go but up (cough cough cough cough cough).

Griffey should come out and demand a trade and tell the fans what a joke it is to be playing for Narron "led" team, and on a Krivsky-built "contender."

Krivsky should be GM of a glue factory.

The Reds are the WORST TEAM IN BASEBALL. Can we at least hear an "I screwed up" from Castellini? I expect no one will "man up" in the Reds' front office, it'll be just business as usual "we're so close"
and "we had injuries" and "the Cubs and Cardinals are having problems too (don't look now but the Cubs surrendered six runs in the top of the ninths to the Rockies at Wrigley, earning the daily new award REDS MELTDOWN INNING OF THE DAY)."

But I digress. What did I hear on WLW last night? The Reds are 1-41 (adding last night's loss) when trailing in the ninth inning.

Even on an off night when the Cubs are making the Reds' bullpen look semi-competent, it still feels like the Reds are losers being run by losers.

at 1:08 AM

Anonymous said...

I've got to believe Griffey's explanation. But I don't understand why Narron didn't simply say that.--

Because he's a dope.

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Sunday, June 24, 2007

Mariners 3, Reds 2

12 Comments: