Bellhorn back
The Reds brought Mark Bellhorn back today to help with the bench shortage. The Reds have been woefully short of the players the last couple of days. Josh Hamilton, Ken Griffey Jr. and Adam Dunn are finished for the season. Scott Hatteberg and Alex Gonzalez probably fall in the same category. Jerry Gil can only pinch-run. Pedro Lopez will get his first at-bats since July 25 tonight.
The make room for Bellhorn, Bobby Livingston was put on the 60-day disabled list.
Here's a stat from you: The Reds ran out an outfield last night that had a total one home run this year -- Jason Ellison (1), Buck Coats (0) and Norris Hopper (0). The normal starting outfield has 89 -- Dunn (40), Griffey (30), Hamilton (19). That's a bit of power drop off.
And, by the way, I agree with you. Jay Bruce should have gotten a call as soon as Hamilton was hurt. He would have gotten 40 at-bats or so. That's would invaluable experience.
posted by John Fay at 5:08 PM
5 Comments:
at 5:25 PM 
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John Fay said...
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tom dunne said...
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Post a Comment*John,
Would Jay Bruce have been eligible to play on Team USA if he was added to the 40-man roster? It is my understanding that only players not on the 40-man are allowed. I feel being a part of Team USA may be more beneficial.
That may be correct. But I think facing Carlos Zambrano, Ted Lilly and Rich Hill in Wrigley South would be invaluable for a young player.
You want to put a 20-year old kid in the box against Carlos Zambrano? That'll be a real confidence builder as he heads home for the off-season. Maybe Z can plunk him; it'd get Zambrano his second career Hit Batters title and really accelerate Bruce's major league education.
For the snark impaired, I don't see how throwing anyone to the wolves qualifies as "invaluable," especially when that anyone is the organization's most prized prospect, at the end of the longest season of his very young career. Missing a dozen ABs against a team trying to win a division title isn't going to make an iota of difference to Bruce's success in the major leagues.
I'll side with John, except maybe on the Team USA issue, on Bruce. I doubt doing poorly, if in fact he would (he might do right well) against Zambrano would shake Bruce's confidence much, and he might face him or someone better (there are several of them around the league) when he does come up. Besides, Hamilton went down a while back. He could have already gotten a lot of at bats.
What did Johnny Bench hit when he was first called up? It was .163, wasn't it. Obviously didn't ruin his career.
Even if Jay Bruce only went 3 for 38, he would have gotten a good idea of what to expect when he finally does reach the Majors to stay. From what I hear about him, he's got a can-do kind of approach to the game. I don't think he would have been humiliated into early retirement by a Zambrano strike out
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