Reds Insider: Reds v. Rays, plus scheduling info

Friday, February 29, 2008

Reds v. Rays, plus scheduling info

The lineup for today's 1:05 p.m. tilt vs. Tampa Bay:

Norris Hopper CF
Jeff Keppinger 3b
Ken Griffey RF
Adam Dunn LF
Joey Votto 1b
Andy Green 2b
Paul Bako C
Paul Janish SS
Javy Valentin DH

Bailey P. Also scheduled to pitch: Edinson Volquez, Justin Lehr, Marcus McBeth, Tom Shearn, Scott Sauerbeck and Adam Pettyjohn.

No radio today.

Schedule:
Tomorrow: Pittsburgh at home, 1:05 p.m., Aaron Harang v. Zach Duke, WLW
Sunday: Toronto in Dunedin, 12:35 p.m., Bronson Arroyo v. TBA, WLW
Monday: Minnesota in Ft. Myers, 1:05 p.m., Jeremy Affeldt v. TBA, no radio
Tuesday: Cleveland at home, 1:05 p.m., Matt Belisle v. TBA, no radio
Wednesday: Boston at Ft. Myers, 1:05 p.m., Homer Bailey v. TBA, no radio
Thursday: Yankees at home, 1:05 p.m., TBA v. TBA, no radio.

17 Comments:

at 8:06 AM

Anonymous said...

Nice to see that Janish and Keppinger are both getting some playing time..I dont know Janish that well but nurse Julie knows of him and speaks highly

no weather report today John? Have a good morning

at 8:20 AM

Anonymous said...

I am just so excited to see our young arms getting playing time. The stereotype of Baker favoring the verterns seems drawn out of proportion. Here is to cincy becoming a team full of dominant pitchers

at 8:25 AM

Anonymous said...

anon 8:20 of course "young arms" are gonna get a look see in spring training. No offense but Cincinnati is far from becoming a team filled with dominant pitchers. Comment on Dusty when the games actually begin

After Harang..all starters are inconsistent and/or unproven. I see many of the same faces in middle relief as we had last year.

thank you

at 8:30 AM

omnired said...

"Everybody we put out there looked good," Dusty Baker said. "No walks. That's a beautiful thing."

Has anyone asked why it's a beautiful thing when your pitchers don't allow walks, but it's "base clogging" when your hitters draw walks?

at 8:34 AM

Jason Manring said...

jack in blue ash....

i've been reading this blog everyday for months and i'm just curious...do you EVER have anything positive to say???

you're a lot like that annoying guy at work that follows you around all day telling you how bad the company sucks, and is never happy no matter what the situation is.

although i understand that 7 straight losing seasons can take a toll on a fan, you would think having an owner that is willing to spend, a GM that has a plan, and the 3rd best minor league system in baseball would give you some reason to be optimistic.

being a pessimist is a choice, so although i respect your choice to be that way i also resent your choice to flood this blog and it's other readers with it. some others choose to be optimistic and you should respect our choice as well.

at 8:58 AM

Anonymous said...

jason..

if you have read my posts you would see that I have suggested repeatedly that if this team improves to.500 I would be thrilled and that this would be very remarkable acheivement

I have commented positively on ballplayers even as recently as yesterday

You have seen repeatedly that I comment on going to the ballpark and enjoying games with my beautiful fiance'..nurse Julie..

Pay attention Jason

Conversely, as you can be foolishly optimistic after 2 spring training games, I can be maturely realistic.

Jason if you want to gush after 7 losing seasons and two preseason games that is your option. I tend to be more realistic

Jason this is a blog about the Cincinnati Reds, nothing else.

Again..Jules and I will be at many games enjoying our team.

at 9:13 AM

Anonymous said...

Jack, contrats on the engagement. I don't believe most of us realized that you and Jules were engaged. Any chance we can convince you guys to tie the knot at GABP prior to a game this year? I bet John Fay could help hook it up for you.

See you guys at the ballpark!

Can't wait to see Bailey and Volquez work today. Let's see what the kids can do.

at 9:16 AM

Osogato said...

Hey John,

Are those weekend games both 1:05 starts? Also, any more info on the injury to Gil? Anything serious?

jack in blue ash, nurse Julie sounds hot. Maybe it's just because you always preface her name with "nurse", I don't know...

at 9:21 AM

Anonymous said...

Jason,
If you are smart you will just ignore Jack. All he is about is trying to get under people's skin.

He's kind of like a misbehaving whiney child in the corner of the room. If you ignore him he'll stop.

at 9:22 AM

John Fay said...

1:05 Saturday. 12:35 Sunday. I'll fix the post. I'm trying to post things that I keep getting questions about.

at 9:27 AM

Anonymous said...

thanks Barry..jules is a good looking gal and a great sports fan. we are getting married at her folks summer home ..some town named Sandwich on Cape Cod ..this summer

at 9:28 AM

Anonymous said...

Jack's right when he states that we'll no doubt see a lot of the young arms in Spring Training. And he's right when he implies that the Reds' pitching has been its biggest problem through the recent losing years.

But he's wrong when he says that the Reds are "far from becoming a team filled with dominant pitchers." I suppose that "far from" and "dominant" are relative terms but it's pretty clear that the Reds are moving in the right direction and it's not a stretch to imagine an '09-'11 rotation (AH-BA-HB-EV-JC) setting up for Burton and Cordero. Jack's probably not impressed with that projection (Jason is right that Jack is this blog's Chicken Little) but most of the National League would/will be.

I think at the heart of Jack's statement(s) is a mistrust of pitching prospects (and an apparent undervaluing of Arroyo) and that's his right. A lot of teams have had duos or trios of young stud starters and a lot of those teams have ended up shopping the free agent market to stock their rotation. Unfortunately, t's very likely that at least one of our youngsters will never start more than 50 MLB games.

Jack's certainly no fool for wanting to remain a bear in the shifting bull market of Cincinnati Reds fans. A lot of soft promises have been made throughout the recent losing years and not a lot has gone right since Pinella and then McKeon were run out of town. Some fans aren't ready to believe in what they haven't yet seen. (And again, Jack is right in that we haven't yet seen big league success from Bailey, Volquez and Cueto.)

But many of the rest of us are buying low on these guys and we're buying in right now with the hope that 2008 will see Baker and Krivsky begin to abandon re-treads like those that this team has relied on in the past. (Fogg, Affeldt and Mercker come to mind as this season's Milton, Wilson and Hermanson.)

At the very least, I know that on any given night this season I'd rather see a Homer Bailey pitching line of 5 IP, 4 ER, 3 BB and 5 K than whatever Affeldt puts up. Win or lose.

at 9:44 AM

Anonymous said...

Well put Anon 9:28!

at 9:53 AM

Anonymous said...

John, thank you for the constant updates during ST. This is a very exciting time with everything just getting started, and it is nice to be able to get a little insight from somebody there. I appreciate the effort you put into this blog.

at 10:09 AM

Anonymous said...

yet.. jack says he will be at 30-40 games again this year supporting his team and enjoying the ballgames.. I would imagine more than most on here.

anon 9:28 I would suggest to you that hiding under the nick anonymous, even though we know who you are , makes ya more of a chicken little figure than anyone on the board

We are very far from being a team filled with dominant pitchers. Aside from Harang and Cordero..our pitching staff is very average and unproven. And of course ya still have the Majewskis , Stantons and Coffeys.

I love Bronson Arroyo , he has some wicked stuff and is a pleasure to watch pitch when he is on. But he is far from being consistent and/or a dominant pitcher. And he had the same issues prior to coming to the Reds

at 11:51 AM

Anonymous said...

Look, Jack. I don't wanna get into a pissing match with you. Let me apologize for referring to you as Chicken Little. (By the way, the fact that I am remaining anonymous whether or not I am who you think I am has very little to do with what Chicken Little has come to represent in most people's minds. But that's really of no importance.)

What's important is that I apologize for the name-calling slight. I'm sorry, Jack. It was unnecessary. I did not need to refer to you as "Chicken Little." I am sorry.

Jack, you are obviously a proud, passionate and knowledgable Reds fan. You're obviously a creature of social habits (in that you like to read blogs and post comments, you like to spend as many summer evenings as possible with thousands of like-minded baseball fans, and you like to have a lovely lady on your arm). And you're obviously comfortable with your own convictions.

You and I have all these things in common and I think it's fair to assume that we have most of these things in common with most of the other folks reading and posting on this blog. We should all be friends. Or at least friendly.

I'm sure you've probably grown tired of the people posting on this blog trying to tell you what to post and what to not post and telling you exactly what they think of you. I'd guess that you might be reading this very post with your (figurative) teeth clinched and your (figurative)forehead wrinkled. I hope not. I hope that you consider this post an olive branch extended to you on behalf of all bloggers with some views that have run contrary to yours.

Peace, Jack? Let's start over. We have a lot in common and we could all enjoy 70-80 wins together this season. (I'll say 80. You say ~70. And that's nothing but the pleasant personal space between us.)

Ya know Jack, the Reds had a pretty rough season in 2007. The bullpen was bad. A lot of folks have singled out Mike Stanton as the primary culprit and while it's true that Mike was not good much of the time. (He was actually pretty effective from Opening Day to mid-July and then he might have been the Reds' best reliever in the final month of the season.)

Personally, I think the big hard-throwing right-hander Todd Coffey's '07 season was more indicative of the mess that the pitching staff found itself in most of the time. (Here's a stat to make you go Hmmm..: In games that Stanton pitched the Reds had a .435 winning percentage. In Coffey's games the Reds winning percentage was .345) Coffey is not a great pitcher but he's got some folks in the organization hoping that he might contribute some strikeouts in some middle innings somewhere in the future plans of this club. By most accounts, this season is going to have to be the beginning of that future. He's got a lot to prove this Spring and early this season with Weathers and Burton shifted down in the pen and any number of pitchers fighting to be one of Dusty's middle inning options. I hope Coffey makes this team and I hope he helps the Reds win some games in 2008. (Mind you, if he's not going to pitch well I don't want him to remain with the club for long.) He might improve and he might not. I guess we'll have to wait and see over the next month or two. But we can be certain that Dusty and Dick are gonna give him a chance.

A chance to sort of wipe away some poor past performances and join the team with some pleasant contributions.

Whaddya think, Jack?

at 4:54 PM

Anonymous said...

good post and thank ya I dont take this seriously as you may think

Julie and I have tears from laughing so hard most of the time

I will be at the games enjoying myself

As I have said 100s of times..hope they will make it back to .500

Previous Posts

Friday, February 29, 2008

Reds v. Rays, plus scheduling info

17 Comments: