Reds Insider: All shook up lineup

Wednesday, April 9, 2008

All shook up lineup

Here's the lineup for tonight's 8:05 tilt with the Brewers:

Corey Patterson CF
Ryan Freel 3B
Ken Griffey Jr. RF
Brandon Phillips 2B
Adam Dunn LF
Jeff Keppinger SS
Scott Hatteberg 1B
Javy Valentin C
Josh Fogg P

Griffey has three home runs off Milwaukee starter Dave Bush. He's 7-for-15 off Bush overall. Others v. Bush: Hatteberg .400 with a homer. Freel .455, Valentin .429.

25 Comments:

at 4:28 PM

Cheviot Sports Authority said...

Please explain to me: Why Freel does not lead off and Keppinger bat second. Votto gets two hits and finds his way back to the bench. Patterson has been best clutch hitter, why not hit him fifth and Dunn sixth for a game. Very interesting.

ST CSA

at 4:35 PM

JackBlueAsh said...

please explain to me why Ryan Freel is even on this team?

at 4:48 PM

label said...

dusty is starting to act like narron..a different lineup every day...this one makes no scense, let the players get into a grove why swithch everyday? John..any insite

at 5:16 PM

Rob said...

Dunn should hit cleanup. Hes a textbook cleanup hitter with his power. Didnt he hit over 300 last year when he hit behind Griffey?

at 5:16 PM

NVreds said...

I was kind of hoping votto would get to start twice in a row after last game. but when you see hattebergs BA against bush, well its kind of a no brainer. Votto will be fine I don't buy into the thinking that the platoon is causing a slump, he started slow last year, he will probably start slow this year and next year, there is nothing, I repeat nothing wrong with easing a rookie into the lineup.

that being said I think I sort of agree w/ CSA that patterson could be dropped in the order, though I am ok with it because it would be nice to see keppinger in the driving in runs role. giving him different looks in the lineup can only help him get better. He may actually be the second best hitter on the team especially if he can improve. he could bat 3rd someday.

at 5:17 PM

reaganspad said...

Maybe Freel needs the fastballs that the #2 hitter gets when Corey is threatening to steal.

Trying to get Freel going by feeding him fastballs is a good thing. Kepp can get the ducks once they are out there...

at 5:17 PM

Crouton17 said...

Is this a big game for Josh Fogg or what? Homer has apparently decided that he doesn't want to spend too much more time in AAA and frankly, if Fogg lays another egg, it might be time to let Homer come up and feed off the momentum of the other two rookies.

Stormy better pick up the pace as well. He looked horrible last night.

at 5:23 PM

NVreds said...

john I saw mlbtraderumors.com was going to do a piece with you, thats pretty cool I look forward to reading it.

also from mlbtraderumors.com:
"# The Blue Jays once offered Frank Catalanotto for Johnny Cueto, when Wayne Krivsky was new on the job. Nice try, J.P."

second team I've seen mentioned on there regarding trading for cueto. the A's were the other when they demanded cueto as part of the blanton deal. good moves krivsky.

at 5:37 PM

Anonymous said...

So are we hoping Javy strikes out or goes long? He didn't exactly look comfortable running on a play where we definitely needed him to hustle.

at 5:42 PM

Anonymous said...

Who'd have thunked that we would end up needing Jeff keppinger to protect Adam Dunn in the lineup?!

at 5:48 PM

Johnnie Flea said...

JF, did Coach Baker provide any reason for batting Cueto in the top of the 7th with Votto on 2B with 1 out last night? Seems like a bad decision. Also, Votto seemed to be locked in last night; I know playing matchups is important, lefty left and all, but if you're going to pull Votto out of the game every time the game is tight or on the line, aren't you essentially telling him that you don't trust him to come through for the team?

at 5:53 PM

mentalmidget said...

I totally agree with CSA regarding Freel and Keppinger. Either way regarding Hatteberg and Votto. Hatty does have a .400 avg against Bush. Thank goodness Dusty is sitting EE. I know he's not the only guy struggling at the plate, but that guy looks so uncomfortable at the plate right now!!

at 5:54 PM

s said...

To me -- the key is that EE is on the bench. About time. He hit a nice HR the other day, but he makes lots of errors in the field & is too inconsistent at the plate.

Patterson bats lead-off because he has the best speed on the team. Interesting that Kepp was dropped to 6th, but perhaps that will force teams to pitch to Dunn. Also, Freel has the next best speed to Patterson, hence he bats second.

I, too, however was surprised that Baker did not let Votto bat with the bases loaded last night, given that he already had 2 hits & his power, and potential. In the regular season, Votto is playing better than Hatteberg, but is not exactly tearing up the league.

at 6:02 PM

Joe said...

Sure hope this change gets EE going. Let him take a couple days to get his head together and study some film from last year. I sure have to give it to Patterson. He may turn out to be something else, but so far he has been a bright spot in a pretty stagnent offense. Jr. is going good adn Phillips is being Phillips but there is so much being left in the batters box with this team when Dunn and EE don't hit. Fogg has the first start in a Reds uniform out of the way, and we should see six solid from him tonight.

at 6:07 PM

Unknown said...

I like freel for EE..... nice move....Reds should get more bang tonight

at 6:09 PM

Redman said...

We need some pop at the back of the line-up. I feel you(for once)on Votto though, he started hitting yesterday. I would start him again tonight.

at 6:16 PM

AReds83 said...

I agree with everything cheviot sports authority said. I don't see how this helps Votto at all. They either need to play him every day here or in AAA.

at 6:21 PM

reaganspad said...

I like the way Votto is starting to swing. Dunn is getting there to.

I would guess that Freel is #2 to see fastballs after Corey drags another bunt down to first.

Lots of criticism so far for Corey (reminds me of 99 and Cameron) but he is looking good. He is early lead for the Keppinger award given to Krivsky's best find for 08.

Obviously Paul Bako and his 316 av/435 obp is your lead off hitter

at 6:21 PM

The US has a security interest in my soul. said...

Cant say that i can help u on the first answer...but my guess on the 2nd is the mere fact that Hatty is a .400 hitter against Bush...Agreed on all other aspects...

Congrats on the MLBTR Rumor Royalty nod John...Looking forward to see you're responses in the hot seat.

at 7:39 PM

NVreds said...

"dusty is starting to act like narron..a different lineup every day...this one makes no scense, let the players get into a grove why swithch everyday? John..any insite"

haha, every manager does that. its happens league wide, every team, every year, all year. days off, platoons, injuries, LH/RH matchups, past results, every team does this.

at 7:46 PM

NVreds said...

"Lots of criticism so far for Corey (reminds me of 99 and Cameron) but he is looking good. He is early lead for the Keppinger award given to Krivsky's best find for 08."

I'd call it the phillips award. I've defended the patterson signing since it happened. I would like to see him try to hit line drives more, but his lack of avg/obp is made up for with his defense, speed, and RBI potential. keppinger picks up the obp slack.

at 7:52 PM

NVreds said...

"JF, did Coach Baker provide any reason for batting Cueto in the top of the 7th with Votto on 2B with 1 out last night? Seems like a bad decision. Also, Votto seemed to be locked in last night; I know playing matchups is important, lefty left and all, but if you're going to pull Votto out of the game every time the game is tight or on the line, aren't you essentially telling him that you don't trust him to come through for the team?"

probably to save his bench because he ended up using everyone except castro and it worked out getting us to extras. plus it saves the bullpen for a long 10-day roadtrip. I agreed with you at first, but if that was his thinking then I kinda agree with it.

at 8:03 PM

mapes said...

No way Keppinger shouldn't be hitting 1st or 2nd...Patterson should be in the 6 hole...why is it so hard for managers to understand that speed in NOT the most important thing in a lead off hitter???? Wade Boggs and Pete Rose both hit leadoff---neither could had better than average speed.

at 1:59 AM

Unknown said...

To all the rookies on here - google "1976 Reds box score" or dig it up on baseball-almanac.com. You can find all the box scores from any year. 1975 and 1976, with Sparky Anderson at the helm, were pretty good, no? And after skimming maybe 20 lineups, I couldn't find one that was "THE LINEUP" of

3b Rose
RF Griffey
2b Morgan
1b Perez
C Bench
LF Foster
SS Concepcion
CF Geronimo

Know why I couldn't find that? Because managers rotate small parts of the lineup almost every day...Baker is doing a fine job of running this club, from sticking with Patterson and rotating Freel/Hopper/1b/C in the lineup to getting 5 or 6 IP from his starters unless they're going strong to rotating the innings in the 'pen. It's gonna be another 90 win year for Dusty and he'll still get bashed. *sad head shake*

at 2:02 AM

Unknown said...

And to Mapes - speed is not the #1 thing for a leadoff...but if you've ever stood on a hill and known that you were giving up a base if you didn't hurry your delivery AND throw a fastball, you'd understand. And when you hurry that fastball up there, POW - Keppinger burns one to right and we're looking at 1st and 3rd, none out. It makes a difference; "speed kills" is commonly used because it's true. They should track "times in scoring position" instead of OBP. OBP is nice, but not if you're only on 1st base. OPS is the closest to "TISP" going. Stealing 2nd every time is better than getting on 1st and extra time or two every 3 weeks.

Previous Posts

Wednesday, April 9, 2008

All shook up lineup

25 Comments: