Spring Training 2008

[geniusMoment 0]

I know Chip isn't really a very good announcer but I have a soft spot for him and Stone together. I'm not really sure why, but I remember on the last broadcast steve mentioned how good he thought chip was so they must've got along.

[treble 0]

 

Alex Rios is very pretty.

[Bruiser Chong 0]

Len and Bob have actually grown on me. Len actually gives a shit about those nutty stats such as OBP and VORP. And Bob makes me chuckle at least a few times during each game. They've got a good rapport with each other, too.

 

And for what it's worth, Hairston and Dusty clashed in Chicago.

[claydude14 0]

He's supposed to be our guy, if not for the assholes from 2004 sending him out. He still has to work with Ed Farmer, though, so the broadcasts will still be unprofessional garbage, but man, Singleton was terrible.

 

Who is claydude? Probably an idiot.

Why am I probably an idiot, because I'm a White Sox fan? I follow the baseball threads here but don't post much in them.

[EVIL~! alkeiper 0]

Bobby Murcer received a clean bill of health today, fantastic news.

[devo 0]

Moises Alou is going to be out four to six weeks with a hernia surgery. Can't say I'm surprised or even upset.

[Fuzzy Dunlop 0]

DEEP LEFT FIEEEEEEEEEEEELD...

WHAT A WHALE OF A PLAY!

We've reached... ten o'clock.

[Fuzzy Dunlop 0]

Actually, probably my favorite Chip Caray memory was during a Cubs/Pirates game in 2004, the Cubs were trailing by two in the 8th, and Corey Patterson was up with a man on.

 

"Popped up, shallow left field..."

 

Um, no, Chip. Game-tying two-run homer. Although in his defense, the wind was crazy that night.

[Guest Beastalentier]

Chip's postseason outing was some of the most unfortunate broadcasting we've had in a long time. Somehow, he and Dick Stockton made us pine for Jon "Touchdown" Miller.

[Cheech Tremendous 0]

I'm skeptical, but the prevailing opinion coming out of Spring Training is that Bartolo Colon is going to win the role of 5th starter for the Red Sox and that Clay Buchholz is going back to AAA Pawtucket.

[Cheech Tremendous 0]

Hey, Mike Hampton is hurt. You know what that means... it's almost baseball season!

[Guest Beastalentier]

Speaking of perpetually injured pitchers,

 

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/columns/sto...mp;sportCat=mlb

I feel like I've kind of been a part of this organization almost as long as I'd been a part of the Cubs organization.

Uh huh, great, thanks, hope you appreciated the free money. Tentative return date is early June. We've heard this before.

[MarvinisaLunatic 0]

 

The 2008 Orioles - Boldly going....where no Orioles team*..has gone before!

 

*in the past 10 years

[Cheech Tremendous 0]

Just caught snippets from an interview with Dusty Baker. He said that he doesn't care for the plate approaches of Joey Votto or Adam Dunn. He feels they should be swinging instead of taking pitches. Sigh. It's almost like he says this stuff just to rile people up.

[HarleyQuinn 0]

Just caught snippets from an interview with Dusty Baker. He said that he doesn't care for the plate approaches of Joey Votto or Adam Dunn. He feels they should be swinging instead of taking pitches. Sigh. It's almost like he says this stuff just to rile people up.

 

Man... I just don't understand how swinging at pitches could help Dunn or Votto anymore? Dunn's hit 40+ HR the past 4 seasons and struck out at least 160+ times in the past 4 seasons. How is swinging at more pitches gonna help with the tradeoff of Dunn's batting average rising with his walks falling and strikeouts presumably rising as well?

 

Votto's hit .307 in 1170 plate appearances between AA and AAA. How is not swinging and taking pitches possibly hurting him? He's drawn 148 walks while making such contact anyway.

 

Granted, Dusty was never the greatest contact guy (surprise! 7 seasons at .280 or higher) nor did he walk a ton (Although he did have 4 seasons with 60+ walks and a career 0.347 OBP) but what is his agenda against getting on base? If he wants 'speed' on the base paths so badly, Votto would be his ideal player. He walks (hiss) but also has speed to boot (41 steals in 58 chances b/w AA and AAA for a success rate of 71%).

 

It also amazes me that guys like Dusty Baker (0.347 OBP career) and Joe Morgan especially (0.392 OBP with a career BB/K ratio of 1.84) rail against sabremetric thinking so much. If anybody should understand the importance of getting on base, it should be Joe Morgan who had 8 seasons with 100+ walks. I also love how they target the guys like Adam Dunn. Do they expect Dunn to hit .300 and swipe 20-25 bases a season or something??

[Cheech Tremendous 0]

I don't want to rehash the Dunn arguments I've made multiple times, but it is disheartening when franchises try to expose their own players flaws instead of highlighting their strengths. Adam Dunn is not just a good player, he's a borderline great player and Cincinnati is going to let him walk next year because he strikes out too much. There's a serious flaw in the decision making of their upper management.

[strummer 0]

I've come to the conclusion that all the old timey baseball people just hate walking. I have no idea why but you can tell they view it as an annoyance with all the "Swing da' bat will ya'" hyperbole.

 

The "modern"/sabermetric community is never going to win this argument no matter how many Ken Tremendous types keep fighting

[Guest Beastalentier]

Just caught snippets from an interview with Dusty Baker. He said that he doesn't care for the plate approaches of Joey Votto or Adam Dunn. He feels they should be swinging instead of taking pitches. Sigh. It's almost like he says this stuff just to rile people up.

Except lots of people agree with his sorry ass. Remember "it's better to put the ball in play because you might reach on an error"?

[geniusMoment 0]

The Johnny Cueto lovefest has really picked up now:

 

"He's the best I've seen since Pedro Martinez. His stuff is actually better, nuclear, not electric." Pirates Dir. of Scouting

 

http://www.daytondailynews.com/o/content/s...cincinnatireds/ --from hal mccoy

 

 

 

From the Blue Jays Head Scout, "The comparisons to Pedro Martinez are accurate. He was throwing 97-98 with ease, but his best pitch is his change. He has pinpoint control, he's the best we've faced this spring."

 

 

From Reds beat writer C Trent Rosecrans:

 

 

SARASOTA, Fla. -- Put Johnny Cueto in the Reds' rotation right now. Put him third behind Aaron Harang and Bronson Arroyo -- not because Cueto could be the Reds' third-best starter, but because Arroyo’s done it long enough to have earned the No. 2 spot.

 

I'm the first to say "it's only spring." But this time I'm answering my own statement -- "I don't care. The kid is good."

 

The kid is really good.

 

It's not just me, listen to what Cueto said when asked if he should start in the big leagues.

 

"Yes," Cueto said through interpreter and catcher Javier Valentin as if he'd been asked nothing more if he wanted a bottle of water after pitching three innings and striking out four Pirate batters, while surrendering a single hit. "That's why I'm here. I'm throwing the ball good, if I've got a chance to start the season in the big leagues, I'll be happy."

 

On display on the mound is not just Cueto's outstanding fastball and change-up (oh, the change), but also his confidence. Not at any point did Cueto look as if he didn’t belong -- not just on the Ed Smith Stadium mound, but on the mound at Great American Ball Park or Yankee Stadium or the moon.

 

Not only did Cueto dominate -- the only hit he surrendered was a liner by first baseman Scott Hatteberg by former National League batting champ Freddy Sanchez -- he did it making the Pirate hitters look like Little Leaguers. Those same Pirate hitters greeted Cueto's replacement, Richie Gardner, with seven runs on five hits in 1/3 of an inning.

 

"I feel good, I felt comfortable," Cueto said after Friday's performance. "I trust my stuff, I don't do anything specific to impress anybody. I throw the way I'm used to throwing and challenge the hitters."

 

Sunday in Dunedin, Fla., Cueto made his first appearance of the spring, striking out two batters in two innings against the Blue Jays, one of those being All-Star Vernon Wells. Cueto also gave up four hits and a run against Toronto, but he was dealing with the flu. Still, after that game, Reds manager Dusty Baker called Cueto's stuff "electric."

 

If Cueto was electric against the Blue Jays, he was nuclear against the Pirates.

 

"He throws easy, he throws strikes, he mixes up his pitches well," Baker said following the 13-8 Pirates win. "He threw the ball well, he looks nice and relaxed. He's coming fast. He looked good."

 

None of this surprises those who have seen him pitch before. Jay Bruce, ranked as the No. 1 prospect in all of baseball by Baseball America, isn't surprised at anything Cueto does on the mound.

 

"Sometimes those guys have no chance -- no chance at all," Bruce said. "I asked him how he was throwing, he said, 'maybe 98.' I believe him. He's ridiculous. He's going to be good for a long, long time."

 

Even though Cueto can touch the upper 90s, his fastball is merely a set-up for a devastating change-up, which will be his out pitch. It's what he got Pirates' leadoff man Nate McLouth looking at to start Friday's game, and the pitch he had several Pirates whiffing at throughout his three innings. Bruce called it "dirty" while future Hall of Famer Frank Thomas lost his balance swinging at one last weekend.

 

"If you have that kind of changeup, welcome to the big leagues," Valentin said. "Everyone says the next Pedro Martinez, and hopefully that's what we've got here, the next Pedro Martinez."

 

 

 

 

And finally, from Dusty Baker:

 

 

There's a lot of spring training to go. But it sounds like Dusty Baker wants Johnny Cueto in his rotation. A sample of the what Baker said about Cueto, the 22-year-old right-hander, today:

 

"Who's looked better than him?"

 

On making the big leagues after so little Triple-A time: "Everybody doesn't have to go through the natural progression, especially pitchers. Hitters have more they have to work on."

 

"If you have good stuff, you can make hitters swing and miss and foul off pitches off. Ninety-five is 95. Ninety-five with location, boy."

 

It was pointed out that Cueto hit 97. "I believe that -- 97 with location and nasty change-up and slider."

 

"He has better natural stuff than Wood or Prior, let's see how he handles the pressure of being on the mound for real."

 

Again, it's early so ratings can change quickly, but here's how the starters in competition for the rotation -- Aaron Harang and Bronson Arroyo are already in -- have looked:

 

1. Cueto

2. Josh Fogg

3. Homer Bailey

4. Edinson Volquez

5. Jeremy Affeldt

6. Matt Belisle

[CanadianChris 0]

Prediction: With Dusty as his manager, Cueto pitches 922 1/3 innings over the next three seasons and is out of baseball by the time he's 27.

[geniusMoment 0]

I'm worried, too much good press makes me worry he'll be a bust. Things seem to work that way

[HarleyQuinn 0]

I think it'd be a bit more optimal to let Cueto get some time in AAA before calling him up to settle into the rotation.

 

He was only 21 last year and pitched 83 innings (22 in AAA) b/w AA and AAA while pitching 161.1 in total from High A to AAA.

 

I have to admit I'm high on Volquez though despite his 'rocky' stats. 23 last year and at AAA he went 6-1 with a 1.41 ERA (51.0 IP) along with 66 K and 0 HRA. That's pretty impressive regardless of who you are. Even with his ERA in Texas, his rate stats were still solid (7.68 K/9, 3.97 BB/9, and 1.05 HR/9).

[Cheech Tremendous 0]

That sounds like a lot of hyperbole in regards to Cueto. He works his fastball in the low 90s, not the upper 90s. He does have excellent command and control of his pitches, but his stuff's not electric. I see him settling in as a #2/#3 starter and he could reach that ceiling soon, but that's probably it. He just looks good against minor leaguers because he's so composed and mature on the mound. He doesn't have Homer Bailey's stuff and he never will.

[geniusMoment 0]

That sounds like a lot of hyperbole in regards to Cueto. He works his fastball in the low 90s, not the upper 90s. He does have excellent command and control of his pitches, but his stuff's not electric. I see him settling in as a #2/#3 starter and he could reach that ceiling soon, but that's probably it. He just looks good against minor leaguers because he's so composed and mature on the mound. He doesn't have Homer Bailey's stuff and he never will.

 

 

Actually, his fastball averages 95 on the gun from the starts I've seen. But, he can get something extra to move it up to 97-98 when he wants to. I've watched quite a few Cueto and Bailey starts and I'd take Cueto in a second, and it's not even a close decision for me. I'm actually not all that high on Bailey. I hope I'm wrong.

[strummer 0]

http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/art...OL03/803090373/

 

Good luck Reds fans

[Cheech Tremendous 0]

http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/art...OL03/803090373/

 

Good luck Reds fans

 

 

Is that artice supposed to be in tongue-in-cheek? I really don't think it is, but there aren't any baseball writers out there that are that dense, are there? That was just atrocious on every level.

[EVIL~! alkeiper 0]

Rather than deal with that tripe strummer posted, let me link the latest blog post by Joe Posnanski of the KC something or other.

 

http://joeposnanski.com/JoeBlog/2008/03/09...-and-true-wins/

[Smartly Pretty 0]

Ok, this has to stop. Dusty Baker and Joe Morgan know more about baseball than we do, guys.

[Guest Beastalentier]

"HE KNOWS VAN MORRISON LYRICS" is allllllmost as good as "HE HAS A BOOKSHELF IN HIS OFFICE" in this ever-growing realm of Cincinnati Enquirer fawning bullshit. Again, save that article and revisit it down the road.

[Cheech Tremendous 0]

Ok, this has to stop. Dusty Baker and Joe Morgan know more about baseball than we do, guys.

 

That's not the issue. It's their utter lack of contempt for anything meaningful that happens outside of the old time baseball fraternity.