Billy Hamilton is dealing with a hamstring issue and is currently unable to play. It doesn’t sound too serious, but for a guy who relies on his legs for his game, it is worth noting and following. Hopefully it isn’t anything that lingers throughout the spring as it could really hold him back at the start of the year.
The Reds lost yesterday to the Giants 9-5. Here are the minor league performances:
- Denis Phipps went 2-3 with a run and a double.
- Neftali Soto went 1-1 with a walk and RBI.
- Donald Lutz went 1-2 with an RBI, double and a run.
- Derrick Robinson went 2-3 with an RBI.
- Henry Rodriguez went 1-2.
- Pedro Villarreal had a day to forget as he allowed 6 earned and 7 runs in 0.1 innings.
- Curtis Partch threw 1.2 shutout innings with a strikeout.
Not minor league related, but Dusty came out once again and said he is against starting Aroldis Chapman. Lance McAlister posed the question on sports talk last night if Dusty should just go with the company line rather than stir the feathers and potentially alter the team’s outlook on the situation because their “leader” is so opposed to the idea. Much less what it could be telling Chapman about his faith in his abilities.
That is all for now. There may be more in the afternoon if anything comes up.
St. Johns was eliminated yesterday and their season is finished. Let’s hope that Amir is headed to Arizona. His less than stellar future in basketball should motivate him to strongly consider baseball fulltime.
If Garrett is planning on playing basketball next year then he has to finish out the school year still.
guys they may get a NIT invite as well.
I think there was a story last year that said he threw some with the St. Johns baseball team until school was out.
Dusty should know better than to says things like that in the press. I usually don’y gripe too much about him, but I agree with Doug, this is how NOT to go into the season. It frankly seems selfish.
–Dusty can have his opinions, but gheesh, how does it help the team to air them out in the media and directly contradict your boss?
–A little hamstring tweak might be just what the doctor ordered for Billy Hamilton. Maybe a week off will help him hit the reset button on his bad start.
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Even the Dusty defenders should agree this is poor “management” by him. I get that he wants some clarity to settle roles but this is not how a World Series contending manager goes about it in my opinion.
This isn’t Reds related but it is one fantastic story. It sounds like Evan Gattis will open the year behind home plate for the Braves.
http://blogs.ajc.com/atlanta-braves-blog/2012/02/29/braves-slugger-gattis-has-a-story-man-does-he-ever/
The stable of young OF’s and their spring performance is becoming a sign of encouragement. And not counting hamilton. High(er) profile, lower profile etc. And in all different ‘sizes.’ Toolsy, Yorman, Phipps. LH masher, Lutz, Winker. polished college dudes, LeMarre, Fellhauer, Gelalich. All purpose/4th OF’s, Paul, FPerez, Robinson.
He has made his point before so i kind of agree with you. But i think of it a little differently. Dusty number 1 wants to have his guys healthy come opening day but he also wants everyone comfortable and in certain roles. Alot of people on this board completely look past the risk associated with this move. “Let him start until he shows he cant then put him back in the bullpen”. Sounds good but i doubt if this thing fails it goes that pretty. Injury is #1 thing i worry about. Look at Feliz from Tex last year and Joba a couple years ago. Then you have Daniel Bard and he was just bad. One of the few that has worked is a Cingrani clone. Kris Medlen was a success but had under 140 IP. IMO Medlen is a major injury risk moving foward, too few innings and he was misused(SP vs RP) worse than Chapman ever was. I would also guess the other starters would welcome him in the bullpen with open arms, just b/c he is likely the best option not to blow saves. If i were calling the shots Chapman is a starter however, it is a very close call.
Daniel Bard doesn’t work. I wish people would stop throwing his name into the ring as an example. Daniel Bard was tried as a starter in the minor leagues. It was beyond ugly. ERA over 7 in A ball. twice as many walks as strikeouts and more walks than innings pitched. He isn’t a comparable pitcher at all for that reason alone.
There have been plenty of RP to SP conversions that worked just fine. Especially when handled correctly.
Plenty fail as well. Im not saying they shouldn’t try him as a starter, im just saying it shouldn’t be as clear cut as you sometimes make it out to. You know what he can do in the ‘pen and it doesn’t help anyone if he gets injured.
Pitchers get injured. Unless there is a mechanical reason, or a reason that we have proof of to point to and say “this guy can’t”, then worrying about it seems silly. We aren’t all worried about Bailey being a starter. Yet he has had numerous arm related injuries that have led to chuncks of time on the DL. To me, there is more evidence that Bailey will have an arm injury before Chapman given that he actually has a history with them. Not that I expect him to, but there is more cause for concern.
Asking a guy to double his IP from last year and throw 50 more innings than he ever has in a single season is a big red flag for me.
Who is asking him to throw 175 innings? I don’t think the Reds are.
I will however grant you that Jocketty is looking out for whats best for the Reds now and for the future. If he feels Chapman can succeed in a starters roll then lets go for it. Chapman/Latos/Cueto could be filthy.
If he throws 150 innings he will more than double his innings total from last year. If he hits 150ip that will be 40(I said 50 sorry) more innings than his previous high for a season. Red flag.
His previous career high is 125.2 innings while he was in Cuba.
Baseball-Ref didnt have it and does it matter much now anyways? That was 3+ years ago. Over the last 2 years he’s pitched a total of 134 innings Mlb and AAA.
It does matter to the point that it allows you to be safe in letting him throw 155 innings rather than cutting him off at 120.
Something we sometimes forget is what becomes of Mike Leake? No doubt he was a little off in 2012 but in 2011 he was the team leader with 12 victories. He is still young and developing. What does a demotion to the minors mean to his development since he has won double digits in the big leagues. What can Triple A do for him other than allow him to tread water. Hate to see him wasted or his development retarded.
Leake is still needed in the Rotation. With Chapman’s limted innings I view him as basically a half starter. Plus, what are the chances the Reds go the whole season without the need of another starter? I actually don’t think it would be a bad idea to use six starters (but with a five man rotation still) where everybody gets some well planned rest throughout the season to avoid fatigue, dead arm issues, etc.
I think keeping Chapman in the bullpen is the smarter move for this organization….no risk….makes him quite tradeable…..
Really don’t like the idea r of going into the season without everyone knowing what role they are filling. A couple of things I’m not paying Leake 3mil to pitch in Louisville as insurance. I’m not putting him in bull pen. Walt should have made the decision and pressed on. All the it isn’t set in stone talk is divisive and none productive. If the decision has been made Walt needs to tell Dusty this is what’s we are doing and move on. I personally think this situation was botched from the beginning. chapman should have never come to the bigs unless he was ready to start.
I think it is clearly decided, but Dusty doesn’t like the idea and is trying to play to the public to get his way.
Doug, many in organization are against the idea. Hal McCoy reported price told him he was against it. Walt needs to issue a directive ending the speculation and say he is a starter. end of story.
Jim, I agree 100% on that last point. I think bringing him up when they did is the 1 blip on Castellini’s radar. Not being patient from the get go put them where they are today. They really shot themselves in the foot not having him re-commit to starting all of 2011 and almost sealed the deal with him in the bullpen all last year. I’m not against him starting, im just not as convinced as i was 2 years ago.
I sat next to Dan Duffy’s dad at the Reds game today, he said that DonnieJoseph has been filthy this spring and how impressed he was with his stuff. I am still shocked the reds traded Sulburan and Joseph for Broxton
From.the game, Soto hit the ball hard but all three times to right don’t know if it was where he was pitched or working on something, Phipps looked good at the plate and made a close play out of a sure run with a great throw to home, de la Rosa looked good, Hensley and Hayes left a couple of pitches up and paid for it. Zunino for M’s is the real
deal.
Thanks for the update. I haven’t seen Zunino play in person yet, but from everything I read he is going to be a good one.
Pitch FX was workning for this game yesterday. Homer was mostly pitching 90-93. Hensley was pitching something like 85-88 but labeling most pitches as sinkers. I don’t recall seeing a pitch labeled a fast ball. I left for home when he got beat up, but seeing those pitch speeds, I wasn’t surprised.