Archive for the '2005 Season' Category

Not too much happening in Redsville since the sale of the team, but Jerry Narron scooped up Bucky Dent to be his bench coach. Dent’s been managing the Yankees’ AAA affiliate, the Columbus Clippers, the last three years.

Chris Denorfia, the Reds centerfield prospect, has begun tearing up the Arizona Fall League. He’s hit in eight straight games, and he’s scored in seven of those eight games. Of course the last thing we need is another outfielder.

Robert Castellini, a Cincinnati business owner, led a group that bought somewhere between 70 and 80 percent of the Reds. For $270 million, the group not only got the 51.5% stake that was up for sale, but they also bought Carl Lidner’s controlling shares in the team as well.

The team hasn’t done squat since Lidner led a group that bought the team in 1999. Yeah, he pushed the new stadium through, but we haven’t had a winning record in five years since 2000, and that was basically a team he inherited. He was heralded for bring Ken Griffey, Jr. to town, but that hasn’t turned out to be all that great of a deal either.

So it’ll be interesting to see what happens with the new owner. Will we have a new GM? I have a feeling the current management will stay in place at least for one year.

My first suggestion to the new owner….Get some freaking pitchers. We need arms!!!

Nothing too earth shattering here. Ramon Ortiz was a bust. 34 homeruns, 9-11 record, and a 5.36 ERA. I could go on a little more, but it all just backs up my point. Ortiz is eligible for arbitration and is still with the Reds, so at worst we’re stuck with him at a lower price.

Rich Aurilia was actually a pleasant surprise for the Reds. He started out as a minor league signee and made the team as a shortstop. Felipe Lopez emerged and D’Angelo Jiminez was dumped, so Aurilia moved over to second base and he had a nice second half. Now we need to find a new second baseman.

Former Reds GM Jim Bowden got a six month extension as GM of the Nationals, so he’ll be handling things while the new ownership team gets put into place.

And if you think the current Reds front office is inept at times, check out this story (sorry to see Mr. Dalton passed away). The Reds trade Frank Robinson prior to the 1966 season at age 30, saying he was past his prime. Robinson only went on that year to win the triple crown and he led the Orioles to the 1966 World Championship.

Sigh.

And in case you missed it, I picked a near perfect playoffs. Had the Cards played in the World Series, I would have nailed each of the series. This goes along with my crystal ball like predictions I made back in May regarding the Reds season.

Okay, maybe it wasn’t quite a round table. There was no table. Although I guess everyone did the chat at their desks. Unless they have laptops, then I guess they could have done it in their bed.

Anyway, here’s where you can get the low down on the latest and greatest Reds chat.

Part 1 – Red Reporter
Part 2 – Cincinnati Reds Blog
Part 3 – Red Hot Mama
Part 4 – Stay Right Here
Part 5 – Reds and Blues
Part 6 – Redleg Nation

sweaver: If you tighten up the defense, the pitching will improve in a hurry…witness the White Sox
JD Arney: Yep, I still want Mike Cameron … I was serious about that
Blade: Except for those balls going over the fence
sweaver: Aurilia 34 next year….my bad
Chad — RN: Re: guidance: what are coaches for?
RHM: Chad, haven’t you ever been on a team?
Chad — RN: RHM, I actually coach a team right now. Had our first basketball practice tonight.
Chad — RN: These are professionals. You’re thinking about Little League.
Chad — RN: That sounded more harsh than I meant it to. I’m just saying we need GOOD players, rather than experienced players.
RHM: Consider the bullpen this season
sweaver: Take the bullpen…please
Blade: I’d rather not
RHM: They were all professionals as well, but didn’t every one of those young guys talk about how much they appreciated the guidance of the vets?
Joel: The Reds have Casey, Griffey, Larue, Cruz already to provide leadership
Joel: do they need Aurilia too?
sweaver: Sure, what are the kids gonna say
RHM: I think they don’t seen a young fella playing 2B
RHM: Unless the value is much better
sweaver: It would be
sweaver: Freel is a much better value playing 2B
RHM: That would have to be decided on a case-by-case basis
RHM: If it were true, I’d be behind it
Blade: How old is Morgan………
Joel: Blade, always living in the past…
Blade: Or even Mariano Duncan
Joel: okay, I think we should move on to another topic….if you don’t mind?
RHM: k
JD Arney: The defense does need upgraded, but it needs upgraded in the outfield, which is tough to do
JD Arney: Griffey won’t move, even though he’s become a liability in center, and Dunn isn’t that great in left
Chad — RN: I don’t see how the OF defense gets upgraded. Dunn has to play somewhere, and if Pena is around….
sweaver: Dunn really needs to go to 1B, with Griffey in LF or elsewhere
sweaver: And a new CF
sweaver: I like Jeremy Reed
JD Arney: I read somewhere that Dunn doesn’t want to play first, which is a shame if true
Chad — RN: The OF defense wouldn’t be terrible if Casey were traded, Dunn at 1B, Jr in LF, Kearns in CF.
Chad — RN: Then whomever else in RF.
Joel: I’ve also read somewhere that Dunn wants to go to Houston, but then he doesn’t have a choice now does he?
Chad — RN: Or Kearns in RF and a good CF.
JD Arney: maybe we could get mike cameron back
sweaver: Kearns was the only good OF defensively last year
Blade: See, Cameron was a CF stud, but he’s regressed a little
sweaver: Cameron would be great….but he’s also getting old
Chad — RN: I’d love Cameron for CF.
Blade: Any word on his status after the collision
Joel: I’d also be concerned about Cameron’s head status
Blade: Yeah, he got messed up pretty bad
JD Arney: assuming he’s healthy of course
sweaver: That’s why I say Jeremy Reed
sweaver: I think the Mariners can be fleeced
Joel: didn’t DanO assume that Milton and Wilson are healthy too?
sweaver: And Reed is the kind of contact hitter we don’t have

Someday, I’m going to be able to predict the Reds winning the World Series in a post like this. For now though, I’ll have to adopt a team. Last year I adopted the Twins, and that didn’t work out too well.

National League

Padres/Cardinals – Everyone probably expects this to be an easy series for the Cardinals, but I don’t think so. What it will provide them is a nice wake up call. Cardinals win a tight series 3-2.

Braves/Astros – Roger Clemens and company are too much to handle as the old guys move on. Astros win series 3-1.

Astros/Cardinals in the NLCS – It would be fitting for the two NLCS teams to come from the best division in baseball. Cardinals prevail in a tight series and go to the World Series for the second straight year. Cards win 4-3.

American League

Yankees/Angels – The West Coast will be too much for the Yankees as they fall similar to how it happened in 2002. Angels win series 3-1.

White Sox/Red Sox – It’s a date with destiny. Last year the Red Sox broke their curse, and this year it’ll be the White Sox that end their decades long postseason slump. No bloody sock. White Sox win series 3-2.

White Sox/Angels in ALCS – White Sox continue their roll despite a rough west coast regular season record. White Sox win series 4-2.

World Series

White Sox/Cardinals – For the second straight year, the Cardinals fall short and the White Sox win their first World Series since 1917. White Sox beat Cardinals 4-2.

So the White Sox are my adopted team. Partially because of the whole 1919 thing. You know, the Black Sox scandal where the Reds finally won their first world series.

Well, the Reds finished the season on a losing note by getting swept by the Cardinals. What was kind of typical for the season was that pitching failed us as the Cardinals scored at least seven (and as many as twelve) runs in each of the three games.

One good thing came out of today’s game as future Hall of Famer Adam Dunn hit a milestone. With his homerun today, he’s finished with at least 40 homers and 100 runs, walks and RBIs in each of the past two seasons. He also had his second straight season with an OPS over .900 and he’s the real shining star on the Reds offense. He actually topped last year’s OBP to boot (.389 vs .388) and he struck out 29 less times.

Back in early May, I took part in a Red’s blogger chat. It was the second of three (we haven’t had one since June) but at the end, and with a month and a week of the season in the books, we all took a stab at predicting the Reds final record and their team ERA. You can go check it out by clicking here. Or you can click here, whichever.

Not too bad. I’m off by only one win (I guess I was a bit pessimistic) and if you add in the six earned runs and eight innings to the numbers on Yahoo that haven’t been updated yet, I’m coming up with an ERA of 5.18. Again, I was a little on the high side, but pretty close (my prediction was 5.24 if you’re too lazy to check).

Playoff time. I’m going to be doing my playoff predictions here soon (tomorrow). It looked like we might have some one game playoffs, but everything got squared away. Playoffs start Tuesday. And don’t forget the 1975 Reds will start their post season this week.

The Reds dropped three of four to the Brewers, including a disappoint three hit performance this afternoon. The only good news is, Adam Dunn came closer to hitting some milestones. Yesterday he hit his 39th homer and scored his 99th run. It would be nice to see him reach 40 and 100.

Eric Milton actually threw well today. Two runs on five hits with seven strikeouts. With this being his last start of the season, he ends things with 40 homeruns, not even coming close to Bert Blyleven’s record. This was his second straight season with 40 though.

We finish things off at St. Louis this weekend.

……at least in one of their games. The Reds dropped two of three to the Phillies. What does that mean??? Absolutely nothing. This Reds fan is bummed out that the season is drawing to a close, but with some tight division and wild card races, this could be an absolutely exciting week of baseball.

Just not if your team is the Reds.

Friday’s game was absolutely ugly. Up 10-6, the Reds had yet another late inning meltdown as the Phillies scored five runs in the top of the ninth to win the game. David Weathers was shelled and was basically left out there to win or lose the game. Guess what, he lost. The Reds had four homers, one of which was Austin Kearns’ sixteenth dinger of the season.

That game was depressing, so lets talk about yesterday’s game. The Reds had it all. Good pitching (Eric Milton gave up only five hits and one through seven innings and the pen did their job) and some timely hitting. Adam Dunn homered for the 38th time this season. He’s at 97 RBIs, so three more and he’ll have his second consecutive season with 100 RBIs, runs and walks. Not too shabby for the future hall of famer.

Today, the Phillies got to the Reds early, and before the Reds could even score a run, the Phillies had enough to walk away with the win. Edwin Encarnacion hit a solo homer and Adam Dunn went two for four to push his average to a nice, even .250. Kind of fitting for the Reds to lose their final home game of the season.

The Reds travel to Milwaukee for four in a meaningless series before traveling to St. Louis to play their AAA team as they rest up for the playoffs. I’m going to predict we win five of seven in our final week to end the season on winning note.

Three straight to the Pirates?? You’d think this was May or something. I thought we had solved our road troubles (we’re now “only” 30-44 on the road), but I guess not because the last place Pirates made us look bad this weekend.

Game one of Friday’s doubleheader was nice because we won, but scary because Sean Casey was taken off the field. Humberto Cota hit him in the head with his forearm and knocked him out. By the time he got to the hospital, he was talking, which is good. He hasn’t been back since and while I haven’t checked really hard, I haven’t heard about his condition. I know, I really provide the breaking news.

We did beat Zach Duke, who lost his first major league game. Felipe Lopez was five for five with two RBIs and Austin Kearns was two for five with three RBIs and a homer. Adam Dunn had the odd stat line of the day as he went 0 for 1 with two RBIs and three walks. Oh yeah, Brandon Claussen threw a nice game and he joined Aaron Harang in the double figure win club.

It went downhill from there. We blew a 4-2 lead to lose the second game of the twin billing. Yesterday, we got shutout and were held to four hits by Paul Maholm.

Today, we got some runs, but the Pirates got more as Eric Milton couldn’t get out of the first inning. He didn’t give up any homers though, just six hits and six runs in 2/3 of an inning of work. Rich Aurilia had three hits and Jason LaRue had a three run homer.

St. Louie is on deck. They’re not playing for anything, and neither are we. Maybe we’ll run up the score one game and Adam Dunn can get to 40 homers or something when they rest their starters. We can have Milton and one of their batting practice pithers throw the game and whoever hits the most homers wins.

Well, my three month winning streak came to an end in fantasy baseball. No shame in losing to JD, so now I’ll get to play for third place (yeah, I know, no matter what I lost). No biggie. I’ll just get him next year. And unless something weird happens, he and fellow blogger Joel square off in the finals.

Reds Cutting Edge is one year old today. I think any blogger who survived this season deserves some credit, so I’m going to pat myself on the back. I guess it could have been worse. I could have been a Tiger blogger in 2003. And I also have to thank Brian for his help with the 1975 Reds diary, along with the rest of the Reds blogs out there. Without the network, I’d have a handful of people stopping by. Instead, I get two handfuls.

Man, this afternoon’s game was ugly. Eric Milton was knocked around early, and the Brewers scored in the first seven innings. In all, the Reds gave up five homeruns and they used eight different pitchers. Rookie Chris Booker was shelled again and his ERA is now 63.00 as he’s give up seven earned runs in one inning of work.

Yesterday was the lone bright spot of the series. The Reds actually got some pitching and Aaron Harang had a very nice start (including seven strikeouts). The Reds tied the game 1-1 in the seventh and then Javier Valentin drove in the walk off run in the bottom of the tenth.

The Reds ended up losing Monday (it was 1-1 when I posted) and all the Reds got was that solo homer by Adam Dunn. The Brewers busted the game open in the eighth with two runs then wrapped things up with three more in the ninth. This was Chris Bookers debut and he didn’t look sharp.

Ken Griffey, Jr. is out for the year so once again he’ll have a season where he’s missed a substantial amount of time to injury. It also makes the fact that we didn’t deal him seem a little more, well, dumb. I’m a huge Griffey fan, but even I could see how trading him would possibly help us build for the future.

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