Baker said he sometimes sits in his office staring into space, pondering and pontificating over things of this nature, “And sometime I just sit here and nothing comes.”

Me too, Dusty. Me, too.

#1 Notre Dame
#2 Penn State

Oops, wrong sport.

#1 Notre Dame
#2 Penn State

I know you aren't talking about football, so what sport are you talking about?

Awesome that he's making lineup decisions based on who can pull off the double steal. Because that scenario happens, what, three or four times a season?

I almost forgot how much joy Dusty brings me in this game. CIN is a perfect place for him to peddle his brand of baseball.

Oh fer criminy sakes ...

Freel is 32 and has 2000 MLB PAs. Hopper is 29, doesn't have a lot of MLB PAs, but does have 3700 minor-league ones. You don't need to watch these guys to know what they're like as hitters. Freel walks more; neither strikes out much but Hopper does it less. Hopper has zero power -- as in a career MINOR LEAGUE ISO of 47! -- Freel has minimal power (career ISO of 108). If you want to get fancy Dusty, open your eyes, turn on the office computer, find baseball-reference.com and take a look at "pitch data summary." Oops, sorry, you'll have to click on that "internet explorer" icon first. Well, double click. With the mouse. That oblong-y thing next to the keyboard. LEFT CLICK! LEFT CLICK!

I'll grant you, great mysteries like "which one of these is better on the lead end of a double steal and which on the tail end?" will remain unanswered unless you get lucky in retrosheet ... though I'm pretty sure the answer to that is "if you think either one of the guys has any reasonable chance of being thrown out, a double steal is an horrendously bad idea anyway."

Frankly, unless the Reds are carrying 15 position players and have enough room for a pinch-running fly catcher, there's no way Norris Hopper should sniff a major-league roster. OK, unfair, his 260/300/290 line might be better than Jason Kendall.

I know you aren't talking about football, so what sport are you talking about?

For a long time the two were competing dynasties in fencing.

as in a career MINOR LEAGUE ISO of 47!

Now that is special.

Hopper has zero power

Seriously, if I was the opposing manager I think about bringing in an OF when Hopper bats. Dude hits a lot of grounders and nothing hard.

I know you aren't talking about football, so what sport are you talking about?

Former football powers who think they still are.

For a long time the two were competing dynasties in fencing.

NYU says hi

I have unfairly demeaned Mr. Hopper.

ZiPS actually projects him to duplicate his minor-league line (290/330/340) ... and that is significantly better than the line for Mr. Kendall (260/330/310).

And in honesty, 670 OPS from your backup CF probably isn't THAT bad.

But .670 OPS from your leadoff CF IS that bad.

But why even debate Freel vs. Hopper when Bruce is easily the best choice.

Freel is 32 and has 2000 MLB PAs. Hopper is 29, doesn't have a lot of MLB PAs, but does have 3700 minor-league ones. You don't need to watch these guys to know what they're like as hitters. Freel walks more; neither strikes out much but Hopper does it less. Hopper has zero power -- as in a career MINOR LEAGUE ISO of 47! -- Freel has minimal power (career ISO of 108). If you want to get fancy Dusty, open your eyes, turn on the office computer, find baseball-reference.com and take a look at "pitch data summary." Oops, sorry, you'll have to click on that "internet explorer" icon first. Well, double click. With the mouse. That oblong-y thing next to the keyboard. LEFT CLICK! LEFT CLICK!

Where's the "any" key?

once again, the fact that cincy hired dusty, really makes me laugh. seriously this is an ownership group that claims to want to follow the walt jocketty/stl cardinals example of building a winner and then they produce this team...awesome.