One, two big schools
All the worlds are
Colliding all around you

I was going to write something today for SI.com re Votto. Specifically, that Votto represented one of the clearest cases of Old-v-New schools of thought, re hitting production. The idea was discussed when The Technician was sitting on 4 HR/20 BI. Now, he’s up to 7 and 22. Both #s are subpar for him and, in fact, for a No. 3 hitter. The obvious question being, can a guy who ranks 11th among NL 1Bs in BI be seen as having a ...

Ow. Ow. Ow. Mouthbreathers/Mindbreathers now on full tilt boogie replay. (better now)

In some ways, we take Phillips for granted. Especially his glove. I’ve watched the Reds actively since I arrived here in ’88. Bret Boone was good. Pokey Reese could be spectacular, but not always steady. No one has been in BP’s universe. (Nor in the league. How he has only 3 Gold Gloves is a black hole mystery. Darwin Barney: Hahaha.)

But his offense is the MV reason he is his team’s best player now, ...

How many Votto triads of numbers have not yet been drawn?!

Several years ago, Votto was standing in the on-deck circle at Great American Ball Park while Pete Rose was watching from a box seat. The two men struck up a conversation, and the Hit King passed along a few pearls of wisdom that resonated. Among other things, he told Votto that it’s no sin to reach for the last cookie in the jar. Rose would never have amassed 4,256 hits if he didn’t have a touch of the greed-monger in him.

“Early in ...

Scroggy Durnbaugh...all a part of The Reds Way.

For his part, Reds manager Dusty Baker believes there’s a commonality to his group that makes them better collectively, and perhaps even easier to manage.

“I don’t know if it’s easier,” Baker said, pondering as he sat in his visiting manager’s office at Citi Field Tuesday afternoon, surrounded by a few reporters. “But consistency is a key over time [building a club]. I was on the Dodgers like that, I came in to a locker room that was like that. ...

Mentioned this is the Chris Sale thread, but by that time the healthy eaters had taken over, and this deserves its own thread, anyway:

Phillies broadcaster Rickie Ricardo told Sports Radio 94 WIP in Philadelphia on Monday morning that he delivered 100 Cuban pastries (two boxes of 50) to Chapman this weekend and when he saw the reliever in the clubhouse Sunday morning, Chapman had eaten about 18 of them. “He couldn’t breathe!” Ricardo said. “I looked at my partner, I said, ‘He’s ripe for the ...

Odds of being attacked by a shark marlin: 1 in 11.5 million.

Pierre’s clout came leading off the bottom of the first for the Miami Marlins against the Cincinnati Reds.

Pierre’s homer was his first since June 23. He whooped when the ball went over the fence down the right-field line.

“I don’t know how to react to those things, so it’s just a spur-of-the-moment deal,” Pierre told reporters of his homer reaction. “That’s about the only time you’ll see me smiling on the baseball field.”

...

Wow! If this continues…Daugherty will be writing for BPro by the year 2046!

Forget for a minute that the save statistic is a semi-bogus creation that serves only the player doing the saving, and the minion who represents him. Or that closers are the most overrated members of any baseball team, easily replaced and often interchangeable. I’ll see your Rafael Betancourt and raise you an Edward Mujica.

No, let’s fix on the notion that closers are one-inning, certain-situation ponies. Because ...

Yadier and the HOF?

You are widely considered the greatest catcher in major league history, which makes you more qualified than to weigh in on the subject: With his steady improvement at the plate, combined with his prowess behind it and the championships he’s helped the Cardinals win, do you feel that Yadier Molina is worthy of having a plaque next to you and Fisk and Yogi Berra at Cooperstown?

(Molina) is really one of the best defensive catchers that you’ll see, and he’s swung the ...

Daugherty v. Social Media Vanguard #notaprayer

I don’t know if Jay Bruce regrets the tweet he sent out after the game Tuesday night. Reds media relations director Rob Butcher declined to ask Bruce if he’d speak to me, from St. Louis early Wednesday. I’m guessing Bruce isn’t happy with himself. He’s not a confrontational guy. He’s very pleasant, almost all the time. It was out of character for him to tweet this:

I appreciate all the tweets, good and bad, actually. You guys are what ...

Lesley’s ex-wife, Chiho Svimonoff, told the website that the former athlete had been living in a nursing home, where he was receiving dialysis for kidney problems, for the past seven months. According to Svimonoff, the “Little Big League” star was rushed to hospital on Saturday night, and later died there from kidney failure.

Lesley made his Major League debut on July 31, 1982, pitching for the Cincinnati Reds, and was traded to the Milwaukee Brewers in 1984 and let go from the team in 1985. ...Read More...

Mr. Choo? Did I stumble onto Spankwire.com by mistake or something?

DUSTY BAKER WAS the president of the Shin-Soo Choo Admiration Soceity even before the Korean-born outfielder put on a Cincinnati Reds uniform.

And now that he wears a Reds uniform Baker has added to that admiration. He calls him Mr. Choo.

“I knew Mr. Choo could play,” said Baker. “I coveted Mr. Choo when he played for Cleveland and he was killing us. He is a ballplayer and the environment here is conducive to most ...

VOTTO WAS THE least concerned about his homer drought — he had one until hitting one Saturday and another Sunday. Nor was manager Dusty Baker concerned.

“I can understand the concern about not hitting home runs, but I don’t feel obligated to hit home runs to quell everyone’s concern,” said Votto. “I’m not concerned about the home runs. The Reds pay me to be good. That’s all I try to do and if I go through a little bit of a homer drought I try to fill in with other things.”

...

The Reds’ honorary bat boy last night was Teddy Kremer, who has Down syndrome and a wealth of enthusiasm for the team. He asked Frazier to hit a home run for him before the third baseman stepped to the plate in the sixth, the Reds already up on the Marlins 9-1. So Frazier did. Simple, right?

Baker tracer alert!

The thing about Votto is that he still is on base more than half the time he goes to the plate, a .521 on-base average with 22 walks. It is difficult to hit when pitchers nibble at the plate, refusing to offer tantalizing pitches to hit.

“That’s what I used to do,” said manager Dusty Baker. “We’d get 18 hits and I’d get none, then we’d get six hits and I’d have four.”

ABOUT VOTTO’S batting average, Baker said, “I’m not really worried. It’s only ...

There will always be free agents. Maybe not as many 27 year-old free agents, but for teams wanting to make a splash, guys like Josh Hamilton will always be around.

That goofuss-hatted rumble scene between The Dusty Bashers and The Jay Cocks in Gangs of New York was tops!

THE MOST PUZZLING criticism comes from the fact that with runners on second base and first base in the eighth inning, Baker had Brandon Phillips bunt to move the runners to second and third. Of course, the Angels walked Joey Votto intentionally, which raised the howls, “Because Dusty took the bat out of Votto’s hands.”

Well, that’s merely Baseball 101, especially on this day. ...

I once got stuck behind something called The King Frost Parade...almost made me want to get a bent twig and go fishing. Again, almost.

To Cincinnatians, the parade is about more than just baseball. The parade is steeped in tradition that goes back nearly 100 years.

The parade is somewhat of a holiday in Cincinnati.

“This is Cincinnati’s unofficial holiday,” said parade chairman Neil Luken. “I mean it’s kind of, you can say, Thanksgiving or Christmas. You just say Opening Day and people ...

I just wanted to tell you I’m a big quitter, too! And I quit!

In 2011, [Jim] Riggleman, in the final year of his contract, 75 games into the season, resigned as manager of the Washington Nationals when the team would not give him an extension. Riggleman believed then, and he believes now, that he was simply a lame duck manager. So he quit. The Nationals, with a 38-37 record, were possibly headed toward their first winning season since arriving in Washington and Riggleman didn’t want to be there ...

The Devil gets in a right cross.

“They said I wasn’t a good fit,” Dibble told Times reporter Eric Sondheimer in a text message on Tuesday night. “I just got a job calling Angels games for Compass Media. In giving some early notice I couldn’t continue as head coach after the season, I was asked to step down immediately.

No ordinary minor league team, the [Havana] Sugar Kings were the Cincinnati Reds’ International League Class AAA affiliate based in Havana for six and a half seasons in prerevolutionary Cuba. Though the team’s existence was brief, the Sugar Kings drew a strong following in Cuba and became a springboard for Latin American players. [...]

Fulgencio Batista, defeated by Castro’s rebels, fled the country Jan. 1, 1959. Revolutionary fever reached its peak at the Gran Estadio that year at midnight ...

“I’ll be honest. When I first heard they might make him a starter, I said, ‘Oh, my God. They’re going to take the most dominant left-handed closer in the game and put him in a role that has a lot of ifs, ands or buts,’” said Smoltz, the future Hall of Fame starter—or is that closer?—over the phone from San Francisco, where he is covering the World Baseball Classic for MLB Network.

Added Smoltz: “[The Reds] still have a real good bullpen, but if he starts, they’re going to have to bring him ...

But I want to see if Aroldis can be the next Randy Johnson…

“I’m waiting to hear [the decision] so I can feel better, concentrate more,” Chapman said. “I don’t think [it’s a distraction] because when you go out there to pitch, you can’t think about that. But it still would be better to know what they’re going to do.

“The truth is, if they were to make the decision, I would want to be the closer,” Chapman said, “but it’s not in my hands.”

Chapman said he relishes the role of closer because ...

Tapping into that Hal McCoy knowledge…

A: On Sept. 1 the Reds are in a three-way tie for first place and Aroldis Chapman owns 19 wins. How will the fans react when it is announced Chapman is being shut down for the season? — Dave, Miamisburg/CentervilleBeavercreek

A: A lot of assumptions are in that question. First of all, it is tough to win 19 games out of the bullpen, which is where I believe Chapman will be. And by Sept. 1, the Reds will have a six-game lead in the National League ...

Arizona’s Kirk Gibson offered his hand to shake, and Cincinnati’s Dusty Baker kept his to himself, MLB.com’s Steve Gilbert wrote Monday. The managers had what was described as a “testy” meeting at home plate over whether to use the DH in the Diamondbacks-Reds’ Cactus League game.

As the home team, the D-backs had the privilege of choosing. That’s the rule for spring training, even in a game with two NL teams that don’t usually use the DH during the regular season. Arizona wanted right-hander ...

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Bronson Arroyo spent most of the spring losing an argument with a flu virus and made his debut Saturday against the Chicago White Sox.

“He’ll probably get hit hard today like most veterans do their first time out,” said Cincinnati Reds manager Dusty Baker. “I remember (Hall of Famer) Don Sutton used to get hit hard, real hard. Rich Reuschel got hit hard.”

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WHEN THE SEASON begins, it is a rare day when Arroyo gets beat up and he is as reliable as a BMW starting in the ...