Homer Bailey

[reds44]

Gave up an Eric Miltonesque 5 H and 4 ER in 5.1 IP for Class A Bakersfield. To his credit, he did have 7 K and 0 BB.

In 8.2 innings for the actual Reds in spring training, he's given up 13 H and 5 er.

I'm not saying he shouldn't be in the rotation because Leake has given up 21 H in 13 innings while only striking out 3 (yikes), but is anyone worried?

[The Operator]

I've always understood it's fairly common for big leaguers to take a beating when pitching against the lower levels minor leaguers.

Usually they're going up there hacking at everything so you can't set up pitches quite like you can in the bigs. I feel like the K/BB ratio is a much better indicator.

[Will M]

its spring training so i am not worried. if i recall correctly Bronson got lit up one game last year. he replied that he threw almost all fastballs. why? because he wasn't trying to win a spring training game. he was simply building up his arm strength for the regular season. thats what he felt spring training was for, getting ready for when the games actually count. for guys who are already on the team i care very little about their spring training stats.

[Joseph]

Spring training stats are rarely anything to get excited about one way or the other. Excuses/reasons like 'I'm working on location' get tossed around to explain them and half the time its true while the other half [see Harang, Aaron] are just covering the truth.

Over his first 14 innings he's given up 18 hits and 9 er it might be something that trends badly, but until then I won't worry much and neither should you.

[kaldaniels]

Since you asked, I'm not worried.

[jojo]

In spring training, I really only worry about soreness, tightness, grimacing, noticeable limps (lisps not so much), or open wounds.

Command and normal movement are nice as the spring winds down and pitchers quit working on stuff in lieu of focusing more on performance but absent a significant loss of velocity, spring is for smelling the flowers not worrying over counting stats.

[membengal]

Not worried. Also, I must have misread the tweet from fay, though it said 0 ER. Need to check my eyesight I guess.

[Guacarock]

Not worried. Baker said Bailey was throwing the minor league game so he could try out a few new things. Looks like the experiment backfired, and now Bailey will get back to basics when pitching to the Big Boys.

[membengal]

If there were to be concern expressed based on spring results that concern would have to go almost all of the starters. Volky is behind and nuke lalooshing minor leaguers, cueto dealing with the forearm thing, leake and arroyo and bailey all been hit hard at times, really only wood has been consistently decent. My takeaway? It's spring in arizona and they will hopefully look more themselves when they come north. We also never know what they are working on in any given set of outings that may be more important than certain results. For instance, I thought I read that cincy was working with bailey on something today, dunno what it was.

My random thoughts anyway.

[membengal]

Not worried. Baker said Bailey was throwing the minor league game so he could try out a few new things. Looks like the experiment backfired, and now Bailey will get back to basics when pitching to the Big Boys.


7 Ks and 0 BBs. Not sure anything backfired. It is spring and the time to work on things.

[OnBaseMachine]

Not concerned at all. Now if he would have walked a bunch of hitters to go along with no K's, maybe then I would have been slightly concerned, if that.

[RedsManRick]

He threw strikes and came away healthy. All good. Hits come and go, especially with a class A defense behind you and facing a bunch of guys who are completely geared to face you.

[Spitball]

I'm much more concerned when a Josias Manzanillo has a great spring (like he did for the Reds in 2003) and makes the team. When they landed in Cincinnati, Josias lost the smoke and mirrors and gave up more hits (and probably runs as I remember) than outs. He was so good in spring training and soooo bad once the season began.

[JaxRed]

Watched part of that game. Was surprised to see Bailey there (pitching to Corky). Saw him give up a homer. It was more of a long fly ball that was taken out with favorable wind as opposed to a blast.

[jojo]

I'm much more concerned when a Josias Manzanillo has a great spring (like he did for the Reds in 2003) and makes the team. When they landed in Cincinnati, Josias lost the smoke and mirrors and gave up more hits (and probably runs as I remember) than outs. He was so good in spring training and soooo bad once the season began.

He pitched ten innings for the Reds and had a K/9=10.13, a BB/9= 3.37 and a HR/9=5.91. Seven homers and 21 hits in 10 innings (59 TBF). :eek:

[The Operator]

Ah, Josias Manzanillo.

I remember him giving up a long fly ball that ended up with Junior dislocating his shoulder. Then, after giving up multiple runs he celebrated getting the final out of the inning. Hated him from that moment on.

[WebScorpion]

I've watched Bailey pitch in a couple games and personally, I think he looks really good. He's throwing loose and easy, locating his fastball and not getting frustrated when the results aren't there. Dusty said he was pitching in the minor league game to 'work on some things'. It's almost impossible to tell what he was working on without having watched the game. Did he throw a lot of change ups? curves? fastballs? splitters? he may have been trying to fine tune his location on one of those pitches. Who knows?

Concerned? Not at all. :beerme:

[MikeS21]

Every year during Spring Training this subject comes up. Every year it's the same: stats only count for folks trying to make the team. As jojo said, pay attention to the aches and pains, but I wouldn't get too concerned until April 20th or so.

If you are going to worry about Bailey, then you also need to worry about pretty much every regular position player except Hannigan. No one - including Votto, Stubbs, or even Bruce look like they even have a clue which end of the bat to hold right now. Votto and Rolen got lucky against the Cubs, but they have been awful this spring.

I'm not concerned, but I am a little disappointed that these guy didn't come in to camp looking a little more hungry after that disaster against Philly last fall.

[membengal]

Point of fact, I am way more concerned still about the readiness of edinson nuke laloosh volquez than of homer. Five more walks today and didn't get out of the third. He sure doesn't seem remotely ready.

[_Sir_Charles_]

I agree Mem. They really need to consider alternate plans for the opening day starter IMO. He's simply GOT to get his innings up. The wildness can correct itself, but it's the lack of work that's got me concerned.

[redsmetz]

its spring training so i am not worried. if i recall correctly Bronson got lit up one game last year. he replied that he threw almost all fastballs. why? because he wasn't trying to win a spring training game. he was simply building up his arm strength for the regular season. thats what he felt spring training was for, getting ready for when the games actually count. for guys who are already on the team i care very little about their spring training stats.

This is always what has to be balanced with spring training numbers. Certainly it could indicate something's wrong, but players have different agendas for these games. Your example with Arroyo is a good example of that.

I noticed in JaxRed's spring training report, he mentioned that Homer gave up a home run that was very wind assisted. I have no idea how many runs came on that one, and heaven knows, you can get wind blown homers in the regular season, but it all needs to be weighed in.

[Caveman Techie]

In spring training games I don't get so worked up over the outcome. As others have pointed out I worry about the injuries, and also the control. So with Homer having 7K's and 0 BB's I think his control was fine.

I'm a little more concerned with EV's wildness and Cueto's stiffness than anything else. Although to be fair to EV he is just in to his second start of the spring, but even that is a concern considering that he is the projected Opening Day starter.