[wheels]

Originally Posted by harangatang

Well no one is going to disagree that the Reds need pitching but at the same time maybe some the pitchers will be better also from not being soft. I realize that Eric Milton will never have an ERA under 4 but having a jump from 4.75 to 6.47 and no injury is from being soft. If someone pulled the team around together as a group the Reds could have easily finished .500 with no problem. So wheels do you remember what happened the first game Eric Milton pitched after Danny Graves got DFA'd? He pitched 8 innings gave up 3 runs and only one of them earned while striking 7 against Washington. All of a sudden things changed and someone took charge of that clubhouse. Something Dave Miley and Sean Casey didn't do. Milton realized he better shape up but unfortunately it last too long. Leadership doesn't only apply to the offense it applies to the pitching staff also. I personally think Larue wanted to get on guys like Milton but Casey would always defend everyone because baseball in his mind is about having fun, not about winning.

First thing...Eric Milton's got a degenerative knee. Degenerative means "getting worse". There's your injury right there. I frankly see no correlation between Graves' departure and a supposed Milton resurgence. Every pitcher tosses a gem here and there, even the putrid ones.

Jason Larue went out of his way to defend Milton at every turn. He simply wasn't going to trash a guy to the media, it had nothing to do with Sean Casey for crying out loud.

Even if it did, we'd have no way of knowing, because we aren't in the clubhouse.