John Fay just reported that Dr. Tim said he would be ready for 100% participation from day one of ST. Pretty good news.
John Fay just reported that Dr. Tim said he would be ready for 100% participation from day one of ST. Pretty good news.
Wow! That seems hard to believe.
WHEN DOES IT STOP!?!?
Agree.Originally Posted by Z-Fly
I'll believe it when I see it. I don't care if it's Fay or Kremchick or Dusty or Jockety.
Until he plays 4 or 5 games in a row without needing to be pulled from the game, he's still unhealthy enough to be counted on.
Though, it is good news.
Don't forget how unimpressive he was before the injury, too.
The real test will come when he resumes day to day baseball activities. Its good to hear that Gonzo will be ready. Makes LF more interesting and not in a good way.
The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change, the realist adjusts the sails.
William Arthur Ward
I like what it does to left field. It pushes Hairston and Keppinger into Center and Left and pushes Gomes off of the team. It potentially gives Taveras fewer at-bats as Hairston needs more playing time and could take some games in Center if Dusty wants to leave Dickerson and/or Keppinger in Left.
And pushes the one unknown (Dickerson) into an even more limited role and Im sure "respect" will be a keyword. God help Tavares and Hairston if Duhhhsty plays them in CF and LF and they dont put up 2007 WT and 2008 Jerry Hairston numbers, if Dickerson puts up even a decent season.
The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change, the realist adjusts the sails.
William Arthur Ward
For what it's worth, in an interview with Fay, Baker did say that Dickerson was the favorite to play LF right now, but he still has to win it.
http://news.cincinnati.com/apps/pbcs...cincinnati.com--On left field: “(Dickerson’s) one of them. If we started right now, it would probably be a platoon situation with him and a right-handed bat – whether it’s (Jonny) Gomes or Jerry (Hairston). I told Dickerson: Don’t let everybody give away your potential job. You got to fight for your job. It’s been a long, tough road to get to the big leagues. I’m not going to give away his job. But I’m not necessarily going to give him a job either.
Glad to hear that. A productive and healthy AGon would really help. It's sucked to see him battle with injuries and his son's health in his first two years in Cincinnati.
That improves our left side defense and adds 15 HRs. It frees up Keppinger for backup and pinch hitting, giving us a stronger bench. If EE has learned to throw accurately and Dickerson gets the majority of starts in LF, there should be a substantial improvement in defense. Someone stop me before I get my hopes up again.
I'm really excited to hear this. I really like A Gon. It just seems like I haven't seen him play in forever, hopefully he still has another year left in that body. Unfortunately it wouldn't take much to outperform Hairston/Keppinger especially defensively
If this is true, even if Gonzo is only back to his 2007 defense, that should be at least 15 runs better than they were last year. It also would be a huge boost to the pitching staff. That black hole on the left side of the infield was killing them last year. It is much easier to pitch when you don't think you have to strike everyone out.
Yeah, and then maybe Kepp could play 3rd base against lefties with EE in LF and dickerson in CF in like a 4 way platoon manuever.
This story can be found on the Reds mlb web site.
I think that last years team had five spots that killed them.1 catcher 2 short stop 3 right field 4 center field and the 5th spot in the rotation.All were terrible.There is now good reason to believe that all of these positions will be improved in 09 with the Gonzalez news.Left field will be down but over all should be a improved team.I still don't think we have contender but we're getting closer.
This is good news - at least for now. My fear is that if Gonzalez is healthy, Hairston will end up the everyday left fielder because he's a vet. I may well end up disappointed in how it works out, but I'd really like to see what Dickerson can do if given regular playing time. I think he really may be a late bloomer who won't be as good as he was last year, but just might be a legit starter (sure, it'd be better if he was in center where he belongs, but you take what you can get sometimes).
Anyway, the possibility that Gonzalez may be able to play and provide average (or close to it) defense at SS makes spring training and the start of the season all the more interesting.
Everybody really needs to let this EE playing LF thing go... the team has made no indication that this is under any type of consideration for any reason; moreover, they have continued to assert the exact oposite- that this absolutely won't happen(they even went as far as to imply that a major reason that Wigginton was not an option to be brought in was that they didn't feel he could play adequate LF everyday, without hardly even addressing the alternative of him playing 3B with EE in the OF).
Between the supposed payroll budget being met, paired with Bob C's optomism and the failure to address the LF issues- I have a feeling that management(at every level) is holding out hope that Alonso will hit so well in ST(OPS 1.000 or more for example) that they could try Votto in LF during March with hopes that Yonder forces his way onto the April roster as the everyday 1B.
I'd say the chances of Votto getting a large number of OF starts this year is much higher than EE.
Needless to say, a line-up with Dickerson in center, Votto in left, Alonso at first, and Bruce in right, would absolutely murder righties right now(and just imagine when they all meet their potential).
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