Fay: Talking with Jocketty

[OnBaseMachine]

From John Fay:

–The Reds have had initial talks with Arthur Rhodes’ agent about Rhodes coming back. They’ll talk again next week. I think you’ll see him back.

http://cincinnati.com/blogs/reds/201...to-jocketty-2/

Other notes:

The Reds haven't informed any of the players with options whether they will exercise them or not.

Reds will look into bringing Ramon Hernandez back. It depends on how ready they think Devin Mesoraco is.

[camisadelgolf]

It's 'obvious' that Gomes will be brought back. As it's been said many times, when your manager knows how to use him, he's a great piece to have. Unfortunately, Baker seems to think he's an everyday player.

[pedro]

It's 'obvious' that Gomes will be brought back. As it's been said many times, when your manager knows how to use him, he's a great piece to have. Unfortunately, Baker seems to think he's an everyday player.

If the Reds had a better option then I think Baker would use him. Heisey may be they guy in the long run but he clearly didn't play like it this season when given the opportunity.

[OnBaseMachine]

If the Reds had a better option then I think Baker would use him. Heisey may be they guy in the long run but he clearly didn't play like it this season when given the opportunity.

Agreed. Heisey struggled at times but his OPS (.757) was right on par with Gomes' (.758) and Heisey is a much better defender. If given a choice between thw two, I want Heisey starting. I hope it doesn't come down to that, though. I want the Reds to acquire someone from outside the organization.

[edabbs44]

Agreed. Heisey struggled at times but his OPS (.757) was right on par with Gomes' (.758) and Heisey is a much better defender. If given a choice between thw two, I want Heisey starting. I hope it doesn't come down to that, though. I want the Reds to acquire someone from outside the organization.

I thought you were a big Wlad fan? What happened?

[pedro]

Agreed. Heisey struggled at times but his OPS (.757) was right on par with Gomes' (.758) and Heisey is a much better defender. If given a choice between thw two, I want Heisey starting. I hope it doesn't come down to that, though. I want the Reds to acquire someone from outside the organization.

Heisey was god awful when he started though. His OPS was bolstered by those PH HR's.

[Brutus]

It's 'obvious' that Gomes will be brought back. As it's been said many times, when your manager knows how to use him, he's a great piece to have. Unfortunately, Baker seems to think he's an everyday player.

It's like when a kid is overeating, the parents have to stop being enablers and stop buying the junk food.

Jocketty has to stop enabling Dusty

[bucksfan2]

Heisey was god awful when he started though. His OPS was bolstered by those PH HR's.

IIRC Heisey's numbers were inflated because of good games/series against the Pirates and Cubs. He was awful down the stretch and when given a chance to play more he didn't do much.

[westofyou]

Heisey doesn't deserve to be slotted in as a starter, nothing he did has said he's worthy of that role.

[redsfandan]

Heisey doesn't deserve to be slotted in as a starter, nothing he did has said he's worthy of that role.

No, so far he doesn't. But, if the Reds are going with a platoon I'd like the guy that was a rookie in 2010 to get some abs.

[OnBaseMachine]

Heisey was god awful when he started though. His OPS was bolstered by those PH HR's.

True, but Gomes didn't exactly fair much better. Gomes had one great month (1.056 OPS in May) and a .700 OPS combined in the other months. That, combined with his defense made him a huge liability. At least Heisey played defense when he wasn't hitting.

I just think there are better options available both from inside the organization (Balentien, Heisey, Nix) and outside the organization.

[WMR]

It would be lovely if the Reds could find a true everyday-type LFer and could relegate Gomes to 4-5th OF/spot starter/PH role. His talent would be much better suited to such a position than the one he occupies currently (for a team that fancies its World Series chances).

[camisadelgolf]

If the Reds had a better option then I think Baker would use him. Heisey may be they guy in the long run but he clearly didn't play like it this season when given the opportunity.

Heisey might be that guy, but I'm not talking about him. Against RHP, Baker should've been going with Laynce Nix more often. Yes, I'm aware that Nix was injured for a few weeks, but that doesn't explain why he got only 31 total starts while Gomes got 138 starts, 78 of which were against rhp.

[edabbs44]

Heisey might be that guy, but I'm not talking about him. Against RHP, Baker should've been going with Laynce Nix more often. Yes, I'm aware that Nix was injured for a few weeks, but that doesn't explain why he got only 31 total starts while Gomes got 138 starts, 78 of which were against rhp.

Probably because he didn't do anything to justify getting starts until the end of the year. And then he started getting time. And then he got injured.

[edabbs44]

True, but Gomes didn't exactly fair much better. Gomes had one great month (1.056 OPS in May) and a .700 OPS combined in the other months. That, combined with his defense made him a huge liability. At least Heisey played defense when he wasn't hitting.

I just think there are better options available both from inside the organization (Balentien, Heisey, Nix) and outside the organization.

Here are some facts:

Gomes was 2nd on the team in OPS last year.
Gomes was having a monster year up until the middle of June.

Based on that, when should they have pulled the plug on him? By the time it appeared that he wasn't pulling out of this they traded for Edmonds and started giving time to Heisey and Nix. These guys either got hurt or fell off the face of the earth.

I totally get that LF is likely a very upgradable position, but all of this hindsight is ridiculous. No manager/GM would have benched Gomes until the Reds started looking at other options.