Your 2009 Cincinnati Red Opening Day Lineup (per CTrent)

[windycitybuck]

McDonald should NEVER start another game in the majors based on yesterday's game. His defense was terrible; his base running was terrible. His game belongs in the minors.

[CesarGeronimo]

There just isn't anything about McDonald that suggests he's the best the Reds can do for a bench outfielder. Dusty seems to like him for some reason, but McDonald is a guy with a long track record that, unfortunately, shows he's not a major league player.

The other worrisome thing in the outfield yesterday was how shaky Hairston's defense was. He keeps saying that he's an infielder by trade and he sure didn't look like an outfielder yesterday. If the Reds are serious about having a good defense, he either needs to play better or they need to move on to a different option to platoon with Dickerson. Hairston surely doesn't have enough pop, compared to other MLB starting left fielders, for him to be mediocre or poor defensively.

[leakbrewergator]

^^ You touched on a good point. I truly believe that Hairston, and not McDonald is the weak link in the outfield.

[Red in Atl]

Originally Posted by Red in Atl

THANK YOU!

Isn't anyone glad for McDonald that he gets to start OD. Come on guys. This will be one of the biggest games in that guys life. It seems more like a hell of a slap on the back, good job, thanks for your work ethic, kind of thing for the Reds to do.

The roster could change a hundred times this year. It's a fluid thing, and right now it was best to stick with McDonald. And hey Willy's sick, let him start, so Dickerson doesn't have to open the season against a pumped up Santana.

Is anyone gonna care in a month what the roster is right now?

It's OPENING DAY...Go REDS!

I brought this up ealier, because I was amazed at all the negative posts about the 2009 Reds version 1.0. After reading this article, I believe I was right, and sometimes things that are good, happen to good people. I think the Reds saw how hard McDonald worked during ST, and they decided to do the right thing.

http://www.daytondailynews.com/s/con...709sparch.html

Willy was sick, they weren't sold on Gomes and a roster spot was open. Do I think he's going to be here all year or start a whole bunch of games? Hell no. But he's a competent player, who just had one of the biggest thrills of his life. From what I know now, I think he deserved it.

And BTW, all you critics of play yesterday, did you see the game? It rained almost non-stop. The conditions sucked, it was fracking cold, it was opening day in Cincy and do I really need another reason why the gold gloves might have still been packed up?

The more I read here, the more I wonder if the people here are really Reds fans. I grew up in Dayton and watched almost every opening day since I was 8 yrs old. I'm 40 now, and I can barely remember any OD's being good weather. It always rains, snows, freezes, etc. and the game is usually a high scoring slopfest.

Why don't we wait till the end of April to genuinely criticize the players. Especially the ones no one has really seen play before.

[windycitybuck]

Because the other outfielders played in the same conditions and didn't play as poorly.

[DTCromer]

Looks like Darnell MacDonald isn't as bad as EVERYONE thought.

[Eric_the_Red]

Originally Posted by DTCromer

Looks like Darnell MacDonald isn't as bad as EVERYONE thought.

Everyone, or a select, much more vocal group?

[DTCromer]

Originally Posted by Eric_the_Red

Everyone, or a select, much more vocal group?

The latter.