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Thread: Leake Or Wood On Pace To Become The 5th Starter

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    Greatness In The Making RedLegSuperStar's Avatar
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    Leake Or Wood On Pace To Become The 5th Starter

    jfay-

    The Reds have the schedule for pitching posted in the cubhouse leading right up to the last day of camp. Judging from it, the fifth starter will be Mike Leake or Travis Wood. Consider:

    –Wood’s and Leake’s days line up so April 11 — the first start for the fifth start — falls on their normal day.

    –None of the other pitchers in the race for the No. 5 spot is on the schedule for more than three innings.

    We’re still 20 days away from the first start, so that could change, particularly if both Wood and Leake struggle in their last two spring training outings.

    Here’s the schedule (by the way, Aroldis Chapman is not listed on it):

    –Tomorrow vs. the Mariners: Leake will start and go four, followed by four from Wood and one from Kip Wells.

    –Saturday vs. San Diego: Micah Owings will start and go three, followed by three from Mike Lincoln, one from Nick Masset and one from Daniel Ray Herrera. This day lines up with the second start of regular season. Johnny Cueto, the No. 2 starter, will pitch six innings in a minor league game.

    –Sunday: Bronson Arroyo will go six against the Dodgers.

    –Monday: No starter is scheduled yet.

    –Tuesday: Aaron Harang will go six or seven against San Diego.

    –Wednesday: Leake will start the home game against Oakland and go five, followed by one from Lincoln, one from Herrera and one or two from Owings. Wood will start the game in Las Vegas against the Dodgers and go five, followed by one from Ondrusek, one from Justin Lehr and one from Wells.

    April 1: Cueto will start against Texas.

    April 2: Arroyo will start against Cleveland.

    April 3: Bailey will start against Cleveland in finale from Goodyear.


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    Sprinkles are for winners dougdirt's Avatar
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    Re: Leake Or Wood On Pace To Become The 5th Starter

    Leake has pitched a little better so far. Both go tomorrow in the same game (with Pitch F/X.... awesome!). I think Wood will take it unless he gets beat around between now and the season. It just makes a decision easier for the Reds as he is already on the 40 man roster and has over 250 innings between AA/AAA.

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    Re: Leake Or Wood On Pace To Become The 5th Starter

    Wood also satisfies the same need that Chapman would have -- namely, adding a southpaw to the rotation so opposing batters have to face a greater variety of pitching styles and deliveries.

    Chapman now will go down to the minors, and so will Leake, but I wonder what will happen to Maloney. Will he be dealt, reassigned to the bullpen or will the Reds try to slip him through the waiver wire back to Louisville?

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    Sprinkles are for winners dougdirt's Avatar
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    Re: Leake Or Wood On Pace To Become The 5th Starter

    Quote Originally Posted by Guacarock View Post
    Wood also satisfies the same need that Chapman would have -- namely, adding a southpaw to the rotation so opposing batters have to face a greater variety of pitching styles and deliveries.

    Chapman now will go down to the minors, and so will Leake, but I wonder what will happen to Maloney. Will he be dealt, reassigned to the bullpen or will the Reds try to slip him through the waiver wire back to Louisville?
    Maloney won't have to go through waivers to go back to Louisville.

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    Re: Leake Or Wood On Pace To Become The 5th Starter

    I also remember reading that Heisey was first on the left field depth chart.

    We'll see.

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    Re: Leake Or Wood On Pace To Become The 5th Starter

    Quote Originally Posted by dougdirt View Post
    Maloney won't have to go through waivers to go back to Louisville.
    You're right -- Maloney does have options remaining so he won't need to go on the waiver wire. I'm not sure why I assumed he was out of options -- maybe because he's been around and is getting a bit old to go back down to AAA.

    For the record, I found Mark Sheldon's earlier report identifying exactly which Reds are out of options in this year's spring training camp. They are:

    RHP Bronson Arroyo, RHP Homer Bailey, IF/OF Wladimir Balentien, RHP Francisco Cordero, RHP Mike Lincoln and RHP Nick Masset.

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    Member reds44's Avatar
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    Re: Leake Or Wood On Pace To Become The 5th Starter

    I'm not going to lie, I'm hoping Leake takes it. With that being said, it's not like it's Leake vs. Lincoln in which case I would root for Lincoln to be bad (in spring training). I hope they both pitch well, but Leake gets the nod. Odds are we will see Wood, Leake, and Chapman by the end of the year anyway.

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    Member SirFelixCat's Avatar
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    Re: Leake Or Wood On Pace To Become The 5th Starter

    I really didn't think either of them had a legit chance up until today. I'm all in favor of it!

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    Re: Leake Or Wood On Pace To Become The 5th Starter

    If this thread continues long enough, Mike Leake will be starting the All Star Game. Hope he does, but let's slow down a bit.

    Maybe Maloney pitches Monday (nobody listed) and is on track to be fifth starter. Maybe Owings does well in his next stint and is back in the hunt. It's impossible to know.

    As between Leake and Wood, I would expect Travis W to be the more likely candidate. He has high minors time, is a lefty. Hard to imagine Leake makes the rotation with zero professional experience.

    I still think the fifth starter is unsettled. And some guys can pitch long stretches in minor league games that don't show up on this schedule.

    Reds usually seem slow in making cuts so it's never easy to know what they have in mind until the end.

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    Red's fan mbgrayson's Avatar
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    Re: Leake Or Wood On Pace To Become The 5th Starter

    Quote Originally Posted by Guacarock View Post
    Wood also satisfies the same need that Chapman would have -- namely, adding a southpaw to the rotation so opposing batters have to face a greater variety of pitching styles and deliveries.

    Chapman now will go down to the minors, and so will Leake, but I wonder what will happen to Maloney. Will he be dealt, reassigned to the bullpen or will the Reds try to slip him through the waiver wire back to Louisville?
    Also like Chapman(though w/o the complicated contract), I imagine there are financial reasons for starting Leake in the minors, to delay the start of his arbitration/free agency clock.
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    Socratic Gadfly TheNext44's Avatar
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    Re: Leake Or Wood On Pace To Become The 5th Starter

    Quote Originally Posted by mbgrayson View Post
    Also like Chapman(though w/o the complicated contract), I imagine there are financial reasons for starting Leake in the minors, to delay the start of his arbitration/free agency clock.
    They only thing they have to worry about is if he is on the opening day roster. If he misses one day this year, it pushes his Free Agency clock back a whole year.

    Since he's not need until the second week, just add another bat until the day he pitches and call Leake up the day before starts.
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    Re: Leake Or Wood On Pace To Become The 5th Starter

    Quote Originally Posted by TheNext44 View Post
    They only thing they have to worry about is if he is on the opening day roster. If he misses one day this year, it pushes his Free Agency clock back a whole year.

    Since he's not need until the second week, just add another bat until the day he pitches and call Leake up the day before starts.
    As I understand the service time rules, that's not exactly the case. A service "year" is actually 172 cumulative days on the active roster, so technically it's possible (depending on the actual number of days between Opening Day and the regular-season finale) to spend a few days in the minors and still meet the requirements for a service year. (And if I remember right, it's done that way to prevent that very kind of jacking around with people's free-agency clock.)
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    Re: Leake Or Wood On Pace To Become The 5th Starter

    Quote Originally Posted by reds44 View Post
    I'm not going to lie, I'm hoping Leake takes it. With that being said, it's not like it's Leake vs. Lincoln in which case I would root for Lincoln to be bad (in spring training). I hope they both pitch well, but Leake gets the nod. Odds are we will see Wood, Leake, and Chapman by the end of the year anyway.
    I saw Wood, Leake and Chapman pitch earlier this spring in Arizona, and you're absolutely right, all three of them could break into the rotation by the end of this year. What a talented and impressive trio, particularly considering their youthfulness and relative inexperience.

    Leake did surprise me the most, not because he was head-and-shoulders above either Chapman or Wood, but I just didn't expect to see a pitcher as poised and professional as he demonstrated himself to be. That said, I'm still rooting for Wood to get this promotion, assuming he doesn't implode over his next few spring starts.

    Elevating the team's minor league pitcher of 2009 would be a powerful motivating factor for every other one of the Reds' prospects toiling down on the farm. Leake and Chapman are also prospects, but they haven't been in the system, so I'm not sure that giving them an instant invite to the ML would have the same impact.

    Sure, let them bypass Baltic Ave. and St. Charles Place, but it seems like they should at least take a brisk stroll down Ventnor and Boardwalk first before passing "Go."

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    Two-Time Batting Champ Edd Roush's Avatar
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    Re: Leake Or Wood On Pace To Become The 5th Starter

    Quote Originally Posted by Kc61 View Post
    I also remember reading that Heisey was first on the left field depth chart.

    We'll see.
    While I understand your point and sentiment, that was both long before Spring Training started and before Gomes was signed.

    Here we are in late March talking about Wood and Leake both having solid chances to be our #5. I like it.

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    Re: Leake Or Wood On Pace To Become The 5th Starter

    I have a tough time believing that Mike Leake is major-league ready without throwing a single inning of minor league ball. Hell -- even Strasburg is going to the minors for at least a little bit.

    This seems to be a classic case of putting too much faith into Spring Training numbers. There's no professional (ie minor league) data to back up what we're seeing from Leake right now. Given that, the correct thing to do is send him to AA/AAA and let him prove that what he's doing now is legit.
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