but not at shortstop. Curious.
The happy talk is that Livingston will be pitching in June. The reality is that Livingston isn't likely to throw a pitch in a game situation till 2009.what's the earliest Livingston can come back anyway? I thought it was something like June or July.
"Even a bad day at the ballpark beats the snot out of most other good days. I'll take my scorecard and pencil and beer and hot dog and rage at the dips and cheer at the highs, but I'm not ever going to stop loving this game and this team and nobody will ever take that away from me." Roy Tucker October 2010
I had an old Reds game on the other day (had Baseball Jones) and Thom said he was talking to some of the Mets coaches and all they could talk about was how theyre trying to teach their young MLB players to watch Freel and bring the same energy that Freel brings to the game and how he plays the game right.
“In the same way that a baseball season never really begins, it never really ends either.” - Lonnie Wheeler, "Bleachers, A Summer in Wrigley Field"
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Games are won on run differential -- scoring more than your opponent. Runs are runs, scored or prevented they all count the same. Worry about scoring more and allowing fewer, not which positions contribute to which side of the equation or how "consistent" you are at your current level of performance.
Ecxactly. Coaches admire hustle over most anything. Unfortunately, you have to hustle and play smart too. That's something Freel doesn't understand until he wears himself out. I prayed that if teams admired him so much he would be traded, but here he is, penciled in as our every day CF and second on every IF?OF depth chart except first base.
I still say he has pictures of someone with a goat.
For the record: Redszone could come up with a more accurate depth chart than reds.com. This has nothing to do with the actually depth chart the Reds FO has.
Right now, there are only a few remaining issues on the roster.
If no starting pitcher is acquired, the rotation will be set with Belisle, Bailey and Volquez. I don't see a lot of competition there, unless someone is added to the mix.
The starting position lineup is set except for first base and center field. On first, Hatte and Votto will both be on the team, so the starter/backup issue doesn't affect the roster. Both are on it.
In centerfield I'm assuming Freel will start and Hopper back up. Either way, both make the team. (I'll get to Bruce shortly.)
With Valentin, Hopper, Keppinger, and one of Hatte/Votto on the bench, there is only one spot available among the thirteen position players. Right now it seems that the candidates for this spot are Bruce/Fiorentino/Castro/Dickerson. If it's Bruce, he will start. If one of the others, bench.
So the competition for position players comes down to one spot and the competition for starting pitchers is dependent on future acquisitions.
The bullpen, however, should have lots of competition, probably for two spots.
Cordero, Weathers, Burton, Stanton, and Bray would seem to be locks if all are healthy, unless Stanton is moved which seems unlikely at this point.
That leaves two remaining bullpen slots. The candidates include Majewski, Coffey, Coutlangus, McBeth, Pelland, Salmon, maybe Roenicke (invited to ST). There may be others I'm forgetting.
So, unless there are additional player moves, I think spring training will determine one position spot and two bullpen spots.
As an aside, I hope the Reds know what they are doing with this bullpen. They did make one big off-season move, but it was a pretty terrible bullpen last year. Surprised they haven't been more aggressive there this off-season.
Mostly agree. I think one bullpen spot might go to a long reliever that can go multiple innings. I think we could easily see one of the NRI in that spot like Brower, Pettyjohn, Lehr, Adkins, or Michalek. Some younger guys as dark horses might be Ramon Ramirez or Danny Herrera but probably not on opening day.
All my posts are my opinion - just like yours are. If I forget to state it and you're too dense to see the obvious, look here!
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