"My mission is to be the ray of hope, the guy who stands out there on that beautiful field and owns up to his mistakes and lets people know it's never completely hopeless, no matter how bad it seems at the time. I have a platform and a message, and now I go to bed at night, sober and happy, praying I can be a good messenger." -Josh Hamilton
Sure, if a guy performs in AAA he probably should get a shot with the club, but here is a 31 year old with a 1.33 WHIP and 4.66 ERA in AAA. Yeah, he has a bunch of wins.... but he plays on the best team in AAA. He has the 2nd highest ERA of any starter with at least 8 starts on the Bats (7 guys have at least 8 starts and that doesn't include Daryl Thompson). Fact is, there are a few guys even more deserving of those starts than Pettyjohn. Not just because of the numbers, but because of age and ability as well as the numbers. Ramon Ramirez is the main guy I am talking about. 1.18 WHIP, 3.28 ERA, 89 K's in 91 innings and he is a groundball pitcher. He is only 3-5 though, so he probably sucks.
No, he didn't say "Adam Pettyjohn is a guy who knows how to win."
But he specifically brought up Pettyjohn when no one else has ever mentioned his name and then proceeded to say "he's a crafty lefty and is 14-5 this year" and then later says it's about whether a guy knows how to win.
I don't think it's a huge leap or some kind of stretch to say that he does see Pettyjohn as someone who "knows how to win." I think any reasonable person would understand that's what Dusty was saying even though he didn't explicitly say it.
Sure, but there is only so many starts to go around. We already have 5 guys. I assume they still want to see Bailey, Thompson (if healthy) and Livingston. Thats three guys right there, then there is Ramirez who is on the 40 man who has the stuff and the numbers. Then there is also Maloney, who isn't on the 40 man, but likely more a part of the future than Pettyjohn.
Dusty's comments on Todd Frazier is what has me scratching my head. Dusty says Frazier may be able to stay at shortstop because he's similar in size to Tulowitzki. Size doesn't mean anything. Tulowitzki has quickness, good hands, and solid range whereas Frazier lacks the range to stick at SS. His size has nothing to do with it.
From the Reds:
--Joey Votto had three hits for the Reds Saturday night, his 16th three-hit game this season, twice as many as any other rookie in the National League. Geovany Soto is next with eight such games. Kansas City’s Mike Aviles leads A.L. rookies with 13 three-hit games.
--According to Elias Sports Bureau, Joey Votto (15hr) and Jay Bruce (14) are the first pair of Reds rookies ever to produce at least 14 home runs each in the same season...most likely, the Reds will be the only team in the Majors this season to have 2 rookies produce at least 14 homers each.
http://news.cincinnati.com/apps/pbcs...cincinnati.com
I read Dusty's statement this way: "We have no depth at all in the minors so we're going to throw this crap against the wall and see if it sticks!"
“And when finally they sense that some position cannot be sustained, they do not re-examine their ideas. Instead, they simply change the subject.” Jamie Galbraith
So, are there actually pitchers in the majors that don't "know how to pitch", and position players that don't know how to "play the game the right way"? I don't remember too many pitchers tossing it underhand or batters running the bases backwards...
I'm actually impressed Dusty knows as much about the minor league players as he does. He is always making references about some of them that surprise me. For some reason, I expect him to say, "Frazier? Isn't he on our high-A team or something? Yeah, I guess I've heard of him." But Dusty actually has studied these guys pretty extensively from what I can tell.
I also took the Pettyjohn comment as a shot towards guys like Homer Bailey who have all the skill in the world but don't know how to pitch. Some guys just buck up in pressure situations and get the job done. They don't walk a ton of guys. They don't have the best stuff, but they battle and they're around the plate. They mix up their pitches well. I think this is what Dusty was trying to say. Course, with Pettyjohn's age and ERA, he's closer to Tom Shearn than Reds '09 contributor.
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