I hope you're right because that'll mean he's improved. If he doesn't pitch any better in Cincinnati than he has in the past then he won't last the season.
I'm still skeptical. I'll believe it when I see it. I've never seen Homer Bailey look impressive. I don't see that a split finger pitch will bail him out. He needs pitches that are strikes that are hard to hit. The split finger helps put away a hitter after two strikes but I'm concerned about Homer ever getting to two strikes
I think they'll end up shutting the kid down for the remainder of the season. They can't be as stupid to risk further damage can they? Stay tuned.
"In my day you had musicians who experimented with drugs. Now it's druggies experimenting with music" - Alfred G Clark (circa 1972)
Shocking I tell ya! After he threw 200 innings for the Reds last year ... then played in winter ball ... and then played in the WBC ... I can't imagine how Volquez could have damaged his arm.
Pretty disappointing because I think if the Reds had a pitching staff of (in order) Cueto, Volquez, Harang, Arroyo, Bailey (I like Owings in the pen) ... then we would be playoff bound IMO.
Fwiw, I've already heard the word "Verducci" attached to Volquez. And I remember last fall Dusty received some flack for letting Volquez shoot for 20 wins. Now there's no way Dusty would be anyones choice for manager to trust your young pitchers with but I actually didn't have a problem with the push for 20 and still don't. Volquez finished '08 with 196 ip. Between the minors and majors Volquez had 178.2 ip in '07. That kind of increase in ip isn't a problem. But the problem with the stats is that they don't include winter ball or the WBC. So if you add winter ball to his '08 stats... then you have a problem. I don't know whose call it was to send him to winter ball but I just have to ask why? He had a great '08. Why push it?
I don't know that it was anyone's call. I think Volquez wanted to pitch winter ball. I don't know if the Reds can forbid that or not. I suppose they can, but I don't know for certain.
Yep, I can't remember a time in recent history when a player got hurt and they just came out and said "We are going to rest him and see what happens, but it's probably going to result in surgery". It's always day to day, false hope that the player will be back in a couple days, then a couple weeks,etc. My guess is they don't want to risk hurting ticket sales.
It was pure malpractice allowing Jr to pinch hit when he could barely walk. Think of the potential damage that did to the franchise during the Jr era.. If they were conservative, Jr might've had a much more productive career.
Kearns' "blister" (which later needed surgery, and obviously was much more serious) is another example of the dishonesty that has been shown in the past.
[Phil ] Castellini celebrated the team's farm system and noted the team had promising prospects who would one day be great Reds -- and then joke then they'd be ex-Reds, saying "of course we're going to lose them". #SellTheTeamBob
Nov. 13, 2007: One of the greatest days in Reds history: John Allen gets the boot!
It's tough to clearly lay the blame on winter ball or WBC too.
Plenty of other guys did the same thing and they didn't get hurt.
Maybe if he didn't pitch winter ball, the injury happens in August instead (or maybe it still happens at the same time).
I think the Reds handled him well. Pitchers are fragile, most have a relatively short shelf life compared to position players. That's just the way it goes.
Other clubs have similiar problems keeping all their pitchers healthy.
[Phil ] Castellini celebrated the team's farm system and noted the team had promising prospects who would one day be great Reds -- and then joke then they'd be ex-Reds, saying "of course we're going to lose them". #SellTheTeamBob
Nov. 13, 2007: One of the greatest days in Reds history: John Allen gets the boot!
So, when someone gets hurt, you expect them to perform surgery right away, even if rest and rehab could solve the problem? Surgery is always a last resort. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't but they always try to do whatever they can before they operate.
As for hurting ticket sales, I'm not sure that's possible.
Maybe Kremchek really is the best in the business at what he does but I've always thought of the saying "the operation was a success but the patient died on the table" when thinking about him and the procedures that he performs.
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