No Freel, No Runs

[NewEraReds]

not a shock to me. this guy needs to be out there everyday and we better not move him

[redsfan30]

If you want this kind of production out of Freel, this is exactly how you have to handle him. He's at his best when he has some time to rest. It's very easy to look at him and say he needs to play everyday, but if you do that he will break down and do it quickly at that.

As long as Tony Womack is producing like this, I have no problem with them sharing 2nd base. It keeps Freel fresh and healthy.

[Strikes Out Looking]

Freel should be playing as much as possible. Today's game was an example of the need for him to be in there daily. If I owned the Reds or was the GM, my manager would be playing him over Womack and Aurilia.

[KoryMac5]

The face of the team indeed does change with Freel out their. Plays great D steals bases, distracts pitchers, he does it all. The rest of the team seems to really feed of his energy. I'm hoping he can play 120 gms this year.

[harangatang]

The Reds are 3-0 when Freel starts and have averaged 8.67 runs/game. When Tony Womack starts the Reds are 1-2 and have averaged 5.33 runs/game. I think it's pretty obvious what happens when Freel is in this lineup.

[WVPacman]

Freel needs to be in our starting lineup EVERYGAME!!! We seen what happened when he was'nt in there today our offense looked awful. We could'nt get nothing started or any rallys b/c the MAIN leadoff guy was setting on the bench.You all seen what happened when he got to bat in the 9th he got on base and made the pitcher lose focus on JR.Jr then got a double and with Freels speed he scored all the way from first. Freel is to good to just get to play 2 out of 5 games or 3 out of 6.He should be in there everyday b/c he plays hard and makes good things happen for the reds.

I would move Dunn to first base and put Freel in left so he could play everyday.Change Walmack,RA and Hatteberg out of the lineups from day to day.Go with who ever is playing the best ball between those three.Dunn at 1st,Freel in left,and put whoever is playing the best between Wamack,RA,Hatteberg at 2nd.

Freel needs to be in there everyday!!!!!!!

[biggestREDSfan]

I also agree that Ryan Freel should be playing everyday. He is an exciting player to watch play. You never know what is going to happen when he plays. And even better the opposing pitcher never knows what Freel is going to do. He creates excitement for the team and also for the fans watching. WAYNE - Keep FREEL on the field as much as possible! :dancingco < Freel

[Ron Madden]

Ryan can't play everyday...

Narron is afraid to start him because he MIGHT get hurt.

You see the way Freel plays. With his high OBP and the way he runs the bases added to the way he runs around and dives playing defense.

Starting Freel everyday would just increase his chances of getting injured.

It's makes more sense to start Womack in Narrons mind.

[tripleaaaron]

Freel should play in 6/7 games. Period. He is the only real table setter on this team. womack is a 7 hitter at best (a true 9 hitter in AL) if womack plays freel should still be in the lineup with lopez following. Freel not only gets on base and moves around the bases very well he charges up the team and esp. the home crowd. I hope the womack thing is an attempt to "showcase" him for a possible reliever prospect (perhaps the marlins?) or a possible attempt to punish him for his off-season woes of late, either way GET HIM IN THE LINEUP!

[KronoRed]

If he gets hurt he gets hurt, I'd rather he down trying then hanging on the bench so he's healthy for some mid August 20-games back ball.

[Guacarock]

Originally Posted by harangatang

The Reds are 3-0 when Freel starts and have averaged 8.67 runs/game. When Tony Womack starts the Reds are 1-2 and have averaged 5.33 runs/game. I think it's pretty obvious what happens when Freel is in this lineup.

I've weighed in elsewhere on Freel's value to the Reds as a table-setter and catalyst for the offense. He's as close as we've got to a classic lead-off hitter with his high OBP, his exciting base-stealing and his ability to distract opposing pitchers.

But I wouldn't get too carried away by the results from one week of play.

Just look back to 2005. Freel started 91 games for the Reds last year. We only won 38 of them, and lost 53 of those games.

There goes the argument that Freel can single-handedly win us games. He wasn't a bum last year. He scored 69 runs in 369 AB with a .371 on-base percentage and 36 stolen bases. But like the rest of the team, he couldn't erase the impact from a chronically bad pitching staff.

This year, Freel has opened the season like a man on a mission. The competition with Womack, Aurilia and now Phillips has him fired up. I like what I'm seeing. I hope he can sustain it. I also hope Narron and Krivsky can recognize what they've got in hand, and not move too hastily to package Freel in a trade.

We still have gaps to fill -- a weak relief pitching squad and a relatively barren farm system. But before shipping Freel, I'd exhaust other options for improvement. Maybe Atlanta might want Aurilia, for instance, with Chipper Jones going down. And what is the market for Larue, now that we have reason to suspect that Valentin isn't a flash in the pan and can ably serve as our starting catcher?

[Caveman Techie]

Originally Posted by redsfan30

As long as Tony Womack is producing like this, I have no problem with them sharing 2nd base. It keeps Freel fresh and healthy.

Exactly, people are acting like Womack is playing poorly. Here's a news flash....HE ISN'T! IF Womack weren't doing well then yes I would be the first one calling for Freel to be in there starting over top of him at second. But as it stands right now this season Womack should be at second and Freel should be playing over top of EE and AK.

Now I know that my opinion will be an unpopular one, because EE is young and he does need playing time and I don't necessarily disagree with that, and two because AK has huge potential and he needs to be playing but if you could slip Freel in one game at third, then the next game at right field, then maybe a night off and then a start at second to give Womack a rest also. Well there your getting alot of playing time for all the players. That is where the value of Freel comes in, he can play almost any position to help get his bat in the lineup.

If Everyone here were honest with themselves and looked at the numbers so far this season they'd see that right now Womack makes this lineup better. I'm not saying that he will do that all year long, I'm just saying that RIGHT NOW he makes it better.

[OnBaseMachine]

It's hard to keep Freel on bench

Column by The Post's Lonnie Wheeler

Numbers are most deceitful in the short term. On the other hand, Ryan Freel's are preposterous.

He batted once Sunday, when the Reds saw their four-game victory streak aborted by the previously winless Pittsburgh Pirates. It was the first time in the weeklong season that Cincinnati had been held to fewer than six runs, and there are folks out there who would be only too pleased to offer a specific, seemingly unassailable reason for it, something on the order of the question posed by the stadium security guard an hour before the first pitch.

"Hey, uh," he called out, eager to get the puzzlement off his chest. "Tell me this. How can you keep Freel out of the lineup today?"

Actually, Freel didn't bat at all Sunday, in the statistical sense. He made a plate appearance in the eighth inning, pinch-hitting for Tony Womack, who has now started three games at second base, just as Freel has. For the sixth time in 17 such appearances, the little guy walked. For the eighth time, he scored.

In his 11 official at-bats so far - notice how ridiculously close that figure is to the number of runs he has rung up - Freel has six hits for a .545 average. His half-dozen walks put his on-base percentage at .706, which, until Sunday, baseball physicists had largely thought to be impossible.

It's impossible, of course, to maintain an absurd pace like that, and perhaps more so in Freel's case than most. He, as we all know, is a player who will run face-first into just about anything, be it a wall or an old lady in the seat where a foul ball is about to land. This has proven detrimental to his health on several occasions.

For that reason, and because Freel refuses to ration his intensity - he couldn't possibly have enough stored up for 162 games of that, could he? - the Reds have been reluctant to assign their fastest man an everyday position. Plus, he can play so many.

"Maybe his versatility is the thing that keeps him from playing every day," said manager Jerry Narron. "He's going to play a lot. I don't think anybody has to worry about that.

"The way the roster is, there are decisions to make every day. You can make a case for Freel, for (Rich) Aurilia or for Womack. I don't see any way those guys are going to lose value by the way I play them. Jason LaRue wasn't too happy last year when he was sitting out some games (in deference to the way Javier Valentin was hitting), but I don't think the way he was used hurt his value at contract time one little bit."

At any rate, it stands to reason that Freel's starts will pick up in frequency as the season skips along. None of the regular outfielders has had a day off yet. And the speculation about trading a second baseman - Womack leads that parade - has gained a few degrees with the purchase of Brandon Phillips, yet another middle infielder.

Womack and Freel are the only Reds who have started so far at second base, and the only Reds who have batted first in the order. Womack has acquitted himself well. Freel, meanwhile, has looked like the best leadoff hitter in the game, just as he did for large chunks of last year.

For that, he gives considerable credit to Felipe Lopez, who has settled in as a surprisingly skillful second batter. Lopez established his power and run-producing credentials in a breakthrough all-star season last year, but at 25, in his second time around as a starting shortstop, he has suddenly shown an impressive propensity for professionalism at the plate.

"I absolutely love hitting in front of Felipe Lopez," Freel said Sunday. "I think he's just maturing more as a player. He gives me pitches to run on. If I get on second, he gets me over. Just playing little-ball like that. You can't ask for any other 2-hole hitter than him."

For all the runs that Ken Griffey Jr. and Adam Dunn will surely produce - it was Griffey's second RBI double of the game Sunday that drove in Freel - there is not a more critical batter in the Cincinnati lineup than Lopez at No. 2. Unless it's Freel at the top, when he's there.

"It just seems like a righty-lefty thing right now," said the 5-foot-9 Floridian. "I don't think I need that much rest, if that's their concern. But I don't think that's a factor right now. I think last year, that was one of the concerns. But I don't think so this year that much.

"I think I can play every day, whatever the position might be or if it's at one position. I've had stupid little injuries, but I'm very optimistic this year as far as health-wise. I feel a lot better than I ever have."

Well, a ballplayer tends to feel better on base than off it. And in one blinding week of the new season, there has been no way to keep Freel off it.

Except to sit him down.

Contact Lonnie Wheeler at lwheeler@cincypost.com.

http://news.cincypost.com/apps/pbcs....00340/1035/SPT

[KearnsyEars]

No shirt, No shoes, no problem.

[Reds1]

I guess it's fun to debate, but while we have all these guys playing the same position we'll see us looking at the matchups. I do agree with someone above that said Freel should get a start or so a week in the OF. I'd like to see Dunn at 1B every now and then and then KG and AK will need breaks at some point. I see Phillips as a back up for FeLo and playing a day a week and a defensive replacement late in the game at 2B. We'll see. Womack has value off the bench in bunting situations and he can start once or twice a week and play Aurilia twice a week at 2nd and 1-2 times at 1B. I think this is the type of playing we will see, but the Reds need to really make a trade for a RP. right now that's the biggest hole we have.