Homer Bailey pitching tonight/Minor League Updates

[Scrap Irony]

Good call, Oregon. Two excellent pitchers to lean on and learn from. (Harang-- throw your pitch. Arroyo-- change speeds.) Slot him in the fourth or fifth rotation spot and pray Elizardo and Claussen can be league average in the 3-4 slots.

Put Milton in the pen or out to pasture.

Print playoff tickets.

[cincyinco]

Originally Posted by dougdirt

Homer is done for the night.
Final line- 6ip, 5 hits, 2 walks, 8 strikeouts, 0 runs

Awesome.. another GREAT outing by Mr. Bailey. He's really risen to every challenge thrown his way this year, and is DOMINATING the AA level - where are the naysayers now? How large does the sample need to be to eat some crow? Some of us got a lot of grief for defending the promotion. I sure don't hear too much about it now.

Will he keep it up the whole year? Who knows, not likely.. but the transition has been BETTER THAN ANYONE EXPECTED. I think its time for the naysayers to give credit where credit is immensly deserved.

[cincyinco]

Originally Posted by Aronchis

Man, you guys are sensative with Bailey. I am not being overly critical of his start, it was very solid. I was just taking notice that he allowed 7 baserunners in 6 innings, but his stuff was good to cull the damage. Geez

Sensitive? I dont know about that. But every time Homer has done something noteworthy(and thats been just about every start since his promotion to AA) someone comes down here and points out the negatives. I know we all need to keep grounded Aronchis, but why can't we just give props when its due instead of trying to find a piece of his game to critisize? The results are what they are, no matter how they were obtained.

Homer is dominating AA. DOMINATING. And I'd say his numbers over 100 innings pitched this year are also, pretty.. damn.. dominant. Why can't everyone just enjoy the success our pitching prospect is having? Especially after there were quite a few on this board, who said they knew best, and said he wasn't ready to start the year in high A, nor was he ready for a promotion to AA. Where are these guys? Own up. Give Homer props, even if he did let up '7 baserunners' in his game.. He kept the offense shut down. Don't take a shot at him because of it.

Homer Bailey has taken his game to the next level, and instead of being excited about that - we still haev folks(not necessarily you Aronchis) trying to tear apart his game. Its getting old. Its starting to get like every Adam Dunn thread on here that rips him apart for his batting average or ability to produce in RISP or clutch situations. Its really getting beyond rediculous.

Aronchis, I'm not trying to single you out by any means, so please dont take this personally. I'm just getting tired of hearing the distractors that I shouldn't be excited about hsi performance because of such and such. Whent he guy fails, I will be fully ready and there to accept it. But why can't others do the same when he's performed well? Why can't they give the credit Bailey deserves?

I have my own theory why.. its just ingrained into our heads as reds fans that all our pitching prospects are going to fail.. becuase they're Reds. We've accepted failure, and predicted it for those who've yet to do so. We rip every move to shreds because the Reds have stunk so long. Well I'm tired of it. This is a new era of Reds baseball. We have a new owner. A New GM. They want to win. It starts from the top, and it will reach all the way to the bottom. Why is it when I finally have a glimmer of hope to hold onto, posters come in and grab it from me, and stomp on it. This may sound a bit melodramatic.. but if you look around here.. its true. Some call them pessimists... They themselves call them realists. I'm not really sure what to call it but ingrained behavior.

Just enjoy the ride everyone - its hard to do that as a reds fan because we've been let down for so long... but open yourselves up to possibilities just a little bit. We have things to be EXCITED about for once. GUYS!!! Our Farm system is looking better than any of us thought. Our MLB team is performing better than ANY OF US could have DREAMED. It may not end up how we all hope and dream, but good lord.. the journey has been fantastic. WE ARE CONTENDING AND ITS ALMOST AUGUST. When, was the last time any of us could see so many positives?

Its been a long time.

So ugh, sorry for the length, and rant.... i just had to get it off my chest.. Its not directed at you in particular Aronchis, I value you as a member of this community, and I value your posts. I just feel like some fans around here, since a losing atmosphere is so ingrained into us, just expect the worst. Its Debbie Downer syndrom with some. Lets have some fun - if someone performs bad, it will be noted. But a final line like homer put up today? Why the critisism? He got the job done, and he did it well.

[cumberlandreds]

Sounds like another great outing by Bailey. Since he has pretty much dominated AA since he's been there do you think the Reds will move him up to AAA for August or just keep him in AA to finish out the season?
Thanks for all your info dougdirt. It's great to see some good young talent in the Reds minor league system.

[Betterread]

I think Bailey spends the rest of the year in AA, and maybe get the call to spend September in the Reds bullpen. He's having a great year and he is dominating AA. I think he has star potential and he is one of the positivesy for this year's Reds campaign.

[Steve4192]

Originally Posted by HBP

It's like some people want him to fail just so they can be the ones saying "I told you all, the Reds can't develop pitching" or "I knew he would be rushed."

That is a gigantic pantload of bullfeces.

Nobody wants Homer to fail. A lot of people thought he would fail, but everyone who predicted failure prefaced it with 'I hope he proves me wrong'. We are all Reds fans, and the only reason people railed against the Bailey pick is because they felt he would never help the Reds. Now that it is pretty clear that he is a big part of the future, I think you will find that everyone is pretty happy with that draft pick.

Originally Posted by cincyinco

where are the naysayers now? How large does the sample need to be to eat some crow?

Homer is doing fantastic, and obviously was more that ready for the promotion to Chattanooga. However, no one should be eating any crow (or counting any chickens) until he proves his mettle in the majors. I love the kid, and think he has a bright future in the game, but he still hasn't proven he can handle major league hitters.

Originally Posted by cincyinco

Homer Bailey has taken his game to the next level, and instead of being excited about that - we still haev folks(not necessarily you Aronchis) trying to tear apart his game.

Huh?

I think everyone is pretty excited about Homer Bailey's progress. Does pointing out that he still needs to work on developing his offspeed stuff constitute 'tearing apart his game'? Because that's the ONLY criticism I have seen of his performances as of late.

[IslandRed]

I think it's pretty simple, really. We all know the draft is a gamble, but we also know that historically, high-school pitchers are the longest odds on the board. That made Bailey or any other high-schooler automatically suspect to many of us, and his performance in '04 and '05 -- while not bad by any means -- didn't suggest he was the exception to the rule. There were still a lot of skeptics going into this season. And the promotion was questioned because he showed improvement, but not consistent dominance, in his half-season at Sarasota and many people felt he needed to be dominant to justify an in-season promotion.

But there's no arguing that his performance since the promotion has put a new and welcomed spin on things. Go get 'em Homer.

[HBP]

Originally Posted by CaptainHook

That is a gigantic pantload of bullfeces.

Nobody wants Homer to fail. A lot of people thought he would fail, but everyone who predicted failure prefaced it with 'I hope he proves me wrong'. We are all Reds fans, and the only reason people railed against the Bailey pick is because they felt he would never help the Reds. Now that it is pretty clear that he is a big part of the future, I think you will find that everyone is pretty happy with that draft pick.

Thats my point in the first place. Why predict he will fail? It makes no sense, Homer Bailey is NOT Chris Gruler-Ty Howington-Brian Reith, on and on. They are different people, so why predict someones future based on a completely different person.

Now that it is pretty clear that he is a big part of the future, I think you will find that everyone is pretty happy with that draft pick.

How convenient. Kinda like how 90% of everyone absolutely ripped and complained about the Travis Wood pick. That is until he started showing up on the BA Hot Sheet almost every week last year.

[cincyinco]

Originally Posted by CaptainHook

Homer is doing fantastic, and obviously was more that ready for the promotion to Chattanooga. However, no one should be eating any crow (or counting any chickens) until he proves his mettle in the majors. I love the kid, and think he has a bright future in the game, but he still hasn't proven he can handle major league hitters.

Huh?

I think everyone is pretty excited about Homer Bailey's progress. Does pointing out that he still needs to work on developing his offspeed stuff constitute 'tearing apart his game'? Because that's the ONLY criticism I have seen of his performances as of late.

Huh? Everyone who said Homer wouldn't make the transition to AA - and thats all I'm talking about, should be a bit more humble right about now.

And have you read this thread? Homer throws a good game and its "but he let up 7 baserunners in the game". Big Whoop. 2 were walks. So that means he gave up 5 hits. lets hits than innings pitched. Why are we complaining?

Its everyone's right to be a critic, and admittedly Homer has deserved critisism at poitns during his short career. But why he's getting any flak since being promoted to AA is beyond me. I ask once again.

WHAT MORE DO YOU WANT THE KID TO DO.

I'm not talking about working on his offspeed stuff.. I'm not talking about any of that. I'm talking about results. RESULTS.

[cincyinco]

Originally Posted by IslandRed

I think it's pretty simple, really. We all know the draft is a gamble, but we also know that historically, high-school pitchers are the longest odds on the board. That made Bailey or any other high-schooler automatically suspect to many of us, and his performance in '04 and '05 -- while not bad by any means -- didn't suggest he was the exception to the rule. There were still a lot of skeptics going into this season. And the promotion was questioned because he showed improvement, but not consistent dominance, in his half-season at Sarasota and many people felt he needed to be dominant to justify an in-season promotion.

But there's no arguing that his performance since the promotion has put an new and welcomed spin on things. Go get 'em Homer.

This is all I ask IslandRed, and thanks for putting it how you did. Better than I could have said. I know why people are/were skepticle. I know why people thought he wouldn't handle a transition to AA. But he did. Props!

People asked for results. Well, they got them. Look at the AA stats. They are GOOOOOOOD. Look at his overall stats. They spell D O M I N A N C E. What more do people want in regards to results?

[Aronchis]

Bailey's problems last year stemmed from a lack of control, which has been rumored to be caused by:
1.Raw talent
2.Shoulder inflammation due to first professional season
3.Bailey's lazy and wasn't prepared for a full professional season, thus wore out quick
4.Reds pitching coach's are horrible
5.The tandom system bothered Bailey

If Bailey had cut his walks down in half during the 2005 campaign, he would have had much better numbers overall. June and July killed him, he rebounded some in Augest. I would argue Homer still has some modest control refinements to make, but the progression in that realm is definitely visable.

Bailey is a good B+/A- prospect. He has been hyped up for a long time and scouts love the guy. I think he is probably overrated to a extent and believe he is a good "2" in the making. He doesn't have any sink on his fastball(thus the "straight" ball") much like Beckett, that is a downer to his overall ability. He may be homer prone in GAB, much like Beckett has given up the Johnsons in Boston.

[Scrap Irony]

Bailey a #2?

"It's like complaining about a mole on Cindy Crawford's face or someone winning the lottery and then being asked if they fear death."

-- Rick Pitino, on questions about his 1996 NCAA champion Kentucky squad

So it goes with Homer.

[Blue]

Originally Posted by Aronchis

Bailey's problems last year stemmed from a lack of control, which has been rumored to be caused by:
1.Raw talent
2.Shoulder inflammation due to first professional season
3.Bailey's lazy and wasn't prepared for a full professional season, thus wore out quick
4.Reds pitching coach's are horrible
5.The tandom system bothered Bailey

If Bailey had cut his walks down in half during the 2005 campaign, he would have had much better numbers overall. June and July killed him, he rebounded some in Augest. I would argue Homer still has some modest control refinements to make, but the progression in that realm is definitely visable.

Bailey is a good B+/A- prospect. He has been hyped up for a long time and scouts love the guy. I think he is probably overrated to a extent and believe he is a good "2" in the making. He doesn't have any sink on his fastball(thus the "straight" ball") much like Beckett, that is a downer to his overall ability. He may be homer prone in GAB, much like Beckett has given up the Johnsons in Boston.

You forgot one possible cause of his control problems: working mostly on his offspeed pitches and not caring about results.

Also, to go way back to 2004 when he was drafted, this is from the MLB Draft Tracker scouting report: "COMFORT ZONE 93-95 W/ LATE SINK. BALL EXPLODES OUT OF HAND."

[TeamSelig]

WOW, anyone else impressed by him laying out the batter for stepping out of the box? Thats my kind of pitcher.

[Matt700wlw]

Originally Posted by TeamSelig

WOW, anyone else impressed by him laying out the batter for stepping out of the box? Thats my kind of pitcher.

He won't fit in here