2006 Suprise Players

[Ltlabner]

What 2006 Reds player suprised you the most this past season?

That can be suprised in a good way or suprised in a bad way.

How did they suprise you and why did you think they could/couldn't do what suprised you?

[guttle11]

David Ross and Brandon Phillips.

No one really suprised me on the bad side, because those we thought would reek of suckitude, did.

[Red Leader]

Ross, Phillips, Arroyo, and Hatteberg surprised me with their great play. I knew from the beginning that Brandon Phillips has talent, I just wasn't sure if he could sustain it all season. I was happy that he did. I expected a pretty mediocre season from Arroyo and was pleasantly surprised with how he pitched pretty much all season. Hatteberg and Ross I didn't expect much from at all and they both had real good seasons.

I must say that I was also surprised by Felipe Lopez's struggles the first half of this year. After last year's numbers, I figured he'd improve, not regress. At the beginning of the year when someone told me that a well known publication had predicted that Lopez would regress and only hit about 12 HR, I laughed. I thought, no way, he's going to go for 20-25 this year. Nope. He had a pretty bad offensive year, IMO.

[Joseph]

Phillips, Hatteberg, Arroyo, Harang, and EE all impressed me to the positive side.

Claussen, LaRue, Dunn, and Hammond all to the negative side.

I expected Claussen to put up solid numbers, injury aside, and win double digits. LaRue I expected to just simply be LaRue [250, 15, 65-70 RBI]. Dunn I had hoped would finally hit over 250 and would hit 45+ HRs, but more importantly he would have a big RBI year and drive in 120+ which he fell woefully short of. I'm not a Dunn basher, so those who staunchly defend him can save the 1's and 0's used in telling me where I'm wrong. He's a good player, I just expected a touch more from him and was disappointed. Hammond I'd hoped would be a low 2 ERA type lefty specialist, not a guy forced into retirement.

[scounts22]

Aurillia surprised me. Whether you like him or not, he was clutch. Please don't flog me. :D :help:

[Ltlabner]

I was suprised by EZ stepping up and pitching well. I was equally suprised when he fell apart after seeming to have "made the step up".

I was suprised to see Ryan Wagner not make the team and then simply fall into the abyss.

I was nigh on shocked to see the number of DFA's of players this year. Refreshing change from previous adminstrations (guess that's not really player specific).

[Johnny Footstool]

Hatteberg. Coming up with a career year at age 37 is utterly shocking.

[Ltlabner]

Another player I found suprising was Milton. I know that he is reviled and I certinally wish the money we had invested in him was invested in a much better pitcher. But compared to the abymisal pitching of 2005 he was mediocre in 2006. That, to me, repesents a vast improvement.

Now, would I rather he pitched outstanding or we had a different pitcher on par with BA or HA. Well...duh, of course.

But since we were stuck with him this year (and likely next) I was suprised to see that he pitched far better than he did in 2005. As I've said a few times, when he is "on" he's quite good. Unfortunatley, nobody has yet found the "on" switch so it can be glued in the on position.

[flyer85]

Easy, Hatteberg.

With the other guys there were at least some reasons to believe they could do well. At age 36 and coming off of a truly awful season in Oakland there was ZERO reasons to believe that Hatty would have anything approaching a career season.

[redsfan30]

My surprise player is Scott Shoenewies, even though he was only here for a month or so. He came over with some pretty rough numbers, but he pitched about as well as anybody did over the last month out of the bullpen.

My disappointment this season was Griffey. Sure, he's getting older, nobody can dispute that. But his numbers this year were pretty bad, especially in the OBP area.

[flyer85]

My surprise player is Scott Shoenewies, even though he was only here for a month or so. He came over with some pretty rough numbers, but he pitched about as well as anybody did over the last month out of the bullpen.there are a lot of bad relief pitchers who can luck into a good month or even a half a season(see Cormier). What SS did was no great surprise, he had a hot month, relief pitchers do that all the time.

The shock should be that the fact that he went to be the back of the pen. It points out how truly awful the pen is and what a complete lack of talent there is.

[mth123]

David Ross. Hatteberg has had decent years and was helped by the platoon and GABP. Phillips was highly regarded a couple years ago and I figured he'd get some kind of shot. Arroyo had the Red Sox aura. Ross had the least going for him going in and I only expected him to be on the team until Larue got healthy.