Friday August 7 2015 Reds @ Arizona

[WVRedsFan]

A friend of mine knew Bob's son, Stan. Nothing would fire Stan up more than the changes corporate made to the restaurant and to the sausage recipe. Sadly, Stan has also passed on.

Heard the same thing from a friend of mine who knew the situation. They also changed the sausage gravy recipe which is nearly inedible these days. My father, who loved the biscuits and gravy for breakfast, would be upset. Same with the KFC's dipping sauce. OTOH, White Castle stays the same. Gas City, lol

[Big Klu]

Steve is now the sausage man....it's still really good

It's good, but not as good as it used to be. I can't describe it, but I can tell that it's not quite the same as it was.

[Big Klu]

Bob Evans needs to learn how to cook their bacon. Who likes bacon medium-rare? I need me some crispy bacon. They always fail in this category.

Who orders bacon at a restaurant famous for breakfast sausage?

[Ironman92]

I feel like we've ventured off like Chris and Foghorn.

Hard to stay focused on the Reds these days.

[WVRedsFan]

Well, outside of Iggy, there wasn't much to talk about, but 27 scoreless innings seems like something the 1962 Mets would have done and that, frankly, scares me to death.

[Roy Tucker]

Bob Evans is still a go-to breakfast. Rise and Shine, 2 eggs over easy, sausage patties, hash browns, and wheat toast. And a pot of coffee.

[Chuckie]

Who orders bacon at a restaurant famous for breakfast sausage?

I mean, I get both. And their sausage is on point. But how hard is it to cook bacon properly?

[traderumor]

The offense is in a slump. They have been above average for two months now.

Actually longer, they had strong offensive May and June, average July, and have scored 10 runs in the 6 games in August. Again, its not a bad offense. The pitching is bad. End of story.

[klw]

It's strange. We all watch Votto do what he does. It really seems like no one else on the team is trying to emulate his successful style.

I bowl and am a pretty successful amateur. But when I try to give a tip or two to other people, they either seem unwilling or unable to change. These are your typical show-up-after-work-drink-a-pitcher-or-two league bowlers. At that level, I can see being set in your ways and not trying something different. But at the major league level, is it the same mentality? Is there a general unwillingness to try something different when night after night you prove that what you're currently doing isn't working (and what Votto is doing IS working)?

Dioneer Navarro has frequently stated that his time with the Reds watching and working with Votto helped him tremendously and lead to his late career success.

http://www.thestar.com/sports/blueja...blue_jays.html

Navarro credits part of his turnaround to his offseason work with Toronto-born Cincinnati Reds superstar, Joey Votto.
“He sent me a text like a month ago saying to please stop mentioning his name in the papers because he got nothing to do with my success,” Navarro says, laughing while ignoring Votto’s request. “That’s the type of person he is.”

The two met back in 2012 when Navarro played a season as the Reds backup catcher.

“For some reason, we just clicked and we’ve been working ever since then.”
Gregarious and outgoing, Navarro says that when he first started working with the notoriously cerebral Votto, it was a little awkward.
“When we stepped into the cage, he didn’t talk at all,” Navarro recalls. “He was so freaking weird at the beginning, but after we finished our hitting, that’s when we sat down and we talked.” Some days, they talked for five minutes, other days for an hour.
Navarro says it’s hard to explain the specifics of what Votto taught him, but it all centred around altering his approach at the plate so that he was in a better position “to do damage.”

“I could always make contact — like hit a weak ground ball or something, and you’re still going to have to do that when you’ve got two strikes or whatever — but, early in the count, you want to look for a pitch to hit haaaaard.”
Here, Navarro opens his eyes wide and draws out the vowel sound.

[traderumor]

If folks could simply mimic the superstars in a professional sport, they would all then be average and there would be no superstars. Votto's approach is more an art than a science. If anyone could do it, it would become trivial and there would be no "professionals."

[klw]

I read in the book 3 Nights in August that pitchers are more open to suggestions than hitters. The theory is that they must have done something right to have got where they are. So when someone who didn't hit that well in their major league career tries to tell them how to fix their swing they don't have an open mind.

I think pitchers are in a better position to be able to adjust their approach because pitching does not require a split hundredth of a second decision to be made like in hitting. I think with a hitter there is sometimes a desire to do one think but then gut instinct takes over. It takes a lot more to overcome that as a hitter. As a pitcher I would occasionally what pitch I would throw mid-wind up but there is not really that split second reaction of recognizing a pitch, location, speed that can overwhelm a hitter if they are not set to their plan. It sounds like what ultimately Votto go Navarro to do was to adopt a plan and stay with it. Be in charge instead of just reactive.