MiddletownJournal.com

Arroyo has a battle plan

By Hal McCoy | Thursday, August 21, 2008, 02:00 PM

Back on the north side with the Cincinnati Reds and Chicago Cubs after a one-day side trip to U.S. Cellular Field and the Chicago White Sox-Seattle Mariners.

Which is best to watch a baseball game?

That’s like choosing a diamond or a zircon.

Wrigley Field is the gem and U.S. Cellular is, well, a functional baseball stadium. There is nothing like the ambience of Wrigley and the eclectic neighborhood. U.S. Cellular just sits there by itself just off an interstate.

And talk about a home run park? Talk about Great American Small Park. The Chisox should call their little playpen U.S. Sail-u-lar, because baseballs sail out of their. They hit four Wednesday, including one by Ken Griffey Jr. Seattle hit one.

The White Sox have hit 188 this year, 20 more than Philadelphia, the NL leader. The Sox do have some punch in their lineup, but the park helps.

While I was on the south-side, Cincinnati’s Bronson Arroyo cranked up a beaut, one runs and three hits over seven innings in a one-run win over the Cubbies.

And Arroyo has a plan on how to make the Reds competitive next year, plus he didn’t need to send a babbling letter that makes little sense.

Here’s his plan. And it ain’t half-bad.

“The pitching staff is solid enough to win plenty of ballgames,” he said. “We really need a starting catcher — unless they are going to go with Ryan Hanigan and I haven’t seen him enough. We need a solid guy you can run out there five days a week, a guy who can hit a little bit, a regular guy instead of dividing it up between a couple of guys.

“We’re going to need two other guys who can hit, probably outfielders,” Arroyo said. “Our infield is decently set if (shortstop) Alex Gonzalez comes back. So we need a couple of outfielders to replace those home runs we lost (Adam Dunn, Ken Griffey Jr.).

“We just need a lineup, from top to bottom, that feels the same when we pitch against the other team’s lineup, so we don’t have as many weaks spots.” Arroyo added. “I mean, with the Cubs I’m facing a seven-hole hitter like Mark DeRosa, who hits .280. That’s the feeling we need to project to other teams.”

DeRosa had two of the three hits Arroyo gave up over seven innings Wednesday in a 2-1 win. And Hanigan was Arroyo’s catcher, contributing a double that led to the Reds tying the game, 1-1, in the sixth.

“We have enough right now in our starting staff and bullpen to win this division, for sure,” Arroyo said.

Maybe Arroyo should have written that letter that management sent to the fans a frew days ago. At least he has something to say that would give fans hope. And I don’t know this to be true, but my guess is that letter was not written by owner Bob Castellini and/or Walt Jocketty (although both signed it, so they must believe it). That letter had PR schmaltz and spin all over it.

ASIDE TO A couple of malcontent posters:

Yes, I wrote early this season that Griffey would not approve a trade and would be with the team the rest of the year. That’s what I was told by some front office types. Griffey wouldn’t address it early in the season. Rather than lie (“I never lie,” he told me Wednesday and he has never lied to me), he said nothing.

The trade was not pursued by the Reds. Chisox GM Kenny Williams approached Jocketty just before the trade deadline and the deal was made.

Then Griffey told me yesterday that he told Jocketty in April that he wouldn’t stand in the way of a trade. You report what you hear and know at the time it happens. I’m not privileged enough to sit in on all the private and inside meetings. I try to give you what I know at the time. If some of you want to blame me for wrong information (at the time I thought it correct), then fire away. Your hindsight is always 20/20.

AND FOR THOSE who accuse me of talking only to Dusty Baker and Griffey because most of the Quotes of the Day came from them, well, NOT TRUE. We talk to Dusty EVERY DAY before games as part of our regular beat-writer briefings.

And he nearly always has good things to say. Same with Griffey. He was always available and always quotable. Some of the other players sit in off-limit areas of the clubhouse, eating or playing cards or watching TV or playing video games.

Permalink | Comments (40) | Post your comment

A visit with Griffey

By Hal McCoy | Wednesday, August 20, 2008, 02:23 PM

Call me a traitor and call me a turncoat, but I abandoned the Cincinnati Reds today. No trip to Wrigley. No Cubs-Reds game.

Instead of going north today, I went south to U.S. Cellular Field to see the Chicago White Sox.

Actually, I went to see Ken Griffey Jr.

We talked before Wednesday afternoon’s game. At the time, Griffey had nine hits for the White Sox, all singles. I told him, “Hit a home run. I didn’t come here to see any dinky singles.”

After another single in the first inning, Griffey came through. He crashed his first Chicago White Sox home run in the second. It was his 609th, tying Chicago legend (and now outcast) Sammy Sosa for fifth on the all-time list.

After an hour’s visit with Griffey, I watched the White Sox-Seattle Mariners game and thought I was at a Reds game when I saw the Mariners. Dreadful.

In the first inning, the first five White Sox got on base against Seattle knuckleballer R.A. Dickey, including a run-scoring single by Griffey. He has 10 hits with the Sox, all singles until the homer. The White Sox had six runs before Dickey got his second out.

And by the time I finished typing the previous paragraph, it became 8-0 in the second.

Before the game, Seattle’s Ichiro asked for a signed bat from Griffey, who eventually sent over about a half dozen to different Mariners.

Asked how many bats he has given away in his career, Griffey said, “Thousands. More than I’ve broken, that’s for sure.”

Griffey said when Ichiro first came to the U.S. on a tour, “He wanted to see me and he wanted to see Michael Jordan. I took him to a Benihana’s in Cincinnati because it had a Japanese chef who fixed him what he wanted.”

And how’s Griffey?

Content. Happy. Pleased. He is on a first-place team and there is no pressure for him to be Top Gun. He either plays center field, right field or designated hitter and bats sixth. On Wednesday, he originally was to play right field and bat sixth. But Jim Thome was scratched so Griffey was moved to DH and batted fourth.

Not much has changed. He is still a star attraction. The Chicago fans love him. He was interviewed three times in the course of an hour I spent with him.

A couple of noteworthy things he said:

The Reds traded Griffey just minutes before the July 31 non-waivers trade deadline and he said he was not only surprised, he said he told Walt Jocketty on the day he became general manager April 23 that he was available to move on.

“It was an informal meeting, just to say hello and congratulations,” said Griffey. “After I asked him if he was getting hazardous duty pay, I told him, ‘If you have something for me, can get something for me, I won’t hold you up. I know what you’re trying to do here.’

“I knew the situation, being in the last year of my contract, and everybody knew pretty much which way they were going to go,” he said.

Griffey knew the Reds would not pick up the option for 2009 on his contract and said, “If we had started off on fire, it would have been different. But we didn’t and the result is that I’m gone, Adam Dunn is gone and David Ross is gone.”

Griffey believes in what the Reds are doing and even sees possible success.

“The biggest thing is the attitude,” he said. “They’re so worried about just wanting to be competitive. They should be talking about winning. You have to want to win.

“That goes for everybody — front office to the players to the scouts to the fans to management,” he said. “When I came back after hitting my 600th home run, my reception was awesome. That should be for everybody, not just because somebody reached a milestone. The fans should put all their energy into supporting every at-bat. Everybody needs to pull together.”

Permalink | Comments (34) | Post your comment

Dear Fans: Yada, yada, yada

By Hal McCoy | Tuesday, August 19, 2008, 06:26 PM

It always boggles my mind when a baseball team sends a letter to its season-ticket holders - begging forgiveness or begging patience or just plain begging.

Cincinnati Reds ticket holders received this letter, signed by owner Bob Castellini and Walt Jocketty this week (my comments after you read the letter):

Dear Fans,

Thank you for your loyalty and support of the Cincinnati Reds. You are extremely vital to the success of the Reds, and it is important we share with you the thinking behind our recent personnel decisions.

Since taking ownership of this franchise, we have aggressively tried to improve our Major League roster for the purpose of restoring championship baseball to Cincinnati. We have sought and signed proven players. We have extended the contracts of select current players. We added Dusty Baker, a proven winning manager. And, we have capitalized on our burgeoning younger players like Joey Votto, Jay Bruce and Johnny Cueto.

We had high expectations for the 2008 season. Unfortunately the team has not played up to our expectations and we have sustained injuries to key players within our starting lineup and rotation.

We opted to trade Ken Griffey Jr. and Adam Dunn at this time because we believe it provided the best outcome for the long-term success of the organization. By executing these inevitable changes now, we secured more players as part of our focus towards building a deeper, stronger inventory of young talent.

We are pleased that the trades allow Griffey and Dunn the opportunity to play for teams in tight division races. Both Ken and Adam made significant contributions to the Reds and we are extremely proud and grateful they wore the Reds uniform.

While the run production generated by these two veterans will not be quickly replaced, we chose to endure the short-term ramifications for the sake of building a strong, competitive team for 2009 and many seasons to come.

The vast majority of our 50 draft picks were signed, culminating last week with first-rounder Yonder Alonso and a pair of talented pitchers. Our expanded scouting operations also signed Juan Duran from the Dominican Republic and Yorman Rodriguez from Venezuela, who are arguably the best amateur free agent position players from their respective countries.

As we near September, we will continue to provide valuable playing time to our young players and new acquisitions who we feel can become significant contributors at the Major League level. We ask your continued trust and patience as we build the roster that will get us back on top. We appreciate your support and look forward to seeing you at the ballpark.

Sincerely, Bob Castellini, Walt Jocketty.

COMMENTS:

It’s a long letter that is short on substance. What’s the plan? Are they trying to win in 2009 or 2012 or the nth of never?

They talked about signing No. 1 draft pick Yonder Alonso. You won’t see him for three years, two at the closest. They talked about signing two 16-year-old kids. What are they, five years away?

They talked about signing 35 of 50 draft choices. If three make it to the majors they’ll be fortunate - and that’s years down the road, too.

They want your “trust and patience.” Trust? Patience? Reds fans have been trusting and patient ever since they were promised a winner when voters approved a new stadium. How’s that worked out? Eight years of losing.

They talked about signing selected players to extended contracts — Aaron Harang, Bronson Arroyo, Brandon Phillips. Hows that worked out?

They talk about trading Ken Griffey Jr. and Adam Dunn, a move that they say sacrifices the short-term for the long-term. But they also talk about the trade benefiting the team in 2009. How is that going to work? The only player they obtained in those two trades who is a major-leaguer (for 2009) would be pitcher Micah Owings, and he hasn’t been very good lately.

They don’t talk about possibly signing big-ticket free agents or acquiring high-profile players in trades for 2009. The truth is that the Reds needed to draw 2.4 million this year to break even.

That isn’t going to happen. So where will they make up the shortfall? Most likely a reduced payroll.

Castellini and Jocketty are honorable men, hard-working guys with their hopes and dreams in the right place. But this letter that mostly talks around the issues probably won’t appease too many fans. In fact, alienation comes to mind.

Permalink | Comments (63) | Post your comment

Some memories from Sweet Lou

By Hal McCoy | Tuesday, August 19, 2008, 04:03 PM

Was walking down a side street off Michigan Avenue shortly after noon Tuesday, about to turn into my hotel, when somebody yelled, “Hal, Hal!”

Looked up and strolling down the sidewalk was Chicago Cubs manager Lou Piniella. Amazingly, nobody recognized him, nobody stopped him for a chat or an autograph and nobody interrupted us as we stood on the sidewalk for five minutes talking baseball.

Sweet Lou. Love the guy. My all-time favorite out of the ga-zillion (actually 16) managers I’ve covered in Cincinnati in my 36 years.

Piniella, of course, was the last (1990) to take the team to a World Series championship.

And I know there are a lot of Cub-haters out there, but with the Reds wallowing in their own mediocrity, I’m rooting hard for the Cubs, just because of Lou.

I mean, the guy is so comfortable with himself he wasn’t afraid to ask a writer, me, when he took over the Reds, “Hal, what does this team need the most?”

I told him, “A leadoff hitter.”

Halfway through the season he came up to me and said, “You were absolutely right. That was our biggest need.” That’s when Piniella made Barry Larkin his leadoff hitter.

Piniella stories are legend - many of them well-known, including his base-tossing tirade in Cincinnati and his clubhouse wrestling match with Rob Dibble.

I was witness to them all, many of which I’ve already related in this space.

I’ve never known a man who hates to lose more than Piniella. Nobody likes to lose, but Lou takes every loss personally and it is as if there is a big ‘L’ emblazoned on his face after it happens.

In San Diego, the clubhouse guy used to have a large bucket big enough to ice down four or five bottles of beer for a manager’s post-game consumption, if he so wished.

One night after a tough loss, as the writers walked into his office, Lou was behind his desk with a sheepish grin and said, “Watch the ice, guys.”

He had kicked the bucket, so to speak, splattering ice all over his office floor, so much that it looked as if a hockey game was about to start.

Another time, for some reason somebody had put a huge plastic bubble (as big as a beach ball) full of gum balls in his office. He never took a single gum ball out of the container, just let it squat in his office.

Another tough loss. Another sly Piniella grin after the game, “Watch the gum balls, guys,” he said. The floor was covered with literally hundreds of gum balls, with a shattered plastic container strewn among the multi-colored gum balls.

I’ve told this one, but it is my favorite.

Dibble was his closer and there was a situation for him to close. Dibble didn’t close and when I asked Dibble why he said, “Go ask the manager.”

So I did. And Lou said, “He told me before the game his arm was a bit sore and he wasn’t available.”

So I returned to Dibble and told him what Piniella said and Dibble screamed, “The manager is a liar.”

So I trudged back into Lou’s office and said, “Your closer just called you a liar.”

Piniella flattened me against his office door and he sprinted to the clubhouse, jumped on Dibble and the fight was on. Pitcher Tim Belcher broke it up but he wasn’t gung-ho about it - either afraid to get hurt or happy that Piniella had the upper hand over Dibble.

Ah, sweet memories from Sweet Lou. If and when I do my book, there are a couple of X-rated stories I’ll include, one involving an interview with a guy from a Christian radio station in Cincinnati. It’s classic.

Permalink | Comments (31) | Post your comment

Reduced to the role of ‘Spoiler’

By Hal McCoy | Monday, August 18, 2008, 03:15 PM

As my grandson, Eric McCoy, and I walked across the Roberto Clemente Bridge that spans the Allegheny River in Pittsburgh, right next to PNC Park, I spotted a young lady.

She was standing on the bridge railing, grasping tightly to one of the bridge cables.

“My gawd, she is going to jump,” I said to Eric. She was gorgeous, dressed in short tight white hot pants and a black tube top. Just as I was about to run and become a hero, Eric began laughing.

“Look, grandpa, there is a photographer taking her picture,” he said.

Obviously, it was some kind of photo shoot, perhaps for an advertisement for hot pants. And I, with my legal blindess, was going to save the young lass from a plunge into the drink.

I could just envision the next day’s headlines: “Model, baseball writer die in fall from Roberto Clemente Bridge.”

Just another story in the life of a traveling baseball writer. Never a dull moment.

Well, I shouldn’t say that. There are many dull moments when the team you cover is more than 20 games out of first place in mid-August. In fact, at this time of year I sometimes awake in my hotel room and quickly wonder, “Where am I? What city is this?” It’s true. Most hotel rooms look alike.

I mention this because tomorrow the Cincinnati Reds start on a nine-game 10-day trip to Chicago, Denver and Houston.

How does manager Dusty Baker keep things, uh, interesting?

Well, the first three games in Chicago mean something - to the Cubs. They are trying to hold off Milwaukee and maybe St. Louis. The Reds have 37 games remaining and 21 are against teams still in the playoff picture.

They have six against the Cubs, six against the Brewers, six against the Cardinals and three against the Diamondbacks.

What does that make the Reds? Spoilers, er, potential spoilers.

Baker plans to make it an issue with his team.

“This is very beneficial because we plan on being in that race next year,” said Baker. “The guys who have never been there think they know what it is all about or think they can handle it. But you don’t know until you get there.

“You get a taste of it and think, ‘This is what we want. This is what we need.’ It is a long road to get there, into a pennant race,” Baker added. “A lot of our young guys can get a taste of what that long and windy and up-and-down road is all about.”

OK, we’ll focus on that. Meanwhile I’ll try not to save anybody from jumping off the Sears Tower in Chicago, or off a Rocky Mountain cliff near Denver or jumping in front of that train that runs atop the viaduct inside Minute Maid Park in Houston.

In fact, I guess I should concentrate of keeping myself from stepping in front of a car - anywhere.

Permalink | Comments (18) | Post your comment

The curse of the masks?

By Hal McCoy | Sunday, August 17, 2008, 11:42 AM

There are four empty dressing stalls in the Cincinnati Reds clubhouse, two each once occupied by Ken Griffey Jr. and Adam Dunn.

Dunn, though, left something behind on a wall near his space - four black native African masks.

“They should take those down,” said free-lance writer Jeff Wallner. “They’re probably cursed.”

THE DISCUSSION in the Reds’ dugout early Sunday was about the comment Bengals’ wide receiver Chad Johnson made that he could beat Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps. Said pitching coach Dick Pole, “What’s Chad going to do, run alongside the pool? He still might not beat Phelps.”

DESPITE HIS team losing 17 of its previous 21, manager Dusty Baker was upbeat and optimistic Sunday morning.

“Over the course of the years, I was looking it up, and St. Louis and Houston have beaten up on the Reds,” said Baker. “That’s No. 1. That can’t happen, not in this division. I ain’t going for that. Me and Tony hook up pretty good. I think I’m ahead or we’re pretty close to even head-to-head.”

Baker said St. Louis-Houston domination over the past decade is going to change, among other things.

“It ain’t right that teams come in here, like Houston and these guys (St. Louis) and hit more home runs than us. I was warned about this place at this time of year but I hadn’t seen it until now. The ball is flying, I mean, that ball is flying.

“When a little guy like Skip Schumaker hits a ball to dead center like Albert Pujols, well, anything hit up in the air has a chance to go,” said Baker. “Whew. Man, the ball goes. You have to get sinkerball pitchers here and keep that ball down.”

“I’m more convinced now than ever that we’re going to figure this out,” he said, drumming his fingers on his desk. “I want Pete Rose to be wrong. I love Pete. He said good pitchers won’t come here and you can’t win in this ballpark because of the way the ball flies. I just want Pete to be wrong.”

There was a long pause and some chatter about other things, then as a point of emphasis as I walked out his office door, Baker said, “We’re going to get this together. I’m convinced of that. We’re going to do it.”

What he didn’t say was when. Or how. But you have to admire his optimism.

Permalink | Comments (71) | Post your comment

Alonso: more than $4.55 million

By Hal McCoy | Saturday, August 16, 2008, 04:09 PM

OK, so here’s the scoop, the breakdown of the contract the Cincinnati Reds gave No. 1 pick Yonder Alonso.

Mama, do let your babies grow up to be first basemen.

Alonso’s contract is worth a little more than $4.55 million, with incentives.

The breakdown:

He receives a $2 million signing bonus - $1.5 million now, $500,000 on June 15 of next year.

For the rest of this season, he gets $50,000 in salary. His salary then escalates to $400,000 next year, $500,000 in 2010, $600,000 in 2011 and $1 million in 2012. If he is arbitration eligible in 2012, that supersedes the $1 million.

In addition, for his last three college semesters, the Reds will contribute $78,000 - that’s $60,000 in tuition and $18,000 in books and board.

In addition, a trip for his immediate family will be paid for by the Reds for his first major-league game.

In addition, he gets $25,000 if he is Rookie of the Year, $100 if he is MVP and $100,000 if he is MVP of the World Series (for what team?).

Everything is guaranteed, he is on a major-league contract and he will be in big-league camp in spring training next spring and in 2010.

While Alonso said he was confident a deal would get done - it was cementt done he had his fall class scheduled to the University of Miami on a table to his left and a contract for the independent Long Island Ducks to his right. Just in case.

Alonso has been friends with A-Rod since they were in the Boys Club together when they were 9 and was taking advice from the New York Yankee superstar. In fact, A-Rod offered to let Alonso share an apartment in New York if he played for the Ducks.

Let’s see, $4.55 million from the Reds and a start at Class A Sarasota, or a chintzy check from the Ducks and a chance to get a glimpse of Madonna. Some choice.

Asked to describe himself as a player, Alonso said, “I have a lot of hunger, I’m a very passionate guy about baseball and I’m a winner.”

With that contract, he can wipe out the hunger part.

When the Reds drafted him in June, he said he was looking forward to meeting Ken Griffey Jr. and Adam Dunn.

Whoops. Now what?

“Well, I don’t want to see them, but I ‘m looking forward to seeing Jay Bruce and Joey Votto.”

One of the major issues in the deal is that Alonso wanted a major-league contract and to be placed on the 40-man roster.

“It was very important to me to be part of a major-league 40-man roster, to be part of the club,” he said.

Despite the class schedules and the independent contract as his fallbacks, Alonso said he spent Friday afternoon watching Al Pacino in ‘88 Minutes’ to take his mind off the clock ticking away his future.

“The movie was very funny and relaxing, but the day was very stressful,” Alonso added.

He said A-Rod advised him, “Stay relaxed and don’t panic. They’ll get something don’t. And even if they don’t, you’ll still be playing baseball. Hey, it’s an honor and a privilege to know him and to go to his home in the winter and hit in his batting cage.”

Somebody asked what was next - meaning what would he do in the next few days - and Alonso was taking the long-term approach when he said, “I’m going to hit line drives, drive in guys and make it to the big leagues as soon as possible.”

Permalink | Comments (26) | Post your comment