SB Nation Blog: Caleb

Willie Randolph Fired by Mets

Caleb — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 13:15:27 -0000

Looks like the Mets let Willie go in the middle of the night. Even though the Mets have suffered some injuries they are hovering around the .500 mark (34-35). Jerry Manuel will take over on an intrim basis. They also fired their pitching coach, Rick Peterson, and their first base coach, Tom Nieto. Wonder if Dusty is nervous?

More here

and here

and fan reaction here

Also Seattle fired GM Bill Bavasi yesterday

fan reaction here

Stuff

Caleb — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 01:58:02 -0000

From Fay

Looks like there will be no house cleaning per Walt Jocketty. And he has no idea where that came from:

Walt Jocketty dismissed a published report that he "wants to clean house."

"I don't where that came from," he said. "First of all, I'd would have never said clean house. It's not necessary. There's a strong possibility we'll have everyone till the end of the year. Dusty (Baker) and I are haven't been here that long. We're still evaluating the team. We haven't had the luxury of seeing everyone over a long period of time."

More here

Griffey is still in the starting outfield for the NL. It seems like MLB would get it together for the All-Star Teams. Each League should get two exemptions for their rosters. That way players like Griffey or Maddux for example could be honored and seen by the fans.

Griffey to Rays rumors untrue

Dust Bunnies from Hal and the Dayton Daily News:

"We have some other dudes coming, and they're coming pretty quickly," Baker said.

I think I found the first game where the Great Eight started together.

I hate off days they are boring. Nice to see the Red Sox couldn't hit after they left Cincy. Of course it was against the great Cole Hamels.

Friday Night Red Sox game

Caleb — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 15:18:38 -0000

wife and I came down for the first game of the Red Sox series. We had intended to get there early enough to go through the Hall of Fame and catch batting practice. Oh well the best laid plans...

The HOF was, as always, pretty cool. The new exhibits right now are celebration of 50 years of the Hall of Fame and the Joe Nuxhall tribute.

We went through the entire Hall and only saw a few other people. It was a lot of fun to have it virtually to our selves.

And of course we made the mandatory stops

This was a nice way to remind the bandwagon Boston fans who actually won in 1975.

Then the rains came and canceled batting practice. The HOF is a pretty good place to hang out in a rain storm. Prior to the start of the game Volquez was signing autographs, for a very long time. Very cool.

The future is looking good for the Reds.

Volquez was joined by Bruce and BP signing for the fans. Pretty cool stuff.

The first pitch was thrown out by some old timer

Prior to the start the Mayor was holding court

The Eagle has landed. Freakin Awesome

This became a leadoff Homerun

Manny looking at a strike

The Mayor returns to Cincinnati. He would later pick up his 1500th career hit.

and then the batteries died. But what a great game. Despite the threatening weather it was a great game, and a great Reds win.

Post game there was enough battery to squeeze out one more photo. It was a long day and I was pretty beat. But it was a good day!!

Happy Father's Day

Caleb — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 02:15:02 -0000

Happy Father's day to all of you out there. I hope the day treated you well, with the exception of the game, and you got to spend time with your family. It was a beautiful day here and I got to visit with my parents as well as all of my children and grand-children.

With all the recent additions to the Redreporter family I'm sure you guys had a great day as well.

via img2.timeinc.net

For Chan & Ash

Caleb — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 13:16:02 -0000

Not sure if you guys saw it but I never saw the answer posted last night for the Scoreboard Stumper so here it is. And we weren't even close.

Name the 4 Reds, since 1980, who have had 70 or more extra base hits in one season. Sean Casey should have been a given since he was in town.

Cnt Player             **XB** Year Age Tm  Lg  G   PA  AB  R   H  2B 3B HR RBI  BB IBB  SO HBP  SH  SF GDP  SB CS   BA   OBP   SLG   OPS  Positions
+----+-----------------+-------+----+---+---+--+---+---+---+---+---+--+--+--+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+--+-----+-----+-----+-----+---------+
    1 Adam Dunn            80   2004  24 CIN NL 161 681 568 105 151 34  0 46 102 108  11 195   5   0   0   8   6  1  .266  .388  .569  .957 *73/D     
    2 Dave Parker          80   1985  34 CIN NL 160 694 635  88 198 42  4 34 125  52  24  80   3   0   4  26   5 13  .312  .365  .551  .916 *9        
    3 Adam Dunn            77   2005  25 CIN NL 160 671 543 107 134 35  2 40 101 114  14 168  12   0   2   6   4  2  .247  .387  .540  .927 *73       
    4 Sean Casey           70   2004  29 CIN NL 146 633 571 101 185 44  2 24  99  46   5  36  10   0   6  16   2  0  .324  .381  .534  .915 *3/D      
    5 Sean Casey           70   1999  24 CIN NL 151 669 594 103 197 42  3 25  99  61  13  88   9   0   5  15   0  2  .332  .399  .539  .938 *3/D      
    6 Reggie Sanders       70   1995  27 CIN NL 133 567 484  91 148 36  6 28  99  69   4 122   8   0   6   9  36 12  .306  .397  .579  .976 *98

The 600 Club

Caleb — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 14:58:24 -0000

[UPDATE: Bumped, cause it's gonna happen soon.]

As Ken Griffey Jr. continues his assault on baseball history I started looking at the other members of the 600 Club.

Currently there are five members of this club; Hank Aaron, Barry Bonds, Willie Mays, Babe Ruth and Sammy Sosa. Here are the dates and their ages when they joined the club:

Ruth August 21, 1931 36 years, 196 days
Mays Sept 22, 1969 38 years, 139 days
Aaron April 27, 1971 37 years, 81 days
Bonds August 9, 2002 37 years, 16 days
Sosa June 20, 2007 38 years, 220 days

Babe Ruth hit his 600th on 8/21/1931 against George Blaeholder, of the St. Louis Browns, in a 11-7 victory . There wasn't much time for reflection since some guy named Gehrig went back to back with him.

Willie Mays hit his 600th against Mike Corkins, of the San Diego Padres, in the 7th inning of a 4-2 victory . It was a two run shot that scored Ron Hunt ahead of him. Willie was 1 for 2 that day with 2 RBI. The homer put the Giants ahead to stay that day.

Henry Aaron hit his 600th against Gaylord Perry, of the San Francisco Giants, in the 3rd inning of a 6-5 loss . It was a two run shot that scored Ralph Garr ahead of him. Hank was 2 for 5 with 3 RBI. This game featured 5 future Hall of Famers; Mays, Willie McCovey and Gaylord Perry for the Giants and Aaron and Orlando Cepeda for the Braves.

Barry Bonds hit his 600th against Kip Wells, of the Pittsburgh Pirates, in the 6th inning of a 4-3 loss . Barry was 2 for 4 with 1 RBI that day. It came against the team that Bonds began his career with in 1986.

Sammy Sosa hit his 600th against Jason Marquis, of the Chicago Cubs, in the 5th inning of a 7-3 victory. Sammy was 1 for 4 with 2 RBI that day. It was the front end of back-to-back home runs for the Rangers with Frank Catalanotto hitting the back end.

Good luck Griffey as you continue along the path to Cooperstown.

Reds Trivia Question

Caleb — Sat, 31 May 2008 13:12:19 -0000

Since 1933 the Reds have had 5 different catchers, not named Johnny Bench , make the NL All-Star team while wearing a single digit uniform number. Can you name them?

Here are Bench's All-Star Game Stats:

 Year   Tm  Lg  GS  AB  R   H  2B 3B HR RBI  BB  SO  SB CS  SH  SF HBP
+------+---+--+---+---+---+---+--+--+--+---+---+---+---+--+---+---+---+---------+
 1968   CIN NL       0   0   0  0  0  0       0   0   0  0   0   0   0           
 1969   CIN NL   *   3   2   2  0  0  1   2   1   0   0  0   0   0   0 Starting C 
 1970   CIN NL   *   3   0   0  0  0  0   0   0   3   0  0   0   0   0 Starting C 
 1971   CIN NL   *   4   1   2  0  0  1   2   0   0   0  0   0   0   0 Starting C 
 1972   CIN NL   *   2   0   1  0  0  0   0   0   0   0  0   0   0   0 Starting C 
 1973   CIN NL   *   3   1   1  0  0  1   1   0   0   0  0   0   0   0 Starting C 
 1974   CIN NL   *   3   1   2  0  0  0   0   1   1   0  0   0   0   0 Starting C 
 1975   CIN NL   *   4   0   1  0  0  0   1   0   0   0  0   0   0   0 Starting C 
 1976   CIN NL   *   2   0   1  0  0  0   0   0   1   0  0   0   0   0 Starting C 
 1977   CIN NL   *   2   0   0  0  0  0   0   0   1   0  0   0   0   0 Starting C 
 1978   CIN NL       Was selected, but did not play in the game.
 1979   CIN NL       Was selected, but did not play in the game.
 1980   CIN NL   *   1   0   0  0  0  0   0   0   0   0  0   0   0   0 Starting C 
 1983   CIN NL       1   0   0  0  0  0   0   0   0   0  0   0   0   0           
+------+---+--+---+---+---+---+--+--+--+---+---+---+---+--+---+---+---+---------+
 Played 12/14   10  28   5  10  0  0  3   6   2   6   0  0   0   0   0  .357  .400  .679 
+-------------+---+---+---+---+--+--+--+---+---+---+---+--+---+---+---+-----+-----+-----+

HINT

This guy wasn't one of them:

via sportsillustrated.cnn.com

Our condolences to the Boone family

Caleb — Sun, 18 May 2008 14:49:51 -0000

Patricia Boone , wife of former Major Leaguer Ray Boone , mother of Bob Boone, grandmother of Aaron and Bret, passed away on Mother's Day after a long illness. She was 82 years old. The news was just released late last week. Our prayers and thoughts go out to the family.

Bob managed the Reds from 2001-2003 following a long playing career. Aaron was with the Reds from 97-03 and Bret was here from 95-98.

Adam Dunn - Our favorite whipping boy

Caleb — Sat, 17 May 2008 15:09:02 -0000

I just noticed that our boy Adam has knocked in at least one run in five consecutive games, the longest such streak of his career. And he has done it in an unconventional, or at least for him, manner. On May 11 and 12 he had a sacrifice fly (hard to believe I know). On May 13 his RBI came via a ground out. On May 14 he hit a solo shot. Last night he had another solo shot and an RBI walk (which provided the go ahead run).

I guess my point is he is starting to drive in some runs with out his usual power and I find that encouraging. His power stroke looks like it is slowly returning so hopefully he will crank things up and get back to his normal 40 home runs 100 RBI type season.

Below are the top consecutive game RBI streaks in Reds history.

 
 Joe Morgan         1976-06-02  1976-06-11     9                                             
 Pete Rose          1975-09-23  1976-04-13     9                                               

 Ken Griffey        2000-04-05  2000-04-12     8                                              
 Kevin Mitchell     1994-07-10  1994-07-22     8                                                
 Hal Morris         1990-06-30  1990-07-12     8                                               
 George Foster      1976-05-20  1976-05-29     8                                               
 Jerry Lynch        1962-06-15  1962-06-23     8                                               
 Frank Robinson     1959-06-21  1959-07-02     8                                              

       (a whole bunch of guys in between)                                        

 Adam Dunn          2008-05-11  2008-05-16     5

Turnbow DFA'd by the Brew Crew

Caleb — Fri, 02 May 2008 16:32:39 -0000

I just saw where former closer Derrick Turnbow has been released by the Brewers and designated for assignment. Isn't it funny how fast, and far, some of these guys fall from the lime light. I wonder how much interest around the league there will be for him. Any thoughts about signing him to a minor league deal? It will be interesting to see what becomes of him. I wonder if any one has enough interest to trade for him?