Good Monday Morning!
I really, really really want to drink the Kool Aid. Pour me a glass of strawberry Kool Aid and let me believe. Of course, I’ve wanted to drink the Kool Aid every year since 1990. It’s a Bengals fan’s number one drink. But why should we drink this year. Because Carson Palmer is healthy?
I need more than that. And I need more than just some intrasquad scrimmage to get me geeked. Remember, the Bengals were playing against each other this weekend.
The great Tip O’Neill, former Speaker of the House, once said, the problem with being Irish is that you know, in the end, the world will always break your heart. The problem with being a Bengals fans is that you know in the end, the team will always break your wallet, your pride and then center in on your heart. Akili Smith, Darnay Scott, Trumaine Mack, Neil O’Donnell, pick your favorite, you know they’ve killed you at one time or another.
Here are the three reasons I keep hearing from some Bengals fans why they believe this year will be more like 2005 than….pick any other year since 1990. One: Palmer is healthy. Two: Rey Maualuga is our answer to Troy Polamalu. Three: Tank Johnson and/or Roy Williams have ridden into town from Dallas.
Palmer’s healthy. Great, how long you figure that’ll last? It’s what’s up front that counts. And right now, I’m counting only Bobbie Williams and Andrew Whitworth who’ve proven they can block an NFL defensive lineman. And before we get all giddy about Palmer’s elbow: it’s a lot different trying to throw the ball in and around 300 pound men running downhill at your head, then simply dropping back and throwing in one on one drills or flag football. Not saying his elbow won’t hold up. I’m just sayin’
Rey Maualuga can be everything that Odell Thurman should’ve been, but wasn’t. By all account, Rey Rey is a clean liver, hard hitter, from a championship football program. He’s also very good. But here’s the thing about rookies: their best seasons tend to be after they stop being rookies. Tbe learning curve for Maualuga will be steep.
Tank Jonson? Tank was good in Chicago, but got into a lot of trouble. Tanks wasn’t all that great in Dallas. That’s how he wound up here. You think the Dallas Cowboys are in any position to lose good defensive linemen? And Roy Williams, great nose for the ball. But will he stay on the field come third down? Chris Crocker, Chinedum Ndukwe, Roy Williams they all make big plays. But somebody is coming off the field on third down. And as good as Crocker is at safety, does he have the speed to play nickel back? My advice is use pencil, not pen on that depth chart.
Look, the Bengals will be better in 2009 than 2008. They’d have a hard time being worse. There is depth. If Palmer goes down, JT O’Sullivan is a better back up than Ryan Fitzpatrick. If Cedric Benson is hurt, the trade with the Cardinals that brought here looks genius. If Chris Henry is really Tom Cruise and not Sean Penn, score one for central casting.
But before we all get wrapped up in the blue smoke out of Georgetown and the Kool Aid flavor of the year, remember this: the Bengals, play in the same division as the Steelers and Ravens. And until they can prove they can beat those teams, nothing matters.
Four division winners and two wild card teams make the conference playoffs.
The Steelers, Patriots Colts and Chargers all enter this season as favorites to win their division. Wild card contenders can be found playing in New York, Buffalo, Tennessee, Jacksonville, Houston, Baltimore, Miami and, OK, Cincinnati. It will take eleven wins to get in. New England won eleven in 2008 and didn’t get in. But eleven is the number. Do you honestly see eleven wins on the Bengals schedule this season? Honestly?
I might, after watching some pre season games against teams other than a Bengals split squad. I’m thirsty, I want a drink. I really do. But I can’t take a sip. Not yet.
THE BROO VIEW: Cincinnati's Legendary Sportscaster Offer His Thoughts On The Ever Changing World Of Sports
Thursday, August 06, 2009
Dusty Baker got a 'vote of confidence' Wednesday from Reds chief, Bob Castellini. What else would you expect Castellini to say except that Baker was his guy? The Reds owe Baker in excess of $3.5 million next season and the Reds are in no position to eat that deal. The real question is: is Baker the right guy for this team?
Injures aside, the Reds have been an under-performing group this season. Jay Bruce, before getting injured, couldn't have hit a beach ball. Aaron Harang is a shadow of what he was two year ago. And Willy Tavares has been good money poorly spent. This ballclub was poorly constructed and it remains a hapharzard compilation of too many GM's (5 in the last 7 years) and too many managers (5 in the last 7 years) and a farm system that until 2004 was in complete atrophy.
Firing Baker would only add to the chaos. But the Reds need some fresh voices. They've had too many pitching coaches and too many hitting coaches since 2000. But it's obvious to me, that Dick Pole and Brook Jacoby aren't getting through to their students. With each, there seems to be no specific philosophy. My guess is, if there are changes to be made in the off season, they'll start with the major league coaches on Baker's staff.
As I plan ahead for my weekly radio show on 700 WLW, two of my guests will address the Reds situation. One, is Denny Knobler, from cbssports.com. I want to ask Denny about the recent trade for Scott Rolen (I remain a big supporter of that move) and if the real blue print the Reds should follow is the one designed by the Twins former GM, Terry Ryan.
Another guest will be Reds AA second baseman, Todd Frazier. The thing I want to know from Todd is whether or not he's tired of getting pushed around the diamond. He's now at second, but has player short, third and left this season. Is he a man without a position? Or is he at second now, so the Reds can move Brandon Phillips to short stop next season? Reds GM Walt Jocketty says 'no'. Maybe he's really saying 'no', because Phillips could be traded in the off season? Just a thought.
See you tonight at 6p and 11p on WLWT Channel 5 in Cincinnati
Injures aside, the Reds have been an under-performing group this season. Jay Bruce, before getting injured, couldn't have hit a beach ball. Aaron Harang is a shadow of what he was two year ago. And Willy Tavares has been good money poorly spent. This ballclub was poorly constructed and it remains a hapharzard compilation of too many GM's (5 in the last 7 years) and too many managers (5 in the last 7 years) and a farm system that until 2004 was in complete atrophy.
Firing Baker would only add to the chaos. But the Reds need some fresh voices. They've had too many pitching coaches and too many hitting coaches since 2000. But it's obvious to me, that Dick Pole and Brook Jacoby aren't getting through to their students. With each, there seems to be no specific philosophy. My guess is, if there are changes to be made in the off season, they'll start with the major league coaches on Baker's staff.
As I plan ahead for my weekly radio show on 700 WLW, two of my guests will address the Reds situation. One, is Denny Knobler, from cbssports.com. I want to ask Denny about the recent trade for Scott Rolen (I remain a big supporter of that move) and if the real blue print the Reds should follow is the one designed by the Twins former GM, Terry Ryan.
Another guest will be Reds AA second baseman, Todd Frazier. The thing I want to know from Todd is whether or not he's tired of getting pushed around the diamond. He's now at second, but has player short, third and left this season. Is he a man without a position? Or is he at second now, so the Reds can move Brandon Phillips to short stop next season? Reds GM Walt Jocketty says 'no'. Maybe he's really saying 'no', because Phillips could be traded in the off season? Just a thought.
See you tonight at 6p and 11p on WLWT Channel 5 in Cincinnati
Tuesday, August 04, 2009
Just posted to my web site www.kenbroo.com is the latest Broo View Podcast. My guest is MLB umpire, Joe West, who just called his 4,000th career game. Joe and I visit about that and what it takes to get a manager or player thrown out of a game. Joe also talks about his singing career. If you're on the fly, you can also download it here.
Sunday, August 02, 2009
Good Monday Morning!
Scott Rolen's head has more hits than he does. Ouch....when Jason Marquis's fastball hit the newest Red in the head, you could hear an entire city screaming. Good thing he's OK.
For the record, I’m a big Scott Rolen fan. Liked him a lot when he played for the Cardinals. Liked him a lot when he played in Philly. He’s a no nonsense baseball player. A good clubhouse guy, as they like to say in the game.. He’ll provide leadership this team hasn’t seen since the days of Greg Vaughn. And you have to go back to that era to find the last time the Reds made a mid season trade to bring in a player the magnitude of Scott Rolen. In ’99, it was Juan Guzman who was supposed to push the Reds over the top. Remember who the Reds traded to the Orioles to get Guzman? BJ Ryan, then just two innings into his major league career.
Turned out to be a much better deal for the Orioles than the Reds. Guzman was a rent a player. Ryan went on to be a solid closer for the O’s and later the Blue Jays, before he blew out his arm.
So to get Rolen, the Reds had to give up a couple of pitchers who might be like BJ Ryan. Josh Reonicke throws hard. Minor League pitcher Zach Stewart throws a lot of ground ball outs.
So what? If you can’t find guys like that every year in the player draft, you shouldn’t be working in professional baseball. Well, come to think of it, the group that ran the Reds front office up until the middle of the 2003 season couldn’t find pitchers like that. And most of them ARE out of major league baseball.
Protecting prospects is good. They are the backbone of any organization. They learn the game the way you want it played and they’re cost certain for a long, long time. But too often, the Reds have fallen in love with their prospects, refused to include them on any deals that would help the team at the big league level. And those prospects turned out to be suspects.
I heard a lot talk Friday about how Stewart and Roenicke might be players the Reds wished they had held onto to, how each could be solid additions to the Blue Jays major league roster right now.
Who cares? This is Cincinnati we’re talking about, the land of lost baseball. The last time this team won at the big league level, the world hadn’t heard of Bernie Madoff, hanging chads or corporate bailouts. The last time the Reds had a winning season, General Motors stock was considered a strong buy.
I hope Stewart and Roenicke have long and productive careers. But this was a good deal. Rolen won’t fix every problem this team has. The Reds still lack legitimate power in a power hitting ballpark. Their starting pitching has been either injured or grossly over-estimated. And we’re still waiting for this team to play the game fundamentally sound: hitting the cutoff man, executing the bunt, converting the routine double play ball consistently.
But the economy stinks, attendance is down and Bob Castellini promises were beginning to sound hollow. Nothing matters in your minor league system unless it helps the big league club. This is a good deal. It should have been made a month ago.
Scott Rolen's head has more hits than he does. Ouch....when Jason Marquis's fastball hit the newest Red in the head, you could hear an entire city screaming. Good thing he's OK.
For the record, I’m a big Scott Rolen fan. Liked him a lot when he played for the Cardinals. Liked him a lot when he played in Philly. He’s a no nonsense baseball player. A good clubhouse guy, as they like to say in the game.. He’ll provide leadership this team hasn’t seen since the days of Greg Vaughn. And you have to go back to that era to find the last time the Reds made a mid season trade to bring in a player the magnitude of Scott Rolen. In ’99, it was Juan Guzman who was supposed to push the Reds over the top. Remember who the Reds traded to the Orioles to get Guzman? BJ Ryan, then just two innings into his major league career.
Turned out to be a much better deal for the Orioles than the Reds. Guzman was a rent a player. Ryan went on to be a solid closer for the O’s and later the Blue Jays, before he blew out his arm.
So to get Rolen, the Reds had to give up a couple of pitchers who might be like BJ Ryan. Josh Reonicke throws hard. Minor League pitcher Zach Stewart throws a lot of ground ball outs.
So what? If you can’t find guys like that every year in the player draft, you shouldn’t be working in professional baseball. Well, come to think of it, the group that ran the Reds front office up until the middle of the 2003 season couldn’t find pitchers like that. And most of them ARE out of major league baseball.
Protecting prospects is good. They are the backbone of any organization. They learn the game the way you want it played and they’re cost certain for a long, long time. But too often, the Reds have fallen in love with their prospects, refused to include them on any deals that would help the team at the big league level. And those prospects turned out to be suspects.
I heard a lot talk Friday about how Stewart and Roenicke might be players the Reds wished they had held onto to, how each could be solid additions to the Blue Jays major league roster right now.
Who cares? This is Cincinnati we’re talking about, the land of lost baseball. The last time this team won at the big league level, the world hadn’t heard of Bernie Madoff, hanging chads or corporate bailouts. The last time the Reds had a winning season, General Motors stock was considered a strong buy.
I hope Stewart and Roenicke have long and productive careers. But this was a good deal. Rolen won’t fix every problem this team has. The Reds still lack legitimate power in a power hitting ballpark. Their starting pitching has been either injured or grossly over-estimated. And we’re still waiting for this team to play the game fundamentally sound: hitting the cutoff man, executing the bunt, converting the routine double play ball consistently.
But the economy stinks, attendance is down and Bob Castellini promises were beginning to sound hollow. Nothing matters in your minor league system unless it helps the big league club. This is a good deal. It should have been made a month ago.
Thursday, July 30, 2009
Random thoughts for a random Friday....
The Reds have now officially moved into the non-relevant part of the 2009 sports scene. Call me when the hype for 2010 begins...
I predict by the close of business on Friday the Reds will have done nothing to appreciably improve their chances for 2010. They'll dump either David Weather or Arthur Rhodes and get some minor league suspects in return. Then, we'll hear how great these guys coming to the Cincinnati organization will be, can be, should be....shoot me. I've heard this line of crap for the last 19 years. It never NEVER happens.
You know why the Reds can't/won't make any moves? The economy is horrid and so is the way this team is playing. It was doomed from the start of this season. Pitching, speed and defense? That kind of torque-esh move in a five month span from a power hitting team? I said in the Fall it wouldn't happen. It didn't. The Reds put themselves in this spot by signing Willy Tavares to a $6.8 million contract when the rest of the baseball world was just about asking Willy to pay them to let him play. The Reds put themselves in this spot by signing Mike Lincoln to a guaranteed two year deal. What??? For a guy who couldn't lift a doughnut with his right arm two years ago? The Reds put themselves in this situation by signing Edwin Encarnaction to a guaranteed two year deal this past winter. The problem with EE can be summed up in this phrase: he doesn't have the glove to play third base nor the bat to play the outfield. Wasted millions right there. Architect of those moves: Castellini, Jocketty and Baker. When the gatherings at GABP number 7,000 or so in about two weeks, they'll have no one to blame but themselves.
Wasn't Wayne Krivsky's firing last April supposed to stop the losing? Dude, where's my baseball team?
The Bengals hit the practice field for their first training camp workout later today. 8-8 this season, you heard it here first. They don't have a stable offensive line (just Andrew Whitworth and Bobbie Williams) and because of that, they won't have a dominant running game. Without that, you can't win in any cold weather environment. But 8-8 may set the stage for 2010. Keep hope alive...
But their defense will be a lot better. It won't be as good as what you saw the final couple of games in 2008. The opposition then wasn't very good and the Bengals excelled. But the 'D' could be the best we've seen around here in years...decades..
I hope Mike Brown wears a wireless mic for the Hard Knocks crew. That could be some riveting television. They'll have to hold Mike to a strict limit on four syllable words. My guess is three per segment...
Over/under on Ochocinco blow ups? Four. I'll take the over...
I wonder what Odell Thurman thinks about, when the lights are out and the evening is quiet. I wonder if he thinks about how he blew it. He could be making millions. Instead, he's spending what little money he has left on legal fees. What a waste...
Why am I believing, more and more, that Michael Vick will wind up with the Patriots? Answer: because Bill Bellichick is the one guy who can afford the luxury of Vick on his team, because of the starting quarterback he has.
Two playoff teams will come from the AFC East this season: New England and Buffalo. Two will come out of the North: Pittsburgh and Baltimore. But I think the best division race will be in the South, where anyone of three teams could win it...
Nine wins get you in the playoffs IF you're an NFC team. You'll need eleven in the AFC....
Just booked for my radio show Sunday on 700 WLW, MLB umpire Joe West, due to join me at 10:05 am. I'm taking your calls and welcoming guests from 9am-Noon EDT.
Sports Rock! Sunday night on WLWT NBC '5' in Cincinnati features former Bengal Eric Thomas and talented author, Lonnie Wheeler, who's latest book on Cincinnati area prep stars of yesteryear "Legends" will be a big seller.
I'm with Kentucky Speedway owner, Bruton Smith, in his private box Saturday night for the Meijer 300 at the Speedway. I've never met the man so I'm looking forward to it.
Have a great weekend!
The Reds have now officially moved into the non-relevant part of the 2009 sports scene. Call me when the hype for 2010 begins...
I predict by the close of business on Friday the Reds will have done nothing to appreciably improve their chances for 2010. They'll dump either David Weather or Arthur Rhodes and get some minor league suspects in return. Then, we'll hear how great these guys coming to the Cincinnati organization will be, can be, should be....shoot me. I've heard this line of crap for the last 19 years. It never NEVER happens.
You know why the Reds can't/won't make any moves? The economy is horrid and so is the way this team is playing. It was doomed from the start of this season. Pitching, speed and defense? That kind of torque-esh move in a five month span from a power hitting team? I said in the Fall it wouldn't happen. It didn't. The Reds put themselves in this spot by signing Willy Tavares to a $6.8 million contract when the rest of the baseball world was just about asking Willy to pay them to let him play. The Reds put themselves in this spot by signing Mike Lincoln to a guaranteed two year deal. What??? For a guy who couldn't lift a doughnut with his right arm two years ago? The Reds put themselves in this situation by signing Edwin Encarnaction to a guaranteed two year deal this past winter. The problem with EE can be summed up in this phrase: he doesn't have the glove to play third base nor the bat to play the outfield. Wasted millions right there. Architect of those moves: Castellini, Jocketty and Baker. When the gatherings at GABP number 7,000 or so in about two weeks, they'll have no one to blame but themselves.
Wasn't Wayne Krivsky's firing last April supposed to stop the losing? Dude, where's my baseball team?
The Bengals hit the practice field for their first training camp workout later today. 8-8 this season, you heard it here first. They don't have a stable offensive line (just Andrew Whitworth and Bobbie Williams) and because of that, they won't have a dominant running game. Without that, you can't win in any cold weather environment. But 8-8 may set the stage for 2010. Keep hope alive...
But their defense will be a lot better. It won't be as good as what you saw the final couple of games in 2008. The opposition then wasn't very good and the Bengals excelled. But the 'D' could be the best we've seen around here in years...decades..
I hope Mike Brown wears a wireless mic for the Hard Knocks crew. That could be some riveting television. They'll have to hold Mike to a strict limit on four syllable words. My guess is three per segment...
Over/under on Ochocinco blow ups? Four. I'll take the over...
I wonder what Odell Thurman thinks about, when the lights are out and the evening is quiet. I wonder if he thinks about how he blew it. He could be making millions. Instead, he's spending what little money he has left on legal fees. What a waste...
Why am I believing, more and more, that Michael Vick will wind up with the Patriots? Answer: because Bill Bellichick is the one guy who can afford the luxury of Vick on his team, because of the starting quarterback he has.
Two playoff teams will come from the AFC East this season: New England and Buffalo. Two will come out of the North: Pittsburgh and Baltimore. But I think the best division race will be in the South, where anyone of three teams could win it...
Nine wins get you in the playoffs IF you're an NFC team. You'll need eleven in the AFC....
Just booked for my radio show Sunday on 700 WLW, MLB umpire Joe West, due to join me at 10:05 am. I'm taking your calls and welcoming guests from 9am-Noon EDT.
Sports Rock! Sunday night on WLWT NBC '5' in Cincinnati features former Bengal Eric Thomas and talented author, Lonnie Wheeler, who's latest book on Cincinnati area prep stars of yesteryear "Legends" will be a big seller.
I'm with Kentucky Speedway owner, Bruton Smith, in his private box Saturday night for the Meijer 300 at the Speedway. I've never met the man so I'm looking forward to it.
Have a great weekend!
Just posted on the front page of my web site: www.kenbroo.com is the lastest Broo View Podcast. It's an in depth interview with Mike Freeman of cbssports.com. And what he has to say will make you shudder, if you're a genuine, born in the USA sports fan. On the fly? Here's a quick link
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
It's Thursday!
With a nose not unlike George Herman (Miley) Ruth's, I'm back in business...
Riddle me this kids: if you owned the Cincinnati Reds, if you just bought the team from the group running the show now, what contracts would you 'eat'? In other words, what players on this current team would you absolutely, positively have to have?
The answer in two words: Joey Votto. Anyone else, asta lavista, baby. Which means, you'd be dining on Bronson Arroyo's $11 million 2010 salary plus his 2011 buyout; Aaron Harang's $12.5 million, Coco Cordero's $22 million remaining salary and anything else that adds up to the approximately $75 million the Reds paid for the 'talent' on this year's team (less Votto's MLB minimum). It would be an expensive meal. But it would let you start all over again.
Let's review. The Reds, this season, are a collection of spare parts. Laynce Nix, Jonny Gomes, Jerry Hairston, Jr, Chris Dickserson, Adam Rosales are all 23rd-25th guys on a a 25 man Major League Roster. But here, they start. They're not bad guys. They're all decent human beings. But they are not starters on a serious contending baseball team.
Bob Castellini and his smart guys sold you, me and every other baseball fan in this town on the belief that the Reds would be just fine this season, moving from a power hitting club to a team built on pitching, speed and defense. No problem, they said this past winter, ignoring for the moment that the ball park they play half their games in was built for POWER and anything BUT pitching. Read between the lines now: they tried to sell you on the switch because they didn't want to spend money on replacing the 100 rbi that Adam Dunn took with him last August.
You're screaming Ken, there you go again with Dunn. You're in love with Dunn. All you talk about is Dunn. Dunn was a lazy ballplayer who never saw an at bat that wasn't a potential strike out. Stop with the man love, Ken.
OK hot shot, one more time. I was in LOVE with the offense that Dunn had. The Reds needed to replace the OFFENSE, not necessariy resign Dunn. Although, have you seen the season he's having? 26 home runs, (8 more than any current Red) 74 rbi (9 more than any current Red) and a decent .279 average (Votto is the only non platoon Red hitting higher).
But I digress...
There are two ways to play the game of Major League Baseball for any of the 30 front offices. One, you can buy yourself a contender by trading away prospects and chasing free agents. The Yankees, Red Sox and Angels would be good examples. Two, you can develope talent, make judicious trades and be selective with free agent acquisitions. The Twins and A's are good examples of that strategy.
The of course, there are your Cincinnati Reds. They don't have the $150-200 payroll to compete with the Yankees of the world. And, they haven't had a stable enough front office to play the game the way the Twins and A's have gone about their business.
If you're scoring at home, Twins and A's have had general managers with long tenure (Terry Ryan in Minnesota until last season, Billy Beane in Oakland). The Reds have had five GM's since 2003. The Yankees, Red Sox and Angels outspend the Reds more than 2-1.
And that's why we have the mess of 2009. Smart small market clubs have consistent management with solid plans. Big market teams throw money at the problem of building a big league contender.
We, on the other hand, wait until next year. As I asked earlier this week, exactly when does next year arrive. The sobering stat of the day: since 1979 the Cincinnati Reds have been to the post season playoffs twice. Twice!
Cincinnati was the epicenter of baseball in the 70's. We were the Big Red Machine, Rose, Bench, Morgan, Perez. Dude, where's my baseball team?
With a nose not unlike George Herman (Miley) Ruth's, I'm back in business...
Riddle me this kids: if you owned the Cincinnati Reds, if you just bought the team from the group running the show now, what contracts would you 'eat'? In other words, what players on this current team would you absolutely, positively have to have?
The answer in two words: Joey Votto. Anyone else, asta lavista, baby. Which means, you'd be dining on Bronson Arroyo's $11 million 2010 salary plus his 2011 buyout; Aaron Harang's $12.5 million, Coco Cordero's $22 million remaining salary and anything else that adds up to the approximately $75 million the Reds paid for the 'talent' on this year's team (less Votto's MLB minimum). It would be an expensive meal. But it would let you start all over again.
Let's review. The Reds, this season, are a collection of spare parts. Laynce Nix, Jonny Gomes, Jerry Hairston, Jr, Chris Dickserson, Adam Rosales are all 23rd-25th guys on a a 25 man Major League Roster. But here, they start. They're not bad guys. They're all decent human beings. But they are not starters on a serious contending baseball team.
Bob Castellini and his smart guys sold you, me and every other baseball fan in this town on the belief that the Reds would be just fine this season, moving from a power hitting club to a team built on pitching, speed and defense. No problem, they said this past winter, ignoring for the moment that the ball park they play half their games in was built for POWER and anything BUT pitching. Read between the lines now: they tried to sell you on the switch because they didn't want to spend money on replacing the 100 rbi that Adam Dunn took with him last August.
You're screaming Ken, there you go again with Dunn. You're in love with Dunn. All you talk about is Dunn. Dunn was a lazy ballplayer who never saw an at bat that wasn't a potential strike out. Stop with the man love, Ken.
OK hot shot, one more time. I was in LOVE with the offense that Dunn had. The Reds needed to replace the OFFENSE, not necessariy resign Dunn. Although, have you seen the season he's having? 26 home runs, (8 more than any current Red) 74 rbi (9 more than any current Red) and a decent .279 average (Votto is the only non platoon Red hitting higher).
But I digress...
There are two ways to play the game of Major League Baseball for any of the 30 front offices. One, you can buy yourself a contender by trading away prospects and chasing free agents. The Yankees, Red Sox and Angels would be good examples. Two, you can develope talent, make judicious trades and be selective with free agent acquisitions. The Twins and A's are good examples of that strategy.
The of course, there are your Cincinnati Reds. They don't have the $150-200 payroll to compete with the Yankees of the world. And, they haven't had a stable enough front office to play the game the way the Twins and A's have gone about their business.
If you're scoring at home, Twins and A's have had general managers with long tenure (Terry Ryan in Minnesota until last season, Billy Beane in Oakland). The Reds have had five GM's since 2003. The Yankees, Red Sox and Angels outspend the Reds more than 2-1.
And that's why we have the mess of 2009. Smart small market clubs have consistent management with solid plans. Big market teams throw money at the problem of building a big league contender.
We, on the other hand, wait until next year. As I asked earlier this week, exactly when does next year arrive. The sobering stat of the day: since 1979 the Cincinnati Reds have been to the post season playoffs twice. Twice!
Cincinnati was the epicenter of baseball in the 70's. We were the Big Red Machine, Rose, Bench, Morgan, Perez. Dude, where's my baseball team?
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Welcome To Wednesday!
Still waiting for the swelling to subside.
Just added to the front page of my web site, www.kenbroo.com is an interview I conducted with Cincinnati Reds phenom, Chris Heisey. He's with the Reds' AAA affiliate in Louisville and appears to be on the fast track to the big club.
I don't see how Bronson Arroyo AND Aaron Harang remain with the Reds past this week. The trade deadline is 4p Friday. Harang is scheduled to make $12.5 million in 2009 and Arroyo just over $11 million. Mix in Francisco Cordero's $13 mil for 2009, that's $36.5 million in salary for hust three players on a team with a $75 million limit. Didn't we just go through this a year ago with Griffey and Dunn?
And spending prospects and $11 million next season in a potential trade for the Blue Jay's Scott Rolen? No sense at his age of 35.
I'm surprised this current Reds team can win anything given the line-up they trot out every night. Jerry Hairston, Jr, Laynce Nix, Jonny Gomes, Chris Dickerson (hurt), Ryan Hanigan? This is a collection of spare parts. They're all back of the roster players. But here, they take turns starting. You don't beat a Cardinals line-up that just went out and traded for Mark DeRosa, Julio Lugo and Matt Holliday with that group.
Here's the really bad news for Reds owner Bob Castellini. At 3p Friday, the Reds cease to be relevant for the balance of this season. That's the time of the Bengals first workout of their training camp. The Reds owner and his front office staff have no one but themselves to blame. They failed to field a competitive team, plain, simple, end of story.
Why do I have this sinking feeling the Bengals will cease to be relevant by October 1?
Heard this one today: Brett Favre tantilized the Vikings just long enough to screw up their training camp and create dissention among the quarterback ranks in that franchise so he could help the Packers win that NFC North this season. That's rich. If Favre had any juice left in his arm, he'd be out there sweating up a blue streak when the Vikings hit the field later this week. Exactly how exciting can Mississippi be, at any time of the year?
Michael Vick to the Vikings, that's what I'm seeing. Why not?
Mike Brown said Tuesday he's not interested in bringing Vick to the Bengals. Not a good fit, says the Bengals chief pooh-bah. Chris Henry is? Odell Thurman was?
Still waiting for the swelling to subside.
Just added to the front page of my web site, www.kenbroo.com is an interview I conducted with Cincinnati Reds phenom, Chris Heisey. He's with the Reds' AAA affiliate in Louisville and appears to be on the fast track to the big club.
I don't see how Bronson Arroyo AND Aaron Harang remain with the Reds past this week. The trade deadline is 4p Friday. Harang is scheduled to make $12.5 million in 2009 and Arroyo just over $11 million. Mix in Francisco Cordero's $13 mil for 2009, that's $36.5 million in salary for hust three players on a team with a $75 million limit. Didn't we just go through this a year ago with Griffey and Dunn?
And spending prospects and $11 million next season in a potential trade for the Blue Jay's Scott Rolen? No sense at his age of 35.
I'm surprised this current Reds team can win anything given the line-up they trot out every night. Jerry Hairston, Jr, Laynce Nix, Jonny Gomes, Chris Dickerson (hurt), Ryan Hanigan? This is a collection of spare parts. They're all back of the roster players. But here, they take turns starting. You don't beat a Cardinals line-up that just went out and traded for Mark DeRosa, Julio Lugo and Matt Holliday with that group.
Here's the really bad news for Reds owner Bob Castellini. At 3p Friday, the Reds cease to be relevant for the balance of this season. That's the time of the Bengals first workout of their training camp. The Reds owner and his front office staff have no one but themselves to blame. They failed to field a competitive team, plain, simple, end of story.
Why do I have this sinking feeling the Bengals will cease to be relevant by October 1?
Heard this one today: Brett Favre tantilized the Vikings just long enough to screw up their training camp and create dissention among the quarterback ranks in that franchise so he could help the Packers win that NFC North this season. That's rich. If Favre had any juice left in his arm, he'd be out there sweating up a blue streak when the Vikings hit the field later this week. Exactly how exciting can Mississippi be, at any time of the year?
Michael Vick to the Vikings, that's what I'm seeing. Why not?
Mike Brown said Tuesday he's not interested in bringing Vick to the Bengals. Not a good fit, says the Bengals chief pooh-bah. Chris Henry is? Odell Thurman was?
Sunday, July 26, 2009
Good Monday Morning!
Countdown to the MLB Trade deadline is on. 4pm Friday is the appointed hour. Do you now who your Cincinnati Reds will be by then?
Alright, it’s over. It’s been over for awhile, it’s just been too hard to let go. Like a bad marriage or a bad job hire, it’s time to admit this Reds team had no chance to compete this season. 7 games out of first place with four teams ahead of them, all incidentally getting better, the Reds are officially DOA today. Pull the plug. Wait ‘til next year. That’s the game we play the best here in Cincinnati.
Pitching, speed and defense doesn’t happen over night to a team that was built for the power game. And it certainly doesn’t happen to a team that carries a $75 million payroll and a farm system that hasn’t been spitting out can’t miss prospects.
What logical reason is there to believe this team has any life left in it? The front office will tell you it does. But then again, it has to sell tickets to 36 more home games this season. The fact is, when the decision was made not to pursue offense this past winter, there was little reason to believe this year would be anything more than last year, or the year before that. Or pick one since 1995.
That’s the ‘rub’ the Reds are facing. They’ve got little equity in the market anymore. Opening Day is a big deal. Whenever there’s a bobble-head to be handed out it’s a big deal. But to paraphrase what was said about the long dead sports entrepreneur Harry Wismer, when the Astros and Pirates roll into town for mid-week games later this year, most of the fans will go to Great American Ball Park disguised as empty seats.
There’s one thing that sells tickets to a sporting event on a consistent basis. And it’s not bobble heads, fireworks or all your can shove into your pie-hole for $30 seats. It’s winning. And this franchise, under several owners and too many general managers since 1995, hasn’t given us a lot of winning.
Marge Scott gave us dollar hot dogs, Kevin Mitchell and Deion Sanders. But she also viewed anything that happened in the Reds minor league system with disdain. You remember the line: all scouts do is go to baseball games.
Carl Lindner gave us Ken Griffey, Junior. He got bullied by a lot of people, including a lot of us in the media, to signing Barry Larkin to an ill-advised three year, $27 million contract extension. And that was it. The rest of his tenure as owner was peppered with the Joey Hamiltons and Jeff Austins of the world. Carl was booed so lustily one Opening Day, he had business cards printed up in time for game two that season, inscribed with a quote from Abraham Lincoln, in essence where Lincoln told his detractors to stick it. I know this because Carl gave me one.
Bob Castellini gave us Wayne Krivsky, now Walt Jocketty. He gave Jerry Narron a mid season contract extension in 2006, then launched him mid-season 2007 and gave us Dusty Baker in 2008. Like Lindner with Junior, Castellini gave us Francisco Cordero. As Lindner froze after that, so now has Castellini.
That’s the way it goes with baseball in our town anymore. We now add another year to the lost generation of baseball fans in Cincinnati. Maybe you’re a part of that. Maybe your kids are. A generation is generally defined as 25 years. If you were born in 1985 or thereafter, chances are you can’t remember the last great Reds team. You want to know the real reason why it’s tough selling tickets to Reds games? That you go. Winning trumps bobble heads and fireworks.
But when did it get to be this way around here? When did we become Pittsburgh-West? Is it because of the economy, the fact that the minor league system went into atrophy under Schott? Was it because Jim Bowden couldn’t find pitching with a map, compass and a picture of Nolan Ryan? Is it because Castellini lost too much money last year in the bogus tainted tomato scare?
How is it, that St. Louis can trade for Julio Lugo, Mark DeRosa and Matt Holliday and the best the Reds can do is call up somebody named Drew Sutton?
Jocketty told Chris Welsh the other day that the price the Cardinals paid for Holliday was too high. The Cardinals sent some of their best prospects to Oakland, renting free agent to be Holliday for the rest of the season. Soon, I’m sure, we’ll hear the same thing about the team that trades for pitcher Roy Halladay. Maybe someone in the city that Bronson Arroyo or Aaron Harang is traded to this week will scream the same thing.
But wouldn’t it be refreshing, just for once, to hear someone complain around here that the price the Reds paid for a mid season pickup was too steep, mortgaged the future too much?
The Reds, Jocketty and company, say they value their top minor league players too much to trade them away. They refuse to mortgage the future for a chance to win now. Maybe that’s the way you have to go in this day and age, with a payroll as tight as the Reds have, with a minor league system that only now is beginning to dig itself out of the Schott-Bowden years. But the road to major league baseball is littered with can’t miss prospects, the Brandon Larson, Ty Howington, Austin Kearns of the world.
I hope Chris Heisey is the real deal. I want Drew Stubbs to be the next Gold Glove outfielder in Reds history. I want to believe that Todd Frazier, Juan Francisco and Yonder Alonso will be the core of a great Reds team in 2011. But history tells me all of that won’t happen.
The Cardinals will win the division this year. They’ll replace the prospects they traded away this month with players just as good, or better. History tells me they will.
The Cubs will contend, the Astros too. History tells me that as well.
But here’s something history hasn’t been able to fill us in on: exactly when does next year come for your Cincinnati Reds?
Countdown to the MLB Trade deadline is on. 4pm Friday is the appointed hour. Do you now who your Cincinnati Reds will be by then?
Alright, it’s over. It’s been over for awhile, it’s just been too hard to let go. Like a bad marriage or a bad job hire, it’s time to admit this Reds team had no chance to compete this season. 7 games out of first place with four teams ahead of them, all incidentally getting better, the Reds are officially DOA today. Pull the plug. Wait ‘til next year. That’s the game we play the best here in Cincinnati.
Pitching, speed and defense doesn’t happen over night to a team that was built for the power game. And it certainly doesn’t happen to a team that carries a $75 million payroll and a farm system that hasn’t been spitting out can’t miss prospects.
What logical reason is there to believe this team has any life left in it? The front office will tell you it does. But then again, it has to sell tickets to 36 more home games this season. The fact is, when the decision was made not to pursue offense this past winter, there was little reason to believe this year would be anything more than last year, or the year before that. Or pick one since 1995.
That’s the ‘rub’ the Reds are facing. They’ve got little equity in the market anymore. Opening Day is a big deal. Whenever there’s a bobble-head to be handed out it’s a big deal. But to paraphrase what was said about the long dead sports entrepreneur Harry Wismer, when the Astros and Pirates roll into town for mid-week games later this year, most of the fans will go to Great American Ball Park disguised as empty seats.
There’s one thing that sells tickets to a sporting event on a consistent basis. And it’s not bobble heads, fireworks or all your can shove into your pie-hole for $30 seats. It’s winning. And this franchise, under several owners and too many general managers since 1995, hasn’t given us a lot of winning.
Marge Scott gave us dollar hot dogs, Kevin Mitchell and Deion Sanders. But she also viewed anything that happened in the Reds minor league system with disdain. You remember the line: all scouts do is go to baseball games.
Carl Lindner gave us Ken Griffey, Junior. He got bullied by a lot of people, including a lot of us in the media, to signing Barry Larkin to an ill-advised three year, $27 million contract extension. And that was it. The rest of his tenure as owner was peppered with the Joey Hamiltons and Jeff Austins of the world. Carl was booed so lustily one Opening Day, he had business cards printed up in time for game two that season, inscribed with a quote from Abraham Lincoln, in essence where Lincoln told his detractors to stick it. I know this because Carl gave me one.
Bob Castellini gave us Wayne Krivsky, now Walt Jocketty. He gave Jerry Narron a mid season contract extension in 2006, then launched him mid-season 2007 and gave us Dusty Baker in 2008. Like Lindner with Junior, Castellini gave us Francisco Cordero. As Lindner froze after that, so now has Castellini.
That’s the way it goes with baseball in our town anymore. We now add another year to the lost generation of baseball fans in Cincinnati. Maybe you’re a part of that. Maybe your kids are. A generation is generally defined as 25 years. If you were born in 1985 or thereafter, chances are you can’t remember the last great Reds team. You want to know the real reason why it’s tough selling tickets to Reds games? That you go. Winning trumps bobble heads and fireworks.
But when did it get to be this way around here? When did we become Pittsburgh-West? Is it because of the economy, the fact that the minor league system went into atrophy under Schott? Was it because Jim Bowden couldn’t find pitching with a map, compass and a picture of Nolan Ryan? Is it because Castellini lost too much money last year in the bogus tainted tomato scare?
How is it, that St. Louis can trade for Julio Lugo, Mark DeRosa and Matt Holliday and the best the Reds can do is call up somebody named Drew Sutton?
Jocketty told Chris Welsh the other day that the price the Cardinals paid for Holliday was too high. The Cardinals sent some of their best prospects to Oakland, renting free agent to be Holliday for the rest of the season. Soon, I’m sure, we’ll hear the same thing about the team that trades for pitcher Roy Halladay. Maybe someone in the city that Bronson Arroyo or Aaron Harang is traded to this week will scream the same thing.
But wouldn’t it be refreshing, just for once, to hear someone complain around here that the price the Reds paid for a mid season pickup was too steep, mortgaged the future too much?
The Reds, Jocketty and company, say they value their top minor league players too much to trade them away. They refuse to mortgage the future for a chance to win now. Maybe that’s the way you have to go in this day and age, with a payroll as tight as the Reds have, with a minor league system that only now is beginning to dig itself out of the Schott-Bowden years. But the road to major league baseball is littered with can’t miss prospects, the Brandon Larson, Ty Howington, Austin Kearns of the world.
I hope Chris Heisey is the real deal. I want Drew Stubbs to be the next Gold Glove outfielder in Reds history. I want to believe that Todd Frazier, Juan Francisco and Yonder Alonso will be the core of a great Reds team in 2011. But history tells me all of that won’t happen.
The Cardinals will win the division this year. They’ll replace the prospects they traded away this month with players just as good, or better. History tells me they will.
The Cubs will contend, the Astros too. History tells me that as well.
But here’s something history hasn’t been able to fill us in on: exactly when does next year come for your Cincinnati Reds?
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Just posted on the front page of my web site www.kenbroo.com is the latest Broo View Podcast. I've got some thoughts about whether or not it would be wise for the Reds to add a player or two before the trading deadline AND an in depth interview with Darren Everson from the Wall Street Journal about the importance of 'glue guys' on a major league baseball team. On the fly? You can download the podcast here.
Sunday, July 19, 2009
Good Monday Morning!
48 hours ago, no one could have picked PGA touring pro, Stewart Cink, out of a police line-up. He should get down on his knees and thank Tom Watson for over shooting the green on an eight iron approach in Sunday's regulation final hole. If Watson gets up and down in two from his fairway shot, Cink goes back to being what he's always been to everyone except family members and golf freaks: Mister X.
Tom Watson has no one to blame for his British Open loss than himself. "Would have been a helluva story", Watson said in his post round news conference Sunday. No lie.
Now, to your Cincinnati Reds.
You can choose two roads to travel in life: the road of hope or the road of despair. The worst kind of hope, of course, is false hope. But despair will eat you alive.
So if you had to choose a road to travel today and the journey involves the 2009 Cincinnati Reds, which road would you choose? History would lead us to the road of despiair. This team is 5 1/2 games out of first place in arguably the worst division in baseball. And the last time the Reds had a whiff of the playoffs is ten years ago. Since then, there’s been a lot of false hope and a lot of bad baseball. Prepare to Win, Ready to Win, the Reds have had their share of pre-season slogans. There’s been plenty of pre-season hype. Junior arrives. Pete Harnisch is just like the Harnisch of 1999. Ramon Ortiz and Ben Weber are here, just two years removed from winning a World Series. Here come Gary Majewski and Bill Bray, the final pieces required for a playoff run in 2006. The list is long, the payoffs were few. Actually, we became Bernie Madoff city. Forget payoffs, we were ripped off.
Its tough being a fan in a town like Cincinnati, isn’t it? We want to believe. We get caught up in the hoopla and even the most gullible of us knows the let down is coming. Now that we’ve established what we are, the only thing to haggle over is the date of the let down. Big market teams like the Yankees and Red Sox win World Series titles. Small market teams like Rams and Colts and Steelers win Super Bowls. And we produce generations of fans who know nothing but losing. So goes life on the road of despair.
Except today, here now, the sign posts along the road of hope. Not for 2010 or 2011. We may all be out of work by then,, hopefully along with us, some of the idiots we continue to send to Washington. Today’s hope, comes in the form of history. It’s the belief of what can happen, with a little hope and a little help.
Sign post number one, along he road of hope. Your 1973 Cincinnati Reds. Back in the bad old days, of two divisions and no Wild Card, the Reds were DOA, eleven games back on July 1st. The Dodgers were running away with the division champonship. But the Reds kicked it into third gear, won 60-of their final 86 and won the division by three and a half games. The won, despite having three of their everyday eight, Dennis Menke Cesar Geronimo and Bobby Tolan hit a combined .204. Sound familiar? They won on the strength of good, not great starting pitching and incinnati. He went 12-6 for the Reds. To get Norman, the Reds sent pitching prospect Mike Johnson to San Diego, along with outfielder Gene Locklear. Both were thought of highly by the Reds organization. Neither amounted to anything.
Fast forward to the 1989 Toronto Blue Jays. They managed to win only 38 of their first 83 games. Yet, they went 51-28 in the final 12 weeks and won the AL East by a couple of games.. At the trade deadline that year, the Blue Jays picked up Mookie Wilson from the Mets. His .298 hitting the rest of the season was a big reason why the Jays qualified for the playoffs. The price to get him? Pitcher Jeff Musselman and prospect Mike Brady. Musselman, incidentally, won a grand total of six games with the Mets. Brady, never played a game in the majors.
Here’s another sign post on the road to hope. In 1993, the Atlanta Braves were ten out with 65 games to play. 55-42 on July 23. They won 49 of their final 65 and won the West by a game over the Giants. On July 18th of that year, 16 years ago yesterday, the Braves made a trade for Fred McGriff, got him from the Padres for three guys who could have gotten lost in a phone booth, including Vince Moore, a highly regarded rookie in the Braves organization at the time. Net result: McGriff hits .310, with 19 home runs and 55 rbi in 68 games with the Braves.. Oh and by the way, hit .435 against the Phillies in the NLCS that season.
That’s the road to hope today. But none of that happens with the teams in question being proactive, seizing the moment. You’ve heard this a lot in the past couple of weeks, but it’s true. A team doesn’t pick which season its contends. Fate determines that for it. In 1990, the Reds were picked to finish third, at best in their division. We know that story very well. Did anyone this year predict that Joey Votto would miss more than a month with stress? Anybody out there call the Edinson Volquez injuries? Any genius see the Jay Bruce collapse back in January? Who’s to say things like that don’t happen in 2010? Who’s to say every prospect coveted by the Reds blossoms at the exact time and we get another 1990 season here in 2010. Or every prospect blossoms at the exact time and the Cardinals or Cubs or Astros are just that much better.
The road to hope is the only road worth traveling. But the team you’re traveling with has to give you hope along the way. It’s called living in the moment. When you constantly play the ‘wait until next year’ game, more often than not, ‘next year’ never comes. We’re waiting now on Walt Jocketty and Bob Castellini. Let’s see if they’re worth waiting for.
48 hours ago, no one could have picked PGA touring pro, Stewart Cink, out of a police line-up. He should get down on his knees and thank Tom Watson for over shooting the green on an eight iron approach in Sunday's regulation final hole. If Watson gets up and down in two from his fairway shot, Cink goes back to being what he's always been to everyone except family members and golf freaks: Mister X.
Tom Watson has no one to blame for his British Open loss than himself. "Would have been a helluva story", Watson said in his post round news conference Sunday. No lie.
Now, to your Cincinnati Reds.
You can choose two roads to travel in life: the road of hope or the road of despair. The worst kind of hope, of course, is false hope. But despair will eat you alive.
So if you had to choose a road to travel today and the journey involves the 2009 Cincinnati Reds, which road would you choose? History would lead us to the road of despiair. This team is 5 1/2 games out of first place in arguably the worst division in baseball. And the last time the Reds had a whiff of the playoffs is ten years ago. Since then, there’s been a lot of false hope and a lot of bad baseball. Prepare to Win, Ready to Win, the Reds have had their share of pre-season slogans. There’s been plenty of pre-season hype. Junior arrives. Pete Harnisch is just like the Harnisch of 1999. Ramon Ortiz and Ben Weber are here, just two years removed from winning a World Series. Here come Gary Majewski and Bill Bray, the final pieces required for a playoff run in 2006. The list is long, the payoffs were few. Actually, we became Bernie Madoff city. Forget payoffs, we were ripped off.
Its tough being a fan in a town like Cincinnati, isn’t it? We want to believe. We get caught up in the hoopla and even the most gullible of us knows the let down is coming. Now that we’ve established what we are, the only thing to haggle over is the date of the let down. Big market teams like the Yankees and Red Sox win World Series titles. Small market teams like Rams and Colts and Steelers win Super Bowls. And we produce generations of fans who know nothing but losing. So goes life on the road of despair.
Except today, here now, the sign posts along the road of hope. Not for 2010 or 2011. We may all be out of work by then,, hopefully along with us, some of the idiots we continue to send to Washington. Today’s hope, comes in the form of history. It’s the belief of what can happen, with a little hope and a little help.
Sign post number one, along he road of hope. Your 1973 Cincinnati Reds. Back in the bad old days, of two divisions and no Wild Card, the Reds were DOA, eleven games back on July 1st. The Dodgers were running away with the division champonship. But the Reds kicked it into third gear, won 60-of their final 86 and won the division by three and a half games. The won, despite having three of their everyday eight, Dennis Menke Cesar Geronimo and Bobby Tolan hit a combined .204. Sound familiar? They won on the strength of good, not great starting pitching and incinnati. He went 12-6 for the Reds. To get Norman, the Reds sent pitching prospect Mike Johnson to San Diego, along with outfielder Gene Locklear. Both were thought of highly by the Reds organization. Neither amounted to anything.
Fast forward to the 1989 Toronto Blue Jays. They managed to win only 38 of their first 83 games. Yet, they went 51-28 in the final 12 weeks and won the AL East by a couple of games.. At the trade deadline that year, the Blue Jays picked up Mookie Wilson from the Mets. His .298 hitting the rest of the season was a big reason why the Jays qualified for the playoffs. The price to get him? Pitcher Jeff Musselman and prospect Mike Brady. Musselman, incidentally, won a grand total of six games with the Mets. Brady, never played a game in the majors.
Here’s another sign post on the road to hope. In 1993, the Atlanta Braves were ten out with 65 games to play. 55-42 on July 23. They won 49 of their final 65 and won the West by a game over the Giants. On July 18th of that year, 16 years ago yesterday, the Braves made a trade for Fred McGriff, got him from the Padres for three guys who could have gotten lost in a phone booth, including Vince Moore, a highly regarded rookie in the Braves organization at the time. Net result: McGriff hits .310, with 19 home runs and 55 rbi in 68 games with the Braves.. Oh and by the way, hit .435 against the Phillies in the NLCS that season.
That’s the road to hope today. But none of that happens with the teams in question being proactive, seizing the moment. You’ve heard this a lot in the past couple of weeks, but it’s true. A team doesn’t pick which season its contends. Fate determines that for it. In 1990, the Reds were picked to finish third, at best in their division. We know that story very well. Did anyone this year predict that Joey Votto would miss more than a month with stress? Anybody out there call the Edinson Volquez injuries? Any genius see the Jay Bruce collapse back in January? Who’s to say things like that don’t happen in 2010? Who’s to say every prospect coveted by the Reds blossoms at the exact time and we get another 1990 season here in 2010. Or every prospect blossoms at the exact time and the Cardinals or Cubs or Astros are just that much better.
The road to hope is the only road worth traveling. But the team you’re traveling with has to give you hope along the way. It’s called living in the moment. When you constantly play the ‘wait until next year’ game, more often than not, ‘next year’ never comes. We’re waiting now on Walt Jocketty and Bob Castellini. Let’s see if they’re worth waiting for.
Friday, July 17, 2009
Just posted on the front page of my web site www.kenbroo.com is the latest Broo View Podcast. My special guest this week, the Hit King, Pete Rose. Pete thinks he's got a way for Jay Bruce to be more effective at the plate, when Bruce returns from his broken wrist. In a hurry? You can download it here.
Thursday, July 16, 2009
Thank God It's Friday!
Bit of a shock when I got to Great American Ball Park Thursday, as the Reds resumed their season, to see Adam Rosales still with the team. I thought for sure there would be some move, trade, call up completed to get more offense on this team. Fooled again.
I like Rosales. He's a nice kid who is like a lot of ballplayers. Rosales tears it up in AAA but when he gets to the majors, he become very average. He's struggled at the plate this year and his defense isn't all that great. But he hustles and has an appreciation for where he is. That counts for a lot, in my book. But does he make a difference on the field? No.
If the Cardinals make a preemptive move and trade for Roy Halladay or Matt Holliday, it's 'ballgame'. Either move will help the Cardinals separate themselves from the rest of the pack in the NL Central. It will also demonstrate to their fans that the team wants to win, now.
Hello, Redlegs??? Anybody home????
Here's why the Reds HAVE to do some sort of bold player move: they haven't done squat since 1995. Don't give me 1999's one game play-in or a winning season in 2000. Please. Every division mate in the NL Central has been to the playoffs since then, with the exception of the Pirates. Since 2000, the Cardinals have won a World Series and the Astros have played in one.
The Reds have played the game of baseball consistently since their last playoff appearance in 1995. Badly. They hype the team in the off-season. They play the 'wait 'til next year' game starting on or about July 1st.
MEMO TO THE REDS SMART GUYS: Next year never comes. You froze at the chance of trading for Jermaine Dye in the off season. You over estimated your starting pitching and defense. You knew your offense was anemic as early as last September. And all you did in the off season was give us Willy Tavares and Ramon Hernandez. Hernandez has been serviceable. Tavares? Now we know why he's been on so many teams in so short an MLB career.
And the guy who signs the checks has to be sobered by this thought: his team is about a week away from being rendered an after-thought by the Cincinnati sporting public. NFL training camps open the end of this month. High School football is about 40-days away. The Reds are 5 1/2 games back as the suns rises Friday morning. It's not too late. But it's later than Walt Jocketty and Bob Castellini think.
Tom Watson one shot off the lead at the British Open? Beautiful. Only a 66 foot birdie putt by the leader on the 18th hole prevented Watson from being the oldest first round British Open leader (59 years plus) in tournament history.
John Daly's first round attire: horrendous. He was wearing something that resembled frog vomit. Ian Poulter's attire: horrendous. He was wearing a sweater with the flag of Great Britan, with plaid pants straight out of the wardrobe closet of Dirk Diggler.
Here's a novel concept for these professional linksters who think they're making a fashion statement: use a mirror.
That's it for now. Eddie Yost!
Bit of a shock when I got to Great American Ball Park Thursday, as the Reds resumed their season, to see Adam Rosales still with the team. I thought for sure there would be some move, trade, call up completed to get more offense on this team. Fooled again.
I like Rosales. He's a nice kid who is like a lot of ballplayers. Rosales tears it up in AAA but when he gets to the majors, he become very average. He's struggled at the plate this year and his defense isn't all that great. But he hustles and has an appreciation for where he is. That counts for a lot, in my book. But does he make a difference on the field? No.
If the Cardinals make a preemptive move and trade for Roy Halladay or Matt Holliday, it's 'ballgame'. Either move will help the Cardinals separate themselves from the rest of the pack in the NL Central. It will also demonstrate to their fans that the team wants to win, now.
Hello, Redlegs??? Anybody home????
Here's why the Reds HAVE to do some sort of bold player move: they haven't done squat since 1995. Don't give me 1999's one game play-in or a winning season in 2000. Please. Every division mate in the NL Central has been to the playoffs since then, with the exception of the Pirates. Since 2000, the Cardinals have won a World Series and the Astros have played in one.
The Reds have played the game of baseball consistently since their last playoff appearance in 1995. Badly. They hype the team in the off-season. They play the 'wait 'til next year' game starting on or about July 1st.
MEMO TO THE REDS SMART GUYS: Next year never comes. You froze at the chance of trading for Jermaine Dye in the off season. You over estimated your starting pitching and defense. You knew your offense was anemic as early as last September. And all you did in the off season was give us Willy Tavares and Ramon Hernandez. Hernandez has been serviceable. Tavares? Now we know why he's been on so many teams in so short an MLB career.
And the guy who signs the checks has to be sobered by this thought: his team is about a week away from being rendered an after-thought by the Cincinnati sporting public. NFL training camps open the end of this month. High School football is about 40-days away. The Reds are 5 1/2 games back as the suns rises Friday morning. It's not too late. But it's later than Walt Jocketty and Bob Castellini think.
Tom Watson one shot off the lead at the British Open? Beautiful. Only a 66 foot birdie putt by the leader on the 18th hole prevented Watson from being the oldest first round British Open leader (59 years plus) in tournament history.
John Daly's first round attire: horrendous. He was wearing something that resembled frog vomit. Ian Poulter's attire: horrendous. He was wearing a sweater with the flag of Great Britan, with plaid pants straight out of the wardrobe closet of Dirk Diggler.
Here's a novel concept for these professional linksters who think they're making a fashion statement: use a mirror.
That's it for now. Eddie Yost!
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Good Thursday Morning!
The melatonin hasn't kicked in yet....so some rambling thoughts from a sleep deprived mind....
Jeremy Mayfield flunked another drug test, for methamphetimines, again? Forget NASCAR ever, ever again. The next time Mayfield hears his name on a PA system it will go something like this: "Jeremy Mayfield, Jeremy, please report to the front of the store to assist with checkout..."
The Reds HAVE to do something dramatic in the way of player moves. 40 home games, half of their TOTAL number of home games for a season, remain to be played. Bringing up phenom Chris Heisley is the wrong move. A: he has just 202 at bats above single-A ball. B: Isn't this what the Reds did with Jay Bruce last season? And before he broke his wrist, Bruce couldn't hit a beach ball, let alone a 80 mile an hour breaking ball....
Are the Reds out of it? You say yes? You think they're saying the same thing in Atlanta and New York? The Reds and Mets have the exact same record. The Mets are 6 1/2 games out of first. The Braves are 6 games out of first, with one more win than the Reds, who are 5 off the NL Central lead.....
Sporting News just rated Brian Kelly one of the top 5 coaches in college football. Damn, he said, should've waited another month to sign that new deal....
What ever happened to former Bengals defensive end Alfred Williams? The "Condor" as my pal Dave Lapham called him.
Chick Ludwig is still writing for the Dayton Daily News. Good. Stay there, Chickster. We need your blunt and sometimes outrageous questions at Marvin Lewis' weekly media gatherings....
I'm addicted to Frasier re-runs on Lifetime. Never saw the show once when it ran on NBC, and I work for an NBC affiliate. The father, played by John Mahoney, is a TV character classic.
Anybody listen to audiobooks? I need a good one. I'm off on medical leave the end of next week and I want to listen to a couple. I listened to a Tom Clancy novel about ten years ago and loved it. What's good, and more important, delivered well? Let me know: ken@kenbroo.com.
NBC re-upped with the NHL for a couple of more seasons. That means my station, WLWT, gets to televise the Winter Classic again next January 1: Philadelphia Flyers at Boston, to be played at Fenway Park. The Winter Classic is the best hockey on television, as in ever.
I can't buy into all the hype that's building around the Bengals. Now, the respected Pete Prisco of cbssports.com picks the Bengals to make the playoffs this year. Really? With that offensive line? And despite what you've heard and we've seen, Carson Palmer has yet to test his right elbow. It's one thing to drop back and toss a ball without any pass rush. It's another thing to deal with that, having to throw the ball with your arm at different angles, avoiding the rush and tying to beat pass coverage. I hope his elbow holds up forever. But...
And the Bengals are going to beat out the Ravens, Titans, Jags, Jets, Dolphins and Bills for a wild card? Oh, they're going to win the AFC North then. Really? You honestly see eleven wins on that schedule? It will take eleven wins to make the playoffs in the AFC. New England won eleven last year and MISSED the playoffs.
But, I could be wrong.
Five Guys Burgers and Fries is GREAT, despite what my arteries are telling me...
OK, melatonin has kicked in...later
The melatonin hasn't kicked in yet....so some rambling thoughts from a sleep deprived mind....
Jeremy Mayfield flunked another drug test, for methamphetimines, again? Forget NASCAR ever, ever again. The next time Mayfield hears his name on a PA system it will go something like this: "Jeremy Mayfield, Jeremy, please report to the front of the store to assist with checkout..."
The Reds HAVE to do something dramatic in the way of player moves. 40 home games, half of their TOTAL number of home games for a season, remain to be played. Bringing up phenom Chris Heisley is the wrong move. A: he has just 202 at bats above single-A ball. B: Isn't this what the Reds did with Jay Bruce last season? And before he broke his wrist, Bruce couldn't hit a beach ball, let alone a 80 mile an hour breaking ball....
Are the Reds out of it? You say yes? You think they're saying the same thing in Atlanta and New York? The Reds and Mets have the exact same record. The Mets are 6 1/2 games out of first. The Braves are 6 games out of first, with one more win than the Reds, who are 5 off the NL Central lead.....
Sporting News just rated Brian Kelly one of the top 5 coaches in college football. Damn, he said, should've waited another month to sign that new deal....
What ever happened to former Bengals defensive end Alfred Williams? The "Condor" as my pal Dave Lapham called him.
Chick Ludwig is still writing for the Dayton Daily News. Good. Stay there, Chickster. We need your blunt and sometimes outrageous questions at Marvin Lewis' weekly media gatherings....
I'm addicted to Frasier re-runs on Lifetime. Never saw the show once when it ran on NBC, and I work for an NBC affiliate. The father, played by John Mahoney, is a TV character classic.
Anybody listen to audiobooks? I need a good one. I'm off on medical leave the end of next week and I want to listen to a couple. I listened to a Tom Clancy novel about ten years ago and loved it. What's good, and more important, delivered well? Let me know: ken@kenbroo.com.
NBC re-upped with the NHL for a couple of more seasons. That means my station, WLWT, gets to televise the Winter Classic again next January 1: Philadelphia Flyers at Boston, to be played at Fenway Park. The Winter Classic is the best hockey on television, as in ever.
I can't buy into all the hype that's building around the Bengals. Now, the respected Pete Prisco of cbssports.com picks the Bengals to make the playoffs this year. Really? With that offensive line? And despite what you've heard and we've seen, Carson Palmer has yet to test his right elbow. It's one thing to drop back and toss a ball without any pass rush. It's another thing to deal with that, having to throw the ball with your arm at different angles, avoiding the rush and tying to beat pass coverage. I hope his elbow holds up forever. But...
And the Bengals are going to beat out the Ravens, Titans, Jags, Jets, Dolphins and Bills for a wild card? Oh, they're going to win the AFC North then. Really? You honestly see eleven wins on that schedule? It will take eleven wins to make the playoffs in the AFC. New England won eleven last year and MISSED the playoffs.
But, I could be wrong.
Five Guys Burgers and Fries is GREAT, despite what my arteries are telling me...
OK, melatonin has kicked in...later
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Just posted on www.kenbroo.com is an interview I conducted with Dave Laurila of Baseball Prospectus. We talk about the current state of the Cincinnati Reds. It's on the front page, easy to find.
Sunday, July 12, 2009
Good Monday Morning!
Here were are, at the All Star Break and your Cincinnati Reds are a full five games out of first place. And, their phenom is gone for a long time (how long we’ll learn later today) with a broken wrist More on Jay Bruce in a moment.
The Reds have flirted with contending, teased us and ultimately let us down a lot through these first 89 games. But whether you choose to believe in this team or not, they are just a mild hot streak away from first place. As we like to says, in the National League Central, all things are possible, first place and last.
There’s great debate around here, you and I have participated, as to whether or not the Reds should trade for players, or simply trade players away and build for next year. The Reds have been building for next year so often, you’d swear the calendar is stuck on December 31st. If the Banks Project were the Reds, it would have been built and rebuilt twice by now.
But as that debate rages, whether to buy or sell, there a more important thing the Reds have to consider. It doesn’t involve trading, waiting until next year or that $10 million monstrosity it left field called a scoreboard.
The most important thing the Reds, the smart guys in the front office, the most important thing they have to deal with is Jay Bruce. He is the centerpiece of the Reds future, the poster boy for ticket sales, the golden boy as he quickly ascended through the depths of the Reds minor league system. And he can not hit a breaking ball to save his life.
The old line about a struggling ballplayer is ‘he can’t hit his weight’. Bruce can barely hit the New York City area code. Today, he is stuck at .207 The Golden Boy is broken, or at least his wrist and his swing are. Bruce can still hit for modest power (all he seems to be able to do is hit home runs) and he can still throw runners out from right field like he’s channeling Paul O’Neill. But at the plate, Bruce seems to be channeling Adam Dunn. Except Dunn never hit .207 for a season. Came close once, but never like this.
Remember, this is Jay Bruce, the Reds number one draft pick in 2005. Dan O’Brien’s ultimate gift to the Reds near death minor league system. Jay Bruce who had a meteoric rise from single A to Triple A all in the span of less than 200-games. The Can’t Miss Kid with the ability to hit the ball to all fields AND hit for power. His first two weeks in the ‘bigs’ were astounding. Offensively, Bruce has been in a free fall since.
Saturday night in New York, sheer hustle (or a bad break on a shallow fly ball, you take your pick) caused Bruce to suffer a broken wrist. You probably saw the highlight ad nauseum (full warning, I’m showing it again tonight on WLWT at 6pm). The last graphic bone broke witnessed on live television this horrific was probably the night that the NY Giants Lawrence Taylor snapped Joe Theismann’s leg in two. It probably ends one of the most disappointing seasons for a Reds player in their history.
Along the way, from Sarasota, to Chattanooga to Louisville, Bruce had a smooth, can’t miss swing. A couple of Springs ago, as he was working in the Reds minor league complex in Sarasota, I spent a morning watching Bruce take batting practice. His swing was effortless, even and the phenom was spraying the ball to all fields. Bruce was The Natural. I don’t know if it was all God given ability or if a hitting coach had worked with him to hone his swing. My guess is, it was a little of both. But, it was fun to watch him work.
And as I was thinking about Bruce and his problems at the plate this week, it seemed reasonable to me, that at some point in his minor league career, a manager or a hitting coach got through to him, connected with him, helped Bruce find the swing that got him to the Majors. Would it not make sense to send the one time phenom back to work with that coach?
The Reds and Bruce have a golden opportunity now. Of course, his wrist has to heal before any of this could happen, but why not send back to his past to ensure his future? If he’s to play again this season, he’ll have to do a minor league rehab stint. So the situation, perhaps embarrassing to a player under normal conditions, will take care of itself.
Sometimes, sending a player back to the minors to fix a flaw in his game works. The Reds tried it a couple of years ago with Edwin Encarnacion, and he returned to hit fairly well. They tried it with Austin Kearns, and it had no effect on him. Lately, it has seemed to have worked with Homer Bailey.
The arguments against it are pretty clear. One: who else do the Reds have right now that can play right field.? Two: what’s to be gained by sending Bruce back to Triple-A to beat up on inferior pitching? The answer to question one is, no one. The answer to question two is not much.
Except….this is a long term investment in a player you’ve chosen to build your franchise around. Bruce has tremendous defensive talents and can hit for power. His problem is consistency from at bat to at bat, and hitting the breaking ball. Jay Bruce is cost certain for the next three seasons. Financially, it’s in the Reds best interest to make it work. With most young players, it’s a marathon. And Jay Bruce fixed, hitting for average and power long term, trumps anything that’s happening this season.
Friday, I called Pete Rose and asked him to join me on my Sunday morning radio show on 700 WLW in Cincinnati. Rose agreed to an interview. But before agreeing (I had left voice mail for him and didn’t realize he had done this before he returned my call) Rose placed a call to the Reds clubhouse in New York, at Citi Field. He wanted to speak personally with Bruce. They talked about hitting for about 20-minutes on Friday night. Rose told me, he gave Bruce six minor adjustments to work on, but emphatically told the young outfielder do NOT change your swing. That. Rose says, is suicidal for a hitter. He also told Bruce to not believe that he’s in a slump. Rose maintains if a pitcher believes a hitter is in a slump, he’ll own him. It’s a ‘lull’, Rose says, that Bruce must believe he’s in the middle of. He says he promised Bruce he’d watch his games over the next week or so and call him back with some more advice. Now, of course, that’s on hold. But if Jay Bruce wants to return to the kind of hitter he was in the minors, maybe it’s worth his while to buy a plane ticket to LA and seek out Rose for some personal coaching. Why not? The Hit King has already taken an interest
Here were are, at the All Star Break and your Cincinnati Reds are a full five games out of first place. And, their phenom is gone for a long time (how long we’ll learn later today) with a broken wrist More on Jay Bruce in a moment.
The Reds have flirted with contending, teased us and ultimately let us down a lot through these first 89 games. But whether you choose to believe in this team or not, they are just a mild hot streak away from first place. As we like to says, in the National League Central, all things are possible, first place and last.
There’s great debate around here, you and I have participated, as to whether or not the Reds should trade for players, or simply trade players away and build for next year. The Reds have been building for next year so often, you’d swear the calendar is stuck on December 31st. If the Banks Project were the Reds, it would have been built and rebuilt twice by now.
But as that debate rages, whether to buy or sell, there a more important thing the Reds have to consider. It doesn’t involve trading, waiting until next year or that $10 million monstrosity it left field called a scoreboard.
The most important thing the Reds, the smart guys in the front office, the most important thing they have to deal with is Jay Bruce. He is the centerpiece of the Reds future, the poster boy for ticket sales, the golden boy as he quickly ascended through the depths of the Reds minor league system. And he can not hit a breaking ball to save his life.
The old line about a struggling ballplayer is ‘he can’t hit his weight’. Bruce can barely hit the New York City area code. Today, he is stuck at .207 The Golden Boy is broken, or at least his wrist and his swing are. Bruce can still hit for modest power (all he seems to be able to do is hit home runs) and he can still throw runners out from right field like he’s channeling Paul O’Neill. But at the plate, Bruce seems to be channeling Adam Dunn. Except Dunn never hit .207 for a season. Came close once, but never like this.
Remember, this is Jay Bruce, the Reds number one draft pick in 2005. Dan O’Brien’s ultimate gift to the Reds near death minor league system. Jay Bruce who had a meteoric rise from single A to Triple A all in the span of less than 200-games. The Can’t Miss Kid with the ability to hit the ball to all fields AND hit for power. His first two weeks in the ‘bigs’ were astounding. Offensively, Bruce has been in a free fall since.
Saturday night in New York, sheer hustle (or a bad break on a shallow fly ball, you take your pick) caused Bruce to suffer a broken wrist. You probably saw the highlight ad nauseum (full warning, I’m showing it again tonight on WLWT at 6pm). The last graphic bone broke witnessed on live television this horrific was probably the night that the NY Giants Lawrence Taylor snapped Joe Theismann’s leg in two. It probably ends one of the most disappointing seasons for a Reds player in their history.
Along the way, from Sarasota, to Chattanooga to Louisville, Bruce had a smooth, can’t miss swing. A couple of Springs ago, as he was working in the Reds minor league complex in Sarasota, I spent a morning watching Bruce take batting practice. His swing was effortless, even and the phenom was spraying the ball to all fields. Bruce was The Natural. I don’t know if it was all God given ability or if a hitting coach had worked with him to hone his swing. My guess is, it was a little of both. But, it was fun to watch him work.
And as I was thinking about Bruce and his problems at the plate this week, it seemed reasonable to me, that at some point in his minor league career, a manager or a hitting coach got through to him, connected with him, helped Bruce find the swing that got him to the Majors. Would it not make sense to send the one time phenom back to work with that coach?
The Reds and Bruce have a golden opportunity now. Of course, his wrist has to heal before any of this could happen, but why not send back to his past to ensure his future? If he’s to play again this season, he’ll have to do a minor league rehab stint. So the situation, perhaps embarrassing to a player under normal conditions, will take care of itself.
Sometimes, sending a player back to the minors to fix a flaw in his game works. The Reds tried it a couple of years ago with Edwin Encarnacion, and he returned to hit fairly well. They tried it with Austin Kearns, and it had no effect on him. Lately, it has seemed to have worked with Homer Bailey.
The arguments against it are pretty clear. One: who else do the Reds have right now that can play right field.? Two: what’s to be gained by sending Bruce back to Triple-A to beat up on inferior pitching? The answer to question one is, no one. The answer to question two is not much.
Except….this is a long term investment in a player you’ve chosen to build your franchise around. Bruce has tremendous defensive talents and can hit for power. His problem is consistency from at bat to at bat, and hitting the breaking ball. Jay Bruce is cost certain for the next three seasons. Financially, it’s in the Reds best interest to make it work. With most young players, it’s a marathon. And Jay Bruce fixed, hitting for average and power long term, trumps anything that’s happening this season.
Friday, I called Pete Rose and asked him to join me on my Sunday morning radio show on 700 WLW in Cincinnati. Rose agreed to an interview. But before agreeing (I had left voice mail for him and didn’t realize he had done this before he returned my call) Rose placed a call to the Reds clubhouse in New York, at Citi Field. He wanted to speak personally with Bruce. They talked about hitting for about 20-minutes on Friday night. Rose told me, he gave Bruce six minor adjustments to work on, but emphatically told the young outfielder do NOT change your swing. That. Rose says, is suicidal for a hitter. He also told Bruce to not believe that he’s in a slump. Rose maintains if a pitcher believes a hitter is in a slump, he’ll own him. It’s a ‘lull’, Rose says, that Bruce must believe he’s in the middle of. He says he promised Bruce he’d watch his games over the next week or so and call him back with some more advice. Now, of course, that’s on hold. But if Jay Bruce wants to return to the kind of hitter he was in the minors, maybe it’s worth his while to buy a plane ticket to LA and seek out Rose for some personal coaching. Why not? The Hit King has already taken an interest
Friday, July 10, 2009
Listening to the "Extra Innings Show" on 700 WLW earlier tonight, I heard host Doc Rodgers make a good point. Bronson Arroyo had just picked a complete game shutout against the Mets. This is the same Bronson Arroyo who had been lit up for ten runs in less than an inning a couple of weeks ago. Rodgers question: where's the middle ground. His contention was, it's great to see Arroyo pitch a complete game shutout. But what a team needs more than that, is for a pitcher to give a consistent effort. Sometimes, it's better if you know you pitcher will toss six innings of three or four run baseball, rather than have a pitcher who careens from one extreme to the other.
It helped that Arroyo was pitching against the Mets, a team so decimated by injuries it can barely scrape together a legitimate major league line up.
Just posted on my web site, www.kenbroo.com is my latest Broo View Podcast. My guest in this episode is Michael Lombardi, former NFL front office executive and currently one of the featured writers on www.nationalfootballpost.com. We talk about the prospects of a long holdout by Bengals first round draft pick, Andre Smith. You can find it on the front page of www.kenbroo.com.
Among my guests this week on Sunday Morning Sports Talk will be Hit King Pete Rose. I want to ask him about how he'd fix Jay Bruce, the man who never met a breaking call he could hit.
My show airs on 700 WLW in Cincinnati. If you don't live around here, you can always listen on line, on 700wlw.com.
Have a great weekend!
It helped that Arroyo was pitching against the Mets, a team so decimated by injuries it can barely scrape together a legitimate major league line up.
Just posted on my web site, www.kenbroo.com is my latest Broo View Podcast. My guest in this episode is Michael Lombardi, former NFL front office executive and currently one of the featured writers on www.nationalfootballpost.com. We talk about the prospects of a long holdout by Bengals first round draft pick, Andre Smith. You can find it on the front page of www.kenbroo.com.
Among my guests this week on Sunday Morning Sports Talk will be Hit King Pete Rose. I want to ask him about how he'd fix Jay Bruce, the man who never met a breaking call he could hit.
My show airs on 700 WLW in Cincinnati. If you don't live around here, you can always listen on line, on 700wlw.com.
Have a great weekend!
Tuesday, July 07, 2009
Outscored 32-2 in their last two ballgames. You can look at that stat and say the Reds starting pitching has failed them. And, you'd be right. But the way I choose to look at it is this way: the Reds can't score runs. And it's that lack of offense that's been the chronic problem this season. We've gone over this, ad nauseum: the Reds failed to replace the offense that Adam Dunn took with him when he was traded away last August.
Some have mistaken my criticism of their lack of offense with some sort of man crush on Dunn. Not true. I could care less where they found the 100 runs and 100 rbi that Dunn consistently produced while a Cincinnati Red (he's ahead of that pace this season, incidentally). They simply needed to find someone(s) who could replicate it. Remember, this team was offensively challenge even with Dunn last season. Instead, the Reds pursued Willy Tavares, throwing $6.8 million of Bob Castellini's money at a player they might've been able to sign for the major league minimum, had they waited a week or two. Tavares, as expected, has been a huge disappointment. Instead, the Reds put a $10 million scoreboard in left field, rather than a $10 million dollar player in left field. Bobby Abreu signed with the Angels for $6 million. He probably figured he had a good chance of getting a World Series ring in LA. But if the Reds had offered him $8 million, would he have signed here? We'll never know.
And why did the Reds spend $10 million on a new scoreboard, when the old one was just six years old? Because, apparently, they couldn't find parts needed to repair it. Here's a question: why would you buy a scoreboard from a company that can't supply replacement parts, just six years after sale? Worse, the graphics on the scoreboard appear to have been done by a third grader, using an ancient Apple III computer. And there aren't enough replays. But those are stories for another day.
All the Reds needed to do was find a free agent outfielder who could bridge the gap between now and when Drew Stubbs is ready for the majors. Stubbs is in AAA now, and probably a Cincinnati Red within a year. This is a classic example of a missed opportunity.
We keep hearing the Reds big year will be 2010, not 2009. Really? Says who? Are you sure your core players will have the kind of season they'll need to have in 2010? Are you sure your key players won't experience injuries that will keep them shelved for part of 2010? The future is promised to no one, not even baseball teams.
The best line about all of this was uttered last weekend. I don't know by whom, because I heard it second hand. Here it is: a team doesn't pick when it will contend. When it will contend, is picked for it. In sports, you must seize the moment. The Reds didn't. And had they, 2009 might have been the first playoff year since 1995. Sadly, it doesn't look like it will be.
Some have mistaken my criticism of their lack of offense with some sort of man crush on Dunn. Not true. I could care less where they found the 100 runs and 100 rbi that Dunn consistently produced while a Cincinnati Red (he's ahead of that pace this season, incidentally). They simply needed to find someone(s) who could replicate it. Remember, this team was offensively challenge even with Dunn last season. Instead, the Reds pursued Willy Tavares, throwing $6.8 million of Bob Castellini's money at a player they might've been able to sign for the major league minimum, had they waited a week or two. Tavares, as expected, has been a huge disappointment. Instead, the Reds put a $10 million scoreboard in left field, rather than a $10 million dollar player in left field. Bobby Abreu signed with the Angels for $6 million. He probably figured he had a good chance of getting a World Series ring in LA. But if the Reds had offered him $8 million, would he have signed here? We'll never know.
And why did the Reds spend $10 million on a new scoreboard, when the old one was just six years old? Because, apparently, they couldn't find parts needed to repair it. Here's a question: why would you buy a scoreboard from a company that can't supply replacement parts, just six years after sale? Worse, the graphics on the scoreboard appear to have been done by a third grader, using an ancient Apple III computer. And there aren't enough replays. But those are stories for another day.
All the Reds needed to do was find a free agent outfielder who could bridge the gap between now and when Drew Stubbs is ready for the majors. Stubbs is in AAA now, and probably a Cincinnati Red within a year. This is a classic example of a missed opportunity.
We keep hearing the Reds big year will be 2010, not 2009. Really? Says who? Are you sure your core players will have the kind of season they'll need to have in 2010? Are you sure your key players won't experience injuries that will keep them shelved for part of 2010? The future is promised to no one, not even baseball teams.
The best line about all of this was uttered last weekend. I don't know by whom, because I heard it second hand. Here it is: a team doesn't pick when it will contend. When it will contend, is picked for it. In sports, you must seize the moment. The Reds didn't. And had they, 2009 might have been the first playoff year since 1995. Sadly, it doesn't look like it will be.
Sunday, July 05, 2009
Good Monday Morning!
We were talking about this the other night, down at channel 5, watching Albert Puljos round the bases after his grand slam that crushed the Reds: the phrase in baseball called “by the book”. This compilation of strategy or codes or whatever it is that fuels managers and drives fans crazy sometime. “By the book”, is there a book? When was it written? Who wrote it? Can you find it at Barnes and Noble or do you have to order through Amazon?
Stacking your line-up with left handed bats when the other guy is throwing a right handed pitcher. Why? Alternating lefties with righties in your batting order. Says who? If the other guy sends up a left-handed batter late in the game, why do you have to go to your bullpen to bring in a left handed pitcher? Where is that written? Did Moses bring down from the mountain an eleventh commandment?
I get the feeling that most major league managers go ‘by the book’, and the numbers. Numbers dictate everything in baseball. You walk into Dusty Baker’s office, or Tony LaRussa’s office, even the great Joe Torre’s office and he’s got every stat imaginable at his finger tips. How does Albert Puljos hit right handed pitching. Answer: great. How does he hit left handed pitching: answer, great. How well does Rick Ankiel hit Bronson Arroyo, Nick Massett, Francisco Cordero. It’s all there. Numbers. How well do right handers hit off Arthur Rhodes. If Rhodes is in the game and LaRussa sends Khalil Greene up to pinch hit, does Baker bring in a righty to face him? Or does Rhodes have a decent track record when facing Greene?
This is what living in the intel Pentium processor age has given us.
Makes you wonder what Casey Stengel, or Sparky or Billy Martin would have done with this. My guess is, throw it out the window. But that’s only a guess.
I was working in Tamp years ago and met up with Sparky at the 1984 World Series. His Tigers were in the process of beating the Padres in that particular series. I told him, I had just run the numbers into a computer that we had at the television station, his 1984 Tigers against the 1975 Reds. Six game series, I told Sparky, your Tigers win in six. He told me to get a new computer. Actually, what he said was, ‘no computer ever won a baseball game’.
Which gets me back to this thing we were talking about the other night at channel 5, me Vogel, one of our directors and whoever else happened to walk by. Puljos had just hit that grand slam home run, and I raised this question: why not just walk the guy? Ok, the bases were loaded. You’re conceding a run. But you’re up three with one out in the eighth. There’s not another bat in that Cardinals line-up that could beat you. Walk Puljos and take your chances.
We were split, 50-50- on that. One side thought I was nuts (which I might point out is confirmed at channel 5 on a daily basis) the other half thought it wouldn’t be a bad idea. Seems to me, years ago, Jack McKeon did something similar with Mark McGwire, not with the bases loaded, but intentionally walking McGwire, and putting the go ahead run in scoring position.
So what’s wrong with taking the bat out of Puljos’ hands and playing the percentages. In fact, I looked it up. In modern day baseball, 20th century and up until now, only three batters have been intentionally walked with the bases loaded: Nap Lajoie, of the old Philadelphia A’s (Hall of Famer, I might add), former Chicago Cub Bill Nicholson and Barry Bonds. Bonds got a bases loaded free pass in 1998. The Diamondbacks had a 8-6 lead on the Giants in the ninth. Arizona manager, Buck Showalter ordered his pitcher to intentionally walk Bonds with the bases loaded. It made the score 8-6. Took the bat out of Bond’ hands. Next up was Brent Mayne. Line out, game over. I kind of wish Chris Spier, the Reds’ bench coach had that information, so he could’ve whispered it to Dusty Baker. A little refresher course for Dusty, who was managing the Giants at the time.
Am I wrong in suggesting that it might have been something for Baker to consider? Does it really fly in the face of what your supposed to do as a manager? In football, the first thing a defensive coordinator does when he begins to game plan for an opponent, is figure out how to neutralize the other team’s best offensive player. Is baseball that different? Rule number one, in any team sports is don’t let the other guy’s best player beat you.
Am I wrong in thinking this way? Please, tell me. If you were Baker, would you have intentionally walked Puljos? I don’t think he was wrong for not doing it, because that’s what ‘the book’ says. And in this day of replays, sportscenter, columnists, blogs and yes, sports talk radio, a manager takes his professional life in his hands by going against ‘the book’.
Stats and tendencies, match-ups and advantages drive baseball managers in this day and age. But sometimes, like any job in life you have to go with what your ‘gut’ tells you. My gut tells me walking Albert Puljos Friday night was the way to go. I had no skin in the game, so it makes my position a lot less important than the way Baker played it. Dusty went by the book. I’ll bet if you asked him today, just you and him, no cameras, microphones or anyone else within earshot, bet you if you asked him ‘should you have walked Puljos in that situation’ and become only the 4th manager since 1900 to do something like that, I’ll bet his answer today would be, not a bad idea.
We were talking about this the other night, down at channel 5, watching Albert Puljos round the bases after his grand slam that crushed the Reds: the phrase in baseball called “by the book”. This compilation of strategy or codes or whatever it is that fuels managers and drives fans crazy sometime. “By the book”, is there a book? When was it written? Who wrote it? Can you find it at Barnes and Noble or do you have to order through Amazon?
Stacking your line-up with left handed bats when the other guy is throwing a right handed pitcher. Why? Alternating lefties with righties in your batting order. Says who? If the other guy sends up a left-handed batter late in the game, why do you have to go to your bullpen to bring in a left handed pitcher? Where is that written? Did Moses bring down from the mountain an eleventh commandment?
I get the feeling that most major league managers go ‘by the book’, and the numbers. Numbers dictate everything in baseball. You walk into Dusty Baker’s office, or Tony LaRussa’s office, even the great Joe Torre’s office and he’s got every stat imaginable at his finger tips. How does Albert Puljos hit right handed pitching. Answer: great. How does he hit left handed pitching: answer, great. How well does Rick Ankiel hit Bronson Arroyo, Nick Massett, Francisco Cordero. It’s all there. Numbers. How well do right handers hit off Arthur Rhodes. If Rhodes is in the game and LaRussa sends Khalil Greene up to pinch hit, does Baker bring in a righty to face him? Or does Rhodes have a decent track record when facing Greene?
This is what living in the intel Pentium processor age has given us.
Makes you wonder what Casey Stengel, or Sparky or Billy Martin would have done with this. My guess is, throw it out the window. But that’s only a guess.
I was working in Tamp years ago and met up with Sparky at the 1984 World Series. His Tigers were in the process of beating the Padres in that particular series. I told him, I had just run the numbers into a computer that we had at the television station, his 1984 Tigers against the 1975 Reds. Six game series, I told Sparky, your Tigers win in six. He told me to get a new computer. Actually, what he said was, ‘no computer ever won a baseball game’.
Which gets me back to this thing we were talking about the other night at channel 5, me Vogel, one of our directors and whoever else happened to walk by. Puljos had just hit that grand slam home run, and I raised this question: why not just walk the guy? Ok, the bases were loaded. You’re conceding a run. But you’re up three with one out in the eighth. There’s not another bat in that Cardinals line-up that could beat you. Walk Puljos and take your chances.
We were split, 50-50- on that. One side thought I was nuts (which I might point out is confirmed at channel 5 on a daily basis) the other half thought it wouldn’t be a bad idea. Seems to me, years ago, Jack McKeon did something similar with Mark McGwire, not with the bases loaded, but intentionally walking McGwire, and putting the go ahead run in scoring position.
So what’s wrong with taking the bat out of Puljos’ hands and playing the percentages. In fact, I looked it up. In modern day baseball, 20th century and up until now, only three batters have been intentionally walked with the bases loaded: Nap Lajoie, of the old Philadelphia A’s (Hall of Famer, I might add), former Chicago Cub Bill Nicholson and Barry Bonds. Bonds got a bases loaded free pass in 1998. The Diamondbacks had a 8-6 lead on the Giants in the ninth. Arizona manager, Buck Showalter ordered his pitcher to intentionally walk Bonds with the bases loaded. It made the score 8-6. Took the bat out of Bond’ hands. Next up was Brent Mayne. Line out, game over. I kind of wish Chris Spier, the Reds’ bench coach had that information, so he could’ve whispered it to Dusty Baker. A little refresher course for Dusty, who was managing the Giants at the time.
Am I wrong in suggesting that it might have been something for Baker to consider? Does it really fly in the face of what your supposed to do as a manager? In football, the first thing a defensive coordinator does when he begins to game plan for an opponent, is figure out how to neutralize the other team’s best offensive player. Is baseball that different? Rule number one, in any team sports is don’t let the other guy’s best player beat you.
Am I wrong in thinking this way? Please, tell me. If you were Baker, would you have intentionally walked Puljos? I don’t think he was wrong for not doing it, because that’s what ‘the book’ says. And in this day of replays, sportscenter, columnists, blogs and yes, sports talk radio, a manager takes his professional life in his hands by going against ‘the book’.
Stats and tendencies, match-ups and advantages drive baseball managers in this day and age. But sometimes, like any job in life you have to go with what your ‘gut’ tells you. My gut tells me walking Albert Puljos Friday night was the way to go. I had no skin in the game, so it makes my position a lot less important than the way Baker played it. Dusty went by the book. I’ll bet if you asked him today, just you and him, no cameras, microphones or anyone else within earshot, bet you if you asked him ‘should you have walked Puljos in that situation’ and become only the 4th manager since 1900 to do something like that, I’ll bet his answer today would be, not a bad idea.
Friday, July 03, 2009
Four 'slams' this season for Albert Puljos and you pitch to him with the bases loaded? Up three in the 8th? Sorry, rule one in sports is this: never let the other guy's best player beat you. I'd have taken a page out of Trader Jack McKeon's book and walked Puljos, concede the run and try my luck against a .237 hitter. You're still up two and breathing.
You'll remember this loss in September, I'll guarantee it.
Latest Broo View Podcast is posted at www.kenbroo.com. It's on the front page of my web site. My guest this time is college football prognosticater, Phil Steele. On the fly? Download it here.
You'll remember this loss in September, I'll guarantee it.
Latest Broo View Podcast is posted at www.kenbroo.com. It's on the front page of my web site. My guest this time is college football prognosticater, Phil Steele. On the fly? Download it here.
Wednesday, July 01, 2009
If ever there was a case for the Reds to add a legitimate 'bat', you saw it Tuesday night. Johnny Cueto pitched another strong ballgame. He went six, allowed only one hit and whiffed eight. He wound up getting the win, a dicey 1-0 decision over the Arizona Diamondbacks. But how many games do you win with only one run? How many times have we seen the Reds score only one run this season.
If they Reds had done what they needed to do this off season, add a productive hitting outfielder who could fill the 4th or 5th spot in the batting order, it's my guess that this team would be in first place in the NL Central, by a comfortable margin. Go back and look at the number of times the Reds lost ballgames simply because they couldn't get a base hit when needed (situational hitting). Look at how they did when Joey Votto was away getting his head straight (8-14). Now, what would have happened if the Reds had made that deal with the White Sox for Jermaine Dye, or if they had made a run at Bobby Abreu? We'll never know.
Instead, they dropped $6.8 million on Willy Tavares, a player they might've been able to sign for close to the major league minimum had they waited a few weeks. Instead, they elected to sign the far too injured Edwin Encarnacion to a two year deal (two years???). Instead, they bottom fed for players like Laynce Nix and Jonny Gomes. Instead, they spent $10 million on a scoreboard in left field, rather than spending $10 million on a left fielder. Abreu signed with the Angles for $6 mil. He might not have come here for that, but would he have signed for $8 million? Again, we'll never know.
Reds owner, Bob Castellini, who probably took a large bath last summer when the tomato scare hit the USA, watched the economy go into the dumper in September, looked at his season ticket sales and put his checkbook back in his pocket. Dye would have cost $11 mil, Abreu less than that, but not much. So instead of the bluster we got from the Produce King in 2006, the stuff about winning championships now, we got a lot of 'building for the future'.
I like Castellini, a lot. But excuse me, we've been hearing about the future ever since Davey Johnson was run out of town by Marge Schott in 1995.
Here's the thing about professional sports: there is no future. You, me, Castellini, no one can predict what 2010 or 2011 will bring. Did anyone see Edinson Volquez being a shadow this year, of what he was in 2008? Anybody predict that Votto would go through what he did this season? It's why when you're close, you give yourself the best shot to win in the here-now. The Yankees, Red Sox, White Sox and Cubs do it every year. But smaller market teams play that game too. What did Milwaukee do last year when it got close? It went out and got pitcher CC Sabathia. The Brewers didn't win the World Series. But they made the playoffs. And though they had to trade one of their best prospects to the Indians to get CC, it certainly hasn't hurt that team's ability to contend this year, has it?
In professional sports, there is only one thing that counts: winning. If the Reds really want to win, if Castellini really wants to be taken seriously by the fans of his team, he'll 'green light' his general manager to make a move, a big move that will separate the Reds from the pretenders.
We're waiting. But then again, we have been since '95, haven't we?
If they Reds had done what they needed to do this off season, add a productive hitting outfielder who could fill the 4th or 5th spot in the batting order, it's my guess that this team would be in first place in the NL Central, by a comfortable margin. Go back and look at the number of times the Reds lost ballgames simply because they couldn't get a base hit when needed (situational hitting). Look at how they did when Joey Votto was away getting his head straight (8-14). Now, what would have happened if the Reds had made that deal with the White Sox for Jermaine Dye, or if they had made a run at Bobby Abreu? We'll never know.
Instead, they dropped $6.8 million on Willy Tavares, a player they might've been able to sign for close to the major league minimum had they waited a few weeks. Instead, they elected to sign the far too injured Edwin Encarnacion to a two year deal (two years???). Instead, they bottom fed for players like Laynce Nix and Jonny Gomes. Instead, they spent $10 million on a scoreboard in left field, rather than spending $10 million on a left fielder. Abreu signed with the Angles for $6 mil. He might not have come here for that, but would he have signed for $8 million? Again, we'll never know.
Reds owner, Bob Castellini, who probably took a large bath last summer when the tomato scare hit the USA, watched the economy go into the dumper in September, looked at his season ticket sales and put his checkbook back in his pocket. Dye would have cost $11 mil, Abreu less than that, but not much. So instead of the bluster we got from the Produce King in 2006, the stuff about winning championships now, we got a lot of 'building for the future'.
I like Castellini, a lot. But excuse me, we've been hearing about the future ever since Davey Johnson was run out of town by Marge Schott in 1995.
Here's the thing about professional sports: there is no future. You, me, Castellini, no one can predict what 2010 or 2011 will bring. Did anyone see Edinson Volquez being a shadow this year, of what he was in 2008? Anybody predict that Votto would go through what he did this season? It's why when you're close, you give yourself the best shot to win in the here-now. The Yankees, Red Sox, White Sox and Cubs do it every year. But smaller market teams play that game too. What did Milwaukee do last year when it got close? It went out and got pitcher CC Sabathia. The Brewers didn't win the World Series. But they made the playoffs. And though they had to trade one of their best prospects to the Indians to get CC, it certainly hasn't hurt that team's ability to contend this year, has it?
In professional sports, there is only one thing that counts: winning. If the Reds really want to win, if Castellini really wants to be taken seriously by the fans of his team, he'll 'green light' his general manager to make a move, a big move that will separate the Reds from the pretenders.
We're waiting. But then again, we have been since '95, haven't we?
Monday, June 29, 2009
Just back from a quick trip to the East Coast. Did New York, theatre, couple of restaurants and the obligatory diner trips. And I also caught a ballgame, the Mets against the Cardinals at Citi Field. Great new ballpark, resurrecting the style and thankfully not the smell of the old Ebbets Field. I’m not old enough to remember the Brooklyn Dodgers, but apparently Brooklyn and Ebbets Field had a smell all their own.
Anyhow, I watched the Mets smoke the Cardinals 11-0 on Wednesday night and then get trounced themselves by the Yankees on Friday night. And out there, the fans are just like you and me. Well, OK, perhaps we don’t use four letter words as verbs as much as they do. But in the sense that fans want their teams to win and want action if they don’t, we’ve got some common ground with New Yorkers.
The Mets are banged up. They want their general manager to make a deal, today, last Thursday if possible, to get another big bat in their line up. The Yankees have some pitching problems, they want another arm for the rotation, couple for the bullpen and if their GM can find someone to replace outfielder Xavier Nady, great, go get him.
Like you and me, maybe, fans out there believe there are teams and GM’s all over baseball just waiting to be fleeced. They get a star player or two for a couple of broken down veterans and minor leaguers that are more like suspects instead of prospects.
You know, like Edwin Encarnacion and Mike Lincoln in exchange for Kevin Youkilis.
So I’m sitting at this game and the guy next to me strikes up a conversation. Wants to know where I’m from. I guess I didn’t look or act like a ntative, even though I spent 17-years of my life, a long time ago, living in that area of the country. Guy says, ‘Cincinnati?’ I said ‘yeah’. And after we got by the initial jokes of Bengals arrests and Pete Rose’s gambling, he wants to know if Aaron Harang was available. Because he’d heard on a sports talk radio show out there that the Reds would be willing to deal Harang to the Mets in exchange for somebody named Argemis Reyes and a left handed pitcher in Double-A who had just blown out his elbow. You think sports talk radio is anything around here? Out there think Lance McAllister on steroids, 24-7, 365.
So anyway, I tell this guy Sal, from Bensonhurst, I said I didn’t think Harang’s available,,but after checking Harang’s pitching line the next night, I began to think it wasn’t such a bad idea.
But the truth is nobody is trading anyone right now. And yeah, every fans wants action, deals, call ups, try outs, imports from Japan. But it won’t happen, not yet anyway. Look at the standings today. 14 teams are within 6 games of the lead, or closer. Even more can still think of themselves as wild card contenders. The Reds are at ‘500’ and only 2.5 games back, and right in the thick of things in the National League Wild Card Race.
Deal now and get what, from whom? This is the time of the year when baseball resembles a contract negotiation. Neither side wants to make the first move. How much do you want? What are you offering? Who’s on first? I got it, you take it. That’s why mid season deals are done as close to the trading deadline as possible. Teams that need will offer more, teams that are out of it will take less than what they will now, a little more than a month away from deadline day.
What you get now is Norris Hopper for Corky Miller, not even a seismic blip in Louisville.
Barring a total implosion, the Reds are going to be in this race at least until the trade deadline. So you have to figure a trade for an upgrade will be coming. But the question is, at what price? Bailey? Stubbs? Arroyo? Pick a name. But make sure it’s a good one. That’s the only way you’ll get someone coming here, who’ll be good enough to help.
Every so often, the Reds have night like last night. They put up five or more runs and you think everything is going to be OK. But it’s not. They pay the price, far too often, of not addressing their glaring offensive needs in this past off season. They pay the price for letting their farm system go into atrophy in the mid-90’s to 2003. And now, if they really want to win this season, they’ll pay the price. It’s the cost of doing business.
Anyhow, I watched the Mets smoke the Cardinals 11-0 on Wednesday night and then get trounced themselves by the Yankees on Friday night. And out there, the fans are just like you and me. Well, OK, perhaps we don’t use four letter words as verbs as much as they do. But in the sense that fans want their teams to win and want action if they don’t, we’ve got some common ground with New Yorkers.
The Mets are banged up. They want their general manager to make a deal, today, last Thursday if possible, to get another big bat in their line up. The Yankees have some pitching problems, they want another arm for the rotation, couple for the bullpen and if their GM can find someone to replace outfielder Xavier Nady, great, go get him.
Like you and me, maybe, fans out there believe there are teams and GM’s all over baseball just waiting to be fleeced. They get a star player or two for a couple of broken down veterans and minor leaguers that are more like suspects instead of prospects.
You know, like Edwin Encarnacion and Mike Lincoln in exchange for Kevin Youkilis.
So I’m sitting at this game and the guy next to me strikes up a conversation. Wants to know where I’m from. I guess I didn’t look or act like a ntative, even though I spent 17-years of my life, a long time ago, living in that area of the country. Guy says, ‘Cincinnati?’ I said ‘yeah’. And after we got by the initial jokes of Bengals arrests and Pete Rose’s gambling, he wants to know if Aaron Harang was available. Because he’d heard on a sports talk radio show out there that the Reds would be willing to deal Harang to the Mets in exchange for somebody named Argemis Reyes and a left handed pitcher in Double-A who had just blown out his elbow. You think sports talk radio is anything around here? Out there think Lance McAllister on steroids, 24-7, 365.
So anyway, I tell this guy Sal, from Bensonhurst, I said I didn’t think Harang’s available,,but after checking Harang’s pitching line the next night, I began to think it wasn’t such a bad idea.
But the truth is nobody is trading anyone right now. And yeah, every fans wants action, deals, call ups, try outs, imports from Japan. But it won’t happen, not yet anyway. Look at the standings today. 14 teams are within 6 games of the lead, or closer. Even more can still think of themselves as wild card contenders. The Reds are at ‘500’ and only 2.5 games back, and right in the thick of things in the National League Wild Card Race.
Deal now and get what, from whom? This is the time of the year when baseball resembles a contract negotiation. Neither side wants to make the first move. How much do you want? What are you offering? Who’s on first? I got it, you take it. That’s why mid season deals are done as close to the trading deadline as possible. Teams that need will offer more, teams that are out of it will take less than what they will now, a little more than a month away from deadline day.
What you get now is Norris Hopper for Corky Miller, not even a seismic blip in Louisville.
Barring a total implosion, the Reds are going to be in this race at least until the trade deadline. So you have to figure a trade for an upgrade will be coming. But the question is, at what price? Bailey? Stubbs? Arroyo? Pick a name. But make sure it’s a good one. That’s the only way you’ll get someone coming here, who’ll be good enough to help.
Every so often, the Reds have night like last night. They put up five or more runs and you think everything is going to be OK. But it’s not. They pay the price, far too often, of not addressing their glaring offensive needs in this past off season. They pay the price for letting their farm system go into atrophy in the mid-90’s to 2003. And now, if they really want to win this season, they’ll pay the price. It’s the cost of doing business.
Friday, June 26, 2009
Random thoughts on a random Friday...
I guess Joey Votto is OK again. Last night's effort in Toronto was all the reason you need to believe he's OK again....
If the Reds want to be taken as serious contenders, they'll need to take two of three from the Indians this weekend. Cleveland is a bad ballclub. I'm not sure how much better the Reds are. But they're certainly better than the Indians...
And, of course, now that the Reds have reacquired catcher Corky Miller, all things are possible, aren't they?.....
Is Jay Bruce this year's Adam Dunn? Check the stats: HR total good, RBI total not bad, batting average in the toilet. Defensively, Bruce is much better than Dunn. But at the plate, he appears to be channeling the former Reds....
Spending time in New Jersey this week and took in the Mets vs Cardinals on Wednesday night. The Mets' new park, Citi Field, is beautiful, much along the lines of the new stadium in DC. It s archtecture would remind those of you who remember Ebbets Field (not me, not old enough) of the old Brooklyn Dodgers stadium. There are monuments and tributes everywhere to the old Dodgers. After finishing Lee Lowenfish's exellent work on Branch Rickey, Citi Field is the kind of park the old Dodger GM and part owner envisioned. Had the city of New York built this kind of stadium in 1955 (without, of course, the amenities that only the year 2009 can deliver) there might not have been an LA Dodgers...
Also, the Mets can hit the ball, decimating the Cardinals pitching for eleven runs the night I attended....
Dined at New York's legendary steak house, Gallagher's on Thursday night and then went directly across 52nd street to the August Wilson Theatre for the 8p curtain of Jersey Boys. The musical was its usual phenominal self. Second time I've seen it, the first at the Aronoff in May, 2008. The steak wasn't all that great. The Precinct has nothing to worry about. Did a couple of diners here, too. The uniquely NJ treat of a Taylor ham and egg sandwich on a roll was delightful at the Nutley Diner. Hot apple pie ala mode at one of my old haunts, the Arlington Diner was as remembered.....
The Bengals report to training camp on July 30 with a first workout on the 31st. They break camp in Georgetown, KY on August 18. By my Ohio University math, that's 19-days. Question to Mike Brown: what's the point? Mike likes to count nickels. It is really worth the time, trouble and expense to pack up your franchise and haul it an hour south just to spend less than three weeks there? Save your money. You're only allowed 80 players on your camp roster. That's 40 hotel rooms. You'd be helping the greater Cincinnati area economy in the process....
Xavier's Derrick Brown went 40th in last night's NBA draft. He better get a passport. I see Europe in his future. Maybe not this year or next, but someday. Brown, who looked like a lottery pick in November, needs to refine his inside game. I'm just sayin.....
Just read where Southwest Airlines will open up shop at LaGuardia Airport in NYC beginning Sunday. So when do we Cincinnatian get the honor of having that discout airline at CVG. OK, thank you Delta one more time. $15 to check a bag now when you fly with 'the monopoly'. That's on top of some of the highest priced tickets in travel....
The "King Of Pop" dead at 50. Elvis died at what, 43? The media and the lawyers had a field day when Elvis went. Why am I thinking the same thing is about to happen again?....
Farrah Fawcett gets bumped to page 2. If you're a male and under 50, she had a lot more affect on you than the "King Of Pop".....
On my radio show this Sunday on 700 WLW, my guests include NFL player agent, Jack Bechta. We'll debate the merits of an 18 game regular season. Also, former Reds GM Wayne Krivsky joins me. I've got some other things up my proverbial sleeve too. I'm on from 9am-Noon ET...
Sunday night at 11:35p on WLWT, it's Sports Rock! Mo Egger from WLW & 1530 Homer joins me.
Have a great weekend!
I guess Joey Votto is OK again. Last night's effort in Toronto was all the reason you need to believe he's OK again....
If the Reds want to be taken as serious contenders, they'll need to take two of three from the Indians this weekend. Cleveland is a bad ballclub. I'm not sure how much better the Reds are. But they're certainly better than the Indians...
And, of course, now that the Reds have reacquired catcher Corky Miller, all things are possible, aren't they?.....
Is Jay Bruce this year's Adam Dunn? Check the stats: HR total good, RBI total not bad, batting average in the toilet. Defensively, Bruce is much better than Dunn. But at the plate, he appears to be channeling the former Reds....
Spending time in New Jersey this week and took in the Mets vs Cardinals on Wednesday night. The Mets' new park, Citi Field, is beautiful, much along the lines of the new stadium in DC. It s archtecture would remind those of you who remember Ebbets Field (not me, not old enough) of the old Brooklyn Dodgers stadium. There are monuments and tributes everywhere to the old Dodgers. After finishing Lee Lowenfish's exellent work on Branch Rickey, Citi Field is the kind of park the old Dodger GM and part owner envisioned. Had the city of New York built this kind of stadium in 1955 (without, of course, the amenities that only the year 2009 can deliver) there might not have been an LA Dodgers...
Also, the Mets can hit the ball, decimating the Cardinals pitching for eleven runs the night I attended....
Dined at New York's legendary steak house, Gallagher's on Thursday night and then went directly across 52nd street to the August Wilson Theatre for the 8p curtain of Jersey Boys. The musical was its usual phenominal self. Second time I've seen it, the first at the Aronoff in May, 2008. The steak wasn't all that great. The Precinct has nothing to worry about. Did a couple of diners here, too. The uniquely NJ treat of a Taylor ham and egg sandwich on a roll was delightful at the Nutley Diner. Hot apple pie ala mode at one of my old haunts, the Arlington Diner was as remembered.....
The Bengals report to training camp on July 30 with a first workout on the 31st. They break camp in Georgetown, KY on August 18. By my Ohio University math, that's 19-days. Question to Mike Brown: what's the point? Mike likes to count nickels. It is really worth the time, trouble and expense to pack up your franchise and haul it an hour south just to spend less than three weeks there? Save your money. You're only allowed 80 players on your camp roster. That's 40 hotel rooms. You'd be helping the greater Cincinnati area economy in the process....
Xavier's Derrick Brown went 40th in last night's NBA draft. He better get a passport. I see Europe in his future. Maybe not this year or next, but someday. Brown, who looked like a lottery pick in November, needs to refine his inside game. I'm just sayin.....
Just read where Southwest Airlines will open up shop at LaGuardia Airport in NYC beginning Sunday. So when do we Cincinnatian get the honor of having that discout airline at CVG. OK, thank you Delta one more time. $15 to check a bag now when you fly with 'the monopoly'. That's on top of some of the highest priced tickets in travel....
The "King Of Pop" dead at 50. Elvis died at what, 43? The media and the lawyers had a field day when Elvis went. Why am I thinking the same thing is about to happen again?....
Farrah Fawcett gets bumped to page 2. If you're a male and under 50, she had a lot more affect on you than the "King Of Pop".....
On my radio show this Sunday on 700 WLW, my guests include NFL player agent, Jack Bechta. We'll debate the merits of an 18 game regular season. Also, former Reds GM Wayne Krivsky joins me. I've got some other things up my proverbial sleeve too. I'm on from 9am-Noon ET...
Sunday night at 11:35p on WLWT, it's Sports Rock! Mo Egger from WLW & 1530 Homer joins me.
Have a great weekend!
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
As we've witness tonight, Joey Votto's return to the Cincinnati Reds is no panacea. It will take him time to get used to the speed (and pitching) at the Major League level. And it's not like the Reds had a whole lot of offense before he left to battle his stress related illness. Like Adam Dunn or not, he took 100 runs and 100 rbi with him when he left. And the Reds front office simply failed to replace that offense. We got a $10 million scoreboard in left field, instead of a $10 million player. We also got Willy Tavares for $6.8 million, but that's another story.
If you're a Reds fan, your greatest fear is that while Votto was away, the division was there for the taking. No NL Central team had enough to put space between itself and the rest of the pack. Would the Reds had been able to do with Votto in the line-up? That will be debated all next off season, if the Reds fail to qualify for the post season playoffs.
Just published on my web site, www.kenbroo.com is the latest Broo View Podcast. This episode features an in depth interview with Forbes Magazine's Tom Van Riper. We discuss the not so out of the question possible strike that could be looming in the NFL. In a hurry? You can download the show here.
If you're a Reds fan, your greatest fear is that while Votto was away, the division was there for the taking. No NL Central team had enough to put space between itself and the rest of the pack. Would the Reds had been able to do with Votto in the line-up? That will be debated all next off season, if the Reds fail to qualify for the post season playoffs.
Just published on my web site, www.kenbroo.com is the latest Broo View Podcast. This episode features an in depth interview with Forbes Magazine's Tom Van Riper. We discuss the not so out of the question possible strike that could be looming in the NFL. In a hurry? You can download the show here.
Sunday, June 21, 2009
Good Monday Morning!
Bob Castellini is taking some public hits. Fans are upset with the way his ballclub is put together. Some of us would rather have had a ten million dollar ballplayer in left field, rather than a ten million dollar scoreboard, particularly one where there aren’t enough replays and the graphics appear to have been done on an Apple 3 computer.
But give the produce King this, he knows Cincinnati, and he appreciates the history that is Cincinnati Reds baseball. That’s the thing about baseball, it’s all about history. We revel in the stats, the stories, the players. Football offers us the national pastime, anymore. Basketball allows us to see the superstars closer and in more detail than any other sport. But baseball is the total story, weaved together by stats, by stories and by its history. You probably couldn’t name the starting defensive tackles on the 1992 Cincinnati Bengals. Hell, as bad as that team was, why would you want to/ But I’ll bet you know that the 1992 Reds finished 18 games above ‘500’, and that their starting outfield was Bip Roberts in left, Dave Martinez in center and Paul O’Neill in right.
For the record, the starting defensive ends on the 1992 Bengals were Lamar Rogers and Alonzo Mitts.
This week, the produce King welcomed the baseball world to Cincinnati for the Civil Rights Game. By all accounts the weekend was a slam dunk hit. The fly by media actually stopped in Cincinnati for once. Some big names in sports spent the weekend here and we got some good national pub.
But here’s what I saw that I liked. I saw Frank Robinson, embraced by Cincinnati again and willing to be so. As late as five years ago the chances of that happening were about as good as you landing on Mars. Robinson was run out of here in 1966, called an old 30 and in return from the Orioles, the Reds got a box of jock straps and Milt Pappas. We know what Robinson did when he got to Baltimore. We also know that he never forgave Cincinnati, or the misguided bunch that traded him away.
Robinson went onto make a little history himself, becoming baseball’s first black manager, and winning another MVP award wearing an Orioles uniform. He moved on to other jobs in baseball and we moved onto the Big Red Machine, other heroes, other stories. He didn’t like us all that much and we simply forgot about him. Except when Castellini picked up the phone a few months ago and reached out to him. Told Robinson it was a new day here, that he, Castellini was a Cincinnati born and bred guy and that, like a lot us, went to Crosley Field and watch Robinson do his magic act that baffled opposing pitchers.
In the roundtable discussion Friday at the Freedom Center, and last night on the radio and TV, you’d have thought Frank Robinson was Cincinnati’s official ambassador to the game of baseball. Good lesson from the produce King: extend an olive branch and you may wind up with a vineyard.
The other thing I saw this week that I liked a lot was Eric Davis, in uniform and working with the current Reds. To those of us who need a refresher court, Eric Davis went over the wall to rob the opposing batters of home runs, had remarkable speed in the field and on the bases, led the Reds to a wire-to-wire World Series win in 1990, lacerated a kidney in the process, hired his own private plane to fly back from Oakland when his doctors told him he should not fly commercial, and we won’t even get into what Marge Schott was overheard calling him.
Oh, and he beat cancer along the way, playing in major league baseball games the same day he took chemotherapy. Try that sometime and see how you do.
He also infuriated a lot of us because we thought he held his hands too low at the plate and seemed to come up with muscle ailments far too often.
But he was good, damn good and the wire to wire thing ought to be a ‘get out of jail free’ card with all of us.
But like Robinson, Davis was estranged from this Reds organization too. Too often, he’d come into town to see his friends and we’d wonder why the Reds couldn’t find a place for him, anywhere, somewhere.
Castellini found a place. Special assistant to the president, is Davis’ title. The title is insignificant. The real story is a reconnection with history. The Produce King figured it out. Under Marge Schott, under Carl Lindner, the Reds really never had any interest in it.
In a 300 television channel universe, in a DINS world….and you know what D-I-N-S means….in a climate where even if we have a job, we worry constantly if we’ll keep it, the appreciation, let alone the knowledge of it is a luxury to a lot of us. But to the business, and the sport, of baseball. In a lot of ways, history is baseball’s life blood. It was good to see Hank Aaron here this weekend. We reveled in the athletic royalty of Muhammad Ali. But the bigger story for us, we who call the Tri-State home, was two of our own back with the family. It was a good week.
Bob Castellini is taking some public hits. Fans are upset with the way his ballclub is put together. Some of us would rather have had a ten million dollar ballplayer in left field, rather than a ten million dollar scoreboard, particularly one where there aren’t enough replays and the graphics appear to have been done on an Apple 3 computer.
But give the produce King this, he knows Cincinnati, and he appreciates the history that is Cincinnati Reds baseball. That’s the thing about baseball, it’s all about history. We revel in the stats, the stories, the players. Football offers us the national pastime, anymore. Basketball allows us to see the superstars closer and in more detail than any other sport. But baseball is the total story, weaved together by stats, by stories and by its history. You probably couldn’t name the starting defensive tackles on the 1992 Cincinnati Bengals. Hell, as bad as that team was, why would you want to/ But I’ll bet you know that the 1992 Reds finished 18 games above ‘500’, and that their starting outfield was Bip Roberts in left, Dave Martinez in center and Paul O’Neill in right.
For the record, the starting defensive ends on the 1992 Bengals were Lamar Rogers and Alonzo Mitts.
This week, the produce King welcomed the baseball world to Cincinnati for the Civil Rights Game. By all accounts the weekend was a slam dunk hit. The fly by media actually stopped in Cincinnati for once. Some big names in sports spent the weekend here and we got some good national pub.
But here’s what I saw that I liked. I saw Frank Robinson, embraced by Cincinnati again and willing to be so. As late as five years ago the chances of that happening were about as good as you landing on Mars. Robinson was run out of here in 1966, called an old 30 and in return from the Orioles, the Reds got a box of jock straps and Milt Pappas. We know what Robinson did when he got to Baltimore. We also know that he never forgave Cincinnati, or the misguided bunch that traded him away.
Robinson went onto make a little history himself, becoming baseball’s first black manager, and winning another MVP award wearing an Orioles uniform. He moved on to other jobs in baseball and we moved onto the Big Red Machine, other heroes, other stories. He didn’t like us all that much and we simply forgot about him. Except when Castellini picked up the phone a few months ago and reached out to him. Told Robinson it was a new day here, that he, Castellini was a Cincinnati born and bred guy and that, like a lot us, went to Crosley Field and watch Robinson do his magic act that baffled opposing pitchers.
In the roundtable discussion Friday at the Freedom Center, and last night on the radio and TV, you’d have thought Frank Robinson was Cincinnati’s official ambassador to the game of baseball. Good lesson from the produce King: extend an olive branch and you may wind up with a vineyard.
The other thing I saw this week that I liked a lot was Eric Davis, in uniform and working with the current Reds. To those of us who need a refresher court, Eric Davis went over the wall to rob the opposing batters of home runs, had remarkable speed in the field and on the bases, led the Reds to a wire-to-wire World Series win in 1990, lacerated a kidney in the process, hired his own private plane to fly back from Oakland when his doctors told him he should not fly commercial, and we won’t even get into what Marge Schott was overheard calling him.
Oh, and he beat cancer along the way, playing in major league baseball games the same day he took chemotherapy. Try that sometime and see how you do.
He also infuriated a lot of us because we thought he held his hands too low at the plate and seemed to come up with muscle ailments far too often.
But he was good, damn good and the wire to wire thing ought to be a ‘get out of jail free’ card with all of us.
But like Robinson, Davis was estranged from this Reds organization too. Too often, he’d come into town to see his friends and we’d wonder why the Reds couldn’t find a place for him, anywhere, somewhere.
Castellini found a place. Special assistant to the president, is Davis’ title. The title is insignificant. The real story is a reconnection with history. The Produce King figured it out. Under Marge Schott, under Carl Lindner, the Reds really never had any interest in it.
In a 300 television channel universe, in a DINS world….and you know what D-I-N-S means….in a climate where even if we have a job, we worry constantly if we’ll keep it, the appreciation, let alone the knowledge of it is a luxury to a lot of us. But to the business, and the sport, of baseball. In a lot of ways, history is baseball’s life blood. It was good to see Hank Aaron here this weekend. We reveled in the athletic royalty of Muhammad Ali. But the bigger story for us, we who call the Tri-State home, was two of our own back with the family. It was a good week.
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Random thoughts from a random mind for a random kind of Friday...
If Willy Tavares is 1-for his last 45-at bats, why does Reds manager Dusty Baker keep putting him in the line-up? Is it because Reds owner, Bob Castellini is paying Tavares $6.8 million for two seasons and GM Walt Jocketty is the guy who found Tavares? Is Willy Tavares no more than a 2009 version of 2008 over-paid bust, Corey Patterson?
I've been consistent on this: the Reds should have put offensively challenged but defensively solid Chris Dickerson, making the major league minimum, in centerfield this season and taken the $6.8 million they spent on Tavares and signed a legit big time player, for one season, to play left field. Bobby Abreu anyone? Swing the deal for Jermain Dye, mayhaps? You only needed a stopgap in the outfield, because in 2010 either Drew Stubbs will be in left field or Yonder Alonso will be on first base, with Joey Votto in left. It's beyond disappointing, the number of games the Reds would have won this season, had they just had a timely base hit. They're hitting .213 with runners in scoring position...
There is no future in baseball anymore. 2010 for your Cincinnati Reds? What if a series of injuries keep them from being competitive? They have the pitching now to compete. But the front office failed their fans and a majority of that big league roster by not adding another big time bat. By the way, exactly which Cincinnati Red right now strikes fear in the heart of an imposing pitcher?
Ochocinco isn't moving in with Carson Palmer. Mrs. Palmer, mother of Carson's newborn twins, shot down the idea. Palmer said Thursday he doesn't need another kid (85) running around the house, either.....
The Bengals will be better in 2009. But they won't be playoff better. Ochocinco guaranteed the team will make the playoffs. But honestly, do you see eleven wins on their schedule? And it will take eleven to get into the playoffs. Things may be different come September. But with the Ravens and Steelers in the Bengals division, with the Titans, Texans, Jags, Dolphins and Bills as legit candidates for the the two wild cards, exactly how does Cincinnati get into the playoffs?
2010, with Rey Maualuga and Andre Smith with a year under their belts? Different story.
Shaq is going to make LeBron better? Really?
One of my guests this Sunday on 700 WLW (9am-Noon ET) will be college football guhru Phil Steele. His pre-season magazine is a 'must get' for any real fan. He'll join me at 10:05 am.
Geoff Hobson from bengals.com, former Bengal Eric Thomas and WEBN's Wildman Walker join George Vogel and me on Sports Rock this Sunday night 11:35pm on WLWT in Cincinnati.
I read where Seleena Roberts' book on Alex Rodriguez has sold a grand total of 16,000 copies. Can you say 'Bargain Rack at Barnes & Noble" by September? I get the feeling no one who actually reads books (an increasingly aging demo) cares about steroids and human growth hormones.
Watching the Pittsburgh Penguins parade around that city's downtown with the Stanley Cup makes me wonder if a scene like that might've been possible in Cincinnati. In 1979, when the NHL 'expanded' (it refused to call it a merger) the WHA's Cincinnati Stingers were offered an option: pony up a franchise fee and join the NHL or take a cash buyout and fold. The Stingers money guys, which included current Reds' owner Bob Castellini, took the money and ran.
I think the NHL would have been big in Cincinnati. We'll never know.
Whatever happened to original Stingers Dennis Sobchuck, or Dale Smedsmo?
If the Minnesota Vikings actually sign Brett Favre, they deserve him. I thought only wide receivers were allowed to be divas.
Anybody notice, that with 18 games to go BEFORE the halfway point of this 2009 baseball season, the Nationals Adam Dunn has 18 home runs and 46 rbi? He's averaged 40/100 over the last five seasons. And the Reds did absolutely nothing in the off season to replace the numbers Dunn took away with him.
Just askin'....
Not a great joke, but worth a smile: guy walks into a bar with a pile of asphalt on his shouler. He says to the bartender "Gimmee a beer, and give me one for the road"
Baboom-ching. Have a great weekend!
If Willy Tavares is 1-for his last 45-at bats, why does Reds manager Dusty Baker keep putting him in the line-up? Is it because Reds owner, Bob Castellini is paying Tavares $6.8 million for two seasons and GM Walt Jocketty is the guy who found Tavares? Is Willy Tavares no more than a 2009 version of 2008 over-paid bust, Corey Patterson?
I've been consistent on this: the Reds should have put offensively challenged but defensively solid Chris Dickerson, making the major league minimum, in centerfield this season and taken the $6.8 million they spent on Tavares and signed a legit big time player, for one season, to play left field. Bobby Abreu anyone? Swing the deal for Jermain Dye, mayhaps? You only needed a stopgap in the outfield, because in 2010 either Drew Stubbs will be in left field or Yonder Alonso will be on first base, with Joey Votto in left. It's beyond disappointing, the number of games the Reds would have won this season, had they just had a timely base hit. They're hitting .213 with runners in scoring position...
There is no future in baseball anymore. 2010 for your Cincinnati Reds? What if a series of injuries keep them from being competitive? They have the pitching now to compete. But the front office failed their fans and a majority of that big league roster by not adding another big time bat. By the way, exactly which Cincinnati Red right now strikes fear in the heart of an imposing pitcher?
Ochocinco isn't moving in with Carson Palmer. Mrs. Palmer, mother of Carson's newborn twins, shot down the idea. Palmer said Thursday he doesn't need another kid (85) running around the house, either.....
The Bengals will be better in 2009. But they won't be playoff better. Ochocinco guaranteed the team will make the playoffs. But honestly, do you see eleven wins on their schedule? And it will take eleven to get into the playoffs. Things may be different come September. But with the Ravens and Steelers in the Bengals division, with the Titans, Texans, Jags, Dolphins and Bills as legit candidates for the the two wild cards, exactly how does Cincinnati get into the playoffs?
2010, with Rey Maualuga and Andre Smith with a year under their belts? Different story.
Shaq is going to make LeBron better? Really?
One of my guests this Sunday on 700 WLW (9am-Noon ET) will be college football guhru Phil Steele. His pre-season magazine is a 'must get' for any real fan. He'll join me at 10:05 am.
Geoff Hobson from bengals.com, former Bengal Eric Thomas and WEBN's Wildman Walker join George Vogel and me on Sports Rock this Sunday night 11:35pm on WLWT in Cincinnati.
I read where Seleena Roberts' book on Alex Rodriguez has sold a grand total of 16,000 copies. Can you say 'Bargain Rack at Barnes & Noble" by September? I get the feeling no one who actually reads books (an increasingly aging demo) cares about steroids and human growth hormones.
Watching the Pittsburgh Penguins parade around that city's downtown with the Stanley Cup makes me wonder if a scene like that might've been possible in Cincinnati. In 1979, when the NHL 'expanded' (it refused to call it a merger) the WHA's Cincinnati Stingers were offered an option: pony up a franchise fee and join the NHL or take a cash buyout and fold. The Stingers money guys, which included current Reds' owner Bob Castellini, took the money and ran.
I think the NHL would have been big in Cincinnati. We'll never know.
Whatever happened to original Stingers Dennis Sobchuck, or Dale Smedsmo?
If the Minnesota Vikings actually sign Brett Favre, they deserve him. I thought only wide receivers were allowed to be divas.
Anybody notice, that with 18 games to go BEFORE the halfway point of this 2009 baseball season, the Nationals Adam Dunn has 18 home runs and 46 rbi? He's averaged 40/100 over the last five seasons. And the Reds did absolutely nothing in the off season to replace the numbers Dunn took away with him.
Just askin'....
Not a great joke, but worth a smile: guy walks into a bar with a pile of asphalt on his shouler. He says to the bartender "Gimmee a beer, and give me one for the road"
Baboom-ching. Have a great weekend!
Sunday, June 14, 2009
To me, football has always been the ultimate team game. Rarely do you see one player carry a team for an entire game, let alone a season. In baseball, you can ride behind a hot hitter. In basketball, does anyone doubt that the Lakers are where they are today because of Kobe Bryant. In Cleveland, take away Lebron, and you’ve got a team that would struggle to win 25-games a season.
But in football, you can often extract one player from a championship team and chances are, it would continue to compete at that level. Oh, yeah, there are exceptions. Take Tom Brady away from the Patriots, Peyton Manning from the Colts, you’ve got problems. But by and large, football is a game that’s won or lost on how well eleven players execute a game plan.
You can run 50 plays in an NFL game and if only one player messes up on each play, the team has 50-botched plays. But if all eleven players execute all 50 plays perfectly, you’re probably winning, and big.
Football is a game where coaches, more than any other sport, want control. It’s why you see these OTA’s and mini camps. It’s a game where authority matters above all else. You don’t see it in the NBA, that’s anything but a coach’s league. And in baseball, the high school kid drafted in round one may make more in bonus money than a manager will make in ten years. Money always trumps authority.
The Bengals have had trouble embracing the team concept. They haven’t been a collection of renegades. But they’ve had a few too many go off the reservation. Carl Pickens was a trailblazer. Corey Dillon perfected that act. And when you mix in the garden variety of arrests, we have what we’ve had around here for far too long.
I raise that today, because Ochocinco is back in town. He didn’t come riding down Vine Street like John Wayne, or even like Mongo in Blazing Saddles. Ochocinco slipped into Cincinnati Monday night and by nueve o’clock on Tuesday was at Paul Brown Stadium. Forget that he missed all of the voluntary workouts up until now, Ochocino was in town and open for business. He arrived after an appearance on the NFL Network where he said, he was in tip top shape, something he wasn’t in this time a year ago because, well, he really wanted out of here. Now, he doesn’t. He ran, caught passes, went to the gym and boxed on his own this winter and proclaimed himself ready for the upcoming NFL season. And while some of us, who’ve heard things like this from the artist formerly known as Chad Johnson before, a lot of us said OK, finally. It’s 2005 all over again. Except…
By early Wednesday night, Chad was twittering. And he was claiming to have gone quasi-Tyson. He had pictures of tattoos that were put on his face by somebody who had just left his house. A map of Florida on one cheek. Couple of crosses on the other and the initials OC on the bridge of his nose.
We had to investigate. I sent a crew from channel 5 to track Chad down at a restaurant in Kenwood. He also twittered that he’d be eating there. We found him. He didn’t want to talk on camera. And we were cool with that. But the pictures we took clearly showed the artwork on his face. A big deal, considering that this is a guy who reportedly fancies himself as a television or movie star when his playing days are over.
But by Thursday morning, that tatts were gone. Or almost. Some of the magic marker, or whatever it was, was still on his face. It all played out, in front of the cameras and reporters gathered around his locker, our first chance to talk with Ochocinco since the end of last season. The rest of the Bengals had been working up a sweat for most of the spring. But on his first day back, it was all about Chad. He said that he had punked his twitter followers and the media. The media gets punked all the time. The eight thousand or so people who were following Chad, well, welcome to our world.
And I wonder. Did we simply feed the beast? Or does the beast demand feeding. And in the ultimate team sport, how did the guy who always likes to break from the team (this is the same guy who said on Thursday that of course the HBO show Hard Knocks will feature him big this summer. What other story lines are on the team)….I wondered, how did this guy come off to the rest of his team mates? We don’t know. They gave us a half an hour in the locker room to collect interviews. Chad consumed 25 minutes.
In the small but vocal world of “look at me” athletes, Ochocinco is right up there. But it’s all harmless, to you and to me. We never get hurt. I like the guy. I don’t know him well. But I know that when he’s serious about playing football, there is no tougher wide receiver to cover. He is the provider of great fodder for radio, television stations and newspapers. In this business, in these days, you can’t get enough of that.
But I wonder if Marvin Lewis didn’t cringe, or do something worse, when he got wind of the tattoo tale this week. He’d never say it, would probably deny it, but my guess is his reaction was something along the line of , here we go again. He better get used to it. There were only four cameras in the Bengals locker room Thursday. HBO is bringing ten to Georgetown next month.
But in football, you can often extract one player from a championship team and chances are, it would continue to compete at that level. Oh, yeah, there are exceptions. Take Tom Brady away from the Patriots, Peyton Manning from the Colts, you’ve got problems. But by and large, football is a game that’s won or lost on how well eleven players execute a game plan.
You can run 50 plays in an NFL game and if only one player messes up on each play, the team has 50-botched plays. But if all eleven players execute all 50 plays perfectly, you’re probably winning, and big.
Football is a game where coaches, more than any other sport, want control. It’s why you see these OTA’s and mini camps. It’s a game where authority matters above all else. You don’t see it in the NBA, that’s anything but a coach’s league. And in baseball, the high school kid drafted in round one may make more in bonus money than a manager will make in ten years. Money always trumps authority.
The Bengals have had trouble embracing the team concept. They haven’t been a collection of renegades. But they’ve had a few too many go off the reservation. Carl Pickens was a trailblazer. Corey Dillon perfected that act. And when you mix in the garden variety of arrests, we have what we’ve had around here for far too long.
I raise that today, because Ochocinco is back in town. He didn’t come riding down Vine Street like John Wayne, or even like Mongo in Blazing Saddles. Ochocinco slipped into Cincinnati Monday night and by nueve o’clock on Tuesday was at Paul Brown Stadium. Forget that he missed all of the voluntary workouts up until now, Ochocino was in town and open for business. He arrived after an appearance on the NFL Network where he said, he was in tip top shape, something he wasn’t in this time a year ago because, well, he really wanted out of here. Now, he doesn’t. He ran, caught passes, went to the gym and boxed on his own this winter and proclaimed himself ready for the upcoming NFL season. And while some of us, who’ve heard things like this from the artist formerly known as Chad Johnson before, a lot of us said OK, finally. It’s 2005 all over again. Except…
By early Wednesday night, Chad was twittering. And he was claiming to have gone quasi-Tyson. He had pictures of tattoos that were put on his face by somebody who had just left his house. A map of Florida on one cheek. Couple of crosses on the other and the initials OC on the bridge of his nose.
We had to investigate. I sent a crew from channel 5 to track Chad down at a restaurant in Kenwood. He also twittered that he’d be eating there. We found him. He didn’t want to talk on camera. And we were cool with that. But the pictures we took clearly showed the artwork on his face. A big deal, considering that this is a guy who reportedly fancies himself as a television or movie star when his playing days are over.
But by Thursday morning, that tatts were gone. Or almost. Some of the magic marker, or whatever it was, was still on his face. It all played out, in front of the cameras and reporters gathered around his locker, our first chance to talk with Ochocinco since the end of last season. The rest of the Bengals had been working up a sweat for most of the spring. But on his first day back, it was all about Chad. He said that he had punked his twitter followers and the media. The media gets punked all the time. The eight thousand or so people who were following Chad, well, welcome to our world.
And I wonder. Did we simply feed the beast? Or does the beast demand feeding. And in the ultimate team sport, how did the guy who always likes to break from the team (this is the same guy who said on Thursday that of course the HBO show Hard Knocks will feature him big this summer. What other story lines are on the team)….I wondered, how did this guy come off to the rest of his team mates? We don’t know. They gave us a half an hour in the locker room to collect interviews. Chad consumed 25 minutes.
In the small but vocal world of “look at me” athletes, Ochocinco is right up there. But it’s all harmless, to you and to me. We never get hurt. I like the guy. I don’t know him well. But I know that when he’s serious about playing football, there is no tougher wide receiver to cover. He is the provider of great fodder for radio, television stations and newspapers. In this business, in these days, you can’t get enough of that.
But I wonder if Marvin Lewis didn’t cringe, or do something worse, when he got wind of the tattoo tale this week. He’d never say it, would probably deny it, but my guess is his reaction was something along the line of , here we go again. He better get used to it. There were only four cameras in the Bengals locker room Thursday. HBO is bringing ten to Georgetown next month.
Thursday, June 11, 2009
So the Ochocinco photos are 'fake'. Chad twittered the world Wednesday night with photos of tattooes on his face. He posted them and wrote all about it. He has, at last count, over 5,400 followers on his twitter account.
Then, he tweets that he's having dinner at Red Lobster in Kenwood. So we sent our producer there to see if Ochocinco would talk. Our crew waited until Chad left the restaurant and approached him. He declined to talk, but our video clearly shows that he had indeed three 'tattooes' on his face. Today, those 'tatts' were gone, apparently just some ink or magic marker he had someone place on his face. Again, he was out in public with this on his kisser last night.
Today, he tweeted to his legion of followers that he "punked the twitter world and the media". I'll bet his fans like that. The media? Who weeps for us?
But ask youself this: might there be something wrong with an adult (he's 31) walking around with ink on his face, removable tattooes? Might there be a problem with attention compulsion?
I like the guy. I think he's a lot better football player than some of the fans around here give him credit for. But I also think the dude has a problem.
Then, he tweets that he's having dinner at Red Lobster in Kenwood. So we sent our producer there to see if Ochocinco would talk. Our crew waited until Chad left the restaurant and approached him. He declined to talk, but our video clearly shows that he had indeed three 'tattooes' on his face. Today, those 'tatts' were gone, apparently just some ink or magic marker he had someone place on his face. Again, he was out in public with this on his kisser last night.
Today, he tweeted to his legion of followers that he "punked the twitter world and the media". I'll bet his fans like that. The media? Who weeps for us?
But ask youself this: might there be something wrong with an adult (he's 31) walking around with ink on his face, removable tattooes? Might there be a problem with attention compulsion?
I like the guy. I think he's a lot better football player than some of the fans around here give him credit for. But I also think the dude has a problem.
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
It's not like Mike Tyson, but it's on the same road. Ochocinco, the artist formerly known at Chad Johnson, has 'tatted up' his face. He shied away from the News 5 cameras tonight. But, in Chad unique style, posted pictures of himself on the internet with his 'new look'.
On his right cheek are two crosses. Here's a shot (left) of his left cheek, where he's got the map of Florida tattooed. On the bridge of his nose are the letters "OC", interlocked.
News 5 producer, Nicky Lewis tried to get Chad to talk about his latest image adjustment. But Johnson refused to comment, telling Lewis to 'show up tomorrow', when the Bengals will have an open locker room and he would talk about it then. Lewis also gave the intrepid Lewis a kiss on her cheek, before leaving a suburban Cincinnati restaurant.
So what should we make of this? Chad being Chad (or Ocho being Cinco?) Nothing. But if the guy was so adamant about being focused on football this season (as we heard in his NFL Network appearance last week) why then this?
Just posted on my web site www.kenbroo.com is the latest Broo View Podcast. In this current episode is an in depth interview with sports psychologist, Dr. Barbara Walker, about the influence stress has on elite athletes. Timely, I think, given the Joey Votto situation. Also on the front page of www.kenbroo.com is an interview with former NFL safety, Matt Bowen (Redskins, Bills, Packers and Rams) who lists his impact players in the NFL this coming season. Wait 'til you hear his pick for your Cincinnati Bengals.
Sunday, June 07, 2009
A wonderfully gifted and funny man died this weekend, far to young. Shad O'Shea was a local Cincinnati legend, a throwback to the time when radio was fun and very important in people's everyday lives. He was 'old school', with the wit and irreverence of modern day. He knew the difference between engaging a listener and simply reading liners and giving time checks. He worked at radio stations from California to Louisiana to Ohio, and some places in between. Shad, before running a successful recording studio and owning the Fraternity record label, live the nomadic life of a rock and roll DJ in the 50's and 60's. He worked with talent that would go onto work at some of the biggest rock and roll radio stations in the USA, and some that would never get out of the 500 watt station they were stuck at. He treated everyone the same.
I met Shad a few years ago. He treated me like I knew him forever. He helped me with a project I was working on when I freelanced at WGRR-FM in Cincinnati, recounting stories of his time as a DJ and some of the characters in the music business he ran into along the way.
He wasn't old, and to my knowlege at least, wasn't in poor health. But now he's gone. A good ole boy, as we like to say in the broadcasting business. Arf, arf Shad. You were a bona fide original.
I got to thinking about this the other night, one of those things that hits you when you’re up too late and you can’t get to sleep. You know how it goes.
I was thinking about virtues. I don’t know why, maybe it was the bourbon. Maybe it was one of those Catholic High School flashbacks that haunt a lot of us. As I recall, or as I recall the good Christian Brothers of Ireland beating into me, there are seven virtues in life, Plato and Aristotle had a hand in it. The Church got involved, Cardinal and Theological stuff. Prudence and justice are virtues. So are faith, love and charity. Hope is right up there. But maybe the toughest virtue for all of us in the super hit seven is restraint. Patience would be another word for it. And I got to thinking about how that virtue applies to your Cincinnati Reds.
That team tries our patience, doesn’t it? Not quite as much as your Cincinnati Bengals, of course, but the Reds are getting there.
Patience is lost in this 300 TV channel instant internet universe we live in. We don’t want to wait for anything. We want it now, last Thursday, if possible. So when a team preaches patience and it hasn’t won significantly in over a decade, patience is the last thing a fan wants to hear.
What has it been for the Reds, one winning season since 2000, two since 1995? If you’re under 20, you have no recolection of the Reds in the post season playoffs.
That’s the kind of stuff that tries patience. That’s why we want it now. Delayed gratification? Define delayed.
This season is rolling on and the time to get things right is rapidly ending. We begin today with the Reds three and a half games out of first place, a team with terrific talent as some positions, serviceable talent at others and some guys who might be better off in places like Louisville or Scranton.
As the season rolls on, the Reds are a team that is beginning to offer more questions than answers. And we’ve been here before, haven’t we?
What do you do with Jay Bruce? He couldn’t hit a beach ball right now. His batting average has slipped to .212. He strikes about as often as his hero Adam Dunn. He looks lost. So if you’re the Reds what do you do with Bruce? How do you fix the player who’s the face of your future? Send him to “AAA” and let him find his swing there? I’ve heard that suggestion a lot this week. You think that discovery is waiting for him in Louisville? Against minor league pitching? The kind of pitching Bruce devoured on his meteoric rise to Major League Baseball.
Do you bench him? Ok, who else you got? And by sitting on the bench he’ll find his swing again by doing what, spitting sunflower seeds onto the dugout floor?
What do you do with Homer Bailey? I’ve said on this show that I believe Bailey will not pitch another meaningful game for the Cincinnati Reds this season. He’s inconsistent in “AAA” (incidentally, the same place you might’ve suggested the Reds send Jay Bruce) and when Bailey has arrived in Cincinnati, he’s brought with him great stuff and horrid control. Homer Bailey has been traded about six dozen times on talk radio in this town since we last saw him a couple of weeks ago. I heard someone call in after one game and suggest the Reds should just release Bailey.
Patience.
Maybe the Reds front office has it because it knows that the last thing you turn and run from is raw talent, particularly young, raw talent. It probably also has something to do with money. It’s always about money, and young players like Bruce and Bailey are years away from being expensive players.
But probably it’s about patience. The smart guys at Great American Ball Park seem to be going down that road, maybe with no other choice.
Maybe we should too. Plato and Aristotle would be proud. And after all they have the ears of the Gods
I met Shad a few years ago. He treated me like I knew him forever. He helped me with a project I was working on when I freelanced at WGRR-FM in Cincinnati, recounting stories of his time as a DJ and some of the characters in the music business he ran into along the way.
He wasn't old, and to my knowlege at least, wasn't in poor health. But now he's gone. A good ole boy, as we like to say in the broadcasting business. Arf, arf Shad. You were a bona fide original.
I got to thinking about this the other night, one of those things that hits you when you’re up too late and you can’t get to sleep. You know how it goes.
I was thinking about virtues. I don’t know why, maybe it was the bourbon. Maybe it was one of those Catholic High School flashbacks that haunt a lot of us. As I recall, or as I recall the good Christian Brothers of Ireland beating into me, there are seven virtues in life, Plato and Aristotle had a hand in it. The Church got involved, Cardinal and Theological stuff. Prudence and justice are virtues. So are faith, love and charity. Hope is right up there. But maybe the toughest virtue for all of us in the super hit seven is restraint. Patience would be another word for it. And I got to thinking about how that virtue applies to your Cincinnati Reds.
That team tries our patience, doesn’t it? Not quite as much as your Cincinnati Bengals, of course, but the Reds are getting there.
Patience is lost in this 300 TV channel instant internet universe we live in. We don’t want to wait for anything. We want it now, last Thursday, if possible. So when a team preaches patience and it hasn’t won significantly in over a decade, patience is the last thing a fan wants to hear.
What has it been for the Reds, one winning season since 2000, two since 1995? If you’re under 20, you have no recolection of the Reds in the post season playoffs.
That’s the kind of stuff that tries patience. That’s why we want it now. Delayed gratification? Define delayed.
This season is rolling on and the time to get things right is rapidly ending. We begin today with the Reds three and a half games out of first place, a team with terrific talent as some positions, serviceable talent at others and some guys who might be better off in places like Louisville or Scranton.
As the season rolls on, the Reds are a team that is beginning to offer more questions than answers. And we’ve been here before, haven’t we?
What do you do with Jay Bruce? He couldn’t hit a beach ball right now. His batting average has slipped to .212. He strikes about as often as his hero Adam Dunn. He looks lost. So if you’re the Reds what do you do with Bruce? How do you fix the player who’s the face of your future? Send him to “AAA” and let him find his swing there? I’ve heard that suggestion a lot this week. You think that discovery is waiting for him in Louisville? Against minor league pitching? The kind of pitching Bruce devoured on his meteoric rise to Major League Baseball.
Do you bench him? Ok, who else you got? And by sitting on the bench he’ll find his swing again by doing what, spitting sunflower seeds onto the dugout floor?
What do you do with Homer Bailey? I’ve said on this show that I believe Bailey will not pitch another meaningful game for the Cincinnati Reds this season. He’s inconsistent in “AAA” (incidentally, the same place you might’ve suggested the Reds send Jay Bruce) and when Bailey has arrived in Cincinnati, he’s brought with him great stuff and horrid control. Homer Bailey has been traded about six dozen times on talk radio in this town since we last saw him a couple of weeks ago. I heard someone call in after one game and suggest the Reds should just release Bailey.
Patience.
Maybe the Reds front office has it because it knows that the last thing you turn and run from is raw talent, particularly young, raw talent. It probably also has something to do with money. It’s always about money, and young players like Bruce and Bailey are years away from being expensive players.
But probably it’s about patience. The smart guys at Great American Ball Park seem to be going down that road, maybe with no other choice.
Maybe we should too. Plato and Aristotle would be proud. And after all they have the ears of the Gods
Wednesday, June 03, 2009
At some point, the Reds will have their Opening Day 25 man roster together again. When? The latest to go on the shelf, of course, is Joey Votto and Edinson Volquez. Now, Willy Tavares is out of the line up tonight in St. Louis, nursing a sore hamstring that apparently caused him to misplay a fly ball at the worst time Tuesday night. There's only so long you can juggle a line up and expect to win. I sense that time is quickly approaching for your Cincinnati Reds.
Just posted, the latest Broo View Podcast. It's on the front page of www.kenbroo.com. I've got some comments from Carson Palmer, about how he believes the offense will be better, and different, in 2009. And I also have an in depth interview with Josh Peter, of yahoo.com on the NFL's inordinate number of DUI arrests since 2000. The number will astound you. If you're on the fly, you can download Broo View Episode 209 here. It's worth the listen.
I told Bengals safety, Chinedum Ndukwe that I'm following him on twitter. He told me he's selling his restaurant, or at least his stake in it, in Mt. Adams. Bummer. I hope the food continues to be as good as its been with Chinedum's money in it.
I don't believe for a minute that the Pittsburgh Penguins are going to win the Stanley Cup this year. They'd have to win twice in Detroit to do that (in games 5 and 7 no less) and that's not happening. But I'm glad it's not a sweep. These are the two best teams in the NHL, but the Red Wings are light years ahead of everyone else.
Good Cincinnati story line in the Cup finals. Mike Babcock coached the Cincinnati Mighty Ducks (where there was such an animal) and one of his players was current Pens Coach Dan Bylsma. They teamed up in Anaheim a few years ago to win a Stanley Cup. Now their on opposite benches. Just goes to prove, if you follow minor league sports, you never know who might do what, later in life.
NBA? Lakers in six. It can't go seven, because I don't think there's anyway the Lakers lose a game 7 on their home court. But Dwight Howard is amazing. I just saw a pregame interview with him a few minutes ago. Howard's shoulders are so wide, I think a small plane could lane on them.
Just posted, the latest Broo View Podcast. It's on the front page of www.kenbroo.com. I've got some comments from Carson Palmer, about how he believes the offense will be better, and different, in 2009. And I also have an in depth interview with Josh Peter, of yahoo.com on the NFL's inordinate number of DUI arrests since 2000. The number will astound you. If you're on the fly, you can download Broo View Episode 209 here. It's worth the listen.
I told Bengals safety, Chinedum Ndukwe that I'm following him on twitter. He told me he's selling his restaurant, or at least his stake in it, in Mt. Adams. Bummer. I hope the food continues to be as good as its been with Chinedum's money in it.
I don't believe for a minute that the Pittsburgh Penguins are going to win the Stanley Cup this year. They'd have to win twice in Detroit to do that (in games 5 and 7 no less) and that's not happening. But I'm glad it's not a sweep. These are the two best teams in the NHL, but the Red Wings are light years ahead of everyone else.
Good Cincinnati story line in the Cup finals. Mike Babcock coached the Cincinnati Mighty Ducks (where there was such an animal) and one of his players was current Pens Coach Dan Bylsma. They teamed up in Anaheim a few years ago to win a Stanley Cup. Now their on opposite benches. Just goes to prove, if you follow minor league sports, you never know who might do what, later in life.
NBA? Lakers in six. It can't go seven, because I don't think there's anyway the Lakers lose a game 7 on their home court. But Dwight Howard is amazing. I just saw a pregame interview with him a few minutes ago. Howard's shoulders are so wide, I think a small plane could lane on them.
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