Monthly Archives: April 2006

April 18, 2006

Just got back from the Reds-Marlins game…

Sweet game, and I'm glad I chose to go to this one, since I figured this was the game they had the best chance to win. We walked up around 5 and got front row, infield box tickets, literally in the first row behind the Diamond Club seats and two seats to the left of the Scout seats (Section 121, if you're ambitious and/or curious. Great seats, and you should be able to walk up day of game and get them. Best section in the ballpark, methinks). Pretty amazing seats for $36 a pop. We ended up sitting outside at the Machine Room Grille before the game and watched Reds BP. Dunn was launching the hell out of everything and David Ross had an upper deck shot. First time I've gotten to see Reds BP, so that was pretty sweet. The food at the Machine Room pretty much sucks, and my Dr. Pepper tasted very much like a Pepsi, but I think I'll probably recover.

On our way out of the Machine Room, there was an XBox 360 with MLB 2K6 on it, so we killed some time playing that a little. Fun game, but baserunning is a bitch. My dad and I went down and found our seats, and the usher was surprised, especially when we told him that we got them around two hours before the game was supposed to start. Once we got there, we spent some time trying to see how many Marlins players we could identify and then, with around a half-hour to kill, decided to take a trip around the ballpark. You don't really realize how great of a park it really is until you do that. I don't think there's a bad seat in the house, to be honest, and the whole place is real purdy, just like my favorite Reds blogger.

When we got back to our seats, most of the ones around us had filled in. I was rather unhappy to see children under the age of 7 surrounding us on three sides. Turns out only one was extremely annoying, and that kid, along with the one to our left, who was extremely quiet, were gone by the 5th inning. The kid to the right was actually pretty damn knowledgeable for his age, and not at all irritating.

The game itself was pretty fun. Claussen didn't pitch nearly as good as his line indicates, but I'll take it. Phillips looked pretty good, and the entire Marlins team seems like they've been taking fielding lessons from Adam Dunn. So many bobbled balls it isn't even funny. Freel was safe on his attempted steal of 3rd, but I think the ump decided we shouldn't be stealing up 5-0 already. Edwin is still taking too many good pitches early in the count, but hopefully he'll get over that. Dunn is just in an awesome groove right now, and I really think he and Kearns can both keep it up. Both will have their averages fall, but they should see a rise in their walk rate to go along with it, and a 3-4-5 of Griffey, Dunn, and Kearns should be nasty.

I've given up on Mike Burns, and I gave up on Hammond a while ago. Hammond's line wasn't that bad, but I expect it would've been largely different if it hadn't been people like Reggie Abercrombie that he was facing. Herr Valentin looked good, and maybe, just maybe, Scott Hatteberg will start to hit over .200. I really don't mind Junior being out right now, as long as we've got Freel in CF. We should hand Phillips the starting 2B job for a month or so and see what he's got, and Freel has to be in the lineup everyday. I firmly believe he's more valuable to this team than Junior is.

All in all, I'm glad I went, had a great time, and wish we could play the Marlins every day.

April 17, 2006

In the End, He Gets the Chicks. The Tiny, Tiny Chicks.

You have no idea how much I covet Tiny Casey. This time, he slays a dragon!

April 17, 2006

Griffey on the DL

Just heard on FSN from Jim Day that the Reds have put Griffey on the disabled list retroactive to April 13 due to a strain in his right knee.

The move probably corresponds with the return of Jason LaRue from the disabled list after he had his knee scoped just before the start of the season, but I guess they could still surprise us and bring up Chris Denorfia or something.

After the Reds brought up Quinton McCracken to fill in the hole in the outfield, it only makes sense to stop taking up a space with one of them. Too bad they made the Reds play for four days with only 24 players.

April 17, 2006

Reds-Marlins Preview

Some notes from RHM's crack “hard facts” staff on the upcoming series between the Reds and the Florida Marlins:

Brian Mohler starts game one for the Marlins tonight. On the season he's 0-2 with a 13.50 ERA and has been torched for 12 runs and 15 hits (three HRs) in the 7-1/3 innings he's worked so far this season. Lifetime against the Reds, he's 0-3 with a 7.06 ERA in four starts. He'll oppose Claussen.

On Tuesday the Marlins send Jason Vargas to the mound against Milton. Vargas in 1-1, 5.73 this season, and in his last start, gave up five runs to the Mets in five innings, but in his only career start against the Reds, Vargas was the winner, he's 1-0, 1.42 against the Reds.

Wednesday is the battle of aces as Dontrelle Willis opposes Harang. Willis has put up 1-0, 1.93 so far this season, and is 4-0, 0.97 against the Reds in five career starts.

Who's hot: Josh Winningham (.350, 3 HR, 11 RBI).

Who's not: Moehler, who's put up a BAA of .455 in his previous two starts.

Familiar faces: Former Reds player and manager Tony Perez, who is in the Hall Of Fame (class of 2000), is a special assistant to Marlins president Jeff Loria. He also managed the Marlins in 2001 after John Boles was fired.

April 17, 2006

Blog Buzz

Jacci at We Heart the Reds thinks Little Albie is a jerk. Hard to argue with that kind of reasoning.

Shawn at Cincinnati Reds Blog made me laugh with his description of Harang's 1-0 win.

j.p. at Reds (and Blues) has a top ten list of things he thought more likely than a 1-0 win against the Cards.

JD at Red Reporter has some deep thoughts about removing black from the uniforms in favor of navy blue. I don't know why people hate black. It's very slimming.

Matt at The Red Letters is excited overall but doesn't approve of Austin Kearns' plate discipline. I thought Kearns handled a few high pressure spots in this series very well. It's possible that he's striking out on strikes.

Bill at Redleg Nation saves me the effort of reading the Enquirer by linking to a story about Dunn and Griffey ranking low in defense according to a new book. I'm shocked, I tell you, shocked!

Marc Lancaster reports that LaRue is being sent to Louisville after already putting in three games in Sarasota plus one extended spring training appearnce. Honestly, what's the deal? Is LaRue slow to get back into things, or are they jerking him around?

JinAZ wrote about Scott Hatteberg without me. I know I said it was OK, but I guess I just didn't expect it to hurt like this.

Daedalus provides a few really disturbing photoshops. Yikes.

The Big Red Mechanic goes on the first big rant I've read of the year. It took all the way until the tenth game. This could be quite a year