6 comments to “Ouch”

1. RainDelay says:

   July 6, 2006 at 11:26 pm

   I’d talk some sort of trash here, but as is we tried to hand the game to ya’ll. Sosa shouldn’t be our closer, but Bobby Cox has yet to see the light. Though if Sosa blows it again, we could be looking for another closer.

   Though I’m not sure what inspired Cox to make a 1-9 starter with a +5 ERA a closer to begin with. We were doing fine with Ray as the closer, but alas that’s why I’m blogging and not managing a big league club.

2. Skeeter says:

   July 7, 2006 at 4:31 am

   My soul hurt last night, I think I am still numb from that. I woke up this morning and the *very first* thing I thought about was the 13 inning loss to Milwaukee.
   Tonight’s loss, not so bad, I think. I mean, it’s absolutely amazing we put together a comeback at all. How many teams would have packed it in after 1. getting into Atlanta at like 5:30 am after a horrific loss or 2. Joe Mays and his craptacular pitching put the team down early?
   I don’t know… maybe we won’t get the 2005 version of Milton tomorrow night (I guess it’s tonight, technically, since it’s 4:30 am).
   One thing I do know: This team is going to drive me to drink some day. This week, maybe.

3. DPardue says:

   July 7, 2006 at 10:12 am

   It is going to come down to who would you rather see start. Claussen or Mays? Granted, this isn’t what I would call a very thrilling choice, but the lesser of the two evils in my mind is Claussen. Ideally, I think Belisle could turn into a legitimate starter, but with the bullpen woes this season, he can provide more help from the pen than starting every fifth day.

   With all the uncertainties surrounding the fifth starting role, the screws tighten on Milton. With the bullpen’s continued failure, we for darn sure can’t be relying on two solid pitchers (Arroyo and Harang), one decent pitcher in Ramirez, and then two poor hurlers in Claussen/Mays and Milton. The Reds simply are not good enough to make it to the post season with just 2 1/2 quality starters, and it is unreasonable to think that Krivsky can fix both the bullpen and half the starting rotation before the trade deadline and still keep the Reds in contention.

   Milton is the key.

4. larkin11 says:

   July 7, 2006 at 12:42 pm

   Why does everyone keep talking about Belisle being a starter?

   The guy can’t even get through an inning out of the bullpen. If he started, it would be disaster.

5. Red Hot Mama says:

   July 8, 2006 at 11:58 am

   I can agree about Milton, and furthermore, I think that he has the capacity to do it. We’ve seen it with our own eyes.

   The guy can’t blame weak legs on us this year; he’s just got to get his head together and start notching some wins.

   As for Belisle, I think it’s wishful thinking. He’s got that winning smile; it’d be great to have him flashing it after a complete game shutout. And you think, “could he really be worse than Mays?” But he’s going to have to prove himself out of the bullpen first.

6. KC2HMZ says:

   July 8, 2006 at 7:02 pm

   My $0.02 worth on Belisle as a starter, for what it’s worth (probably significantly less than the $0.02 face value): Matt Belisle had some modest success as an emergency starter last season for the Reds.

   For example, on May 25, 2005, he made an emergency start, replacing Harang who had flu-like symptoms, and went six innings against the Nationals, allowing two runs on five hits and a pair of walks while striking out six, getting the win in a game where he didn’t know he was starting until he arrived at the ballpark about 1 1/2 hours before the game. Of course, it helped that the Reds scored 12 runs off four Nationals pitchers that day – but two runs over six innings is a quality start.

   Speaking of quality starts, earlier in the season (on April 13) he had made another emergency start when guy-nobody-here-misses Ramon Ortiz was scratched due to a groin injury. In that one, Belisle went five innings, allowing one run (another QS) on four hits and a walk, again striking out six, and getting the win against the Cardinals.

   All that said, he’s only made five starts in his major league career and has a 5.32 ERA and a 2-2 record to show for ’em. That’s not going to win him any Cy Young award. But it’s not quite Joe Mays (0-5, 8.43) territory, either. The Reds just might be better off giving Belisle a shot as the #5 starter than to keep running Mays out there for one shelling after another.

   HMZ