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Wednesday, February 15, 2012
Venezuela native Dioner Navarro is in spring camp for the Reds as a non-roster player. He figures to be the regular at Louisville, and one call in case of an injury to Devin Mesoraco or Ryan Hanigan.
With Ramon Hernandez gone via free agency and Yasmani Grandal traded, the Reds went looking for some catching help in case of emergency and were able to bring in Navarro on a minor league deal. He's played 602 major league games, but the short and squat backstop hit just .193 for the Dodgers as a backup last year, and .194 for Tampa Bay the year before.
Navarro is better known for his glove work, but did have a stellar year in 2008 for the Rays, batting .295 and making the AL All-Star team. That year was an outlier, though, as his career major league average is .244, and of course the last two years have been very poor.
A year at Louisville might give Navarro a chance to rebuild his rep--I'm sure he's hoping for that--and he makes decent insurance for the likely possibility that one of the other catchers gets hurt during the season. There are far worse, and more expensive, insurance policies.
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Kristopher Negron is an infielder in the Reds minor league system, 26 years old, acquired in 2009 in the deal that sent Alex Gonzalez to Boston. Negron had a rough 2011, batting just .216 at Louisville. It's a bit of an upset that, at his age, he didn't just get released, but he has remained on the Reds' 40-man roster.
Negron had been doing much better than that, batting .260 or .270 with a little power (two years of 11 homers) and good stolen base totals. It all went sour on him last year. He'll have to revive his stock in the organization, and that starts from the first day of spring training. The Reds have enough players that if Negron doesn't look any better in the spring than he did last year, he could get dumped. It's something of a surprise he wasn't outrighted off the roster in one of the moves to make a spot...such as for Ryan Ludwick, when Carlos Fisher was dumped instead (though Carlos is back on a minor league deal now...we'll get to him later).
Negron does not seem to have been hurt, just horrible. He will have to get his swing back together to have any sort of future in baseball.
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Tuesday, February 14, 2012
The big fellow from Texas had his second straight year of success in the Cincinnati bullpen, and Logan Ondrusek will be back in middle relief for the Reds in 2012. He followed up a 3.68 ERA in 2010 with a 3.23 mark in 2011, and his overall performance was about the same.
Ondrusek's strikeout rate remained the same in 2011 as 2010. His walk rate ticked up, but that was mostly a function of having more intentional walks ordered while he was on the mound last year: his actual walks were just a bit higher. He allowed more hits, but fewer homers.
The six-eight righty does not have exceptional stuff, but shows a low-90s fastball, changeup, and slider, and keeps the ball down to get groundballs. With that height, he does get a great downward plane to the plate. He'll be a fine middle reliever for as long as he stays healthy.
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Brandon Phillips moved to the leadoff spot in the second half of 2011 and had one of his strongest seasons, batting .300 with 18 homers, 82 RBI, and 94 runs scored, and most importantly posting a .353 on-base average. It's the best mark for a season of his whole career. Since he will likely lead off again in 2012, the Reds will need him to do it again.
Can he? His walks stayed about the same, it was a jump in his batting average to .300 that also jumped his on-base by 20 points. That will be hard to duplicate, and if Phillips contributes his usual .330-area on-base average, he will be much less valuable in the leadoff spot. His defense should remain well above average.
The next question is whether the Reds should talk extension with Phillips. His contract is up at the end of this season, and his $13 million-ish salary would likely go up in any deal. In addition, Phillips is 30, and will turn 31 at mid-season. To how many years would the Reds have to commit to sign Phillips, and in how many of those will he be productive? Much of his value now is defensive: 2011 was his best offensive season, and is not likely to be repeated. He should be at All-Star level for a couple more years, but after that the odds get longer.
I would be willing to let Phillips go after this year, assuming he would not sign a short contract of two or three years. He seems likely to seek four or five, which would be a dangerous investment, especially for a small-market team. The risk is also in finding a replacement, of course: Chris Valaika is not near the standard of Phillips, and it is still unsure how Henry Rodriguez will produce. It seems that the decision about pursuing Phillips could well depend on the performance of Rodriguez in the minors.
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Monday, February 13, 2012
Dominican native Denis Phipps was a run-of-the-mill minor leaguer, showing a little power, stealing a few bases, hitting a healthy number of doubles, but not impressing. That changed in 2011, as he hit .328 in 82 games at double-A Carolina, then .380 in 40 games at triple-A Louisville. It was an amazing, shocking breakout.
The only thing that changed for the now 26-year old is the frequency of his singles. His doubles, triples, and homers changed very little. His walks and strikeouts were roughly the same. It's hard to pick out a reason why Phipps suddenly became a .300-plus hitter. It's even harder to figure out if this is a one-year spike, or a new level of performance. He is a long-shot for the Opening Day roster, but figures to go to Louisville as the Reds watch to see whether he can do it again.
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Chad Reineke pitched in two games, starting one, for the Reds in 2011 and gave up six runs, five earned, in 6 2/3 innings. The native of Defiance and Miami U. alum with turn 30 just after the season starts, and now has a 5.76 ERA in 30 major league innings.
Reineke was 9-7 with a 3.84 ERA with Louisville in 2011, after a 9-9, 3.91 season there in 2010. He has a 3.97 minor league ERA and that about says it. He's replacement level, not going to be a big star, an extra arm. Reineke does not project as a member of the Reds' roster in 2011, unless, as last year, there is an emergency.
An insurance policy....with a team in your home state. There are worse career options.
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Sunday, February 12, 2012
Henry Rodriguez is a Reds' prospect, and hit .320 in the minors last year with 13 homers. He just turned 22. Rodriguez isn't very big at 150 pounds but he has shown an ability to hit.
Rodriguez was signed out of Venezuela. He hit .322 in the Gulf Coast League in 2009, .307 with 14 homers at Lynchburg in 2010, then .340 in 58 games at Bakersfield and .302 in 69 games at double-A Carolina last year. He has played some at third base and shortstop, but his main position as a pro has been second base, which seems his most likely home.
Rodriguez also stole 30 bases last year, and 33 the year before, so he can run too. Reds officials will have to decide whether to send him back to double-A to start 2012, or start him at triple-A Louisville. If he has another good year, he could jump over Chris Valaika and become the heir apparent to Brandon Phillips at second base, should Phillips elect to leave as a free agent after this season. The team will be hoping his bat keeps producing.
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The health, or lack thereof, of Scott Rolen will be a big part of the Reds' 2012 season. Rolen's success in 2010 was key to the division championship that year, just as his ability to play only 65 games last year, and hit but .242 with a 676 OPS while doing it, was a big factor in the team falling under .500. Which Rolen will show up this year?
The big third baseman turns 37 about the same time as the season starts, so the odds are not strongly in his favor. On the other hand, Rolen had had three good, if less than full time, seasons prior to the oft-interrupted 2011. With Juan Francisco and Miguel Cairo as the backup plan, the Reds will need some work out of Rolen to get to the postseason. If he can play often enough and well enough to steady Francisco in his transition to the position, even if he can't play well every day, that should be enough.
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Jordan Smith is a right-handed relief pitcher and pitched in 17 games for the Reds last year with a 7.20 ERA. In 37 games in 2010, he had a 3.86 ERA, so his major league career mark is 4.94 in 54 games.
Smith just turned 26 and was a sixth-round pick in the 2006 draft. The Utah native profiles as a surplus middle-relief arm. He was a starter through 2009 but has been a bullpen arm since. His strong suit is control, but he doesn't have a lot of stuff. Smith is likely to spend most of the year at Louisville and get a call in case another arm is needed, like the last couple of years.
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Saturday, February 11, 2012
Neftali Soto is a Puerto Rican native drafted by the Reds in the third round in 2007. His calling card is big power, even though he is listed at a mere 180 pounds; he has a quick, powerful swing. His weaknesses are defense and breaking balls. How Soto adjusts to big league curveballs will determine his future.
Soto started as a shortstop in his first season of American baseball, then was moved to third base in his second year. He played third at Dayton in 2008 and at Sarasota in 2009, then in 2010 he was converted to first base. There was also an experiment that year to make him a catcher, and he caught ten games for Lynchburg in 2010, but that experiment did not go very well and has not been repeated. Besides, Devin Mesoraco emerged in the meantime.
So defensively, Soto is limited to first base. That may not matter if his power holds up. He has hit for power all along the way, and crashed 31 home runs in just 106 minor league games in 2011. At double-A Carolina, he also hit .272, but drew just 25 walks. He struck out 96 times. Soto will have to display better contact skills to make it in the majors. Fortunately, he turns 23 at the end of February, so he is young enough to learn and improve. With Joey Votto's contact up after 2013, the Reds could have a job opening at first base soon, and Soto is in line for the position, set to play first base for Louisville this year. He will likely get a September call-up, and a strong showing will open doors for him in the near future.
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Drew Stubbs is the Reds' incumbent center fielder, with a stellar defensive reputation and unquestioned talent complete with speed and power. He also struggles to make contact at the plate, causing questions if he will be able to reach his potential.
The knock against Stubbs from the time he was drafted was his difficulty in making contact. He struck out a lot even with aluminum bats in college. Last year with the Reds, Stubbs struck out 205 times. That's a lot by any measure, and while a hitter with that many strikeouts can still be productive, it creates problems for a guy without real big-time power like Stubbs. 205 Ks versus 15 home runs is a bit unbalanced.
So the 40 steals come off just a .243 average and .321 on-base, with a .364 slugging. Manager Dusty Baker kept the faith, as Stubbs played in 158 games, but as the season wore on he stopped trying to use the center fielder in the leadoff spot to utilize his speed. This year, Stubbs figures to work mostly out of the #6 or #7 spot. He'll be free to run down there, but may not be able to duplicate his 92 runs scored in a lower lineup spot.
Stubbs is 27 and should be squarely in his prime. The Reds hope he can produce a season more like 2010 (773 OPS, 105 OPS+) than his 2011 (686 OPS, 86 OPS+) in 2012. His range also slipped last year. Since he is eligible for arbitration for the first time in 2013, Stubbs will find that if he doesn't pick up the production, he will be replaced.
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Friday, February 10, 2012
Clayton Tanner was signed by the Reds to a minor league contract with an invitation to major league spring training. The interesting part of Tanner's backstory is that he's Australian. The lefty has been a starter in the minors, and was 6-10 with a 4.29 ERA at double-A Richmond in 2011.
Tanner is a lefty soft-tosser, with fastball velocity in the upper 80s plus a slider and curveball. The slider is pretty good, but his control has to be on for him to succeed. He'll get a look, but figures to spend the year starting in Louisville as insurance in case of injury in Cincinnati. There are worse fallback positions, and Tanner is not a significantly worse option than Matt Maloney. He's also younger at 24.
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Kanekoa Texeira is a right-handed pitcher signed to a minor league contract by the Reds and invited to major league spring training. Texeira has been "waiver bait" lately, passing from team to team. He has 49 games of major league experience with Seattle and Kansas City.
The Hawaii native has a 4.66 ERA in 68 major league innings, with 33 strikeouts and 26 non-intentional walks. These are not impressive numbers. His big year was 2008, when he was a Carolina League All-Star. He had a pretty good year at double-A in 2009. He's a sinker/slider guy who's pretty effective against righties but usually owned by lefties. Right now he is bullpen insurance for the Reds, and is likely to spend the year at Louisville.
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Chris Valaika is an infielder with the Cincinnati Reds. He spent most of 2011 in triple-A but got another taste of the majors, getting seven hits in 25 at-bats.
Valaika tore the ACL in his right knee in September of last year. He had surgery, and was planning to be ready for spring training. This will take some time, so the 26-year old can be expected to open the season at Louisville. His path to the majors in the near term is unclear. He's not really a shortstop, so his utility as a backup infielder is limited. He mostly plays second base, but Brandon Phillips is there. Barring an injury, Valaika won't get much playing time in Cincinnati in 2012. If Phillips leaves after the season as a free agent, Valaika might get into the mix.
At his age, and with a minor league average of .288 with a 752 OPS, Valaika is certainly not a super-prospect, though he could be a decent player. It will depend on how he comes back from the knee surgery.
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It's truck day in Cincinnati! The equipment truck is packed and pulls out at noon Cincinnati time to head for Goodyear, Arizona for spring training!
This is even better than spotting the first robin, or the first flowers blooming. And with snow predicted for tonight, too.
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Wednesday, February 08, 2012
Wilson Valdez is a 33-year old reserve infielder, getting a lot of playing time the last two years with Philadelphia as the regulars have missed time with injuries. In 2011 he hit .249 in 99 games with a 634 OPS and in his career he has hit .243 in 362 games dating back to 2004. He has a career OPS+ of 67.
Valdez obviously will not impress with his bat. He has to make his case with his glove and his versatility. For his career, with a fairly small sample size, Valdez has good defensive numbers at second base but not so good at shortstop. Not bad, but below average. He also has below average numbers at third base, but that's in even less playing time.
Valdez is an insurance policy for shortstop. The Reds would be better off if they don't use him, because both Zack Cozart and Paul Janish project better, but the team wanted a veteran alternative. Hopefully he won't be needed.
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Pedro Villarreal is a 24-year old right-handed pitcher drafted by the Reds in the 7th round of the 2008 draft. He pitched in just two games in rookie ball that year, went to extended spring training in 2009 and went back to rookie ball, posting a 1.47 ERA in five starts. So they sent him to the Florida State League, where his ERA was 5.46 in nine games. In 2010, he started at Dayton, and went 4-7 with a 3.84 ERA. So he jumped back to high-A ball for five starts and this time had a 6.86 ERA.
Last year, he began at high-A in Bakersfield and was 4-3 with a 4.34 ERA in 10 starts in a strong hitters' park. So they sent him to double-A Carolina and he was 7-4 with a 4.42 ERA in 17 starts. The Texas native had a 109/28 K/W ratio in 2011, which will turn some heads. He's not getting a lot of prospect notice. He doesn't turn heads with his stuff. To succeed, Villarreal will have to translate that K/W ratio into something workable in the majors.
The best hope for a pitcher like this in the majors is usually middle relief. He will get sent to either double-A or triple-A for 2012.
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The signings of Ryan Ludwick to a major-league contract and Jeff Francis to a minor-league contract were officially announced today. Carlos Fisher was designated for assignment to make room on the 40-man roster for Ludwick. The team has ten days to trade, release, or send Fisher to the minors. Fisher can also refuse a minor league assignment and become a free agent.
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Tuesday, February 07, 2012
Joey Votto is the first baseman of the Cincinnati Reds, since the 2008 season. He followed his 2010 MVP season with a year of a .309 average, 29 homers, and 103 RBI. Votto carries a .313 career average. He won a 2011 Gold Glove.
The Reds feel pretty good about their first base position for the 2012 season. The only real concern is whether Votto will be around after he hits free agency following the 2013 season. There is already much speculation on his destination, and Buster Olney was advocating that the Reds trade Votto during this offseason.
Instead, the Reds have doubled down on Votto's remaining time in the Queen City. They have traded prospects for players to help them win in 2012 and, hopefully, 2013, Votto's last certain years in the city. It's a gamble worth taking. If the MVP-level years Votto can be expected to have help propel the Reds into the postseason, and maybe deep into the postseason, it will be well worth it.
I think Votto is headed elsewhere, probably home to Toronto, after 2013. I also think the Reds are going to ride this horse for the next two years while they have him. I expect a very exciting ride.
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Clay Zavada is a left-handed pitcher with a minor league contract, invited to major league spring training with the Reds. In 2009, Zavada went 3-3 with a 3.35 ERA in 49 games with Arizona as a reliever. With 52 strikeouts and 24 walks in 51 innings, he looked pretty good. Then in May 2010, the Illinois native had "Tommy John" ligament replacement surgery. He's been working his way back since.
Zavada is now 27. He was a 30th round pick by Arizona in 2006. He has always been a reliever as a pro. He had a good year in rookie ball, but did not pitch in 2007 after the death of his father in the offseason: he just never reported, and eventually the Diamondbacks released him. He signed up with an independent local team for the next year, caught the attention of his former team, re-signed, and bounced back with a strong season in 2008, spent most of 2009 in the majors, pitched in only five games in 2010, then pitched in double-A in 2011, going 3-2 with a 3.43 ERA.
He's a longshot, especially with Sean Marshall and Bill Bray already lined up to pitch in the bullpen. Chances are Zavada goes to Louisville and waits for an opportunity. He may not get back to where he was before the surgery. Zavada is a guy with an interesting backstory who deserves a chance.
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I hope you enjoyed the trip through Reds history that was the top 100 writeups. I enjoyed doing the research as well as searching my memory to write the blurbs on each player. It also made a good content filler through the offseason.
Now, with spring training coming up, we will begin our look at the 40-man roster, and then the nonroster invitees. It's all part of the overall season preview for a 2012 that looks very exciting. At the end, this admittedly biased opinion is the Reds will take the NL Central in 2012 for the second time in three years.
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Monday, February 06, 2012
The greatest player in Cincinnati Reds history is Johnny Bench.
He was drafted in the second round of the 1965 draft by Cincinnati. He had the talent to be a first-round choice, but he was from such a small town in Oklahoma that he hadn't been measured against good competition, so teams were a bit wary. The Reds bit, and were glad they did.
He had promise as a catcher, but they could have moved him: he was athletic enough to play outfield, a corner though probably not with enough speed for center, and he could have played first or third base. But no, his skills behind the plate only increased his value. He spent three years in the minors, got a late 1967 trial where he hit .163 in 26 games but showed enough for the Reds to trade veteran catcher Johnny Edwards, and make Bench the regular. Bench won a Gold Glove in his rookie year, batted .275 with 16 homers and 82 RBI, and won the Rookie of the Year award. It was quite a coming-out party.
1969 was an even bigger year, as Bench hit .293 with 26 homers and 90 RBI. Here was a Gold Glove catcher who hit in the middle of the order, a very rare breed. In 1970, Bench fairly exploded. He hit .293 and led the league with 45 homers and 148 RBI, and won the MVP award as the Reds won the pennant. In 1971 he slumped to a .238 average, but in 1972 he won another MVP with a .270 average, and league-leading figures of 40 homers and 125 RBI. The Reds won another pennant, and Bench had two MVPs by the age of 25.
Truth was, he had now passed his peak. Catching is tough, and as good as Bench was, he was worked very hard at a young age. His knees began to ache, and though his hitting stayed strong he wasn't quite as good as he was at 24. He was fourth in the MVP vote in both 1974, when he led the NL in RBI again, and 1975, when the Reds finally broke through and won the World Series. That team had two players arguably the best ever at their positions, Bench and Joe Morgan, plus an all-time great in Pete Rose, as well as Tony Perez, Dave Concepcion, Ken Griffey (Senior), George Foster, and Cesar Geronimo. Who needed pitching? It was a lineup made to crush all opposition. Bench had a rough 1976, batting just .234, but batted .533 (8-for-15) in the World Series.
Even that rough 1976 was still an above-average year for normal humans (OPS+ of 109) and he bounced back in 1977, batting .275 with 31 homers and 109 RBI. He had three more strong years, though his playing time decreased with increasing aches and pains. He batted .309 in 1981, his only year over .300, but played just 52 games. In the general team makeover of 1981-82, it was decided that Bench, a catcher in his mid-30s, would now be a third baseman. That worked about as well as you would expect, though he was still an average hitter. By his last year, 1983, he was an occasional catcher and platoon first baseman.
Bench retired after that year, his knees aching too much to keep going. He spent an entire seventeen-year career with Cincinnati, and has an excellent case for the best catcher ever to play the game. That sounds like a best player in franchise history to me. It doesn't hurt that he was my childhood favorite. I'm biased. I also think I'm right. Number five is #1.
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The second greatest player in Cincinnati Reds history is Pete Rose.
Born in Cincinnati in 1941, Rose signed with the hometown team out of high school and spent three years in the minors, hitting .277, .331, and .330. In 1963 he competed for the second base job in spring training with the incumbent, Don Blasingame, and won: Blasingame was soon sold to the Senators. Rose won the Rookie of the Year award while batting .273 and putting up a 101 OPS+. His defense was below average, but not terrible. In 1964 he was hurt part of the year, and his bat slipped. The slippage might have cost the Reds the pennant that year.
He not only bounced back in 1965 but took a leap forward, batting .312 and placing sixth in MVP voting while making his first All-Star team. He led the league with 209 hits. It was the first of nine straight years batting over .300 for Rose. In 1966 he was moved to third base to make room for Tommy Helms, but balked and went back to second after 18 games. Helms played third, and Rose hit .313. In 1967 Rose moved to left field, though he spent most of July at second base while Helms was injured. He hit .301.
Rose entered his peak in 1968, and won the batting title with a .335 average in the worst year for offense since the Deadball Era. He also led the league in hits and on-base average, and was second to Bob Gibson in MVP voting. He led the league again in 1969 with a .348 average, and this time in runs scored with 120. He won his first Gold Glove, set a career high in RBI with 82, and was fourth in MVP voting. He led in hits again in 1970 as the Reds won the pennant and Rose got his first taste of the postseason. In 1971, though, they fell short.
1972 was a new beginning, and Rose led the league in hits again as the Reds won another pennant. In 1973 Rose led the league with 230 hits and won his third batting title with a .338 average. He finally won an MVP, though it was more of a "career achievement award" than a transcendent year for Pete. The Reds won the division but lost in the NLCS. In 1974, Rose led the league in doubles with 45 but hit .284, breaking his string of .300 seasons. He set a career high with 106 walks, so he was still on base, but it hurt his pride. The Reds finished second, and Rose was getting frustrated.
1975 was a magic year. It didn't look that way to start, with the Reds starting 12-12 and seeming to spin their wheels. One day before a game Rose was taking balls at first base. Manager Sparky Anderson yelled out to him to try instead at third. Rose did, Anderson asked him to move to 3B, rather than telling him to as it had been in 1966 when Pete balked, and history was made. Rose wasn't brilliant at third, but he was passable, and it made room for some of the team's young outfielders to blossom and firm up the lineup. Rose responded to the challenge by batting .317 and leading the league in runs and doubles again. He was fifth in MVP voting and batted .370 in the World Series win.
The Reds repeated in 1976 as Rose led the NL in runs, doubles, and hits. He hit .323 and was third in the MVP vote. In the World Series, the scouting report on Yankees leadoff man Mickey Rivers was that the fleet leadoff man liked to bunt, and didn't have any power to the opposite field, so Rose should play in close. Taking the words to the extreme, Rose set up about 50 feet from home plate when Rivers batted, unnerving the opposition leadoff man and showing the New Yorkers some midwest brashness. The Reds swept.
Rose hit .311 in 1977 and .302 with a league-leading 51 doubles in 1978, but had a contract disagreement with the team. Fans couldn't believe the hometown boy would leave after sixteen years with the team, but Rose signed with Philadelphia as Cincinnatians howled. 1979 was apropos as the Reds won the division without him, while the Phillies did not return to the postseason even though Rose led the league in on-base percentage. Rose was part of the 1980 team that won the first World Series in Phillies history.
Rose was a Phillie for five years and then signed with the Expos for 1984, but in August the Reds traded for him, sending Tom Lawless to Montreal. Rose was brought home to manage the team, and to break the hit record in his hometown. Pete put himself in the lineup too often, blocking younger players, but he broke Ty Cobb's record for hits and did a pretty good job managing the team, finishing second four years in a row though he couldn't quite break through. In 1989 the Reds got off to a sluggish start amid clouds of trouble. Late in the season, Rose was suspended for betting on baseball, taking a lifetime ban. It was a sad ending to a magnificent career in baseball.
Rose played 2722 games for Cincinnati, batting .307 with 3358 hits and 152 homers. He had a 124 OPS+.
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Sunday, February 05, 2012
The third greatest player in Cincinnati Reds history is Joe Morgan.
Morgan came to Cincinnati in a justifiably famous trade made on November 29, 1971, and left as a free agent eight years later. In those eight seasons, he was the main reason the Reds had the greatest period in their history. Two world championships, three pennants, and five division titles in eight years are a fine legacy, and two NL MVPs, richly deserved, describe the impact of the five-foot-seven, 150-pound "Little Joe."
Born in Texas but raised in California, like Frank Robinson, Morgan came up with the Astros and was undervalued due to the effect the Astrodome had on offense, an effect not fully appreciated at the time. Did Reds GM Bob Howsam understand how Morgan's stats would take a big leap forward in moving to Riverfront Stadium? Probably not fully, though he did understand the talent difference between Morgan and incumbent Tommy Helms, and that moving Tony Perez from third to first would improve the defense, as well as putting veteran Denis Menke at third. The speed influx, the pairing of Pete Rose and Morgan at the top of the order, those were things Howsam looked at as possibilities. If it came together like he planned....
It did. Morgan added zip to the lineup, led the NL in runs in 1972 with 122, and also in walks and on-base percentage, and batted .292 with 16 HR and 73 RBI while stealing 58 bases. The Reds won the pennant, and Morgan was fourth in MVP balloting. He was fourth again in 1973, as the Reds won the division. He slipped to 8th in 1974, as the Reds slipped to second place, though he led in on-base again. Then, in 1975 at age 31, he found another gear.
Morgan had never batted .300 before, though he had topped .290 his first three seasons in Cincinnati. In 1975 he batted .327, added a league-leading 132 walks for a league-leading .466 on-base average, hit 17 homers and drove in 94 runs, and scored 107. He also led in OPS and OPS+. He won a Gold Glove and, oh yeah, the MVP. The Reds won the World Series. There was Rose and Bench and Perez, and an emerging Griffey and Foster, and Concepcion and Geronimo, but mostly there was Morgan.
1976 was virtually a repeat, but for good measure this time he led in slugging percentage too. You know, just to prove he could. Another MVP, another World Series title. It sometimes seemed like Morgan was just toying with the league, that it was all so easy. This was the kind of dominance of Honus Wagner, or Rogers Hornsby. Morgan's confidence was supreme, and his performance legendary.
Of course, it couldn't last. Players age, even ones as superb as Morgan. He slipped to .288 in 1977, and the Reds didn't win. In 1978 he battled injuries and hit just .236, though with his walks and power his OPS+ was still 103. He hit just .250 in 1979, but his walks gave him a .379 on-base, and the Reds won the division in a last hurrah for the 1970s Big Red Machine. The party was ending, though. Perez had left, Rose was gone, and now Morgan went the free agent route. The team had broken up.
In eight years with Cincinnati, Morgan batted .288, had a .415 on-base, hit 152 home runs and stole 406 bases, and posted a 147 OPS+.
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The fourth greatest player in Cincinnati Reds history is Frank Robinson.
He signed with the Reds in 1953 at age 17 and worked his way through the minors, hitting quite well, though the team kept shifting his position. Robinson would be something of a mystery for the Reds to position...he had speed and was good at tracking flyballs, but didn't have a real strong arm, so would they play him in right field? Left? Center? In to first base? Elsewhere in the infield? They never seemed quite sure.
His 1956 rookie year was played as the regular left fielder, beginning by batting 7th and then mostly hitting second. Robinson led the league in runs with 122 and hit .290 with 38 HR and 83 RBI, winning the Rookie of the Year Award. In 1957 he hit .322 with 29 HR and 75 RBI, batting mostly third. In 1958 he switched between left and center, and his average slipped to .269. He was mostly done with center field after that.
1959 was mostly spent at first base, and he hit .311 with 36 HR and 125 RBI. In 1960-1962 he hit his peak, leading the league in OPS and OPS+ all three years. This, mind you, was the NL with Willie Mays, Hank Aaron, Ernie Banks, and others in mid-career. And it was Frank Robinson leading the league in OPS+ for three years in a row. 1960 was mostly at first base, then 1961 as spent as the right fielder, and an MVP year. 1962 was, as the next couple of years would be, divided between left and right, flanking Vada Pinson. 1961 was also his only postseason in Cincinnati, and he was 3-for-15 with a homer in the World Series.
1963 was an injury-marred year and Robinson slipped to .259 with 21 homers. He bounced back in 1964 as the pennant race went down to the final weekend, hitting .306 with 29 homers, and in 1965 hit .296 with 33 homers and 113 RBI. Then, that offseason, Robinson was traded, with GM Bill DeWitt calling him "an old 30."
That was the money quote, but it wasn't the real reason. Robinson had been in some trouble with the law, involving an unregistered handgun. Despite his ten excellent years in the city, Cincinnati was very near the south and wasn't the most welcoming place for an opinionated black man. And Robinson could be very cantankerous. His edginess helped make him great, but it didn't make him easy to live with. In those days of the first stirrings of the Big Red Machine, DeWitt looked around and thought he had enough offense, and needed to bring in some pitching, so he traded his veteran slugger to get a pretty good hurler in Milt Pappas. And Robinson, suitably motivated, won the AL Triple Crown in 1966 and led the Orioles to the next level. He would become the first black team manager a few years later.
Robinson hit .303 with 324 HR and 1009 RBI in his ten seasons with the Reds. He also led them to their only pennant between 1940 and 1970, and came close to winning them a couple more.
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Saturday, February 04, 2012
The fifth greatest player in Cincinnati Reds history is Barry Larkin.
He was the fourth pick overall in the 1985 draft. The U.Michigan alum shot through the minors, batting .267 in 72 games at double-A in 1985 and .329 in 103 games at triple-A in 1986. On August 13 of that year, at age 22, he took over as the Reds regular shortstop. So he would remain, with occasional interruptions for injury, through 2004.
The Cincinnati native had all the character traits now admired in Derek Jeter, but without the media hype of New York. A leader, a man of strong character, and a player who played the game the "right way;" with skill and precision and a mastery of the little things, who hit and ran and played defense and didn't hit many home runs but count hit one when it counted. Larkin hit .342 in an injury-shortened 1989, was a key part of the 1990 surprise World Series winners with a .301 average and 30 steals, and hit .302 with 20 homers in 1991.
Larkin made twelve All-Star teams and won three Gold Gloves. He often hit .300, and also drew a good number of walks for some excellent on-base averages. He won the MVP in 1995 as the Reds made the postseason again, hitting .319 with 15 homers. If anything he was better in 1996, batting .298 with a career-high 33 homers.
It was just two postseasons for Larkin, 1990 and 1995, and he hit .338 in those 17 games. For his career, Larkin hit .295 with 198 homers, 2340 hits, and 379 stolen bases with a .371 on-base average and 116 OPS+.
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The sixth greatest player in Cincinnati Reds history is Tony Perez.
Perez signed with the Reds as a teenager out of Cuba in 1960, after Fidel Castro had taken over the country but before it had become officially communist. He was a tall, skinny shortstop when he signed, and his first year in the States was tried at second base, the outfield, and then third base. He stuck at third.
Perez did well as he rose through the minors, batting over .300 and showing power. After he hit .309 with 34 homers and 107 RBI at San Diego (then a minor league time) in 1964, he was off to the majors for good. In 12 games with the Reds Perez went 1-for-25, then was a part-time first baseman for the team the next two years. In 1967, Perez began the season as the regular first baseman, with veteran Deron Johnson at third. When Johnson went down with an injury, Perez shifted back to third base with Lee May taking over at first. Even when Johnson came back, Perez remained at first. He did well enough to make the All-Star team, and drove in the winning run. On the season, he hit .290 and led the team with 26 homers and 102 RBI. He was now the team's RBI man, the "Big Dog."
Some sources malign the defense of Perez at third, but during his twenties he had the agility to do it and stats reveal him as average at the position. Perez hit .282 with 18 homers and 92 RBI in the low offense of 1968, then .294 with 37 homers and 122 RBI in 1969, and then .317 with 40 homers and 129 RBI in 1970 as the Reds won the pennant. That put him third in MVP voting. He slumped with most of the team in 1971, then came the big trade in the offseason that dealt away 1B May and brought in Joe Morgan. Perez, who had reached 30 and wasn't covering as much ground at third, moved across the diamond to first base.
Perez continued to be a big presence in the middle of the Reds' lineup, batting fourth or fifth. He would drive in at least 90 runs in each of his ten seasons as a regular in Cincinnati. The team won another pennant in 1972, the West division in 1973 as Perez had another big year and was seventh in MVP voting, and missed in 1974. Just as it looked like a young Dodgers team was ready to pass by the Reds, they kicked into another gear for World Series wins in 1975 and 1976. Perez was no longer the central bat on the team, but became known as a clubhouse leader, and the go-to guy for the young Latinos like Dave Concepcion and Cesar Geronimo seeking to adapt to American culture.
Cincinnati traded Perez after the 1976 season, and stopped winning World Series. Many sportswriters and commentators in town equated the events, but Perez and the rest of the Big Red Machine was aging, and replacing him with Dan Driessen didn't hurt the offense. The complaint was mostly that it hurt the clubhouse chemistry. Maybe, but age had more to do with it.
Perez was a regular for a few more years, then became a part-time player, and found his way back to Cincy as a platoon first baseman from 1984-1986. That may not have been a good idea, as the past-40 Perez was blocking talented younger players like Nick Esasky, but the fans did like to see the old favorite. Perez became a coach, and managed the Reds to start 1993, but was fired about a fourth of the way into the season...far too quickly, in my opinion.
Perez batted .283 in 1948 games with the Reds, hit 287 homers and drove in 1192 runs, posting a 127 OPS+.
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Friday, February 03, 2012
The seventh greatest player in Cincinnati Reds history is Heinie Groh.
Groh is by far the least known of our top ten players, and that's a shame, because he has a legitimate case for the Hall of Fame. Most of that case was built in a Cincinnati uniform. Groh was the best third baseman ever to play for the Reds.
Originally signed by the Giants, Groh went to Cincinnati in a deal made early in 1913. He was a second baseman as he hit .282 that year and .288 in 1914, but was shifted to third base to use his agility for fielding bunts in the Deadball era. Today, Groh would be left at the keystone. Groh hit .290 in 1915, then .269 with a league-leading 84 walks in 1916. Over the next three years, Groh would be the best player in the National League, though no one realized it at the time, nor do they today.
The NL was in a down period, with few stars of its own and Rogers Hornsby still on the horizon. The biggest names in the game were Ty Cobb, Tris Speaker, and Eddie Collins, all in the AL. Groh led the league in on-base percentage in 1917 and 1918, and in OPS in the world championship year of 1919. He also led the NL in hits and doubles in 1917, in runs and doubles in 1918. He would have been a good choice for MVP in any of those seasons, if they had been voting for it then.
If Groh is remembered today, it is for using a "bottle bat." Small at a generously listed five-foot-eight and about 160 pounds, Groh wanted a bat with a large barrel for contact hitting, but needed a small handle for a better grip. He special ordered a weapon that, instead of tapering gradually from barrel to handle, instead had virtually two distinct sections, looking like the glass milk bottles common at the time. And a baseball classic was born.
Groh usually batted third for those teams, with Jake Daubert second and Edd Roush batting fourth. He didn't have reach-the-fences power, but slapped the ball around the field and found holes. His batting averages for 1917-1919 were .304, .320, and .310. Groh was quick but didn't steal a lot of bases, topping out at 24. He just hit lots of singles and doubles, and drew lots of walks.
Groh dropped off a bit after that, batting .298 in 1920. In 1921 he held out through the early season, and became incensed with the team's negotiating. He finally agreed to sign only if the Reds would trade him immediately to the Giants. Judge Landis held up the deal until after the season, but his .331 in 97 games was his last work as a Red.
In 1211 games in Cincinnati, Heinie Groh batted .298 with a .378 on-base average and a 130 OPS+ as well as 158 steals. He also played stellar defense.
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The eighth greatest player in Cincinnati Reds history is Vada Pinson.
He signed with the Reds in 1956 and started as a first baseman, which given his speed looked rather silly. They moved him to the outfield in 1957 and he was the MVP of the California League, hitting .367. He hit .343 in the Pacific Coast League in 1958, and he arrived in Cincinnati, hitting .271 in 27 games.
Starting in 1959 he took over as the Reds' center fielder. He led the league in doubles with 47 and runs scored with 131 as he hit .316 and made the All-Star team. He was off and running. He led the league in doubles again in 1960, though he never would again. 1961 as a pennant year in Cincinnati, and Pinson hit .343 and led the league with 208 hits as a big part of it. He was third in the MVP vote and won his only Gold Glove.
He was now established as a star and a Cincinnati icon. He would drive in 100 runs each of the next two years. Pinson batted either second or third in the order, often just ahead of Frank Robinson. They were thought of together. Pinson provided solid production on both offense and defense. He was also durable, playing nearly every game.
Pinson began to fade a bit in the mid-60s. He was still hitting, but not as much as before. He hit .288 with 16 homers in 1966, the year after Robinson was traded, then .288 with 18 homers in 1967. In 1968 he missed some games and dipped to .271 with just five homers. With the overall low offense of the year, his OPS+ was still above average, but the Reds took the hint and traded him to St. Louis, getting Bobby Tolan.
Pinson would kick around for several more seasons but was past his prime. As a Red, he hit .297 in 1565 games with 186 homers, 814 RBI, and 221 stolen bases.
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Wednesday, February 01, 2012
The ninth greatest player in Cincinnati Reds history is George Foster.
People remember Foster for his 1975 emergence onto the Big Red Machine, or his 1977 MVP season. Not many remember how he came to the team originally in 1971 to help replace the injured Bobby Tolan. Fewer understand how he is a borderline Hall of Fame candidate, since he was disappointing after signing a big contract with the Mets after being traded there. Or how he had an eighteen-year big league career. Foster was all of those things, and a top slugger of his era.
Foster was a third-round pick by the Giants in 1968, an era when they had a plethora of outfielders. He had three impressive years in the minors, including "cups of coffee" with the Giants in 1969 and 1970, and opened 1971 with San Francisco. He was playing reasonably well, but the Giants as always had more outfielders than infielders, and the Reds were in dire straits in the garden with Tolan injured, Bernie Carbo slumping badly, and Hal McRae also hurt. Aside from Pete Rose, the Reds didn't have an outfielder they could count on, and still harbored pennant hopes.
So, Foster went from sharing LF in San Fran with Ken Henderson to playing center field for the Reds. SS Frank Duffy and P Vern Geisert went to the Giants. Foster took over CF in June, first batting sixth, then fifth, then second, then back to sixth. He wasn't impressive, batting just .234 with ten homers in 104 games for the Reds, and the team fell short of expectations. With Tolan back in 1972, Foster was a bench player, but scored the winning run in the NLCS as a pinch-runner, coming home on a wild pitch by Pirate Bob Moose.
Foster, still just 24, spent most of 1973 back in the minors. He didn't have a big year, but got the call back in September, and was a platoon player with the big club in 1974, hitting .264. Manager Sparky Anderson appreciated the young man's talent, but thought the soft-spoken Foster lacked a killer instinct and doubted his desire.
The Reds stumbled from the gate in 1975, and Anderson looked for ways to spark the team. In May, Pete Rose was moved from left field to third base, and the plan was for the two corner outfield spots to be platoons: youngster Ken Griffey and veteran Merv Rettunmund in right field, with Danny Driessen and Foster in left.
While Driessen could hit, he was no outfielder, and Foster got more and more playing time. He also began to hit, and hit with authority. He soon established himself as the everyday left fielder, and ended the year with a .300 average, 23 home runs, and 78 RBI. He was usually batting sixth in the order, behind Tony Perez. It was quite the power nexus. Foster led the league in RBI in 1976 and finished second to teammate Joe Morgan in MVP voting, then exploded in 1977 with stats not seen in years. Foster hit .320 with 52 home runs and 149 RBI. It is hard to describe just how jaw-dropping those numbers were, in the middle of a low-offense era. Foster easily won the MVP award. In 1978, he led the league in HR and RBI again with 40 and 120.
He dropped off some after that, turning 30 in 1979, but continued to hit well in the cleanup spot. He was third in the 1981 MVP vote. But free agency loomed, and Reds GM Dick Wagner did not want to pay big salaries to his stars. So Foster was dealt to the Mets after the 1981 season for pitcher Greg Harris and Jim Kern and catcher Alex Trevino as part of a team makeover by Wagner that turned disastrous.
Foster, now entering his mid-30s, signed a big-money contract in New York but his skills were fading and Shea Stadium cut down further on his power. His stats, while not bad, were not what NY fans were expecting. Foster was regarded as a bust, and it has damaged his legacy. For a few years in Cincinnati, though, George Foster was one of the great sluggers of the game; a really "feared hitter," a meme that got someone else elected to the Hall. It's not likely to work for George, but he is just as deserving.
Foster hit .286 with 244 homers in 1253 games in Cincinnati, posting a 140 OPS+.
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Tuesday, January 31, 2012
The tenth best player in Cincinnati Reds history is Edd Roush.
Roush didn't like a lot of things; John McGraw, spring training, and being paid less than he felt he was worth among them. Roush often held out, partly to get the money he felt owed, and partly to avoid going to spring training. He held out so long in 1922 that he missed most of the season. He swung the biggest club ever, a 48-ounce bat that he mostly threw at the ball and yet still hit with authority. He was an odd fellow. He was also a great player.
Roush came over from the Giants in a trade in mid-1916, along with new manager Christy Mathewson, who immediately installed him as the center fielder in Cincinnati. In 69 games he hit .287. In 1917 he led the league with a .341 average. In 1918 he missed the batting title but led the league in slugging percentage and OPS. Then in 1919 he led the league in batting average again with a .321 average as the team won the World Series. Roush would have won the MVP that year if there had been such a thing.
There were no more pennants in Roush's career, but plenty of .300 and even .350 averages. He led the NL in doubles in 1923 and triples in 1024. He polled tenth in MVP voting in both 1924 and 1925. He was traded back to New York after the 1926 season, continued to antagonize McGraw, held out the entire 1930 season, and returned to Cincinnati for one last hurrah in 1931, but batted just .271 at age 39. That was the end for him.
Roush played in 1399 games for Cincinnati, batting .331 with a .377 on-base average and a .462 slugging average, for a 135 OPS+. He was the "face of the franchise" for most of his time with the Reds.
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The eleventh greatest player in Cincinnati Reds history is Bid McPhee.
He was the greatest defensive second baseman until, and maybe including, Bill Mazeroski. It took until a century after he retired to gain election to the Hall of Fame. McPhee is not remembered today, but he is one of baseball's greatest.
His entire eighteen-year major league career was played in Cincinnati. McPhee made his Reds debut in 1882 as the team began it's run in the American Association. The team won the pennant that year, as McPhee batted just .228, but won raves for his defensive work. His bat would soon come along, and his defense remained stellar.
He hit for decent averages and drew lots of walks, and also was a fine basestealer. He often hit leadoff for the Reds, and scored at least 100 runs in ten different seasons. McPhee played through the 1899 season, when he was 39. After he retired the Reds named him manager for a couple of years, but that didn't go real well.
McPhee hit .272 with a .355 on-base average in his career, for an OPS+ of 106. He had 2258 hits and scored 1684 runs.
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Sunday, January 29, 2012
The twelfth greatest player in Cincinnati Reds history is Dave Concepcion.
The skinny shortstop from Venezuela spent his entire nineteen-year major league career with the Reds. When he first came up, standing six-foot-two but weighing less than 150 pounds, it looked like he might never hit. But he filled out a bit and began hitting the ball with more authority, and no one in Cincinnati ever did a better job with the glove, including his powerful arm.
Concepcion was already terrific defensively when he got to the states, and even though he hit just .234 at Tampa in 1968 with a .274 slugging average, he went up to double-A for 1969. When he hit .294 there, he went to triple-A Indianapolis, hit .341 in 42 games, and never saw the minors again.
He hit .260 while sharing shortstop for the 1970 pennant winners, but only .205 in 1971 and .209 in 1972 playing most of the time, though the latter was another pennant year. His glove was too good to keep out of the lineup, and offense was considered secondary for shortstops at the time. He began to come into his own in 1973 and hit .287, but a broken ankle kept him out for much of the second half. It was the signal of good things to come, though, as Concepcion began to hit .280 with some regularity and gusted to .301 in 1978 and .306 in 1981. He also won five Gold Glove awards, on merit.
He also hit .297 in 34 postseason games. With 2488 games played, Concepcion is second to Pete Rose in that category for the Cincinnati franchise. He's also second in at bats, sixth in runs scored, third in hits, fifth in total bases, third in doubles, seventh in walks and in RBI, and sixth in stolen bases. Concepcion was a fine player for a long period of time.
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The 13th greatest player in Cincinnati Reds history is Cy Seymour.
Seymour broke into the game as a pitcher with the New York Giants, doing pretty well as a hard-throwing lefty albeit with spotty control. He also showed hitting talent and excellent foot speed, so he was sometimes put into the outfield as well. In 1901 he became an outfielder full-time. Seymour had jumped to the American League Baltimore Orioles that year, but in 1902 when John McGraw left that franchise to return to the NL, he released most of the Orioles' players. Most signed with McGraw at the Giants, but Seymour signed with Cincinnati.
Seymour took over center field for the Reds and was stationed there from the middle of 1902 to the middle of 1906, when he was swapped to the Giants. Why does he rate so highly with what amounts to just four years of play in Cincinnati? Mostly for a 1905 season that ranks with the greatest ever by a Red. That year Seymour led the NL in batting average (.377), hits, doubles, triples, RBI (121), total bases, slugging, OPS, and OPS+ (181). Coming in the middle of the Dead-ball era, it was one of the top offensive seasons ever.
Seymour was good in other years too, hitting .342 in 1903 and .313 in 1904. He got off to a slow start in 1906, though, so the Reds sent the veteran back to New York. In 556 games, they got a .332 average from Seymour, and a 142 OPS+. It wasn't a long stint, but it was a good one.
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The 14th greatest player in Cincinnati Reds history is Lonny Frey.
The second baseman on the 1939-1940 Reds winners, Frey was an outstanding top-of-the-order hitter and excellent defensive second baseman. He was good at that undervalued offensive asset, drawing walks, as well as sacrificing and stealing bases. Although he excelled at "little man skills," he was also good at hitting doubles.
Frey was picked up on the cheap from the Cubs before the 1938 season. As a shortstop, he had made a lot of errors, but Reds manager Bill McKechnie moved him to second. It worked like a charm, as Frey had exceptional range at second and cut down on his errors with the shorter throws he needed to make. He hit .265 that year, then .291 with 72 walks and 95 runs in 1939 as the Reds won their first pennant in twenty years. He hit .266 with 80 walks and 102 runs while leading the league with 22 steals in 1940 as the Reds won the World Series.
The Reds stopped winning pennants but Frey put up good on-base percentages the next three years, then went into the army for two years. He came back in 1946 and put up another decent season at age 35, but was sent back to the Cubs in the spring of 1947, his career nearly over. In seven years with the Reds, Frey hit .265 in 941 games and put up a .358 on-base average while playing stellar defense.
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Saturday, January 28, 2012
The 15th greatest player in Cincinnati Reds history is Ted Kluszewski.
The Illinois native and alum of the University of Indiana signed with the Reds in 1946 after they had seen him during a wartime camp at the college campus, when travel restrictions prevented teams from going south. Klu hit .352 in the Sally League and then .377 at Memphis in 1947, and went to Cincinnati to stay.
The Reds were somewhat allergic to offense at the time and did not put Klu into the lineup full-time right away. He hit .274 with 12 homers in 113 games in 1948, then .309 in 136 games in 1949. After he hit .307 with 25 homers and 111 RBI in 1950 and drew MVP notice, he was in the lineup to stay. Kluszewski was a slugger, with bulging biceps that caused the Reds to shift to a sleeveless jersey in the 1950s for intimidation purposes (which worked well with Klu, not as much with the other guys), but also hit for high averages and rarely struck out.
From 1953 to 1956, Klu hit 40, 49, 47, and 35 home runs. In 1954 he led the NL in homers with 49 and RBI with 141, and in 1955 he led the league in hits and in intentional walks. Once he was past 30, though, his back began to fail him. He missed most of 1957 hurt, and after the season the Reds sent him to Pittsburgh for Dee Fondy, an unpopular move. He would never be an everyday player again, though he became an excellent bench power source for several years.
The coda to Klu's career was a stint in the 1970s as batting coach for the Big Red Machine. The big fella was still popular in Reds Country and guided a bevy of young sluggers through some years when the Reds were heavily dependent on offense. Klu died in 1988, though his memory lives on.
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The sixteenth greatest player in Cincinnati Reds history is Eric Davis.
At 6-feet-2 and 165 pounds, Davis had essentially no body fat. He was all bone and sinew. This made for a tremendous player but also one susceptible to injury. With a little more life-padding, perhaps he would have managed to get into more than 135 games in a season, a feat he never accomplished. But he was oh, so good when he was playing.
Davis had some trouble cracking the Cincinnati lineup for reasons that were not obvious to anyone but Reds manager Pete Rose. Davis entered the Reds' system in 1980 and struggled a bit at Eugene, but excelled in repeating Eugene the next year and Cedar Rapids in 1982, then blew through double-A and triple-A in 1983 with 22 homers and 48 steals and had nothing else to prove. Still, he divided 1984 and 1985 between the majors and the minors, even though those Reds teams were hardly bursting with talent.
In 1986 Davis had a year that no one could ignore and established himself as a star. He had his biggest season in 1987, hitting .293 with 37 HR, 100 RBI, and 120 runs scored. He stole 80 bases in 1986, drove in 101 runs in 1989, to establish his top numbers. 1990 was a magic year in Cincinnati and Davis was a big part of it, batting .260 with 24 HR and 86 RBI. He was hurt in the World Series sweep, and owner Marge Schott famously made him pay for his own plane ticket home after he got out of the hospital, part of a break with the team that caused him to leave after a rough 1991 season.
Davis was out the entire 1995 season, then signed with Cincinnati for a comeback in 1996. He hit .287 with 26 HR and 83 RBI to reestablish a career that continued through 2001, though elsewhere. Davis is remembered more for his talent than his accomplishments, but put up some fine numbers.
In 985 games with Cincinnati, Davis hit .271 with 203 homers, 270 steals, and 615 RBI, posting a 137 OPS+.
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Friday, January 27, 2012
The 17th greatest player in Cincinnati Reds history is Joey Votto.
The second-round pick in the 2002 draft worked his way up through the minors slowly. It took some time to settle into a position, and then to get his legs hitting against higher competition. Votto made his way up and had a solid year at triple-A in 2007, then a .321 average in 24 games with Cincinnati late in the year.
For some reason, the club intended to alternate Votto with veteran Scott Hatteberg in 2008, and Hatteberg to the Opening Day start. Votto got a chance, though, and soon showed why the job should be his and his alone, batting .297 with 24 HR and 84 RBI. It was good enough for second in the Rookie of the Year voting. 2009 was even better, and Votto drew a couple of MVP votes with a season where he hit .322 with 25 HR and 84 RBI.
2010 was a breakout year for the team and for Votto himself. The Reds posted a winning season for the first time in a decade, and won the NL Central. Votto led the league in on-base, slugging, and (of course) OPS, hitting .324 with 37 HR and 113 RBI. Votto won the MVP award for his spectacular season. He did nearly as well in 2011, batting .309 with 29 HR and 103 RBI. It's been a short career so far, but he's been so good that Joey Votto claims a high spot in our rankings.
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The 18th greatest player in Cincinnati Reds history is Frank McCormick.
Nicknamed "Buck" after big-game hunter Frank Buck, and "Wildcat," as part of the "Jungle Cats" infield of the 1940 World Champion Reds, Frank McCormick was a fixture at first base for the Reds for several years as well as an MVP winner. The tall, slim, and graceful McCormick was also one of the best defensive first basemen ever.
McCormick was late getting into professional baseball, finally signing with the Reds system in 1934 at age 23. He had a good year in the minors and then was 5-for-16 with the big club, but did not get back to the majors until 1937. He hit .325 in 24 games then, then took over as the regular the next year.
Cincinnati took a real step forward in 1938, and McCormick was a part of that, leading the league with 207 hits and batting .327 with 106 RBI. McCormick became the Reds' cleanup hitter. He was fifth in MVP voting that year. He was fourth in the pennant year of 1939, leading the league in hits again and also with 128 RBI, plus 18 homers. He won the MVP himself in 1940 with another year of about the same, batting .309 with 19 homers and 127 RBI and leading the league in hits and doubles.
Those three years were his high-water mark, but McCormick continued to be a solid player through the war years. He hurt his back diving into a motel pool in 1941, but missed little time, though the injury made him ineligible for war service. He continued to hit for average, not a lot of walks but rarely striking out, with doubles and a few homers. McCormick was a Reds through 1945, then his contract was sold to the Phillies after the season. He would return to do some coaching for the Reds later.
In 1228 games with the Reds McCormick batted .301 with 110 homers, 285 doubles, and 803 RBI.
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The contract information as best we know it:
Nick Masset signed a two-year deal for about $5.5 million total. Best guess: $2.5 mil for 2012, $3 mil for 2013, or thereabouts.
Jose Arredondo, the last Red eligible for arbitration, has signed for two years and about $2 million.
Jeff Francis, the free agent pitcher who signed a minor league deal, has an opt-out at the end of spring training (March 28), so that if he things he can get a job with another major league team but the Reds will send him to the minors he can take another offer. If Francis makes the Reds, he gets $1.5 on his major league deal with incentives that could raise it as high as $3.5 million.
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Thursday, January 26, 2012
The Reds have signed left-hander Jeff Francis to a minor-league contract with an invitation to spring training. Francis was 6-16 with a 4.82 ERA for Kansas City last season. GM Walt Jocketty continues to find bargains where other GMs go for full retail price.
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Wednesday, January 25, 2012
The Reds signed a contract and made a trade today. Nick Masset, who was scheduled for arbitration, signed a two-year contract instead. Terms are not out yet.
In the meantime they made a deal for a veteran infielder who can play shortstop. They got IF Wilson Valdez from the Phillies for P Jeremy Horst. Valdez is 33, will turn 34 in May. He is a native of the Dominican, and has played quite a bit for the Phils the last two years with the injuries to Jimmy Rollins and Chase Utley. He has also played with the White Sox, Mariners, Padres, Dodgers, and Mets.
Valdez has a .243 lifetime average with a .290 on-base, so he's no hitter. His role will be shortstop insurance, and he can play defense at SS, though it's hard to see from here how he is any improvement over Paul Janish. Janish can also play defense and not hit. But, he's another guy for the depth chart.
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Tuesday, January 24, 2012
The 19th greatest player in Cincinnati Reds history is Miller Huggins.
Just a little guy at 140 pounds, the Cincinnati native got into pro baseball late and spent three years in the minors with St. Paul before signing on with his hometown team for 1904 at age 26. He was a leadoff man, not a very good average hitter but one who drew lots of walks, leading the league four times, and stole bases. Huggins hit .263 in his first year with the Reds, drew 88 walks, and scored 96 runs. That was his game.
He played with Cincinnati through 1909, when he was in just 57 games and batted only .214. The Cardinals traded for him and he returned to form, and they soon made him their manager. He would later gain his greatest fame as the manager of the Babe Ruth-Lou Gehrig "Murderer's Row" version of the Yankees.
Huggins hit .260 in six years with Cincinnati and drew 431 walks in 783 games while scoring 441 runs.
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The 20th greatest player in Cincinnati Reds history is Ed Bailey.
He was a big fellow from Tennessee, a lefty-hitting catcher who signed with the Reds in 1950 and went to Ogden, then went into the military for two years. He went to Tulsa and hit .243 with 21 homers, then went 3-for-8 with the big club. He hit just .197 with Cincinnati in 1954 and went back to the minors for most of 1955.
Bailey took over as the regular catcher for 1956 and hit .300 with 28 homers. After that he usually hit about .260 with walks and power as well as playing good defense. He was with the Reds into the 1961 season, but was traded for 2B Don Blasingame after playing just 12 games that year. It was a strange trade, but Cincinnati did win that pennant.
Bailey hit .261 with 94 home runs and drew 336 walks in 714 games. He had a .359 on-base average and a 109 OPS+ as a Red.
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The 21st greatest player in Cincinnati Reds history is Ernie Lombardi.
"The Schnozz" was an Oakland native who signed as a teenager with his hometown team, then a minor league club in the Pacific Coast League. In his early 20s he hit .377, .366, and .370 in consecutive seasons, then was picked up by Brooklyn. He played one year with the Dodgers, who had a catcher they liked better in Al Lopez, and they dealt Lombardi to Cincinnati with Babe Herman for three players.
Lombardi would take over as the Cincinnati catcher for the next ten seasons, 1932 through 1941. He was a big, fearsome hitter, by reputation the hardest hitter in the National League. He was also very, very slow, and the opposition third baseman and shortstop would play him deep in the outfield grass, playing a short outfield in effect, and still be able to throw him out on a grounder. Legend has it that Lombardi was once timed at seven seconds running from home to first.
Lombardi was listed at six-foot-three and 230 pounds, but his weight was likely much more than that later in his career. The bulk affected his mobility, and his defense. While he had a strong arm he also had trouble blocking balls or fielding hits near the plate. He couldn't play another position, as he was far too slow even for first base. He was also not durable, though catchers of that time were not really expected to play every day. He never played more than 132 games in a season.
For all that, Lombardi was a valuable player and an incredible hitter. Even as he led the league in double plays four times, he also won two batting titles, one in 1938 for the Reds. Lombardi hit .342 that year with 19 HR and 95 RBI and was voted the National League's Most Valuable Player. It wasn't a fluke, as he had batted .343, .333, and .334 in the three previous years. It was part of the announcement that the Reds were back in business, and contenders for the pennant they would win in 1939 and 1940.
1938 was Lombardi's best year. He slipped to .287, though with 20 HR (a career high) and 85 RBI for the next year's pennant winners. He took some heat for the World Series loss, as he was "snoozing" while a run scored in the final game. He had been in a collision on a play at the plate in the same play sequence, and may have been partly unconscious. At any rate, some sport was had at his expense. The Reds won again in 1940, and won the Series, but Lombardi played in just two games and batted three times as coach Jimmie Wilson handled the catching duties. Lombardi was again hurt. Ernie did provide a double.
In 1941 he slipped to .264, and the Reds traded their popular catcher to Boston. As a Red Lombardi hit .311 with 120 HR in 1203 games. He was a popular figure in Cincinnati and is a member of the team's Hall of Fame as well as of Cooperstown.
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Monday, January 23, 2012
The 22nd greatest player in Cincinnati Reds history is Bob Bescher.
He still holds the single-season record for Cincinnati basestealers with 81 in 1911. the London, Ohio native was a big 200-pounder, but also blazing fast. Bescher led the league in steals four times while a member of the Reds, from 1909-1912.
He arrived in the Queen City after three years of playing for Dayton's team. He didn't hit very well the first two of those years, even though the league was not top competition, but hit .305 in 1908 and got the big club interested. Bescher hit .272 in 32 games for the Reds to round out 1908, and then became the mainstay in left field.
Bescher wasn't a great fly-chaser but he was fast enough to run things down, he hit for a decent average and drew plenty of walks, plus he had some pop to hit doubles in those dead-ball times. He stole 54 bases in 1909, 70 in 1910, 81 in 1911, and 67 in 1912. He also led the NL in runs scored in 1912 with 120, after scoring 106 the year before.
In 1913 his baserunning slipped, and his batting wasn't quite as good. The Reds shipped him to the Giants after the season to pick up Buck Herzog. It was a good six-year run in Cincinnati for Bescher, who batted .262 in 745 games and put up a .365 on-base average with a 110 OPS+.
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The 23rd greatest player in Cincinnati Reds history is Jim Maloney.
The Fresno native signed with the Reds in 1959 and struggled to get his control at Topeka, then blew people away in 1960 at Nashville. Called up by the Reds, he was just 2-6 with a 4.66 ERA in Cincinnati. He spent all year with the team in 1961 anyway, and was 6-7 with a 4.37 ERA as a utility pitcher on the pennant-winning club. He started 1962 in the minors but was soon back with the team and went 9-7, then from 1963 through 1969 was the mainstay of the Cincinnati rotation and their ace.
Maloney was one of a fairly common type of 1960s pitcher, the big flamethrower. It was an era that rewarded those who threw hard, and that was Maloney. With the tall 15-inch mounds and big ballparks were made for the guys with big windups and big fastballs. Control was optional. Maloney was one of the best of the type.
He won 23 games in 1963 at age 23, and 20 in 1965, when he made his only All-Star team. He threw a no-hitter in 1965 and another in 1969. He also led the league in wild pitches twice, 1963 and again in 1969. Maloney threw a high fastball with upper-90s velocity, a sharp curve, and a change-up for show.
Cincinnati was ready to make a run for another pennant in 1970, but Maloney went down in his second start of the year when he ruptured an Achilles tendon while running the bases. He tried to come back, but the stuff was gone. He pitched a few more games for the Reds, then a few the next year for the Angels, but after some time in the minors had to leave the game.
For the Reds, Maloney had a record of 134-81 and a 3.16 ERA for a 117 ERA+.
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The 24th greatest player in Cincinnati Reds history is Jose Rijo.
Rijo originally signed and debuted with the Yankees, went to the A's in the Rickey Henderson trade, then came to the Reds in the 1987-88 offseason for Dave Parker, all before he turned 23.
Rijo began 1988 in the Reds' bullpen, then pitched so well he got more and more starts. He went 13-8 with a 2.39 ERA, and would be a regular starter for Cincinnati through 1995. He would make a brief comeback in 2001-02.
Rijo was never a big winner, topping out at 15 victories for a season, but he was extremely effective and posted exceptional ERA+ numbers. He was 14-8 with a 2.70 ERA for the 1990 World Series champs, winning three more in the postseason including two in the Series. Rijo won 15 each in 1991 and 1992 and 14 more in 1993.
Rijo's workload dialed up to 36 starts and 257 innings in 1993, as he led the league in strikeouts. He led the league with 26 starts in the shortened 1994 season, but that heavy workload took its toll as he made just 14 starts in 1995, then a sore arm kept him from the mound for the next several years. He didn't resurface until 2001, when he made thirteen relief appearances, then pitched 31 games with nine starts in 2002. It didn't go all that well, the stuff wasn't there, and so Rijo retired for good.
As a Red, Rijo was 97-61 with a 2.83 ERA and 139 OPS+. He was very impressive in most of his Cincinnati career.
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The Reds have signed utilityman Willie Harris. He is signed to a minor league contract with an invitation to spring training. If he is on the roster, he would make $800K.
Harris, 33, played for the Mets last year and hit .246 with a .351 on-base average. He has a lifetime .240 average in 2397 AB. With 39 career home runs, he's not much of a power hitter, but he does a decent job of getting on base.
What's odd is that he is not a shortstop. Harris has played mostly outfield in recent years, though he has also played second base and a little third. He has only eight career games, and three starts, at shortstop. Those were in 2005 and 2008.
Harris is a good outfielder and has done a good job in the infield as well. He's a reasonable player to have on a bench, versatile and a good on-base guy. He just doesn't seem a good fit with the Reds, who really need someone to cover shortstop in case Zack Cozart and Paul Janish falter.
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On the Enquirer blog, John Fay takes a look at the payroll and the roster.
I think he's right. More in the days to come.
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Sunday, January 22, 2012
The 25th best player in Cincinnati Reds history is Jake Beckley.
Beckley was a major league star when the New York Giants released him in May of 1897. Five days later, he signed with the Reds, who were slightly unbelieving of their luck. He'd gotten off to a slow start and volatile Giants owner John Brush dumped him. Since Brush also owned part of the Reds, this was a bit unusual, though typical of 1890s ball. Beckley quickly bounced back with the Reds, batting .345 in 97 games the rest of the season.
Beckley played with the Reds through 1903. He was a solid defensive player, and at 200 pounds a hard hitter. Beckley hit .300 in six of his seven seasons with Cincinnati, batting .325 in 880 games for the Reds. Beckley drove in 570 runs and scored 592 while stealing 114 bases. He was part of the line of great Reds first basemen.
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The 26th greatest player in Cincinnati Reds history is Dolf Luque.
He was the first Cuban star in the major leagues, a short and stocky fellow at five-feet-seven and 160 pounds. Luque had enough European blood to pass for white in the then-segregated major leagues, unlike many of his countrymen. He was possessed of a quick temper, which gained him a reputation around baseball.
Luque came to Cincinnati in 1918, with a bit of prior experience as a Boston Brave, including the 1914 pennant winners. He was 27 when he went 6-3 in 1918, then 10-3 with a 2.63 ERA for the 1919 World Series team, as the sixth pitcher on that team. He pitched in two games in the Series, hurling five scoreless innings.
Luque didn't get to another Series in Cincinnati, but pitched for the Reds until 1929 and was part of the pitching rotation for ten years. Those Reds teams were built around pitching and Luque was an important part of the staff. He had the best season a Reds starting pitcher has ever had in 1923 while leading the league in wins and ERA, with a 27-8 record and a 1.93 ERA. He also hurled six shutouts. Luque led the league in ERA again in 1925 with a 2.63 ERA.
In twelve seasons with Cincinnati Luque posted a 154-152 record and a 3.09 ERA for a 121 ERA+ in that high-offense era. He wasn't very big but threw fairly hard with a sharp 12-6 curveball. His control was good. Luque was inconsistent, as might be expected of someone with a quick temper. When he was sharp, he was excellent.
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The 27th greatest player in Cincinnati Reds history is Bubbles Hargrave.
Eugene Franklin Hargrave first reached the majors with the Cubs while in his early 20s, but didn't stick. He went back to the minors, struggled for a while, then hit .303 in 1919 and .335 in 1920 to catch the interest of the Reds. He went to Cincinnati in 1921 and would remain through 1928.
Hargrave hit .289 his first year in Cincinnati, .295 his last year, and over .300 every other season. This was in the days before catchers were expect to crouch behind the plate every day, and Hargrave never caught more than 109 games in a season. While he hit .300, he didn't hit for much power. He did have exceptional on-base averages, and he played good defense. Hargrave was quite a valuable player for some often good, and offense-short, 1920s Reds teams.
Hargrave was the first catcher to win a batting title, posted a .353 batting average in 1926 to pace the NL. He would not have been eligible for the batting title today, with just 365 plate appearances, but at the time the standard was 100 games. He finished sixth in the MVP voting that year. He probably had a better year in 1923, when he hit .333 and set his career highs of 10 home runs and 78 RBI.
As a Red, Hargrave hit .314 in 766 games. He had a 122 OPS+. He was a solid player who is not well remembered, partly because he was never on a postseason team in Cincinnati.
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Friday, January 20, 2012
The 28th greatest player in Cincinnati Reds history is Noodles Hahn.
How do you get a nickname like "Noodles?" Sources differ on how Frank George Hahn gained that name, but all revolve around his mother's noodle soup: he liked it, he carried it to his dad for lunch, he sold it on the street corner. At any rate, it's about soup. Probably made a lot of sense at the time.
The Nashville native started playing minor league ball while just a teenager and made a name as a hard-throwing lefty. The Reds got interested and picked him up for the 1899 spring training, then put him in the pitching rotation for the season. Hahn would lead the National League in strikeouts for the next three seasons, featuring a hopping fastball and a sharp-breaking curve. The lefty was also heavily worked, one of the few assets on an often-mediocre Cincinnati club.
Hahn put together six very strong years of performance for the Reds, with win-loss records that were not always impressive but with ERAs that were always much better than average, even in the deadball era. That heavy use, six years of at least 290 innings each, took a toll as Hahn only got into thirteen games in 1905. His arm was nearly gone. The Reds let him go, and he caught on briefly with the Highlanders for 1906, but the arm didn't come back and Hahn left the pro game.
His life continued, though. Brighter than most players of his time, he began in veterinary college while still playing. He would become a veterinary inspector in Cincinnati for many years after his playing career. He also spent time as a semi-pro pitcher after his career in the majors. And he stuck around Reds as a batting-practice pitcher into the 1940s. Hahn would put on a uniform and pitch to the guys before games, thus playing a small part in the 1919 and 1940 World Series wins.
Hahn and his wife would retire and move to North Carolina, where he passed in 1960 at age 80. He was a storied part of Cincinnati baseball history. Hahn had a 127-92 record and 2.52 ERA as a Red, with a 134 ERA+.
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The 29th greatest player in Cincinnati Reds history is Reggie Sanders.
Sanders was selected in the 7th round of the 1987 draft out of high school in South Carolina. He was soon displaying ample power and speed in the minors and it didn't take him long to get to Cincinnati. He got a late-season callup in 1991, nine games, then a regular job for 1992 as Eric Davis departed. Sanders got most of his 1992 work in center field, pushing Dave Martinez aside, with some work in left. For 1993 Paul O'Neill was traded, and Sanders took over in right field.
Sanders was never the most durable of players, never playing more than 140 games in a season, and no more than 138 as a Red. When he did play he showed exceptional skill, and was sixth in 1995 MVP voting with a season of a .306 average, 28 homers, and 99 RBI. The Reds went to the playoffs that year and got as far as the NLCS. They wouldn't reach the postseason for another 15 years.
In 805 games over eight years as a Red Sanders hit .271 and posted a .353 on-base average, hit 125 homers and stole 158 bases. He stayed with Cincinnati through 1998, and after that season he was traded for Greg Vaughn. Sanders had quite a travelog after that, playing in three World Series with three different teams.
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The 30th greatest player in Cincinnati Reds history is Ken Griffey (Senior).
Griffey was a 29th round draft pick in 1969 out of Donora, PA, the home of Stan Musial. Griffey had blazing speed, though he did not have outlandish stolen base totals. He was known for running out a lot of infield hits. Griffey worked his way up the minor league ladder, hitting his stride in 1971 by hitting .342 in Single-A, then .318 the next year in double-A, then .327 in triple-A in 1973 to earn a late-season callup, and he hit .384 in 25 games for the Reds. A slow start in 1974 sent him back for the minors for a couple of months, but a hot September got him back in the team's plans.
Griffey began 1975 as the platoon right fielder, but when Pete Rose moved to third base he got the everyday job, and held it through 1981. Griffey hit over .300 in five of those seven seasons, drew walks, hit for decent power, and stole bases. He was a key part of the Big Red Machine offense for the two World Series wins, and also contributed to the 1979 division championship.
Griffey returned as a part-timer in 1988-1990, starting the year with another World Series team but was sent to Seattle during that season to end his career with his son's team. Griffey was an All-Star three times for the Reds, winning the All-Star Game MVP in 1980.
Griffey hit .303 in all or parts of 12 years in Cincinnati, a total of 1224 games. He had 71 homers and 156 steals, a .370 on-base average, and an OPS+ of 123.
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The Ryan Madson contract is even more Reds-favorable than we thought. Madson will make just $2 million during the 2012 season, with $2 million more due on November 1, and another $2 million on November 1, 2013, for a total of $6 million compensation for 2012. He then has an $11 million mutual option for the 2013 season, with a $2.5 million buyout if the team declines. No word on how much if he declines: presumably nothing, but he goes on the free market again, which he might consider profitable if he has a big season.
That's brilliant. Amazing he couldn't get a bigger contract elsewhere.
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Tuesday, January 17, 2012
The contract for OF Ryan Ludwick is reported to be $2.5 million for the year, possibly with incentives, and with an option for next year, believed to be a team option. The official announcement must wait for a physical.
Also, Bill Bray agreed to a contract. He will get $1.4 million for 2012. Homer Bailey and Paul Janish have also signed, numbers not yet announced.
Update: $2.4 million for Homer. That leaves Jose Arredondo and Nick Masset for arbitration. Masset requested $2.9 million, team at $2.1 million. Arredondo is at $875K, team at $725K.
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Monday, January 16, 2012
Ken Rosenthal is reporting that the Reds have signed OF Ryan Ludwick. Ludwick would be the regular left fielder and Chris Heisey would be the fourth outfielder.
Ludwick had just a 90 OPS+ last year, so the Reds are hoping for some bounceback. He's a power hitter, with 117 career homers. He is generally regarded as a good defensive outfielder.
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The Reds have signed catcher Dioner Navarro to a minor league deal with an invitation to spring training. Navarro is to provide depth to the catching, since the Reds plan on going with rookie Devin Mesoraco and relatively inexperienced veteran Ryan Hanigan. With Corky Miller the #3 choice, depth was needed.
Navarro batted .193 as a part-timer for the Dodgers last year, and was a regular for three years with Tampa Bay. He's 27, and will turn 28 before the season starts. Navarro had his career year in 2008 with the Rays, batting .295. His career average is .244 with a 76 OPS+, but he has a good defensive reputation.
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The 31st greatest player in Cincinnati Reds history is Mike Mitchell.
Mitchell was late getting into pro baseball, and to the major leagues. He had put up a couple of impressive minor league seasons when the Reds got him for the 1907 season, when he was already 27. Mitchell came to the majors fully formed, with a strong arm for right field, good speed, and good power, though in the Deadball era that meant more triples than home runs, especially in then-spacious Crosley Field.
Mitchell succeeded right away, batting .292 with a 122 OPS+ in 1907. He slipped to .222 in an injury-filled 1908, but rebounded for his best year in 1909, pounding out a .310 average, leading the league with 17 triples, stealing 37 bases, driving in 86 runs and scoring 83. His OPS+ was 152. He was almost as good in 1910, hitting .286 and leading the league again with 18 triples.
1911 was the first year of NL MVP voting, and Mitchell drew votes in spite of the also-ran status of the Reds. He hit .291 and drove in 84 runs. He hit .283 in 1912, but was starting to slip as he had entered his 30s, and the Reds included him in a big trade with Chicago that brought in Joe Tinker to manage and play shortstop. Mitchell would play just two more major league seasons.
Mitchell played six years in Cincinnati, batting .283 and showing a 118 OPS+ as well as strong defense.
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Saturday, January 14, 2012
The 32nd greatest player in Cincinnati Reds history is Eppa Rixey.
Rixey is the winningest pitcher in Cincinnati Reds history, though his total did not reach 200 in Cincinnati. He was a long and lanky Virginia native who spent the first third of a long career with the Phillies, getting to one World Series in 1915, and the final two-thirds with the Reds, never getting to another although they came close a few times.
Rixey was tall but did not throw very hard, offering a fastball, curve, and changeup in an assortment designed to befuddle rather than overpower. He showed good control but few strikeouts, depending on his defense to a high degree. Rixey was rarely impressive but often effective.
Rixey came to the Reds from the Phillies in the 1920-21 offseason. Neale was soon dealt back to the Reds and also soon out of the game, so the trade amounted to Rixey for Ring. The harder-throwing but also wilder Ring pitched effectively for the Phils, but not as long or as effectively as Rixey for the Reds.
Rixey, 30 in 1921 which was his first season in Cincinnati, was one of the better pitchers in the NL for the first half of the 1920s. He led the league in wins with 25 in 1922, drew some MVP notice for leading the league in shutouts with four in 1924, on 20 in 1923 and 21 in 1925. As he aged his durability declined, of course, and he was a part-time pitcher after age 40, but stuck around through 1933, still providing some effective innings.
Rixey pitched in 692 games for the Reds, 554 of them starts, in thirteen years and posted a 179-148 record and a 3.33 ERA for an ERA+ of 118 in Cincinnati. It's a pretty good showing.
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Friday, January 13, 2012
The Reds signed two veteran lefthanded pitchers to minor league contracts: Ron Mahay and Clay Zavada. They get a chance to make good in spring training, but with Sean Marshall and Bill Bray filling lefty roles with the big team, the only way either is likely to make the major league roster is in case of an injury.
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The 33rd greatest player in Cincinnati Reds history is Bucky Walters.
Walters first made it to the major leagues as an infielder, playing third base for the Phillies. He never quite hit enough to stick in the lineup, and eventually it was decided to use his strong arm on the mound. He first worked from the mound in 1934. Walters could throw reasonably hard, but to succeed as a pitcher he needed another pitch and learned a slider. He became one oof the great sinker-slider pitchers of all time.
Walters toiled in his native Philadelphia for a few years but the Phils were in rough shape then, and swapped him to the Reds in June 1938 for two players, but especially for $50,000. Walters would spend ten years with the Reds as their ace and workhorse.
After going 11-6 with a 3.69 ERA down the stretch in 1938, Walters had a career year in 1939 with 27 wins, leading the NL in wins, ERA, strikeouts, innings, complete games, ERA+, WHIP, and a few other categories. The Reds won the pennant, and Walters won the MVP by a solid margin. He led the league in wins, innings, and ERA again in 1940 as the Reds won the World Series. His 22 wins in the regular season were complemented by two more in the Series, and Walters' position in Reds fans' affections was safe for life.
Walters would continue pitching for the Reds through World War II, winning 23 games in 1944. His durability was fading with age, and in 1947 and 1948 he was an often ineffective part-time pitcher. He was the Cincinnati manager for the end of 1948 and most of 1949, but that didn't go well. As a Red, Walters posted a 160-107 record and a 2.93 ERA. He benefitted from pitcher during the war years and in front of the excellent Cincinnati defense put together by manager Bill McKechnie, but he was also a terrific pitcher and a fine gentleman.
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The 34th greatest player in Cincinnati Reds history is Curt Walker.
Walker bounced around a bit before catching on with the Phillies, then in May 1924 was traded to Cincinnati for George Harper, who would put up a .303 lifetime batting average, but that wasn't unusual for outfielders in the 1920s and 1930s. Meanwhile, Walker would become a star.
Walker would play the rest of his major league career--through 1930--for the Reds, and be an above-average hitter every year. He never put up great numbers, but hit for a good average with decent power and solid defense in right field. Walker was never particularly exciting or controversial, he was just a solid ballplayer. He hit .307 in his last major league year, then went to the minors and hit .300 again before leaving the game.
In seven seasons with the Reds, Walker hit .303 with 94 triples in 953 games, posting a .378 on-base average and a .441 slugging.
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The 35th greatest player in Cincinnati Reds history is Lee May.
May was signed by the Reds in 1961 and the tall, muscular first baseman was worked his way up the minor league ladder, slugging all the way. Breaking through as a first baseman on a big league team can be tough, since older players tend to gravitate there, and the Reds tried May in the outfield for a while. That didn't work out too well. He batted four times for the Reds in 1965, got into 25 games in 1966, got regular play in 1967, and took over as the everyday first baseman in 1968 at age 25.
He slugged 38 home runs in 1969 to announce his arrival as a star, then hit .253 with 34 home runs for the pennant team in 1970. He was one of the few Reds to do better in the disappointing year of 1971, batting .278 with 39 homers and bolstering the sputtering offense. So, when he was traded that offseason, Reds fans were outraged. May was outgoing, very popular, and surprisingly accepted for a black man in largely white Cincinnati.
Bob Howsam spotted some things that summed up why May was tradable. The switch from Crosley Field to Riverfront Stadium with its astroturf made speed more important than power, and May was a plodder of the first rank. He was also stuck at first bases, while Tony Perez needed another spot as his formerly average third base defense was deteriorating with age. One of them had to go. The club still had power in Bench and Perez and that new kid Foster, and Joe Morgan would help the transition toward more speed and defense that led to two World Championships.
May is still a popular figure in the Cincinnati area and makes appearances at Reds events. In seven years with the Reds, five as a regular, he hit .274 with 147 home runs in 761 games.
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Thursday, January 12, 2012
The 36th greatest player in Cincinnati Reds history is Adam Dunn.
Some will think this is too low, some too high, but in eight seasons with Cincinnati Dunn smashed 270 home runs. That's a lot of value, even if he was doing it with mostly poor teams.
Dunn was the Reds' second-round pick in 1998 out of high school in Texas. A big fella with big power, he hit for high averages and good power in the minors with lots of walks. After just 55 games in triple-A, he was elevated to the big league roster in 2001 at the age of 21 and hit .262 with 19 homers in 66 games. At first he played a good bit in right field, taking over for Alex Ochoa, but soon settled in left to replace Dmitri Young.
Dunn hit .249 with 26 homers in a full season in 2002, then dipped to .215 with 27 homers in 2003. 2004 would be his best season to date, as he hit .266 with 46 home runs. He would then run off a series of four consecutive 40-homer (exactly) seasons for the Reds, and also hit 40 the next year, 32 before being traded by the Reds.
Dunn provided a lot of power and walks, but his detractors remember his shortcomings: his defense was never good, and it declined over the years as he put on weight and lost mobility. His baserunning was mediocre at best. He struck out a lot, and the difficulty in making contact led to a lot of low batting averages.
Even for all that, Dunn provided a lot of value with his power and his walks. It was not his fault the rest of the team was so poor. The Reds picked the right time to pass him on, trading him to Arizona for Wilkin Castillo and Micah Owings in a deal that didn't help the Reds on the field, but helped them move on into a new era. Cincinnati fans have Dunn to thank for many of the few thrills they got during the first decade of the 21st century.
In 1087 games with Cincinnati Dunn hit .247 with 270 homers and 646 RBI, and drew 755 walks.
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