Starting Pitching: This has been the Achilles Heel of the Reds all season long. Pete Harnisch didn't get his first win until June 30. Denny Neagle had been the anchor of the staff while Harnisch was on the DL but Steve Parris and Ron Villone have not returned to their respective forms of 1999. Rob Bell was the fifth starter for the first two months of the season and started out well. Unfortunately, he caught the same affliction that plagues most of the staff: failure to challenge hitters and wild pitches. Harnisch's injury hampered his command and as a result - when he got the ball over the plate - he would get creamed. He spent time on the DL and his performances since coming off the DL have been encouraging. Among these included the Reds' first complete game of 2000 in a victory on July 14 at Coors Field. Neagle had been the rock of this staff and pitched well enough to command a hefty contract - be it from the Reds or someone else - for next season. He had a spot recently where he pitched poorly but he chalked it up to letting the trade rumors get to him. After the All-Star game, Jim Bowden - in a controversial move - traded Neagle and minor league OF Mike Frank to the Yankees for four prospects. Elmer Dessens has taken his place in the rotation for the time being. Parris has been the hard luck pitcher for the Reds. In several outings he has been the victim of poor run support. In others he clearly has not pitched well enough to win regardless of run support. Parris' biggest problem seems to be his lack of control. He nibbles at the strike zone like he's afraid if he gives up a home run, he'll die. He seems to pitch well enough to stay in the rotation - which is more of an indictment of the lack of starting pitching than anything. If I were Parris, I wouldn't be signing any long term leases or buying any houses here. Villone has been inconsistent in his first full year as a starter. He has control problems and even in his best outings he's wild - albeit effectively wild. But when he doesn't have his best stuff, he can get hit hard. Villone's assets are that he's a lefty and is a big, strong guy. I have to think if the Reds can't use him, he'd be attractive to someone. Villone hasn't pitched well lately and, as a result, has been demoted to the bullpen. Larry Luebbers has been called up from Louisville to take his spot in the rotation. Osvaldo Fernandez was a pleasant surprise for the Reds after taking Bell's spot in the rotation. The San Francisco Giants signed him after he defected from Cuba but he developed elbow trouble and had to have surgery. Frisco released him and the Reds picked him up before spring training. He started off very well and was the de facto ace of the staff for a brief period of time while Neagle floundered. What I like about Fernandez is that he throws a lot of ground balls and that plays to the strength of this team, which is the infield defense. His last three starts have been poor and he has been taken out of the rotation and put on the DL due to elbow pain from swinging a bat in a recent game. I wonder about his durability and his elbow pain. This doesn't exactly give me a lot of confidence in his long-term future. Wild pitches and walking people have doomed this staff. I know it isn't easy with a juiced up ball and a strike zone the size of a newspaper but the Reds' pitchers need to realize that every time the batter hits the ball it's not going to be a home run. Good things like pop flies and double plays can happen if the other team hits the ball.
Relief pitching: The Reds' relief pitching has been anything but a relief this year. This was supposed to be the strength of the Reds but has turned out to be a weakness. Guys who came through last year haven't done the job this year. Gabe White was traded early in the year for Manny Aybar. This trade was met with almost unanimous approval from Reds' fans who, along with Jack McKeon and Don Gullett, had lost confidence in White's ability to pitch at a major league level. Most people thought this was addition by subtraction. White has come on and pitched very well for Colorado while Aybar has been inconsistent to say the least and ineffective to say the most. Aybar has been put on the DL and will more than likely be back - unless he is released, traded or accepts an assignment to AAA - in late July or early August. Too much shouldn't be expected of Aybar. If he were any good, he wouldn't be a long reliever. I like his arm but he needs to harness his control before he can be an effective major league pitcher. Elmer Dessens was signed as a free agent this spring and has been Aybar's partner in long relief. Despite many Reds' fans' earlier cries to send Dessens down because of a few bad outings, he has pitched very well as of late and got a 4 inning save in Villone's last victory. Because of Elmer's success, he has been inserted in the starting rotation in place of Villone and has done a terrific job. Dennys Reyes has been a huge disappointment this year. His control problems have made him a liability and he has trouble doing the one thing he's supposed to do: get left handed hitters out. Some might say he hasn't been used much and that is the reason for his inconsistency. He really didn't pitch a lot of innings last year so I can't see that being the problem. There is a cry out there to have the Reds start Reyes. I don't see how he could be more effective as a starter if control is his problem. However, I have an open mind and I'd like to see him start. There's really nothing to lose. Who knows, he may be a solution. Scott Sullivan has been a Godsend to the Reds the last two years. This year, after a solid start, he has not been an effective pitcher. Perhaps over 200 innings pitched over the last two years has caught up to him. Lately he has looked better but overall he has been a disappointment. Control is Sullivan's downfall as well. He is effective when he keeps the ball down in the strike zone but doesn't get the calls when he is up in the strike zone. Plus his fastball is easier to hit when he gets it up. Scott Williamson has had an up and down year. He started out poorly and after Gullett spotted a flaw in his motion, reverted back to his Rookie of the Year form. However, over the last month or so, Williamson has tailed off and even pitched worse than he did earlier in the year. It came to a head when he was inserted into a game to pitch to Tony Gwynn and Gwynn got a base hit to score a run. After the game Williamson questioned McKeon's decision to put him in that spot. This is from the guy who complained about not being the closer in Spring Training. To me, a closer relishes the challenge of getting a hitter the caliber of Gwynn out and if he doesn't he doesn't blame the manager for putting him in that spot. Williamson is the co-leader in wild pitches in the NL with San Diego's Matt Clement who is a starter. As a reliever, he's given up 46 walks over 56 2/3 innings pitched. Conversely he has 83 strikeouts. If you're striking out and walking a bunch of people, you're throwing a ton of pitches, which isn't good for a guy the size of
Williamson. To be a good short man, you only really need two pitches. For Williamson, the fastball and the splitter could suffice - if he can refine them. Williamson has been inserted into the starting rotation in place of Villone. His first effort against Cleveland was outstanding and he pitched very well in a win at Colorado. He seems to have taken to starting like a duck to water. Maybe this is his niche. Williamson's co-closer last year, Danny Graves, has had an outstanding year as the Reds' closer. Graves must not hang around the other pitchers too much because he actually doesn't walk a lot of people (25 in 52 1/3 IP) and he only has 2 wild pitches. What is wrong with this guy? Perhaps Graves' most amazing stat is the 9 wins he has. I think the best thing I could say about Graves is that when he's in there, I trust that he will do the job. He's also willing to take responsibility for what he does which is what a closer has to do.
Coaching: Last year, Jack McKeon pushed all the right buttons. He took a team that wasn't expected to do anything and led them to one game of the playoffs and 96 wins. This year the Reds are floundering and McKeon is taking a lot of heat and more than likely will be fired sometime between now and the middle of October. Is McKeon an idiot? No. If he's an idiot this year, he was a genius last year. He's neither, really. Personally, I never cared for his managerial style. I prefer a more aggressive brand of baseball while McKeon doesn't seem to force things. If the pitching were better, the Reds might have a better shot at the playoffs. As it is, neither the starters nor the bullpen has performed up to expectations and that is a big reason the team hovers around the .500 mark. St. Louis Cardinals' manager Tony LaRussa has taken some heat the past few years but this year he's got his genius status back. Why? Pitching. That brings me to Don Gullett, the Reds' pitching coach. Much has been made out of Gullett's ability to take a pitcher off the scrap heap - most notably Pete Schourek - and get him back to the level he once was. Villone, Parris and Harnisch were his most recent success stories. Last year, because of the success of those three, Gullett was considered not only irreplaceable but a genius. This year, because of injuries to Harnisch and lack of success by Villone and
Parris, Gullett is not the pitching coach everybody thought he was and is no longer irreplaceable. He has been criticized because the pitchers under his tutelage have poor control. That criticism is unfounded. He doesn't go out there and tell Williamson to throw wild pitches or Villone to walk the opposing pitcher. Quite the opposite. My theory on Gullett is that he is very good at getting pitchers off the scrap heap back to their former selves. The jury is still out on how he handles young pitchers because there have not been many good young pitchers come up through the Reds'organization. Tom Hume is the Reds' bullpen coach. From what I understand, a bullpen coach is more like a second pitching coach. A bullpen coach's duties are so vague, it's difficult to evaluate so I won't attempt to. Dave Collins is the 1st base coach and also works with the outfielders on defense. He also is in charge of the running game. Collins' work with Dmitri Young has been nothing less than impressive. He made Young into a passable right fielder last year and this year Young is an adequate left fielder. But Collins can't improve Young's speed or change his body type. It seems that the Reds - when they try to steal - are less successful than other teams; especially the players that can steal like Pokey Reese and Barry Larkin. Is there a flaw in Collins' approach? I really couldn't say since I don't know what his approach is. Ron Oester is the 3rd base coach and he also handles the infielders with positioning and things like that. Aaron Boone's fielding ability has progressed while Reese's has regressed a bit. We'll call it a wash. Oester was also the coach who got into Williamson's face about the comments he made to reporters about McKeon's decision to bring him in to face Gwynn. Oester also spoke at a team meeting and reportedly chewed some serious ass. Some people would say he overstepped his bounds and was stabbing McKeon in the back. Others would say he was trying to motivate the club. Since McKeon delegates so much authority, I would believe the latter. Oester felt that he had some authority as a coach and he was going to say something about what he saw happening. Denis Menke is the hitting coach and has been the subject of criticism because people who had big years last year, like Sean Casey and Eddie Taubensee, have dramatically tailed off. He has also come under criticism for the approach of some of the hitters namely Boone, Reese and Young. The main criticism has been that these players have a poor approach to hitting and swing at pitches way out of the strike zone. The critics feel that Menke is responsible for these players' actions. I say that he's not responsible for what his pupils do. We all are parents and/or children. If you're a parent, you can tell your kids what to do until you're blue in the face and they will do the opposite of what you tell them. I know I didn't always do what my parents told me to do. If a child doesn't do what his parents tell him to do, he or she must face the consequences of his or her actions. It's the same way with these hitters. Menke can tell them to be patient all day long and they go up to bat and do just the opposite. How is that Menke's fault? The difference is that these hitters don't face any consequences. In fact, the system rewards them for individuality. At contract time GMs and agents don't talk about how many bunts a player laid down or how many times they hit to the right side to advance the runner. They talk about homers, RBIs, batting average and OPS. What are the coaches going to do to players if they don't follow the coach's instructions? Bench them? Not without a suitable alternative waiting in the wings which the Reds lack. Also there is the theory that if you rein in these players' aggressiveness, you can make the hitter even less effective. I hope that Menke is teaching these hitters to be patient but ultimately it's up to the hitter who can control whether he is going to swing the bat or not. Bench coach Ken Griffey, Sr.'s main task is being Jr.'s personal batting coach. Jr.'s average is down but his power numbers are pretty much the same. Being a bench coach is like being the bullpen coach. The responsibilities are vague and therefore difficult to evaluate.
If you combine all these factors, then it's no surprise this team is under .500. I believe that the chemistry factor is a big part of the problem and it's been here for the last couple of years. It's like handling gasoline and fire. You keep them apart or mix them carefully and it's O.K. but if you get them together the wrong way and kaboom! Winning saved this team last year from exploding. This year winning was taken for granted and when it didn't come, the results haven't been good.