From Reds Coverage at the Cincinati Enquirer Website
Most of this season, I’ve avoided writing anythking about the Reds. One is, at least earlier, they didn’t provide much to “write home” about. Bad pitching, bad defense, and for a while, bad hitting. The first two remain a problem, but the hitting has finally reached a level that Reds fans had been talking about but not seeing much over the past two seasons. And it has made for some exciting finishes at Great American Ball Park.
16 of their 30 wins have involved scoring the winning or deciding run in their final at bat, and 8 of those , walk-offvariety wins at Great American Ball Park, inciting the smoke stack fireworks celebration in Centerfield.
Great American Ballpark has been dubbed “Coors Field East” because of its becoming a “primeier long ball allley” in Major League Baseball. I believe I saw a graphic during Wednesday’s game with there with the Yankees that there have been more homeruns hit there than in any park in America. No wonder, with the Reds leading the NL in homers, and the Reds staff being quite the “run producers” themselves, surrendering runs at alarming rates, and so they give up the long ball quite liberally.
Adam Dunn, stuggling with an alarming K-rate, and an anemic batting average (he just raised it over the .210 mark inthe last couple of games, accentuated by a monster blast last night that cleared the right field stands and probably went bouncing along the highway behind the ballpark and in fornt of the Ohio River. He leads baseball with 20 homeruns, and raised his average to a robust .215. Last night the guys on ESPN were saying they “liked him at leadoff now”, since he’s walked 4 or 5 times and homered twicce in the last two nights, but guys, his OBP is .335, which is NOTHING to write home about. It ranks tenth on the Reds team, which doesn’t excactly bode well for making him a good leadoff guy. Why not bat Barry Bonds leadoff ?(after all,, he started off as a leadoff guy). He gets on base with the best of ’em. Why? Because he also hits homeruns, and you want guys on base when shit like that happens. Also, he’s hitting .215, which blows the original spark for the idea in the first place (that he gets on base). Come’ on Boone, get some sense. I haven’t seen such a horrible idea since my 2nd grade teammates who bat their most powerful hitter first in a pickup softball game during recess. By the way, both of Dunn’s homeruns this weekend came with the bases empty (surprise, surprise). (By the way, the Reds leader in on-base-percentage? Ken Griffey Jr. at .404. I bet you Dunn hasn;t batted leadoff since , well, second grade.