It’s motherFUCKING. No humping involved.

Ken Griffey Jr. is at .244 BA /.356 OBP /.391 SLG /.746 OPS – Not good at all for the slot where your most prolific hitter should be batted. This choice is another amazing and gutless one by Baker.
Jr. should be drtopped to the 5 or 6 hole.( Patterson shouldn’t be on this team whne Hopper gets back)
I realize that KG Jr. will whine but who’s running the show ? It is 4:56am, I wonder if Jocko is trying to reach Dusty right about now…he should be.

Remember too, Mountain, this is a manager who manages his team by ‘hearing’, not by paying attention to or reasoning by utilizing the availalbe statistical information. Like a blind monkey dry humping Castellini’s leg. Meahwhile Billy Hatcher is still coaching 1st. base.

Hairston/Kepp
Bruce
Votto
Dunn
EdE
Phillips
Griffey
weak hitting catcher

For months, I defended Baker. Two ABs last night, though, convinced me that he should be fired.

1. LLM, he of the career .590 OPS vs. lefties (and lovely .472 this year) left in to hit against Beimel.

2. Bottom of the 9th, two on, two out, down by two runs. Please, God, don’t let Patterson hit. Please. Damn.

He’s coming for you, Brady Clark!

I somehow missed that Travis Buck, whose OBP is somewhere in the .230s, has started fifteen games batting leadoff for the Oakland A’s, which is kind of ironic.

I don’t have time to check what the circumstances where. It may be that he lost his spot due to poor performance. See y’all next week.

can we pretend Corey Patterson doesn’t exist, either?

Via Fay:

"I thought I had good at-bats," he said. "You can’t worry about results. People look at charts and worry about results. You’ve got to maintain your approach. You have your ups and downs. Could I be playing better? Sure. I’ve been in this situation before. You’ve got to keep playing.”

Let’s break it down:
I thought I had good at-bats

Really?
The first AB wasn’t bad and he ended up with a single on a well-struck ball. Of course, then he got caught stealing.
The 2nd AB, he took all four pitches and struck out looking. That’s the very definition of a bad AB.
The 3rd AB, he grounded out weakly to 2nd on a 2-0 count with a man on 1st.
The 4th AB, he grounded out weakly to 2nd on a 2-1 count with runners on 2nd and 3rd.
The 5th AB, he grounded out weakly to 1st on a 2-2 count with a runner on 1st. He did foul 2 pitches off, so maybe that qualifies as a good AB? Otherwise, I see one decent AB and 4 bad ones.

You can’t worry about results.
Clearly that stopped happening months ago.

People look at charts and worry about results.
Usually people who live in their mother’s basements.

You’ve got to maintain your approach.
Or you could change it. Some might say that only a fool continues to do the same thing and expect different results. But we’re not worrying about results. Sorry, I forgot.

You have your ups and downs.
I like how he’s speaking in 2nd person. It’s sort of like he knows none of this applies to him. Seriously, when is going to have some ups? All I’m seeing are downs.

Could I be playing better? Sure.
Well I’m convinced. Then again, better is such a relative term. Notice how he didn’t ask, “Could I be any good?”

I’ve been in this situation before.
And yet your manager still has not learned his lesson.

You’ve got to keep playing.
Or not. You could just stop playing. Please.

Is just a bad mananger, the team wins in spite of him and that doesn’t happen that often.

Another one from Fay:

“With Junior out, I’m very limited with my outfield,” Baker said. “(Andy) Phillips hasn’t played outfield since spring training. Everyone wonders why I didn’t pinch-hit for Corey. For his career, Corey is better against left-handers.”

Actually, Patterson is slightly better against right-handers.

Yep, for his career:
Corey vs. RHP : .260/.302/.423
Corey vs. LHP: .240/.273/.375

Way to be on that one, Dusty!

BTW, as was mentioned in the game thread, Jolbert Cabrera could have played OF and Janish could have played SS. Cabrera has more games in the OF than anywhere else. Once again, Dusty lacks any shred of creativity.

At the detriment of his team.
Lets hope that the Reds don’t follow this path with Homer Bailey (provided Bailey doesn’t get redirected soon).

Steve Treder at The Hardball Times took a look at the worst leadoff hitters in the Retrosheet era (since ‘57). Corey is making a serious run at inclusion in this list. Although he hasn’t quite met the criteria of leading off in half of the games, who knows how that will play out for the rest of the year. The worst 5:

5. 55+ Don Kessinger, shortstop, 1967 Chicago Cubs
4. 49+ Alfredo Griffin, shortstop, 1981 Toronto Blue Jays
3. 46+ Ducky Schofield, shortstop, 1965 San Francisco Giants
2. 46+ Brian Hunter, left fielder, 1999 Seattle Mariners
1. 44+ Ivan DeJesus, shortstop, 1981 Chicago Cubs

Corey: 46+ (193/229/343)

OPS+ is actually kind to Corey because it weighs SLG and OBP equally. OBP is of course the more important component for any hitter, let alone a leadoff hitter.

Treder’s description of the Pinella’s decision to bat Hunter leadoff sounds eerily familiar: Moreover, Seattle committed a third blunder with their choice of Hunter. Those 1999 Mariners blasted 244 home runs, the sixth-highest total in history, rendering Hunter’s lone asset—his splendid capacity to get himself from first base to second on those rare occasions he got himself to first— highly irrelevant.

im going to the dentist later to get fitted for a mouth guard. it seems ive started grinding my teeth at night.

Here at thelotd (whatever that is) under C Trent: Lineup

Corey finally out of the leadoff spot. or is it “K”orey? I can never seem to recall. Is Dacubs around to help?

The Reds are hitting .170 on the homestand and exploding for 2.14 runs a game.

I don’t see any quick fix. Until Adam Dunn, Ken Griffey Jr., Brandon Phillips and Edwin Encarnacion start hitting, things aren’t going to turn around.

For the homestand:

Dunn: 3 for 20, 2 of those HRs, with 6 walks
EdE: 8 for 24 with a walk and a HR
BP: 3 for 22 with a HR and 3 walks
Jr.: 1 for 19 with 5 walks

Meanwhile, Votto is 7 for 25 with a walk and a HR over that time. Oh, and Bruce is 4 for 25 with a HR and a walk.

So again, the problem isn’t exactly that “the big four” aren’t hitting, it’s that Jr. has been sucking, BP hasn’t been much better, and the guys who have been hitting the most are buried at the bottom of the lineup. And Bruce has come back down to earth, while Patterson/Janish/Cabrera have been rotating through the top of the order.