Red Reposter - 8/26/09

You wouldn’t want to move a minor leaguer onto the 40-man roster during the season unless you plan to bring him up because you’ll immediately burn an option on him. Also, there is no point in filling the 40-man roster up with players that don’t have to be there since it gives you the flexibility to move players on as you need them. Otherwise, you might stick yourself with a need to DFA somebody just to clear a spot.

Bud’s office is a museum, too. Jackie Robinson is displayed prominently, including one photograh that his widow, Rachel Robinson, gave to Selig. There is a signed photograph from Joe DiMaggio, "My all-time favorite player," he said.

Selig laughed as he pointed to a picture of Robinson watching Bobb Thomson touch second base after hitting the historic home run in 1951 that beat the Brooklyn Dodgers and put the New York Giants in the World Series.

I read a book about that game earlier this summer. Highly recommended.
  

but i’m giving him a free pass because he’s a kid and teenage kids are some of the most irrational human beings on earth. he probably got a talking to after the game and i give the coach a ton of credit for not chewing him out in front of the whole world.

“So big in fact, that in a darkened room with your breath quickening and beads of sweat accumulating on your nervous brow, his bat drew you in with the gravitational pull of some heavenly celestial body. Some will tell you that it’s nothing more than a wives-tale, but I believe it is precisely because of this memory of Big Klu and his incredible bat’s spectral recurrence in my mind’s ‘greatest hits collection’ has led directly to my legal blindness. And as such, I have given his stick the pet name Medusa.”

That was a crazy, emotional rollercoaster of a game last night. I thought I was beyond actually caring about the wins and losses, but I was wrong. That blown save in the 9th really ticked me off and the go-ahead homer by Votto still got me really excited.

Those announcers on MLB TV were impressed with Votto’s opposite field power. How much more stength do you need to hit it opposite field? That’s one thing I’ve never really been clear on. Jim Day seems to think you need to be a “man” (extreme emphasis) to do it. I just will leave that alone.

that little leaguer had just drilled the next kid…

Don’t tip your hand by asking the coach if you can drill the next kid. Just drill the next kid.

Problem solved.

Selig is one of the least ostentatious wealthy men I’ve ever known. He makes $18 million a year, but you’d never know it. Nearly every day he buys his lunch from the same sausage vendor on Wisconsin Avenue, near his office. He has used the same barber forever.

I don’t care how frugal he is, that figure is appalling. It means the Reds and every other team each pays over 500K simply for the privilege of compensating Selig. What’s even worse is that it is virtually all salary. Nothing’s tied to revenues, attendance, ratings, etc., which is normally the case with exec comp. Also, 18M dwarfs what the other commissioners receive.

For a few hundred thousand you could find hundreds of qualified individuals to push the buttons Selig has. The job prestige would more than make up for the “pay cut.”

I understand not wanting to burn an option on Jukich or LeCure, but Ramon Ramirez and Matt Maloney are at least being considered for the roster next year aren’t they? They could have been pulled when Harang went down and given at least a spot start.

Wells has the highest ERA of any MLB starter tonight and there’s absolutely no reason to waste a start on him. This organization has an infuriating love affair with wasting time and money on dead-end veterans.

I posed this in the form of a trivia question a few seasons back. Mathewson was selected by the Reds in the Rule 5 draft in 1900, and promptly traded back to the Giants for eventual Hall of Famer Amos Rusie. Rusie pitched 3 games for the Reds (2 starts) in 1901, posting an 8.59ERA. As Mathewson’s Hall of Fame career was winding down, he was traded to the Reds in 1916 along with 2 other eventual HOFers, Bill McKechnie and Edd Roush. Mathewson pitched 1 game for the Reds (9IP, 15H, 8ER, W).

So, despite pitching in only one game for them, Mathewson was involved in transactions that brought 4 future Hall of Famers to Cincinnati. Unfortunately, the only one who was worth a shit for the Reds was Roush.