Jones is Strokin' the ball with  9 taters in 127 AB's and has an OBP of .351 and OPS of .879. Rangers have a full outfield and with Josh Hamilton coming back before too long they will need Jones even less. I can't imagine the Rangers wanting too much for him. Let's get another slugger in the line up. He 1 (ok maybe 2) bad/pathetic seasons and has a history of being a super stroker.  This is a bat that could galvanize the lineup big time. 

Two questions:  Who is the best living ballplayer?  Who, now, is the reigning King of Pop?

The best living ballplayer usually comes down to just a couple men but i wonder if there arent a few dark horse candidates to consider(none named Rosales, I might add).  I'd be interested to get nominations from RR Nation. 

The new King of Pop is much more cloudy.  Pop singers used to have long careers and enjoy household name status but it seems that the shelf life of today's entertainers is remarkably short.  Shortly after Elvis died MJ released "Off the Wall" and "Thriller" and redefined the concept of a worldwide entertainer. i think that Prince has an amazing portfolio of songs written and recorded but I dont see him as the the biggest thing going currently.  Who do you think that title should be bestowed upon? 

This team is driving me crazy.

If the talent on this team was sub-par, I'd be resigned to the fact that we were destined for another sub-.500 season. But it's not. This is a team that played like gangbusters earlier in the season, even without their best players. The Cincinnati Reds are a team that, once they get their collective heads of out their collective sphincters, they can take the Wild Card, if not the division. Now is the time. Tonight's loss in Toronto shows that.

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As much as I like what Arroyo's done here, I think he's the guy you have to trade if you want to make a run this season.  Trading prospects for FA's-to-be would be unwise, as this is still a flawed team with most of its core players several years from their respective primes.  It's not worth wasting Jay Bruce's best years because you went all-in on a 2009 team whose best possible outcome is a one-and-done in the playoffs.


But, the division is there for the taking.  You never know how often these kind of chances will come around, so you have to do something, right?

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So a comment made over on Fya's blog yesterday got me to thinking. Here's the quote:

LETS HOPE SO.. seeing Mr Out batting lead off and then Dickerson who looks good on his swings of late, batting ninth.. i turned the game off!! Baker cant win without a All-star caliber lineup.. like heck would i as a manager trying to win, keep letting players that dont get the job done, continue to make outs and bat leadoff!!!!! Ask dusty why he continues to let Patterson/Taveras types continue to bat leadoff and make outs!! the fans are not stupid and see it, WHY doesnt he???

Apart from the ridiculous spelling, grammar, and punctuation silliness (5 exclamation points? Really?), the poster makes an interesting point.

Does Dusty need an all-star caliber lineup to win?  I decided to check out the years his teams won the division or wild card to see if there are similarities amongst the teams.   I'm going to use OPS+ as the main standard for offensive performance.  We'll start from the beginning.

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(Note: A lot has happened since the star of Star Search became a Star Man, but Johnny Carson's favorite drunken Irishman is what I had to start with, so I'll dance with the corpse that brung me. -boobs) Ed McMahon, one of my favorite dudes growing up, passed away, leaving a legacy of placating Johnny Carson, showcasing future stars and lending Chandrathan and nlt-Andrew 39 points. He was 86. Anyone seen any good Star Search YouTube clips?

Despite McMahon's passing, Brian B is still miles ahead of the field with his unique selections of Jack Kemp and Millvina Dean. It's going to take some work to catch up with that. (UPDATED with Farrah Fawcett, Michael Jackson, Karl Malden and Billy Mays deaths.)

1. Brian B: 205 points (Michael Jackson, Jack Kemp, Millvina Dean)
2. boobs' mom: 116 points (Farrah Fawcett, Karl Malden)
3. Cesar Hernandez: 108 points (Michael Jackson, Dom DiMaggio)
4. Petey Hendrix: 103 points (Dom DeLuise, Karl Malden)
5. Brian B's wife: 86 points (Paul Harvey, Karl Malden)
6. RedinWrigleyville: 75 points (Michael Jackson)
7. Chandrathan: 67 points (Ed McMahon, Karl Malden)
8. nlt-Andrew: 39 points (Ed McMahon)
9. Madville: 33 points (Dom DiMaggio)
10. boobs' coworker Steve: 28 points (Karl Malden)
10. Joshuar9476: 28 points (Karl Malden)

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via Red Hot Mama

I'm often asked what equipment I use to photograph baseball games.  It's kind of long and complicated to explain in a comment, especially repeatedly, so I thought I'd devote a post to it.  There's a lot of info out there on how to photograph sports, but most of it directed toward the pro, not the fan.  Consider this a fan's guide to baseball photography.

I'm not going into too much detail about photography terms, full frame vs. crop-frame, how many megapixels, and other photo neepery, because it would take too long, and there's lot of other sites with that kind of information.  (But if you have any particular questions, I'll do my best to answer them.)

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I have, at times, called for for the removal of Red's manager Dusty Baker. Although I'm frustrated by Dusty I've become more frustrated by the tactical mentality of MLB managers/management in general. The general baseball consensus on how teams should be organized, players utilized and monies spent is grindingly unimaginative and relies on the following premise: Create your team by determining the player roles and then sign or develop players to fill those roles. I believe that there is a consensus among most MLB baseball 'people' that management comes to agreement on the roles for their team and then proceeds to fill those roles with the best affordable players available. The expectation is that if those players perform their roles well enough - the team will contend.

This approach results in manager's trying to squeeze players into roles that they often aren't very good at performing, For example CF's are fast and make good lead off hitters, SS's are contact hitters who can 'move the runner over, good #2 slot guys - or you need to have a utility guy on your bench as the 'last resort' player and that guy is always the same guy - e,g, Paul Jannish or your best RH bat on the bench is your extra OF and he'll PH eve if he's not a good pinch hitter, no matter if there's a better option - e.g. Jonny Gomes and Micah Owings.

The converse approach would be to look at the specifics of each player's abilities and build the team around player's strengths. This approach makes sense for smaller market/lower payroll teams. It especially makes sense with a team like the reds who have a fair amount of exciting prospects and have guys who are able to to be flexible in their roles.

The Reds appear not to recognize that there is more than one way to skin a cat, Even Chris Welsh has defended Dusty's use of Wily Taveris as recently as this week, stating: (my paraphrase) "You have to stick with Taveris and let him work through this slump. He is the team's Center Fielder and you go with him, that's why he was brought over here to play center field and be your lead off hitter". Then yesterday (after I'd been thinking Doc Rogers was starting to see the light) I heard Doc say (my paraphrase)"The loss of Alex Gonzales is a tremendous one as he is one of the finest shortstops in the majors. Because he's been injured I forgot how incredible of a defensive shortstop he is and he's a good contact hitter and is exactly what the Red's need to bat 2nd in the order".

Why not abandon this archaic approach and change it around a bit? Sparky Anderson was only 36 years old he took the helm of the Reds and by the time the BRM was winning back to back WS he had instituted some pretty innovative tactics. He gained the nickname 'Captain Hook' because he didn't wait around until the 7th or 8th inning to replace a pitcher who was struggling on a given day. The 'role' of a starting pitcher wa to go out and pitch until the 7 or 8th even if they were getting hit pretty badly or more importantly they were expected pitch to players who were poor match ups...the manager would leave a pitcher in to face a hitter who 'owned him' or was on a hot streak (etc) and then after the batter beat the pitcher the manager would remove the pitcher. Not Sparky he didn't wait around he was afraid to use his bull pen extensively and successfully. He also moved players around position to position, Tony Perez from 3rd to 1st to keep his bat in the line up, Rose from LF to 3b to get Foster into the line up. He had a fairly set batting order but would not hesitate to adjust it to the pitcher of the day. By the time 1976 rolled around Sparky was only 42 and had 6 years of MLB management experience and had won back to back WS. Certainly the Red were a very talented team but it was how Sparky utilized the talent that made it work, esp, the again the bullpen. So maybe we need some younger managers in this game.

The average age of a MLB manager is 54.2 years old. From my viewpoint that's actually not very old. From a corporate or business point of view age 55 is prime time. From an academic, artistic or professional(Dr. Lawyer, Architect, Indian Chief) 50's to 60's are about the prime ages when folks are just hitting their stride. This doesn't seem to be the case in baseball. by the time the average manager is 55 hie is so myopic and unimaginative that the only thing that saves his team from a losing malaise is the amount of sheer talent on it. I think that the Reds need a young and fresh manager,By fresh I mean one who understands the accepted approach to managing but also has the creativity and courage to get of of the box and play to the player's strengths and not be so rigidly consumed with roles. who knows in this scenario Paul Jannish might even get a chance to play.

As I eluded to in a game thread last week, me and my family will be responsible for throwing out the first pitch for the Wednesday July 1st Reds game. My brother in law won a drawing and was going to have his son throw out the first pitch, but as luck would have it, his ex-wife is taking their children to Florida and leaving that day (to be fair the flights were purchased before the winning.) So Jereme offered them up to me to have Trey throw out the pitch to me. Unfortunately I fear that Trey's throw would be more errant than Malory's so Jereme will visit the mound with my wife and son to toss it to me.

Our seats are somewhere in the middle of the lower first base section, so that is where we will be.. If anyone would like to come on out to that game and hang out, let me know so I can be looking for you. If someone wants to photograph or video it, I would be most greatful. July is going to be an awesome month! First pitch, 9 days of vacation, hot pass at the Kentucky Truck Race. I'm pretty excited!

The Burger Train is once again getting ready to depart the terminal.  This week the stop will be Cincinnati's venerable burger legend Zip's.  There are many folks who swear that Zip's has the best burger in town and I sure didnt know that the restaurant partnered with Bleh-Avril and Sons.  It's been a while since I've been there and I'm interested to determine where this local legend ranks vs some of the other places we've already been.  Im pretty sure that jch will volunteer to take down The Train Wreck(seeing as how he's our resident food mauler)

ZIP'S website

Date:  Wed 6/24

Time: 7pm

Address: Mt Lookout Square

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