Last night's three-in-one rookie pasting raised new questions
Sandwiched between rough outings by Travis Wood and Sam LeCure, Mike Leake entered in the 5th inning and retired only one of eight batters faced. Both Fay and Mark Sheldon speculate that Leake could be shut down - or at least rested for a while. Dusty sez: "We're addressing that now. He's getting hurt mostly on his slider and sinker. His sinker is not sinking as good. And his slider isn't rolling. It's not as sharp."
In other embattled pitcher news, Volquez's next start is in jeopardy
Meltdowns on the final leg of a West Coast swing should not be taken out of context, considering the team looked uniformly flat last night (Paul Janish made what I can only speculate was his first lifetime error). But the contingency plan tree is getting complicated fast: "We have to decide if it's better served for him to continue to start and hope he gets it or have somebody else start and possibly put him in the bullpen or something," Reds manager Dusty Baker said. "We'll decide that after we revamp who's pitching. Bryan is going to come up with two or three different scenarios that we'll go over and we'll try to come up with the best one for us and for them."
Volquez could probably hazard at least one more start. He's shown flashes of his former self in several outings since returning from Tommy John. Given the sudden pitching crisis, it may be worth it to see if The Wagon can circle itself and pull things together - especially since Leake is no longer an option to slot back into his former role. But the appetite for trial and error is small in a pennant race. If trends continue, I'd be very surprised not to see Harang make a few starts in September.
Redleg Nation refused to write a recap of last night's demoralization
Ghandi-esque non-violent resistance, creating negative space in the tradition of John Cage - though as Cage himself said, "try as we may to make silence, we cannot." Brave.
For the Reds fan who spent yesterday in a sensory deprivation chamber
The Say Eh Kid made the cover of SI and looks pretty menacing. After I noticed their [sic] use of the word "sick," I had to look up a couple inches to the masthead and make sure it wasn't Sports Illustrated, Jr. The article depicts Votto as the levelheaded, workmanlike gentleman we've all come to swoon over. And it's possible he might even like it in Cincinnati:
Votto's earnestness and clean living play well in measured and reserved southern Ohio. Men relate to him. (Hell, even his bristly crewcut conforms with the local hairstyle of choice.) Women walk around with FUTURE MRS. VOTTO T-shirts. And Votto is happy playing in a small city/big town, where hassles are few and he can stroll to the ballpark from his apartment and walk his dog along the Ohio River. "You can get your city fix on the road," he says.
Jamie Ramsey at Better Off Red promises details about a poster-sized version of the cover.
Speaking of which, Castellini thinks the deal will get done
for Dusty Baker's extension. What?
Remember Francisco Cordero?
If you haven't been thinking about him lately, that's a good thing. CoCo has settled down a bit lately after pitching coach Bryan Price diagnosed his mechanical problem: "Bryan and (bullpen coach) Porky Lopez have really worked on it with Coco." This is heartening news for those hoping Price can put things right with the struggling young dudes. More importantly, why hasn't anyone brought to my attention the existence of Porky Lopez?
SI has a little bit more on the Edmonds injury
This probably should have been on the cover, as it concerns a borderline Hall o' Famer and not some rookie (probably) upstart. Jocketty expects a return in two or three weeks, but that sounds like the minimum. Oblique injuries can linger, so it's not out of the question that Edmonds' brief, yet pretty short, career in a Reds uniform could be at an end.