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On this day in 1960, the Reds signed Hall of Famer Tony Perez. I would guess that most everyone would pick Perez as the first basemen on Cincinnati's all-time team (though I suppose you would pick Pete Rose if you consider the Hit King a first baseman). What does Joey Votto need to do to pass Perez in your eyes? Perez had 7,600 plate appearances as a Red, and Votto has about half that amount. Through the age of 29, Votto has been a superior player, in my estimation. Perez had just two seasons in his entire career where he hit anything like what Votto has done over the past five seasons, and the Big Dog never reached the heights that Votto reached as a hitter in 2010 and 2012.
Personally, I think another two seasons from Votto that are similar to his past five years are enough for him to leapfrog Perez. That's certainly a tall task as one can be a good ballplayer and never have a single season of that quality.
On this day in 1978, former Red Gene Moore died in Jackson, MS at the age of 68.
On this day in 1984, Jose Arredondo was born in San Pedro de Macoris, Puerto Rico.
On this day in 2003, Cincinnati released right fielder Jose Guillen. At the time, Guillen was nearly 27 years old and had posted an 80 OPS+ in his first 2,200 major league plate appearances. The Reds re-signed him the very next day, and he went on to have the hottest four months of his career before the team traded him to Oakland at the deadline. In 91 games with the Reds in 2003, Guillen hit .337/.385/.629, which was good for an OPS+ of 165.
On this day in 2008, the Reds claimed righty Jose Capellan off of waivers from the Giants.
DerekH91 picked up the point yesterday.
This came as a surprise to me: Tony Perez only once led the league in any category. While with Boston in 1980, Perez led the AL in this stat. What was it? His teammate Rick Burleson tied for second in this category with 24 of these. One of Perez' Hall of Fame teammates led the league in this category in four consecutive seasons.