I still haven’t seen an article about St. Casey’s assault on the GIDP record. He is STILL on a pace to do it.
18 GIDP that’s a pace for 39. The old Record is 36.
Also despite his .322 batting average he is ninth in the NL at 1B with a .789 OPS.
Despite batting 3rd for some odd reason he is 10th among NL 1B with only 35 RBI
There are 20 more 1B in the NL with more Home Runs. He has 3. One more than Ben Broussard had during one game.
Don’t you think maybe a guy making $6 Million a year, and occupying 1B the easiest position to replace, and the #3 spot in the order would garner some negative ink? Nah. Let’s pile on our 25-year old future star that produces at a .956 clip. Yeah that’s the ticket.
Maybe it’s only because I live outside of Ohio now that I’m noticing it but it seems like this is the first year that the non-cincy press has been willing to take a swipe at Casey’s usefulness as a ballplayer (let us NEVER question his worth as a GREAT GUY!). During the recent series here in Atlanta, Chip Caray was describing him as an essentially untradeable 1B given his complete lack of power and speed and his big-ass contract. It certainly wouldn’t be the first time Cincinnati was late to the Ball.
there was a primer post about a month back that linked to a hamilton paper’s article re: casey’s numerous GIDPs. the link to the article itself appears to be dead, but here’s the primer post.
http://www.baseballthinkfactory.org/files/newsstand/newsblog_discussion/journal_news_frustrated_casey_tired_of_hitting_into_double_plays/
one has to love repoz’ analogy btwn the mayor’s hitting proclivities & acts unsafe for family audiences. how apt.
it will be interesting (& saddening) to see what kind of pub casey’s DP’s (& milton’s HR’s – he’s more than halfway there) will get relative to dunn’s K’s last yr.
Reds 2nd Round Draft Pick Travis Wood makes his professional debut:
Player IP H R ER BB SO HR ERA
Wood 2.0 1 0 0 0 4 0 0.00
So far, so good.
Despite his lack of HR’s, Casey is still a top tier player. I don’t understand where all this trade Casey stuff is coming from. A .300 plus hitter is still a valuable comodity no matter how many HR’s he hits.
It appears that many believe that moving Dunn to 1B opens up a spot for Kearns in the OF. Where is Kearns now?
I agree that Kearns has great potential, but I’ve got to see some results before I trade a guy like Casey. I’d be more inclined to trade Kearns for pitching.
Glenn, I would respectfully disagree with your assessment of Casey. He is the perfect example of why you shouldn’t judge a batter on BA alone. As noted, he hits into a lot of double plays, 18 so far this year. If you were to subtract 18 hits off his total, then his production on BA alone drops significantly.
If Casey were a middle infielder putting up those numbers, then that’s great, but he’s a 1B and he’s making significant dollars. You have to get more run production from your 1B when you consider the alternatives around the league for the same price or even less than Casey.
I wish he were a 2B, more importantly, I wish he would hit 20 HRs a year, but at this slugging rate, I don’t see how the Reds can justify paying him that much money at his position.
I understand “what have you done lately”, but people seem to forget that Casey hit 24 bombs last year and had an OPS of .915. Hmmm, how quickly we forget……
Casey is a decent player, but I think his contract could be as costly as Barry Larkin’s a few years ago, unless they find a taker.
Mike, I’m not opposed to the Dunn to 1b move. I think he can handle the position and playing there would probably add some years on his career due to lack of wear and tear.
My problem is that a trade of Casey, shouldn’t be looked at as a Casey for Dunn sort of swap. It should be looked at as removing Casey’s bat and substituting it for Kearns. Kearns has all the potential in the world but he hasn’t realized it yet. In my opinion, he hasn’t been the same since the collision at home plate with the pitcher of whom we no longer speak his name. I will refer to him as fat bastard.
Kearns appears to be tearing up AAA pitching and that’s a good thing, but AAA is not MLB.
I agree Glen, I don’t think Casey is at all the problem on this team. Despite his lack of power he does get on base more than almost anyone on the team. I think if the Reds are to improve then they’ll need to move Casey, because I don’t believe his salary at 1st is justified. For now, I don’t think it matters, but in the future they’ll have to make a move or he should have to take less money.
Unfortunately Mike, with Cincy it always comes down to the budget. Good Reds players move on to better teams that can afford to pay them salaries that correspond to their talent. That’s the major problem I think MLB has never really faced. Big market teams will eventually swallow up the rest of the league. The luxury tax helps a little, but its a banaid on a sucking chest wound.
The Reds, Royals, Brewers, etc will be fighting this forever. They really can’t afford to have a superstar on their clubs. (I’m not saying Casey’s a superstar) If they do they can’t afford the rest of the team. I was in favor of signing Griffey just like most everyone else, but in retrospect its hurt this team finacially in almost every area that counts. Until baseball institutes a salary cap, and I don’t see that every happening, teams like the Reds will be forced to trade guys like Casey, Randa…. I know that’s a long response. I’ll step down off my soapbox now.