Everyone who’s been suggesting this ad nauseum, despite my repeated insistance that “it’s never going to happen,” should be happy (mostly).
Lancaster is reporting that tonight’s lineup has Adam Dunn at 1b, Ryan Freel in LF, and Junior Griffey in CF. I know most of you would flip-flop the outfielders, but that really isn’t going to happen. This is probably just a result of Narron’s desire to keep Hatteberg away from the lefty Cole Hamels, and not having Aurilia to do it with. The only other option would be Valentin at first.
We’ll see if this is a long-term trend or just a one-time thing.
Hoefully a one time thing, because Dunn is a disaster at first base. Two balls by him in the 7th. that should have been easy outs.
I only want Dunn at first if someone who isn’t playing like Ryan Freel winds up in left field. I would have rather seen Hatteberg start at first and Dunn in left or Dunn at first and Denorfia in left… and yes, I realize Denorfia is in AAA.
Ryan Freel would have done a better job at first base than Dunn did tonight. Dunn’s going to have to put in quite a bit of work to become a first baseman. I don’t think he needs to be working on that during the season.
I don’t remember anyone complaining about Dunn’s defense at 1B last season when he was playing there.
Comment by Bill  5/13/2006 @ 12:42 pm
I don’t comlain about his play at first because with Dunn, it doesn’t matter where you play him — there are going to be lots and lots of errors — no matter what position he plays.
Dunn is an incredible offensive talent, but he’ll never be confused with the true 5-tool guys throughout baseball history.
Sadly, we should all just resign ourselves to the fact that we have the closest thing to Dave Kingman (defensively) since, well, Dave Kingman.
Ryan Freel would have done a better job at first base than Dunn did tonight. Dunn’s going to have to put in quite a bit of work to become a first baseman. I don’t think he needs to be working on that during the season.
Comment by Glenn  5/13/2006 @ 11:24 am
I’m with you on that Glenn. Dunn’s defensive woes are just part of a delicate defensive scenario that Krivsky has to address in some fashion. I’m glad its his problem to deal with.
I have said this many times before — IMO for this club to contend over the long-run, it has to pitch better and catch the ball better.
To address the defensive problems is to somehow see improvement from Dunn, Encarnacion (currently on pace for between 40 – 50 errors) and the inconsistent play of Lopez at SS.
So while playing these three key offensive “cogs” — we somehow need to see some defensive improvement from them as well.
Lopez has matured so much and the hope is that this will continue and manifest itself in improved constency from his play.
Encarnacion reminds me of a young Tony Perez trying to play 3B (when Lee May was still around). Bob Howsam showed the strength to pull the trigger on a tough decision to deal with that problem. Let’s see what Krivsky does here. I believe he is still over in the mode of hoping that Encarnacion starts getting better at 3B (but he is NOT a patient guy and could decide one day that it isn’t going to happen “adequately” and needs to go a different direction).
Dunn remains the biggest problem in the Reds defensive mix. He is just plain bad wherever he plays. His body has gotten bigger, heavier and far less mobile (significantly so) in the past couple of years. He has a strong throwing arm, decent accuracy — but really bad hands and poor instincts towards for game defensively. He takes incredibly bad routes in trying to get to balls.
I think there are many people who don’t see him getter better defenisively. More than it has ever been written, this is one of the Reds’ biggest challenges that must be dealt with moving forward. Maybe they just decide to live with it — maybe not.
It just amazes me with all these facts about defense that a team like the Red Sox won the World Series a couple of years ago. Or how they have any hope this year of making the playoffs with Manny and Wily Mo in the OF.
Comment by GregD  5/13/2006 @ 2:30 pm
Ask any Red Sox fan and they will tell you that the defense of that club has been their downfall and is one glaring problem on that club today.
In the WS year they played Johnny Damon in CF — not Wliy Mo Pena. Damon has some issues defensively, but he could go get the ball.
Someone check the weather report in Hell. It must have frozen over because Bill Hansing just agreed with me on something! I must have walked into a fourth dimension.:lol: