John Fay had some interesting Reds notes in today’s Cincinnati Enquirer. The following are three of the items I found most interesting.
RICHIE AT SHORT: Rich Aurilia’s start at shortstop Sunday might not be a one-time thing.
“You might see him there again,” Narron said. “The way (Scott) Hatteberg and Eddie (Encarnacion) have been playing, it’s not been easy to get (Aurilia) starts at first and third.”
Aurilia has made three starts at short this year. Royce Clayton started there Tuesday night.
Clayton has struggled since coming to the Reds. He went into Tuesday hitting .238 since the July 13 trade, and he had made four errors in 25 games.
Well, with Clayton stinking the joint up in the field and at the plate (Does that surprise anyone?), it was a long time coming, don’t you think Jerry? Oh, by the way, Phillips can play SS too, and probably covers a lot more ground than Aurilia. I’m guessing they’ll come to this startling revelation sometime late in September.
HOMER UPDATE: As well as Homer Bailey has pitched, there’s a possibility his season will be coming to an end shortly.
He has thrown 123 innings this year. That’s near the limit the Reds want for a 20-year-old.
“We’re cognizant of it,” general manager Wayne Krivsky said. “You’ve got to be careful about it. What you always want is 30 innings more than the year before.”
Bailey threw 103 2/3 innings at Single-A Dayton last year.
That’s interesting news. This means that if they limit him to the 130 or so innings that they targeted for him at the beginning of the season, he will make only one, or possibly two more starts for Chattanooga. Bailey would have had four more starts for Chattanooga if he had remained in the rotation for the rest of their season, which would put him at about 150 IP. I suppose that this would also mean that he will not be making his major league debut this September when rosters are expanded. This surprises me, I thought for sure we’d get a glimpse of him in September.
SEPTEMBER CALL-UPS: Krivsky hasn’t decided how many players will be called up when rosters expand Sept. 1.
“When you’re in the race, you bring up more,” he said. “You never know when a pinch runner could help you win a game. I can tell you cost won’t be a factor.”
The Reds will get an influx of arms around Sept. 1 as players come off the disabled list. Right-handers Gary Majewski, Jason Standridge and Matt Belisle all should be ready by then.
Outfielder Chris Denorfia is pretty much assured of a call-up.
Other players on the 40-man roster who would be candidates: infielders Ray Olmedo and Joey Votto, outfielder Brandon Watson, left-handers Michael Gosling and Phil Dumatrait and right-handers Ramirez and Mike Burns.
Note there is no mention of Bailey, and they’d have to make a 40 man roster move to add him. Also, I noted that Grant Balfour started his second rehab stint (The first one was two one-inning appearances for Dayton.) for the GCL Reds yesterday. If he is healthy enough, he could be a candidate also, but he too would require a 40 man roster move. I would also think that IF Brendan Harris would be considered also.
Seems like Krivsky has a game plan for Homer that is not going to be diverged from for possible (but unlikely) short term benefits. Sort of like Lewis sitting Palmer out his entire first year and resisting the temptation to diverge from that plan even when the team was fighting for a playoff berth or Kitna was struggling.
“You might see him there again,” Narron on Richie at short. Might? What are you waiting for!? I’m literally pulling my hair out here…..
Aurilla was a front line SS for quite a few years. He’s doesn’t have great range but he makes all the plays he gets to. His bat is far superior to Clayton’s. Let’s get him in the lineup EVERY DAY.
narron always says might when he’s going to do something, for some reason he never just comes right out and says here’s what i’m gonna do, so a might is as good as him saying “yes aurilia is going to play a lot of shortstop now”….at least i hope
sunday when I saw that lineup vs the phils and it had that 1-8 with NO holes at all, that’s what we need to see more of, if aurilia does become the everyday shortstop or the most-of-the-time shortstop i think we’ll look back at that “sunday vs philly”