Bpm793

Dear God, they FINALLY did it. The Reds made, dare I say it...a smart move. While I question the removal of Hatteberg (guy bats around .290 for his career, great glove and is left-handed. If anything else, he'd be good trade material late in the season. Heck, Jeff Conine got a good deal last year, and he bats .260), we did what mattered, which is get Bruce the heck up to the majors. And how does he respond? Six straight appearences on base. Only one player has ever gotten more to start off their career. Ever. No, he won't keep this up all season, but he can be at least as productive as Patterson is. 0-8 in a game where your team gets more than 20 hits?!? That's a DOUBLE golden sombraro, ladies and gentlemen. The average monkey can do better than that. Certainly the #1 prospect in America can. Even if he does go 0-8, at least he'd be learning against valid competition. The way he was playing in the minors, you'd think he was Jesus reincarnated into a inhuman-slugging-percentage-batting form. There is a reason we were willing to let go of Hamilton. The loss of a superstar centerfielder is okay when you have another coming down the pipeline. And now he's finally proving it. He won't make the all-star game, or challenge the Triple Crown. At least not this year. But a year or two from now...well, lets just say I don't think Josh Hamilton will be remembered much.

This idea is a little risky for some, and practically blasphemy for others. Batting Edwin Encarnacion, the essence of inconsistancy, third instead of Griffey, he of the 597 home runs. But if you look past first impressions, there are some interesting stats that support it. Check out these stats from Edwin's first two full years in the majors, 2006 and 2007 (2006 first/2007 second)

1. Normal average: .276/.289
2. Bases empty: .230/.258
3. With Runners on: .325/.325
4. RISP: .306/.360
5. Base Loaded: .467/.471

Thats a MAJOR difference when Edwin's in an RBI situation, its consistantly been that way over two seasons, and his stats improved the next year. Hitting well with RISP should be the #1 thing for a 3-hole hitter, and Edwin does it better than most. It also allows you to get the most out of a player. If these stats stay true, giving Edwin more RBI situations and less bases-empty ones would raise his average, maximizing his value for our team. Now look at Griffey's same stats over the past 3 seasons.

1. Normal average: .277/.252/.301
2. Bases empty: .276/.266/.302
3. With Runners on: .278/.235/.300
4. RISP: .244/.216/.263
5. Bases Loaded: .300/.333/.375

His average actually has gone DOWN at least 30 points with RISP every season, and only with the bases loaded does his average consistantly jump. Again, if these stats hold true, giving Griffey less RBI situations shouldn't hurt his average at all, and POSSIBLY help it. Baseball is all about getting the most out of what you have, and all the stats say that moving Edwin to the 3-hole and dropping Griffey down a bit would make a big improvement to the Reds.

I'm not going to say that Mayo didn't do anything wrong here, but the line between right and wrong is really blurring in sports. Mayo wants to make it big. Money, fame, the works. He knows people who have made it big, and I'm sure some (or most) of them did some shady things like this. Mayo was probably pressured into this deal. Think he just walked up to this guy, saying "Hi, I'm a budding basketball superstar! Wanna sell merchandise of me?" People who run these behind-the-scenes deals seek out these players, get to know them enough to influence decisions, then rake in the cash. If EVERYONE is doing it, why shouldn't Mayo? The problem here isn't Mayo, its the people who got him to do this. It's not like this is an isolated case, either. Many, MANY players do this and never get caught, and its because of the culture of sports today. Kids are being contacted by people in AAU by people who tell them that they can help them "make it big." Every junior high kid THINKS they can make it big, but when someone tells them that they could make that dream a reality...THATS the problem here. And until the real issue is addressed, You'll see more and more Mayos every year...

-I figured we'd take some wideouts in the draft, but 3? Looks like a changing of the guard could be in place now. Come June 1st, I would not be surprised to see Chad Johnson in a new uniform, and Housh may not want to complain TOO much about his contract....

-Did we SERIOUSLY draft 3 players with character issues, including both of our DTs? Heck, the one kid got kicked off his team! So much for the new look Bengals...Mike Brown, you cannot do this alone. You never could, and you still can't.  When will you FINALLY hire a GM?!?

-Gotta love taking (now former) Bearcat Angelo Craig late in the draft. Kid deserved to be drafted by someone, has some upside, and can definately contribute on special teams at a minimum (on a side note, how about Nakamura going to the Ravens? No better place for the kid to hone his skills then behind Ed Reed, and he'll get to travel to Cincy every year. I LOVE the kid, and I'm glad he's gonna get his chance.)

-Stories are now popping up that Jerome Simpson was also being targeted by the Steelers in the 2nd round, forcing the Bengals to draft him earlier than expected. For a player that wasn't ranked top 10 in his position by most, he sure caused a lot of hype in the draft. At least most of his flaws are teachable (like route-running); you can't teach the biggest hands in the draft.