CBS Sportsline’s Gregg Doyel gives some love to his hometown Reds, but couldn’t resist including this gem in his column …
I watched Leake in the Reds’ clubhouse for 20 seconds before the game Wednesday, and in those 20 seconds he slapped the naked ass of Reds executive and Hall of Famer Joe Morgan and playfully goosed a (dressed) teammate with a bat handle.
Wha?
OMGReds was at the game on Tuesday night. Here’s a little bit of Chapman’s first bullpen entrance for the Reds, and his total domination of the first hitter he faced, Jonathan Lucroy.
We apologize for the shaky camera work, but we were trying to keep our heads from exploding with excitement. O. M. G.
Aroldis get his fade correct at the EAC Barber Shop in Coral Spring, Florida.
102.7 mph. Unreal. I would love to stand in the box to see one of those whizzing past me. You? Not that I could get the stick on it, I just want to feel it go by. Maybe Kings Island can open a new ride next year – “Aroldinsanity”. Or, the “Cuban Bake-Off”, or the “GABP Missile Launcher” or “You’ll Have 100mph and Like It!” or “Gapper’s Last Dance”. What? Sorry…
From the fine fella at Better off Red:
From our friend Trent McCotter, SABR Records Committee Vice Chairman
Using the data from pitchf/x (which is accurate to a fraction of a mph), here are the fastest pitches in MLB since the beginning of 2008:
102.7 mph: Aroldis Chapman, CIN v. MIL, 8/31/2010, facing Craig Counsell
102.7 mph: Joel Zumaya, DET v. CHN, 6/23/2010, facing Milton Bradley
102.7 mph: Joel Zumaya, DET v. OAK, 6/30/2009, facing Matt Holliday
102.6 mph: Joel Zumaya, DET v. CHN, 6/24/2009, facing Mike Fontenot
102.6 mph: Joel Zumaya, DET v. OAK, 6/30/2009, facing Matt Holliday
102.6 mph: Jonathan Broxton, LAD v. SD, 7/3/2009, facing Kevin Kouzmanoff
102.5 mph: Bobby Parnell, NYM v. HOU, 8/18/2010, facing Chris Johnson
102.5 mph: Aroldis Chapman, CIN v. MIL, 8/31/2010, facing Jonathan Lucroy
What a half-hour that was from 10 to 10:30 p.m.! I can’t remember the last time I enjoyed a half-hour of TV more. You had Chapman’s outstanding debut – an 8-pitch spectacle during which the 22-year-old phenom hit triple digits on the radar gun four times, topping out at 103 mph.
Then the top of the 9th included back-to-back filthy defensive plays by Joey Votto falling backwards on his throw for the 2nd out of the inning and by Scott Rolen backhanding the throw for the force out at second for the final out. (Tuesday’s Web Gem czar, former Red Aaron Boone, voted Votto’s play No. 1 and Rolen’s No. 2 on Baseball Tonight.)
We also found out during that half-hour that the Cardinals were shut out AGAIN by Houston – 3-0, just like last night. And I’m pretty sure we only saw three Honda Mr. Opportunity ads during the half-hour (the average half-hour on FSN Ohio during a Reds game features 6-10 Honda Mr. Opportunity ads, or at least it feels like it does).
• Triple Crown race update: Joey – aka Ducky V. – had 3 huge RBIs to increase his total to 97 and cruise past Pujols, who’s stuck on 95. (I like when the Cardinals get shut out because we don’t have to check the box score and see if Pujols homered or drove in any runs.) Votto’s batting average also improved to .327 with his two hits, and Carlos Gonzalez went 1-for-3 with a walk, so he’s holding at .326. Ducky V. still trails by 3 in home runs, but hopefully he’ll homer 3 times off Chris Carpenter on Sunday to make that race more interesting. (Oh, and Votto is also 4-for-5 with a home run against the Brewers’ scheduled starter for Wednesday, Chris Narveson.)
• NL MVP race update: Advantage Votto.
• Overshadowed by Chapmania: Our main man Sam LeCure picks up the win with two very impressive innings of relief.
• Also overshadowed by Chapmania: Chris Valaika’s golden sombrero. I think it also helped that Valaika singled in the first and scored on a Votto double. Made it not as noticeable. This begs a question I need help with actually: Isn’t it a golden sombrero if a player strikes out four times in one game, regardless of how many at-bats? In other words, 1-for-5 with four strikeouts is still a golden sombrero, right? I read in a couple of different places that a golden sombrero is 0-for-4 with 4 strikeouts … that’s not right, is it?
• Does anyone else love names like Gallardo that – if pronounced deliberately the way both Jim Kelch and Thom do – have a first syllable that could be a first name? They very rarely say his full name during the inning, so it sounds like they’re talking about someone named Guy Ardo. Same deal with Wayne Wright. And my favorite actually is Vic Torino. No? Thanks for humoring me anyway.
• Is anyone else in total disbelief/amazement that since the Reds got swept by the Cardinals they’ve gone 13-4, and the Cardinals have gone 5-12? Geez. With the exception of that series sweep, the Cards have really stunk on the road. If we take two of three in St. Louis like we might, we could be scoreboard-watching Carlos Gonzalez for the rest of the season more than the lowly Cardinals. Aaaaand … I just jinxed us … great. Way to go, dumas.
• Last time the Reds had a 7-game lead: 1995. A season which 700 WLW’s Scott Sloan would tell you was part of a 20-year stretch during which the Reds have been REALLY bad.
A good excuse to post a photo of Ducky Medwick.
Votto and the Rockies’ Carlos Gonzalez are neck and neck in batting average. Entering Monday, Gonzalez had a slight edge: .326 to Votto’s .325. But Gonzalez has been RAKING lately – 10 hits in his last 19 at-bats and he was just named National League Player of the Week. He hit .382 in July and he’s hitting .349 in August. He’s got to come back down to earth, right? He’s a young guy (though he’s actually only two years younger than Votto) but he hit .284 in 278 at-bats last season and .242 in 302 at-bats in 2008. I figure he can’t keep it up and the only other legit threat at the batting title (barring a HUGE September from Martin Prado) is Pujols, who entered Monday hitting .320.
Home runs? This category might be the toughest, as Votto trailed the mighty Pujols by 3 after Monday. (And former Red Adam Dunn of the Nationals is tied with Joey at 32.) Tough to say the same about Pujols that we just said about Gonzalez: that he’s bound to cool off, never done this before, etc. We’ve just got to hope Pujols’ final month of the season is more like his July, where he hit a modest .267 with 6 homers and 15 RBI as opposed to his colossal August, in which he’s hit .402 with 11 homers and 23 driven in. Votto has actually only hit five dingers in August after clubbing 8 in June and 9 in July, so a late-season power surge isn’t out of the question. The only thing that would really bother me is if Dunn ends up winning this category and Votto wins the other two. (I’ve never really liked Dunn since he said this. Though at least he helped beat up on the Cardinals for us last week … I do have to give him credit for that.)
In the RBI category, Pujols has 95 after 0 Monday night and Votto has 94 with another one Monday. It’s do-able, but again he’s got to have a nice month. Third place is the aforementioned Gonzalez with 90.
Pujols recently was quoted as saying he thinks Votto has a good chance to win the Triple Crown. So we’ve got that going for us. It would be even better if Pujols said he was rooting for Votto to win the Triple Crown, but we’ll take what we can get – a nice compliment from Pujols, far better than Aramis Ramirez saying the Reds ‘don’t have that good a ballclub.’ (Thanks for your opinion, there, Aramis Cowherd, but if the Reds are only decent, what does that make the Cubs, who are more than 20 games BELOW .500?)
So why isn’t Votto’s pursuit of the Triple Crown getting more attention? There are a couple of fairly obvious reasons on the surface. It’s been a while since the Reds have been 20 games above .500. It’s been a while since the Reds have had a 6-game lead in their division this late in the season. In other words, if the Reds weren’t in contention, it might be one of the only things we’d be paying attention to at this point, but that’s not the case.
Other reasons: Casual fans might not know how rare an achievement the Triple Crown is. It IS Pujols in front of him in two of the categories, and he’s tough to slow down. Oh, and one other reason is the National League’s manager in the All-Star Game, Charlie Manuel, didn’t even select Votto to be part of his bench for the Midsummer Classic. Remember that? Even though he was hitting .314 with 22 homers and 60 RBIs? (Thank goodness for the fan vote, of course, or people – other than Colin Cowherd, who had never heard of Votto up until a couple of weeks ago – STILL wouldn’t know who he is.) Way to go, Charlie, you failed to take a guy who ended up being an MVP candidate and Triple Crown threat. :)
Jenn Sterger representing the BRM
h/t: MEA.
If ya haven’t heard, you can pick up a copy of Joey Votto’s Sports Illustrated cover at the Reds/Brewers game Monday night (7:10pm). The first 15,000 fans at GABP will receive an 8×10 commemorative print of the cover of the current Sports Illustrated magazine featuring All-Star first baseman Joey Votto.
Get this though, twenty lucky fans will receive a print signed by Joey. Good luck!
Pretty cool. I can’t even find a copy of the dang magazine. Fountain News downtown with the #fail.
Rob tossin' that nasty junker (Photo by Michael Anderson)
Can’t tell you how rad of a time OMGreds had at the Reds Summer Wiffle Classic this year. Not only did it get us out as a team for a little competition, but it also gave us an excuse to rock OMGreds custom jerseys, proper stirrups and 1890 facial hair. Maybe next summer we’ll wear matching shorts. Or, is that too matchy-matchy? We can’t have that.
Dan of OMGreds takes a massive hack (Photo by Michael Anderson)
After a lengthy break in the action after the first round, we put on some sunscreen and won our first game, encountered a rain delay, ran up against a lightning delay, took another break then got our second round assignment. We were prompted reduced to nothing more than amateurs and were ousted from the tournament by a much better team.
While we would have loved to have moved on in the tournament, it’s a good thing our day was done. Another round of lightning strikes were hitting in the area and a delay was emminent. Ultimately, no more games would be played that day, as storms rolled in a shut down the Classic.
Paul doing his best Roy Hobbs (Photo by Michael Anderson)
We’re totally playing again next year. It was a blast. While the Classic had some growing pains this year with so many teams registering, everything was well run and a lot of fun. A lot of details where done well, even the Wiffle balls had the Classic logo on them.
Given that none of us on the OMGreds team had any organized Wiffleball experience, we were able to pick it up easily and play pretty competitively. We’re out to win next year, watch out.
We posted a few photos of our day. Big thanks to the Reds’ Michael Anderson for pointing the lens our way and getting us some great photos.
Friend of OMGreds, Mike Dew, whipped this sucker up to honor Joey’s run for NL MVP. We asked Mike if the font was Canadian. It is not.
Not only is Mike a BA graphic designer and Wiffleball stud, he also runs one fantastic burger blog. Check out 80/20 Burgerquest.