Ryan Ludwick a Good Signing for the Reds

The difference between the Padres having Ryan Ludwick and the Reds having Ryan Ludwick is that the Padres were relying on him to be one of their main run producers and the Reds aren’t.

Following the trade of Adrian Gonzalez, the Padres offense was predictably horrific. Acquisitions made to counteract Gonzalez’s departure---Jason Bartlett, Orlando Hudson and the retention of Ludwick---were supposed to help them at least stay reasonably competitive. Built on strong pitching, the logic sort of made sense.

Of course it didn’t work in practice.

Ludwick had been a pretty good journeyman bat before he had his career year in 2008 batting mostly between Albert Pujols and Troy Glaus. Before and after that, he’d either been an extra bat who had some pop or was surrounded by unintimidating mediocrity in the batting order.

As a Padre in 2011, Ludwick batted .218 at home with 5 homers and a .302 on base percentage. Overall, he wasn’t much better on the road so the cavernous PetCo Park can’t be blamed for his lack of power. When he was sent to the Pirates at the trading deadline, he went from the team that finished 15th in the National League in runs scored to the team that finished 14th.

He didn’t help the Pirates either.

Is that Ludwick’s fault?

No.

He is what he is and what he is will help the Reds.

Ludwick will function much better as an “oh yeah, him” batter in the bottom of the order who’ll hit 20 homers in a power-friendly park and have the opposing pitchers saying, “oh yeah, him” rather than rolling their eyes that he’s batting 4th and a team actually expected to compete with that the case.

Bear in mind that this is Dusty Baker we’re talking about as Reds manager so there’s every possibility that he’ll find a way to write Corey Patterson’s name in the lineup despite the fact that Patterson is not on his team. But with Joey Votto, Jay Bruce, Scott Rolen, Brandon Phillips and Drew Stubbs, there won’t be any overwhelming expectations for Ludwick to repeat that 37 homer, .966 OPS performance he posted in 2008. It was a great season that won’t happen again.

But the Reds needed a veteran outfielder and they got one cheaply ($2.5 million) and on a short-term basis (1-year) in Ludwick.

They’re going for it in 2012 and this is a good move.

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Halladay's Durability And The Blue Jays Mediocrity

• Blue Jays 4-Red Sox 1; a horse like Roy Halladay deserves a better cart:

When a pitcher is so durable; so consistent; and so intent on pitching deeply and successfully into games, it's frustrating that there isn't a better supporting cast to ensure a

better result in the standings. Year-after-year, Roy Halladay goes out to the mound for every start with it in his mind that he's going to pitch a complete game; in this era, there are many pitchers who don't have a similar mindset, yet are considered superstars. In pitching his eighth complete game in a 4-1 win over the Red Sox last night, Halladay extended his league lead in the almost defunct category to five. With a record of 14-9, he could have 17-18 wins if he had a bit better support; and the lack of support is the issue for a team with such an advantage every fifth day.
The way the game is played today, even superstar pitchers usually require at least two relievers to get a win on most nights. Those pitchers----the Johan Santanas and Josh Becketts----will give their seven or so quality innings and hand a lead to the bullpen, which may or may not close the deal. Halladay tries to take matters out of the hands of the bullpen and get the job done himself; and he's not throwing an inordinate amount of pitches in his complete games to do it either; his high number this year is 130, but he's usually in the reasonable 110-115 range, and for a complete game pitcher, that's excellent. Halladay doesn't

just stay in games by throwing strikes, he keeps the ball down and uses a heavy sinker to prevent home runs; he works fast to keep the fielders on their toes and, perhaps most importantly, he gives the bullpen a night off. He wants to be a horse at the top of the rotation and this is why it's so aggravating that the Blue Jays have never been able to mount a legitimate playoff run while Halladay's in his prime and performing like this.
It is such a useful asset for a team to have a guy like Halladay; to have a guy who doesn't have to be asked to give the bullpen a night off because in every start, he doesn't want to have to trust his games to someone else. The Blue Jays have been the essence of mediocrity, not just this year, but throughout Halladay's entire career. To have a horse at the top of the rotation and to put such a dysfunctional, bizarrely constructed supporting cast behind him is bordering on incompetent. If Halladay starts 32 games in a season, that's at least 25 games that the manager isn't going to have to abuse his already beleaguered bullpen; 25 games that he's going to begin the night having it in his mind that he's going to get a high-quality performance; and if the pitcher doesn't have his great stuff, he'll gut his way through.
The Blue Jays should have been able to put a good enough cast behind their ace that they wouldn't end each and every season with a maximum of 87 wins and ranging anywhere under that, but they haven't. They've had injuries to their other young pitchers in Shaun Marcum and Dustin McGowan; their lineup has been compromised due to the egregious and emotional personnel mistakes made by GM J.P. Ricciardi; and they've done it with what amounts to a golf or bowling-style handicap handed to them at the beginning of every season. That handicap is Halladay and what he provides is something that every other team would love to have and most would presumably be able to use to greater advantage than the Blue Jays have, who haven't done much of anything with it at all.

• Yankees 3-Royals 2:

I don't find Yankees broadcaster Michael Kay to be particularly insightful as an analyst; nor do I think

much of his baseball knowledge, but he had a point in questioning Joe Girardi's strategy of refusing to bunt with the leadoff batter on base in the bottom of the ninth inning. Ivan Rodriguez led off with a hit by pitch and rookie Brett Gardner tried to bunt and failed; the bunt was taken off with less than two strikes (*keep this in mind) and Gardner walked. Johnny Damon then batted and was swinging from the first pitch onward and eventually struck out. Derek Jeter then followed by grounding into a double play.
Girardi's argument against the bunt with Damon was that he'd tried the strategy on Friday and it had failed, and Damon says he's not a good bunter. The guy's a leadoff hitter with occasional power and a history of making contact, but he can't bunt? What happened to Girardi's attention to fundamentals, which was one of the reasons he stayed in the majors as long as he did as a mediocre player and why he was hired to manage the transitioning Yankees? Unless Alex Rodriguez is at the plate, the batter has to bunt in that situation, case closed. It didn't cost the Yankees the game, but this failure

to execute forced them to play four more innings, and use Mariano Rivera for two innings making him unlikely to be available for today's game.
This reminded me of one of Girardi's rookie managerial mistakes in 2006 (which apparently wasn't a rookie mistake now that he continues managing this way), and I've gone on about it before in which Girardi had Hanley Ramirez bunting with two strikes against an imploding Billy Wagner and the Mets and essentially cost his team the game----Blog 8/2/2006. Ramirez was

only a rookie at the time, but a blind, mentally-challenged monkey (or even Paul DePodesta) could see that the guy was going to be a megastar who hits for power; why would you have him bunting in the first place and then compound it by making him bunt with two strikes? Now this is the second time in a week that Girardi's strategies have been called into reasonable question; it was in Minnesota that Girardi decided to rest the same Damon even though the lineup was short and Damon was leading the league in hitting; he then got snippy when questioned about the decision, which is a bad sign.
There's no question that Girardi is a smart guy; that he's going to be a solid manager; that the team is going to eventually have success under him; but what I don't think people anticipated when Girardi was selected over Don Mattingly to replace Joe Torre were the bizarre decisions he makes that seemingly make little sense. It may be that Girardi's one year in Florida didn't provide enough of a learning curve for him to be completely ready for this job and that while the Yankees started the season trying to gain experience and succeed with a bunch of young pitchers who were destined to have growing pains, they may not have realized that they were going to be doing the same thing with their manager as well.

• Cardinals 9-Reds 3:

I've defended Reds manager Dusty Baker against charges of abusing his pitchers, but

there's no way to defend how Aaron Harang has collapsed since that relief stint against the Padres on May 25th throwing 63 pitches; three days after his start against the same Padres in which he threw 103 pitches; and that he threw 73 pitches four days later. Harang went on the disabled list with a forearm strain in early July and has gotten pounded in his two starts since returning. Harang was an innings-eating horse (like Roy Halladay) and if there's something wrong with him, he needs to tell the team and they have to shut him down and take care of it.

Squandered Opportunities For The Mets

• Reds 7-Mets 2:
  

If a team squanders as many opportunities to take a lead and bust the game open as the Mets did last night, it's only a matter of time before they lose. Carlos Beltran was playing like his head was anywhere but at Great American Ballpark as he misjudged a catchable Ken Griffey Jr line drive that turned into a run scoring double and kicked a base hit into the gap as if he were imitating David Beckham to allow an insurance run to score for the Reds.
Credit is due to the Reds pitchers (especially Mike Lincoln) for wriggling out of the jams and not allowing the Mets to score with their big bashers at the plate, but this game was an example of how quickly things can turn around for a team that was streaking three days ago. During their ten game winning streak, the Mets rode great pitching from their starters and bullpen, but they also did the little things like score runners from third base with less than two outs; using outs to advance runners; taking the extra base; etc. Countless runs can be scored by doing these simple things; then a team doesn't have to hope for their pitchers to hold the opponents to less that two runs; they don't have to wait for the home run. It's what was missing from the Mets earlier in the season and what's been the main culprit of the past two losses.
One note about the Reds and mark this down: they're going to finish this season over .500; they're going to spend money in the off-season to improve and they're going to be legitimate contenders next season. They have an owner who wants to win in Bob Castellini; a smart, aggressive and successful GM in Walt Jocketty; and a manager with a strong resume (despite his detractors) in Dusty Baker.

• Orioles 11-Tigers 10:

It's hard to take the Tigers seriously as a contender when they score six runs in the first inning and their pitchers can't hold the lead. Nate Robertson has been mostly terrible this

season and only lasted into the third inning last night. The Tigers are only 7 1/2 games behind a White Sox team that has flaws of their own, but blowing games like this isn't going to help their cause in coming back.
The trade from last season that will be pointed to as a "mistake" might be the Miguel Cabrera/Dontrelle Willis acquisition from the Marlins, but the real mistake was to trade the rising 22-year-old Jair Jurrjens for a fading Edgar Renteria. Cabrera's very young and will provide years of MVP-quality production for the Tigers; there's every chance that Willis, while not approaching his dominance of 2005, will be a solid pitcher again once healthy; but they

could've signed David Eckstein and gotten similar offensive production as they've gotten Renteria; they could've signed the offensively-challenged Cesar Izturis and gotten Gold Glove caliber defense and carried his bat in their powerful lineup, but they got greedy for offense and traded for Renteria. Granted, the Cabrera/Willis swap fell into GM Dave Dombrowski's lap after the Renteria trade and happened quickly, but they didn't need Renteria either way and especially for Jurrjens who's starting to look like he's going to be a star.
The Orioles have been very impressive this year after purging their

clubhouse of Les Miserables, Erik Bedard and the controversies surrounding Miguel Tejada. This could go two ways: owner Peter Angelos could prevent Andy MacPhail from clearing out more veterans because he wants to finish with as good a record as possible, or he could look at the smart moves MacPhail made in clearing out high-priced veterans and negative influences and let him continue the practice with guys like Jay Payton. Your guess is as good as mine as to what Angelos is going to do.

• Cardinals 6-Padres 5:

The Padres waited far too long to dump Randy Wolf and now they're not going to get anything of consequence for him if and when they finally do decide to move him. I don't want

to sound like a broken record, but all I keep hearing is how "bad" teams like the Reds and Royals are, but no one is whipping the Padres for their expansion-team roster and 37-61 record. The Reds and Royals have talent on their rosters and in their organizations; the Padres are awful, but you'd never know it from hearing how "smart" their organization is.
Injuries can be used as an excuse in some instances, but in the Padres case? Was Tad Iguchi going to account for a few more wins? Josh Bard? Chris Young? Edgar Gonzalez has filled in capably for Iguchi; Young couldn't be expected to provide more than his 180 innings and a 12-10 record; Bard isn't a difference-maker offensively. The team's bottom-line terrible on paper and in practice.
Did they really expect Randy Wolf to stay healthy and effective over a full season for the first time since 2003? Did they really expect Mark Prior to contribute anything other than some more derisive stories about how the mighty have fallen? Or anything other than attempted stat-compiling and apathy from the apparently disinterested Greg Maddux who

doesn't want to be traded to a contender because he's happy in San Diego despite the state of the team? Or a resurgence of the fading Trevor Hoffman? I honestly believe that they're delusional in San Diego; that they think this year is a "statistical anomaly"; that they still believe, deep down, that their team, as currently constructed will return to contention next season.
They resisted dealing the likes of Wolf earlier this season because the NL West was so terrible that they hoped to stay close to the divisional lead and somehow crawl back into contention; the leaders in the division having a record under .500 is only an advantage if the lower-rung teams win their own games. The Padres have lost 18 out of 23 and are well on their way to losing 100 games. How is it that Bud Black is still there? Or Kevin Towers? Or Paul DePodesta? Or Sandy Alderson?
The Padres are becoming the epitome of a factoid (something resembling a fact; unverified----often invented----information that is given credibility because it appeared in print).

And why isn't anyone ripping them as they deserve to be ripped for this catastrophe? The Mariners have been a punching bag and a punchline all season long, but the Padres are in a mediocre league, a terrible division and are a game and a half worse than the Mariners! Is this a case of "ignore the problem and it'll go away"? Why are the Padres being given a pass that no other organizations (most in a better position to turn things around relatively quickly) aren't?

An Interesting Memory About Bobby Murcer

• Bobby Murcer as an unintended witness:

One thing that sticks in my mind about Bobby Murcer was the incident in which he was unwillingly thrust into a position of explaining what he saw when John Rocker confronted the

reporter for Sports Illustrated, Jeff Pearlman, who had written the article that began Rocker's downfall----NY Times Article 6/6/2000. As Rocker got into Pearlman's face and began screaming at him, Murcer happened to be walking to the Braves clubhouse to pay a visit to his former Yankees teammate and Braves manager Bobby Cox. Later when discussing it, Murcer seemed completely bewildered at Rocker's behavior; bear in mind that Murcer had played for Billy Martin, and with Reggie Jackson, Lou Piniella, Thurman Munson and Dave Kingman, who either had the potential to be, shall we say, difficult and/or quirky with reporters. I can only imagine what Murcer said to Cox when he got to his office, but my guess is it was something to the tune of, "What the hell's wrong with that guy?", to which Cox probably shook his head in disgust.

• Indians 8-Rays 4:

Today's game is very important for the Rays to win. They have their supposed ace on the mound in All Star Scott Kazmir; they're reeling from six straight losses and are probably

beginning to doubt themselves even if they don't admit it; they don't want to enter a three-day break having lost seven in a row; they're facing a pitcher in Jeremy Sowers who's been horrendous this year; and the Indians are probably going to want to get this game over as quickly as possible to put their disastrous first half behind them, and because of that they'll be hacking away at anything close to the strike zone.
This game is going to be a test for the Rays from their manager on down. I'm still not sold on Joe Maddon and his unique, new-age way of

running his team and if he's unable to steer the Rays ship through this crisis, the team might have to seriously consider finding someone else in the future. (They're not going to do it unless the team completely collapses, but it's something to think about.) It's a perfect day for Kazmir to rack up a huge strikeout game and prove himself to be the legitimate star his potential indicates he can be. He should have some runs to work with and everything is working in his favor to portray that image; if he doesn't, the Rays could be in trouble.

• Aaron Harang goes on the disabled list with a strained forearm:

I've defended Dusty Baker's handling of his pitchers when he was blamed for the injuries to Mark Prior and Kerry Wood, but I have no defense for Aaron Harang being allowed to pitch on July 8th. Harang's start had been pushed back because of his forearm pain and now he's on the disabled list for the same problem. Reds GM Walt Jocketty is a smart guy; Baker's a smart guy; why risk injuring the pitcher worse by putting him out on the mound? I keep hearing how "bad" the Reds are, but they're 46-49 and if Harang's record were 8-6 instead of 3-11, the Reds would be in the middle of the playoff race. If they're going to move forward into contention as early as next year, they're going to need Harang to be healthy and the pitcher he was in 2006-2007; starting him last week made no sense.

• Pirates 12-Cardinals 11:

The leaks are beginning to show in the Cardinals foundation. Tony La Russa and Dave Duncan's brilliance can only go so far when a team's bullpen performs like this. Blowing 9-3, 10-6 and 11-10 leads because the bullpen can't get anyone out is a bad sign for the second

half of the season. Add in that the upper management doesn't sound all that enthused about increasing the payroll for an available starting pitcher and the same problem that was expected for the Cardinals before the season is popping up again----the upper management is pinching pennies and the manager wants to win right now.
Historically, Ryan Franklin was never as good a pitcher as he's been this year, especially since taking over as the closer; he was due

to hit a slump eventually. Jason Isringhausen looks mentally fried and the other pitchers out there couldn't get the job done either. (Although in all fairness, the game should have been over in the ninth inning when Kyle McClellan got Jason Bay to hit a sure double play ball to Cesar Izturis----then stumbled as he was running out of the box----and Aaron Miles was unable to get the ball out of his glove to get the out at first and the tying run scored.) Then the Cardinals get a game-saving homer from a resurgent Troy Glaus and Chris Perez comes in and blows it all over again by allowing a game-ending homer to Jason Michaels. This was a bad loss.
The Cardinals were one of the positive stories of the first half of the season, but La Russa's

brilliance has a limit when the talent's not there. Since the team was intent on having both Chris Carpenter and Mark Mulder be their mid-season "acquisitions" as they returned from injury and that's not going to happen, they're going to have to find outside help, but if they're not willing to spend any money then they're not going to get anyone of consequence. Those available third-tier pitchers----Paul Byrd, Randy Wolf, Miguel Batista----aren't the answer even with La Russa and Duncan's ability to maximize talent.
The NL Central is slipping away and they're probably not going to be able to secure the Wild Card either with the Brewers, Phillies and Mets all likely to be vying for it in one way or another. The fast start by the Cardinals did an effective job of covering up the rift in philosophies between the factions, but that chasm is widening and a patch job isn't going to hold things together long enough to make a difference.

Conspiracy Theories And The Rapid Rash Of Firings

• Randolph's conspiracy theories (relayed through other parties):

The New York Post is implying, through quotations of anonymous Willie Randolph "friends" (take that for what it's worth) that the former Mets manager feels betrayed by new manager

Jerry Manuel and thinks that he may have been stabbed in the back by an ambitious subordinate----NY Post Story. If this is accurate, then Randolph is grasping at straws to find some reason why he was let go other than the reality of a team that was underperforming for him and hadn't played well and with life since early last season.
Any bench coach or "manager in waiting" is in a no-win situation while the entire episode is unfolding. Few and far between are the bench coaches who have little or no interest in becoming managers, so the current manager has to know that his trusted assistant would probably like nothing better than to have his job if the situation calls for it. Yesterday, I mentioned two recent situations where the bench coach may have undermined his manager to get the top spot; with Manuel, I didn't suspect similar machinations and I still don't. What was Manuel supposed to do? Was he supposed to ignore the front office personnel that wanted to talk to him because he didn't want to upset Randolph? Technically, since the front office personnel were above Randolph, they too were Manuel's bosses, so he had no choice but to respond to them when appropriate.
Randolph knew that there were front office personnel that wanted him out and had become paranoid (with good reason apparently), but to all of a sudden have "friends" implying that Randolph now feels betrayed by a bench coach with whom he'd become close and had counseled him during the turmoil strikes me as the Post either making things up or Randolph trying to find ways to deflect the blame away from himself for his dismissal.
It doesn't matter who the manager is and how close he is to a present of former employee

who's been mentioned as a possible successor, there has to be tension once the criticism becomes more pronounced, a firing is imminent and the replacement is seen to be skulking around and waiting for the job. Joe Torre was about as successful as a manager could be with the Yankees and had Joe Girardi as his bench coach before Girardi left to manage the Marlins, but Torre had to know when Girardi turned down several opportunities after the Marlins fired him and instead chose to work for the YES network, that his former catcher and coach had an eye on his job. Torre's bench coach from last season, Don Mattingly, doesn't have an undermining bone in his body, but Girardi seemed to be waiting for the opportunity that he eventually received. Friendship doesn't matter; loyalty doesn't matter and what actually happened doesn't matter; it's the perception that counts and if Randolph wants to see Manuel as a power hungry usurper who took his job through scheming, there's no way to dissuade him even if it's just a conspiracy theory to protect himself from the truth----he deserved to get fired.

• Mariners fire John McLaren:

This was somewhat inevitable once Bill Bavasi was fired even if it's just for cosmetic effect. McLaren may get another shot somewhere eventually (although he waited a really long time for this chance and may not have the stomach for another long delay), but it's hard to blame

him for this disaster. That being said, the Mariners have been unlucky and terrible in just about every phase of the game and that generally is a reflection on the manager.
Rob Neyer wonders if McLaren "could have fought harder for the young players he managed, particularly Adam Jones and Jeff Clement", but I don't think that McLaren would've been given such a strong voice in the construction of the team in his first full season on the job. Given Les Miserables Erik Bedard's injury-history and misanthropic behavior throughout his career, it was silly to think he was going to show up and suddenly become a legitimate number two starter and expected savior. The centerpiece of the deal for the Orioles, Adam Jones, hasn't been exactly lighting the world on fire in his chance to play, so it's hard to rip the deal as a total nightmare yet. With the fire both McLaren and Bavasi were under early in the season, they really couldn't afford to wait out Clement's struggles and try to win simultaneously.
McLaren may go down as a better coach than manager and, even though this wasn't exactly a fair chance for him, the results are what they are. The players didn't seem to be listening to him and installing Jim Riggleman makes sense to give the appearance of doing

something even if it's too late to do much of anything useful but clear out the house of some veterans and retool the organization.
One thing about Riggleman that needs to be watched is that he tends to batter his pitchers. While Dusty Baker has the Kerry Wood/injury problems laid at his feet, it was Riggleman who overused Wood as a rookie with some ridiculously high pitch counts----Wood 1998 Gamelogs. The argument that the Cubs were in a pennant race and were trying to win as many games as possible is the same argument that Baker can give for his usage of Wood and Mark Prior in 2003. The 1998 Cubs made the playoffs, but Wood missed the entire 1999 season with Tommy John surgery. Felix Hernandez is a valuable commodity who needs to be kept on a reasonable pitch count under Riggleman and if they're going to trade Bedard, they'd better keep him healthy and on the mound. They're out of the race, so going crazy with their pitchers makes no sense.

• J.P. Ricciardi's flapping mouth:

There are guys who should be baseball executives; there are guys who should have their

own radio shows; there are rarely guys who can effectively combine both. Say this for Blue Jays GM J.P. Ricciardi----he's entertaining. Now he's gotten into a war of words with Cincinnati Reds left fielder Adam Dunn. After receiving calls on his radio show from fans

advocating the Blue Jays acquisition of the power hitting left fielder, Ricciardi unloaded on the player----Story----with some unkind comments. As much as I hate to say it, Ricciardi might be well-suited to taking some lessons from Brian Cashman on saying a load of stuff while saying nothing at all. As annoying as it is, it seems to keep Cashman out of the same trouble that Ricciardi's free mouth uses to get himself into such verbal scrapes.
Never mind the inappropriate nature of a current GM unloading on a player in such a way, Ricciardi makes it worse by unloading on a player who isn't even on his team! It never ends in Toronto; Ricciardi's players fight with his manager (Ted Lilly and Shea Hillenbrand with John Gibbons); he accuses players of malingering and milking injuries (A.J. Burnett); he gets into

verbal confrontations with players and releases them in fits of anger knowing their penchant for getting off to slow starts and because they have contract options----that Ricciardi negotiated----which kick in with a certain number of at bats are reached (Frank Thomas); and his team has never, ever been a legitimate contender despite his brazen proclamations upon getting the job in 2001.
Again, amid high expectations, the Blue Jays are floundering at 35-39 and Ricciardi's job has to be in jeopardy with all the bluster, controversies and failures on and off the field. One thing about him though, he's not going to go out gracefully and if anyone's going to leave in a blaze of glory, it's Ricciardi.