There isn't much in life better than skipping work to go to a day game.I had the good fortune of going to the ballpark today with someone who had never been to a baseball game before. I watched his eyes light up as he caught a glimpse of the bright colors screaming from the verdant diamond for the first time, baseball magic touching his inner child like it does to the most experienced fan of the game.
This one was all Arroyo. Ryan Zimmerman picked the wrong time to come out of his slump, for his was the only hit the Nats could muster against our savior in another brilliant outing.
Bronson's performance aside, perhaps the best news to come out of the game was the three hit day of Adam Dunn. He looked good, not like his awkward alter ego who had been suiting up for the past week or so. We'll see if it sticks, as we desperately need his bat for the next series.
David Ross' longball was crushed. To get a dinger out of RFK Canyon is impressive; to hit one into the upper deck is a rare occurrence, indeed. Baseball Minutia has a great description of RFK and Frank Howard. Howard was known for towering homers - there are seats painted white in the upper deck where he put them. I sat in one for a bit on Monday night just to get a feel for how far someone has to hit it, and I can't imagine someone doing it. Ross' homer landed in the lower level; Howard's longballs were in the middle of the upper level, halfway to the moon.
Ed-E is second only to the Almighty Pujols in RBI. Nice to have a ribbie man on our team, eh?
It sure was great seeing the Reds play three days in a row, especially since they won them all. I hope the Nats can recover and run over the Deadbirds this weekend. The Nats have some kid named O'Connor going tomorrow against Sidney Ponson in the kid's Major League debut. Hopefully the Nats won't forget to bring their bats!
Reds fans, please take a minute to checkout some of the Nats blogs. Ballwonk has a humorous take on today's game; Federal Baseball has some game wraps and great Nats analysis; Distinguished Senators is a great read; and Capitol Punishment has the best blog name in DC. But don't stop there! Go down the sidebar on the right!
Next up: the hated Asstros in a battle for first place. Griffey's back! Let's hope the Reds don't continue their Asstros woes. Maybe Roy O's arm will fall off. (He is 15-0 with a 2.41 ERA in 19 career games vs. Cincinnati.) At least Lidge is blowing saves - his slider isn't working. Yay!
5 comments:
I was reading through some Red Sox blogs yesterday... one writer's take on Arroyo is that he is a "serviceable" pitcher at best.
I'm pretty sure that post was made before David Wells ended up on the DL, Wakefield's record went to 1-4, and one of their young starters got lit up this past weekend.
8IP, 1H, 8K? I don't think 'serviceable' is an accurate adjective. May I suggest 'outstanding,' or 'impressive'?
I would gladly take 2 more "serviceable" starters like Bronson to round out our starting rotation!
Moving to Cincy will be the best thing for Bronson's career. He's just coming into his prime, so the Sox are going to regret it!
The reality is that Arroyo was never more than a serviceable pitcher in Boston. While he is undoubtedly talented, he can be really inconsistent. He benefitted from great run support, so his 4.00+ ERA was often overlooked. I think Boston management thought he could do better than 10 (2004) or 14 (2005) wins a season. In 2004, he had a losing record until he went on a winning streak at the tail end of the season to finish the season at 10-9.
Arroyo was slated to start this year in the Boston bullpen, which is already clogged with right-handed relievers. Combine that with his management-friendly contract, and you've got someone who's expendable with fairly good trade value.
All that being said, I'm glad to see that he's enjoying success in Cincy & I hope it continues.
I have no doubt that Arroyo's stats will "come down to earth" in some shape or form by the end of the season, but I still see him as being better than useful/average, which is what I consider "serviceable" to mean. Congratulations to Boston who has the payroll to carry several excellent pitchers - their loss is our gain - unfortunately the Reds have no such ginormous payroll. As for stats, he is going to continue to benefit from great run support in Cincinnati, and while I'd love to see an ERA no higher than 3.5-ish, anyone who pitches long term at GABP is going to have a higher-than-average ERA.
He could finish the season 10-9 again, and that would be an improvement over any starter from last season save Claussen and Harang. Therefore, I'm excited to have him here, no matter how you slice it.
::shrug::
I'll have to defer to your knowledge as I don't generally follow the National League teams and the truth is, I hope he does better than he did in Boston. He's certainly pitching like someone out to prove a point! :-)
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