Man, can Alex Gonzales pick it! He's a shortstop supreme. He's almost effortless the way he glides to balls and then takes them into his educated hands. Watching Gonzales is a feast for the eyes. You can't help but marvel at how slick and accomplished he is in the field.
And his hitting isn't too shabby either. Gonzales takes an aggressive approach at the plate and doesn't get shortchanged. He stung the ball hard in games two and three of the Padre series.
Another Red who impressed with the glove was Brandon Phillips, not necessarily known for his exploits in the field. But my gosh, did he ever show terrific range when moving laterally. And you can't help but love the textbook way in which Phillips watches the ball into his mitt and then secures it.
With Gonzales to the left and Phillips to the right, the Reds' middle infield is darn near bulletproof. It's tighter than tight!
Hitting in the clutch seems completely foreign to the Reds at the moment. Right now, the timeliness of their hits is way off. Regretfully, they seem totally incapable of getting the big knock. Coming through with two outs appears almost beyond them.
Yes, they can put a sufficient number of runners aboard and in scoring position but what good is that if you can't bring them home. As of late, the Reds have been absolutely woeful when it comes to making the most of their opportunities.
This may seem to be nitpicking and a trivial matter but I was put-off when catchers David Ross and Chad Moeller found time to kibitz and socialize with the first base umpire while headed toward the bullpen during the course of Tuesday night's game.
With the team in the doldrums, with the situation next to critical, the sight of Ross and Moeller laughing and chatting up an ump looked truly out of place and darn near offensive. Their attention should have been directed in a more constructive pursuit, like maybe helping their team win rather than conversing with a man in blue. It just looked bad.
Sometimes I'm mystified why the Reds' brass thinks so highly of Ryan Freel. Yes, he's a decent hitter who hustles his butt off, runs with aplomb and possesses a versatility in the field that's clearly an asset.
But as a leadoff hitter, he often leaves plenty to be desired as he demonstrated against San Diego. Freel was much too impatient, didn't work the count and whiffed an embarrassing three times on Wednesday. He was hardly an offensive igniter or catalyst.
Memo to Feel. Try to be more selective and remember it's not a sin to take a walk every now and then.
When it comes to strategy and baseball IQ, Jerry Narron isn't exactly Summa Cum Laude. He'll, he'd be hard pressed to get a passing grade. San Diego was merely another locale where Narron served up some obvious boners. When it comes to tactical skills, Narron ain't no George S. Patton.
Twice Narron helped blunt promising rallies when he sent runners on a hit and run only to see the hitters miss and the runners promptly get gunned down. Naturally, you fault the hitters for not making contact but you also must condemn Narron for not having a better "sense" in analyzing how a certain circumstance might play out.
It's utterly amazing, bordering on uncanny, how often this man guesses wrong. If he would have just done the opposite of everything he's tried this year, heck, the Reds would probably be in first place.
Narron reached another one of his managerial low points on Wednesday night during the ninth inning of a 2-2 tie. To begin with, starter Bronson Arroyo was visibly beginning to labor. Truthfully, he should have never come out for the ninth given his high pitch count but after he yielded a leadoff single to Khalil Greene, Narron should have thanked Arroyo for his gusty work and brought the hook.
Instead, he permitted Arroyo to stay and slug it out perhaps thinking that the same ploy had worked the night before with Harang. But therein lies much of Narron's problem. He doesn't seem to fathom that what works one night, doesn't necessarily pan out the next. He seems incapable of grasping that fact. Besides, Harang was still going strong and bringing the heat. You could clearly see that Arroyo was barely hanging on.
Then, with two strikes on the next batter Mike Cameron, Narron continued to deploy shortstop Gonzales perilously close to the bag at second, thus leaving a gaping hole on the left side that a 747 could have easily taxied through. Yes, Gonzales has to shade the bag because of a possible sacrifice but nowhere near to that extent.
So what happens? Cameron pulls a grounder right over the spot where Gonzales should've been. The result? A weak ass single to left rather than a rally killing double play.
But Narron's buffoonery hadn't quite reached its' zenith.
After an errant Arroyo throw to third loads the bases, another blatant sign that the pitcher was all but out of gas, Narron still insists on riding his spent righty. Talk about being pigheaded.
The final outcome then became all but predictable. Arroyo runs the count to 3 and 2 to Kevin Kouzmanoff and then misses up and away with his last offering, thereby walking in the game's winning run. It's a wonder Padre manager Bud Black didn't race over to the Reds' dugout to offer Narron a handshake for a job poorly done. Gift wrapped wins don't come any easier.
If owner Bob Castellini and G.M. Wayne Krivsky want to live in a world of denial and support Narron to the hilt, that's their prerogative. But that won't alter the reality of the situation.
Jerry Narron is a poor strategist, a dubious handler of pitchers and a washout as a source of inspiration. His leadership skills are obviously substandard because the Reds simply don't respond to his direction. Narron seems truly over his head and out of his element.
His poor performance in San Diego was merely another glaring example of his repeated ineptitude if not outright incompetence. It's next to impossible if not total fantasy to believe that Narron is a guy capable of getting the Reds squared away and turned around.
You are what you are and Jerry Narron just isn't all that much.