On this episode of Call to the Bullpen, Corey and I talk about the most important happenings in baseball over the last week.
Call To The Bullpen: Rangers Get Yu Darvish…Prince Fielder Next?
January 21, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Forget a Reds hat, newly-elected Baseball Hall of Famer Barry Larkin should be enshrined wearing this…
January 10, 2012 By 1 Comment
Barry Larkin has been elected to the Hall of Fame, with plenty of debate on both sides about his candidacy. Here is his Baseball Reference page so you can look at his stats and judge his credentials for yourself. As far as I’m concerned, when I think of Barry Larkin I don’t think “Hall of Famer” but his overall stats are better than I remembered, so I’m open to his induction if 80+% of people who know much more about this than me think he should be in.
But now to the more important issue.
With some players, the question of what hat to wear in the Hall is a big one. It’s not with Larkin. He played his entire 19-year career with the Cincinnati Reds. However, based on new evidence uncovered today by Reddit (here), I think the Hall of Fame should eschew a baseball cap for Larkin and instead induct him with a full body bronze statue complete with the sublime turtleneck-sweater-overall outfit he is pictured in below.
Which Ohio Professional Sports Team Will Win a Championship First?
July 26, 2011 By 1 Comment
It’s been 21 years since the state of Ohio celebrated a championship in one of the four major professional sports (to clarify: football, baseball, basketball and hockey).
During that time Ohio has suffered like few other states have. In addition to almost total futility on the field, the state has had to endure more than its share of off the field problems as well.
Analyzing the (very early) NL Wild Card race
May 27, 2011 By 3 Comments
About 50 games into the season, at least one team from each division in the National League has emerged as the front-runner.
It’s not all that exciting when teams have the division essentially wrapped up in June, which is why the Wild Card race is the most interesting, at least to me.
Why is the (east coast) media doubting the Reds & Rangers?
April 6, 2011 By 1 Comment
Considering we’re looking mostly at ESPN, that question may seem rhetorical, but even some guys at the venerable MLB Network (a fantastic channel) were picking the Milwaukee Brewers, St. Louis Cardinals, Oakland Athletics, Anaheim Angels and others to unseat the defending NL Central and AL West champs.
It’s still quite early, and I don’t gamble nor predict — especially in baseball where nothing is guaranteed and parity reigns supreme — but I’m pretty confident Cincinnati and Texas will be “just fine” in 2011.
The teams have opened a combined 9-0.
2011 MLB TV Schedule: 10 Best early season MLB matchups on national TV
March 29, 2011 By 4 Comments
We are roughly 48 hours from another intense, unpredictable and enjoyable Major League Baseball season.
This year, the Boys of Summer are beginning earlier than ever (the regular season will end mid-week instead of on a Sunday for the first time in eons, so who says baseball cannot adjust? They actually do moreso than any other sport), on Thursday the 31st with half a dozen games — before we’re presented with a full weekend slate.
Here are ten nationally-televised matchups to keep an eye on prior to the July All-Star Break in Phoenix:
2011 MLB Prections: NL Central – Reds look strong enough to repeat as champs
March 24, 2011 By 3 Comments
In 2010, the Cincinnati Reds won the NL Central, and will look to repeat that feat again in 2011.
Today, we preview the NL Central and predict whether it will be the Reds heading to the playoffs yet again, or if the retooled Brewers or the consistent Cardinals can take the title.
National League Playoff Preview: Reds-Phillies, Braves-Giants
October 5, 2010 By 10 Comments
Yesterday I looked at the upcoming American League playoffs; today it’s the National League, which went down to the final day to decide its participants.
The Reds and Phillies will match up on one side of the NL bracket while the Giants and Braves match up in the other.
There is only one Cuban Missile…and it ain’t Aroldis (so let’s give him a new nickname!)
September 2, 2010 By 26 Comments
Aroldis Chapman is currently taking Major League Baseball by storm. We haven’t been treated to two debut innings this spectacular since…Stephen Strasburg’s first two innings against Pittsburgh earlier this year.
And though this may seem sacrilegious to say considering the Strasburg mania that has swept America, our initial glimpses of Chapman have somehow been more impressive than the man for whom Strasmas was eponymously named.
Still, no matter how dominant Aroldis Chapman may be, he is definitively not the Cuban Missile, as so many are claiming. That title belongs to White Sox SS Alexei Ramirez, and I hereby issue this blog post as a cease & desist to all of you disrepsectful, unoriginal, non-contributing zeroes (thanks Louis) who think it’s okay to take one man’s nickname and slap it onto another.
You disgust me.
Aroldis Chapman and His Mind-Numbing Fastball Impressive in Debut
September 1, 2010 By 2 Comments
[Editor's note: this post was only allowed to be published after I picked up Aroldis Chapman in every one of my fantasy leagues.]
Turns out urban legends just might be true after all.
Bigfoot is very much alive and well. Area 51 indeed exists. Los Chupacabras is a threat to suck the blood out of your family pet in the middle of the night. Somebody can offer one a drink at the pub and next thing he knows he wakes up neck deep in ice in a bathtub with a note nearby that his kidney has been harvested.
And Aroldis Chapman really does throw well over 100 miles per hour…
Unjustly Obscure Player of the Week: Bo Belinsky
August 10, 2010 By Leave a Comment
On the heels of Brandon Morrow’s amazing performance on Sunday (his Game Score of 100 is the best since Randy Johnson’s perfect game in 2003) and Derek Jeter’s historic 2,874th hit the same day, I figured it was an opportune time to mention a forgotten player that best combined the two aforementioned players: Bo Belinsky.
Unlike many of the obscure players I will touch on, I never saw Belinsky play. He only pitched from 1962 to 1970 and was merely 28-51 for his career, but that did not stop him from being really famous for a really short period of time.
Belinsky can be used as an example that the media has always focused far too much on the private lives of celebrities. He was the Kim Kardashian of southpaw pitchers, not because of an especially plump rump, but because he became famous mostly for romantic exploits.
Cardinals, Reds face off in huge NL Central showdown
August 9, 2010 By 10 Comments
With all due respect to the Yankees heading to Arlington for a first-place showdown with the Rangers, there’s no better series the next three days than when the second place St. Louis Cardinals move 350 miles northeast to take on the first place Cincinnati Reds.
It’s so big, in fact, that coastal elites at ESPN are actually venturing into middle America to broadcast tonight’s opener — so that, three short years into his remarkable career, people from Boston to New York to Philadelphia will finally know who NL MVP frontrunner Joey Votto is.
Joey Votto Gets F’d in the A by Charlie Manuel
July 4, 2010 By 4 Comments
This is un-f’ing-believable.
Joey Votto, who would undoubtedly be in the top 5 if NL MVP voting were held today, was inexplicably not named as an NL All Star reserve by Phillies manager Charlie Manuel.
So who was named? Well, Ryan Howard was, of course.
Yeah, this would be the figurative definition of getting “f’d in the a”.
Good times along the Ohio River…
May 16, 2010 By Leave a Comment
With a 7-2 triumph Sunday afternoon in Cincy, the Reds took two of three from the erstwhile front-running Cardinals over the weekend.
The Reds haven’t been in first place this late in a season since 2006, while the Cards had been atop the division since the final day of July 2009.
Keep Dusty!
May 13, 2010 By Leave a Comment
Yes, yes, I have called for his head numerous times, but if he gets blamed when the team struggles, he most certainly deserves praise when the RedLegs are hot.
And boy, Cincy is finally playing well.
