With no DH, Reds’ outfield is overpopulated
By Hal McCoy The rumors keep surfacing, not from the halls of the Cincinnati Reds front office, but from other teams all over the map. The Reds are listening to offers for Sonny Gray. They are listening to offers for Luis Castillo. They are listening to offers for Eugenio Suarez. They are listening to offers […]
OBSERVATIONS: One of the Reds all-time worst trades? Paul O’Neill
By Hal McCoy UNSOLICITED OBSERVATIONS from The Man Cave keeping fingers crossed that Ol’ Man COVID-19 doesn’t disrupt Ohio State’s run t0 the Big Ten title and a trip to the CFP. —Most folks firmly believe the worst trade the Cincinnati Reds ever made was sending Frank Robinson to Baltimore for less trinkets than the […]
Bell believes pitching remains the Reds’ main strength
By Hal McCoy Trevor Bauer is gone. So forget him. Anthony DeSclafani is gone. So forget him. Sonny Gray isn’t gone. . .yet. If rumors of a trade come to fruition, forget him, too. So where does that leave the Cincinnati Reds pitching rotation for 2021? That leaves three gargantuan holes to be filled? Where […]
Bell gives ‘stamp of approval’ to Joey Votto for next season
By Hal McCoy For those who want Joey Votto dumped down in the batting order, dumped on to the bench or dumped into the laps of another team, well, none of it is likely to happen. To the contrary, Cincinnati Reds manager David Bell is excited and ecstatic over what he saw at the end […]
OBSERVATIONS: Was Adam Dunn the ‘Three True Outcomes’ pioneer?
By Hal McCoy UNSOLICITED OBSERVATIONS from The Man Cave with fingers crossed on both hands hoping the University of Dayton basketball team finally gets to play tonight against Bellarmine, er, Alcorn State, er, Eastern Illinois. . .or Eastern Anybody. —Baseball has evolved — and some say degenerated — into what is called the Three True […]
OBSERVATIONS: Trader Jack McKeon turns 90 and is still in baseball
By Hal McCoy UNSOLICITED OBSERVATIONS from The Man Cave and it seems like Christmas every day because Amazon delivers a package or two every day. —Former Cincinnati Reds manager Trader Jack McKeon turned 90 this week and remains active in baseball as a special consultant with the Washington Nationals. Until he had triple bypass surgery […]
OBSERVATIONS: When Cincinnati nearly turned Vida Blue into red
By Hal McCoy UNSOLICITED OBSERVATIONS from The Man Cave waiting to see which NBA team makes Obi Toppin a multi-millionaire. And you have to love what Toppin said when asked if his Dayton Flyers would have won the NCAA tournament if the pandemic hadn’t intervened: “Hell, yeah.” —It was December, 1977 and baseball’s winter meetings […]
Trevor Bauer: First Reds pitcher to win the Cy Young
By Hal McCoy It was mid-September and Trevor Bauer was seated behind a microphone after painting another near-flawless landscape on the pitching mound. Bauer was asked if he thought he should win the National League Cy Young Award. He didn’t hesitate. If he had been on the mound his delivery was so quick he would […]
Tom Carroll gets his World Series ring — 45 years late
By Hal McCoy This is a feel-good story that should put a smile on faces and puts the current Cincinnati Reds regime on a high plateau and pedestal. Unless you are a deep-in-depth Cincinnati Reds fan, you may not remember Tom Carroll. When a player has a brief career in the majors it is said […]