Quite the scene in LA last night, of course I did my best Dodger fan impression and turned the game off when the Padres took a 4 run lead in the top of the ninth. The next inning and a half proved to be a slice of history that has only occurred 3 times prior in the long history of the game.
And this Little Piggy Stayed Home
With the lingering second toe injury of Griffey, we’ll assume that he won’t be partaking in any games that grapple with his toes, nor will he be suiting up for the Reds very soon. Not many teams succeed with center fielders who are on the wrong side of 35, Steve Finely is the most recent one that comes to mind, but it is after all a young mans position, it always has been and always will be. That said let’s ponder the vision of Junior running in the outfield at this point in time for the Reds, it’s a blurry vision from my vantage point, especially considering the mans legs and the abuse they will be stressed with as he favors his toe. I’m a believer in trying to avoid cascade injuries, and Griffey would most likely tweak his reconstructed Steve Austinish hammys in the process. Aside from that his yearly line of .251/.315/.479 and a post All Star numbers .246/.330/.415 will probably not improve the Reds chances of success during the last two weeks of the season.
Chances are this is the swan song for Griffey in CF, the Reds can’t afford another season with a centerfielder with a range factor below 3.0, much alone 2.5.
Baseball is a sport awash in history, lore and similarities, it’s a trip through names and places that we might remember, or we might just be hearing about them for the first time. This year the Reds have made and ungodly amount of transactions, mostly in an attempt to stay above the fray that they have been stuck in for most of the decade. In these trades you can see bits and pieces of things that might stir your memory of past deals, past teams and past chances it is with this in mind that we dive headfirst into a game to connect this season with one from 40 years ago, 1966 to be exact and to do it will simply throw out one name.
Harper was another Reds signing from super scout Bobby Mattick. He made his Reds debut in 1962 as an outfielder, on a team that had plenty of them. Therefore Harper was tried around the diamond, a little 2nd base and some 3rd base just two of the positions that the Reds were not flush at. However the Bill James Defensive Spectrum took care of that experiment for the time being and Harper soon found himself in the outfield and eventually that is where he cemented himself into the starting lineup.
By 1967 the lack of power and the iffy fielding had persuaded new Reds GM Bob Howsam to deal Harper for something the team lacked, pitching.
So it was off to Cleveland for George Culver and two other players, Culver was a fireballer with one major pitch – a fastball, Culver also fit the Howsam type of pitchers that the Reds would be pursuing over the next decades, large (6′2″) and strong. In Cleveland he had been a reliever, in Cincinnati he was thrown into the starting rotation and in 1968 he had a great season for a converted reliever.
P ERA GS 226 3.23 35
Of course the season in retrospect was the most pitching centric year in the game since the deadball era, so that has to be taken into consideration and when Culver only threw 100 innings the next year (and allowed the same number of HR’s as the year before (8)) it was probably no surprise to the Reds that he had peaked – as a starter at least, he had a small ratio when it came to walks and strikeouts and eventually his lack of a second pitch sent him back in the bullpen for the rest of his career.
Meanwhile the man he was traded for (Harper) moved on from Cleveland to Seattle and was one of the original Seattle Pilots; in fact Harper has the distinction of being the Pilots very first batter in a regulation game, he also holds the distinction of being the very first Milwaukee Brewer batter in regulation play as well. In 1969 Harper led the AL in steals with 73, also appearing with him briefly that season in a Pilots uniform was another former Red, Dick Simpson. Simpson was a fleet centerfielder who had been the main defensive replacement for Harper whilst both had played for the Reds.
This is where we can find a correlation to the aforementioned 1966 season and this season. Simpson had been a part of the package that Reds GM Bill DeWitt had received for Frank Robinson in the big trade that has defined his tenure as the Reds owner in the 60’s. Simpson had led the Pacific Coast League in batting average in 1965 (.301 – remember it was the 60’s) and had 12 triples. Though he never worked out as a Reds his promise was later used to finagle the infamous Alex Johnson in a trade later that decade. One of the reasons that Robinson had been traded was that DeWitt felt that Deron Johnson’s 1965 RBI total (130) was something that could be replicated. That season the Reds had four players with 97 or more runs scored. The leader of the team and the league was Tommy Harper with 126, which is the 4th best total in Reds team history in the modern era. Deron Johnson never topped 95 RBI’s again and Harper topped 100 runs scored only once more in his career.
Anyway, back to that Robby deal, Simpson was one of three players obtained in that trade, a deal that is often reduced in history to nothing more thenMilt Pappas for Frank Robinson. When in fact it was three players coming from Baltimore who comprised the package that replaced the future Hall of Fame player on the Reds squad.
It is with the third player that we can find a even more apt correlation with the 2006 season, for the third player was a right handed middle reliever who was neither famous nor a dog, Jack Baldschun. Baldschun was a 28-year-old middle reliever who had logged four 100-inning seasons and one 99-inning season for the Phillies. He was traded to the Orioles on 12-6-66 and 3 days later he was traded to the Reds, his role was to solidify a bullpen that had received average to sub average innings from Roger Craig, Bobby Locke, Don Zanni and Jim Duffalo.
ERA DIFF PLAYER LEAGUE Bobby Locke -2.28 5.82 3.54 Roger Craig -.12 3.66 3.54 Jim Duffalo 0.09 3.45 3.54 Dom Zanni 2.16 1.38 3.54
In fact Duffalo and Don Zanni were acquired to do what Craig was doing and their future on the team was eclipsed by the acquisition of Baldschum. The Reds were confident that Baldschun’s screwball/fastball approach to pitching would translate into success at Crosley and around the league. Instead the Reds received the worst of Jack Baldschum, the Reds received a 5.53 era vs. the league average of 3.60. His first three appearances as a Red were horrendous and soon confidence in his work was obviously being questioned by the Reds, he never found a groove and spent the next two years mostly in the minors.
His performance was so poor that the Reds picked up Ted Abernathy of the waiver wire the following winter to try and stop the bleeding from the relievers on the team (Which worked out well, Abernathy led the Reds in Win Shares the following year, since then the only reliever to accomplish that feat was Jeff Shaw has led the team in Win Shares in 1997.
Baldschum never found his game again, his early workload was Scott Sullivanesque and he like Simpson ended up playing out his career on an expansion team (the Padres).
It’s guys like Jack Baldschun that make me think of the trade made earlier this season for middle relief help and it’s not hard to look at Gary Majewski and see some of Baldschuns game, both men had been saddled with heavy workloads prior to coming to the Reds, both use/used off speed stuff to get their outs and both failed miserably in their time with the Reds. Each time Ryan Franklin takes the mound it’s because Majewski had an injured wing, and the setup role in the Reds bullpen was laid bare and open for all to see. Perhaps Majewski will provide more viable relief help next season; perhaps he’ll languish in the minors or be traded for more arms to sacrifice to the whims of the Great American Ballpark. But every time he takes the mound I’ll think of Jack Baldschun, which leads me to think of Dick Simpson which leads me to think of Tommy Harper which leads me to think of Deron Johnson which leads me to think of the trade that sent Frank Robinson out of town, and how even the best laid plans can go oddly askew and blow up in your face before you can even process them.