Leake's in; no surprise

[JohnU]

Mike Leake staying in the rotation
-- CBSSports.com
According to the The Cincinnati Enquirer, the Reds have Mike Leake listed as the starter for Tuesday against the Mets, a good sign that the team does not plan to take him out of the rotation with Johnny Cueto on the way back.

The team has yet to divulge their plans for the rotation, but it has been expected that Leake or Tony Cingrani would be demoted with Cueto's return.

 

[Redsfan1507]

The more things change, the more they stay the same. There are still only 5 teams in the last 50 years that won a World Series WITHOUT a LHSP, and one of those beat a team that didn't have one either.

 

[Redsfan1507]

I don't buy into the Reds media propaganda on Cingrani, his high AAA K totals are obviously due to inferior hitters swinging at a 91 mph straight fastball up around the collarbone, and maybe the AAA heavy MLB lineups might make Tony look like a tiger, but he's going to take some lumps against MLB hitters that make him get it in the zone. He's a lefty Mike Leake, with 5 mph more azz on the fastball, and 25% more insecurity to throw the breaker. He IS lefthanded though, and that is something ( like a fastball) that Leake can't acquire. All else equal, and without another LHSP, I always choose the lefty. Dusty won't.

 

[redsfan03]

I think Cingrani's got a higher ceiling than Leake, but I don't think he's ready for a full season at the MLB level quite yet. He hasn't looked very good in his last couple of starts. He's giving up a ton of home runs because of the way he pitches to hitters, relying heavily on the fastball in varied locations. He has to develop his breaking pitches more to be really effective at the MLB level.

Being a lefty is nice (and I'm certainly no fan of Mike Leake), but as much as I hate to say it, I think this is probably a good decision...for now...

 

[JohnU]

Well, let's be honest ... we don't have 5 shutdown rotation guys, and I doubt if any team in MLB has that, if any of them ever did. What we want from Mike Leake is 5-6 decent innings and hope for enough runs to win twice in 4 tries. It's how baseball is with 5-man rotations.

Watching Cingrani last night, he seems to have a fairly high-stress motion and goes pretty deep into counts against the guys who know how to coax that ... and the guys who can usually beat you when you do.

 

[Redsfan1507]

I may be overly optimistic. I think the Reds had the opportunity this year to put a historic rotation together...Cueto, Latos, Bailey, Arroyo and Chapman would be hard to beat.

 

[bengaldoug]

No real surprise here. Cingrani will only get better with the work in AAA developing his breaking pitch. He may be back again sooner than later.

 

[JohnU]

Could be the Cueto-Arroyo-Latos-Bailey-Chapman rotation WOULD have been a 5-man shutdown ... hard to tell though it's clear Chapman didn't want any part of starting. He evidently sees his future as a closer.

 

[Redsfan1507]

Harry Truman was a tailor. Ulysses S. Grant was a hardware store clerk. Ronald Reagan was a play by play announcer. Babe Ruth was a pitcher. Clark Kent was a newspaper reporter. Sometimes you have to change to be something more. Chapmans mouth was moving, but it was Dusty's arm up the back of his shirt. Dusty's always ready to pull up the reigns for status quo. I just wish he'd WIN something before he started settling for what the Reds have already done.

 

[BuckBearcat]

Is it just me, or am I going nuts? I seem to remember seeing games this season where Leake was routinely hitting 91-93 on the radar gun when last year he seemed to be throwing 88-90 most of the time. Is the kid just getting older, stronger and more mature? It seems to me that his velocity is up a bit.

By the way, a buddy at work said he's seen the same thing.

 

[JohnU]

I saw a program a few weeks back on PBS that was taking about Jewish ballplayers. That naturally led to Koufax and the story was, he was in spring training trying to impress the brass and Norm Sherry, the catcher, told him he was going to pitch 7 innings that day so he needed to dial back his fastball. After he did, Sherry said Koufax was actually throwing harder with more movement on the pitch.

That anecdote established, could be what you are seeing is the birth of another Homer Bailey. It will just take time.

 

[Redsfan1507]

I hope Leake's velocity is up. I think the hitters say more about how he's throwing than a radar gun out of calibration anyway. Possibly as or more important as the difference in 88 and 91 is the difference in his change of speed, and location IN the zone. Leake has had trouble with both those areas, but of course is young enough to improve. I wish he was lefthanded, though.

 

[JohnU]

Sometimes I wish I was NOT lefthanded.

 

[HammerDown]

 

[JohnU]

Back to our old crap again, expecting the pitchers to throw a shutout.

 

[Smoke]

Votto!!!

 

[Smoke]

Holy shit. 100 mph chin music.