Jay Bruce

onored for hitting his 600th homer, the free-swinging Reds struck out 12 times.  Rookie phenom Jay Bruce had three of those punchouts en route to an 0-for-4 night. The Reds’ only offensive threat came in the sixth, but Joe Beimel cleaned up the Chad’s mess by allowing only one run and preserving the lead.

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Easily the biggest news anywhere in baseball this past week was the long-anticipated callup of Jay Bruce, savior-in-waiting for Cincinnati and #1 prospect by most of the writers in the Baseball America Prospect Handbook. With Cincy wallowing in last place in a revitalized NL Central that offers not only the surprising Cardinals, but also the resurgent Astros and the overachieving Bucs, it seems that Reds management is ready to bring out the big guns--or at least begin the rebuilding process. As further signal of the latter possibility, they called up Andy Phillips and sent down Corey Patterson, someone only a vet-lover like Dusty Baker still considered a serviceable outfielder.

Continue reading "Cincinnati's Youth Movement"