Cincinnati Reds
60-94, 6th NL West, 21 GB
1972 Outlook: The Reds were really bad in '71 but they were also just a year removed from 98 wins and a pennant. With the addition of Jaden Weaver in a lopsided trade with the Astros, it really looked like this team could have bounced back.
1972 In Review: That did not happen. The Reds opened the season 2-11 and never really got things going. They fought back to 52-72 by the end of August - still last in the division but not really that bad - but then went 6-21 in September before winning 2 out of their final 3 games. Things were... they were not good. Even with the addition of Weaver the offense only managed to finish 4th from the bottom in runs scored (525) and the team as a whole only had 90 HRs (t-10th). Still, the offense was less of an issue than the D, which allowed 611 runs (2nd worst in the NL). Outside of Steve Waiters, who was only good good this year, not great, it seemed like practically nobody on that side of the ball could do anything. Oh yeah, and also the defense was bad.
1973 Outlook: Things can only improve, right? The memories of 1970 are just that - memories. It's time to regroup and rebuild.
Pitching
Steve Waiters
LHP No. 19
LL, 6'4" 204 lbs.
Born 1943-11-20
Code:
Yr Tm Lvl W L Sv ERA G GS CG IP H R ER BB SO
1970 CIN MLB 25 6 0 2.47 37 37 15 298.1 234 85 82 80 267
1971 CIN MLB 21 12 0 2.74 38 38 12 294.2 261 101 90 83 200
1972 CIN MLB 11 13 0 2.59 31 31 13 242.2 192 73 70 74 164
Like clockwork, "The Hulk" made his 5th All-Star Game and was the Red's ace yet again. He's still under 30 years of age and has a lifetime record of 108-88 in spite of toiling for some kind of bad Reds teams over the years. This past year, for instance, saw him get 7 fewer starts than he got in '71 not due to injuries or anything but the old 5 man rotation: the Reds saw they were bad early and kept him well-rested. In spite of that, he still finished in the top 10 in complete games (5th) as well as shutouts (6, 4th). It's hardly his fault that his team didn't score.
There is just a liiiitle bit of concern around the Reds' front office that Waiters' stuff, which was absolutely outstanding in 1970, isn't quite what it used to be. His K/9 rate stayed at 6.1 this year after dipping from a 4th-highest 8.1 in 1970. That's still well above average though and hitters sure don't like working against him. He throws three pitches well, none of them much better than the others, and he gets a good deal of groundouts. Waiters' motion throws him off-balance a lot and he's not considered a good fielder. He's merely adequate with the bat, although he's an excellent bunter.
Look for a comeback this year, perhaps all the way back to 20 wins.
Bill Vanover
RHP No. 24
SR, 6'0" 173 lbs.
Born 1941-06-12
Code:
Yr Tm Lvl W L Sv ERA G GS CG IP H R ER BB SO
1970 CIN MLB 10 8 0 3.35 31 26 5 196.0 192 87 73 27 111
1971 CIN MLB 13 14 0 3.77 32 32 6 231.1 250 110 97 48 94
1972 CIN MLB 13 15 0 3.44 32 32 10 238.0 221 98 91 41 107
They call this man "Bullet Bill" because his fastball darts in there in the low 90s. It's kind of straight though so the 31 year old 2-time All-Star doesn't get strikeouts with it as much as you'd imagine. Instead, Vanover is a control artist. It's hard to say how well he'll hold up once his fastball loses a few miles because out of his assortment of pitches, none of them are particularly hot. That said, he did lead the league with the lowest BB/9 rate with 1.6 so he must be doing something right.
Vanover is only a career .173 hitter - good for a pitcher but let's not go crazy here - but hit .278 with 6 RBIs this season. He outhit an awful lot of position players this year, in fact. Where Waiters above is pretty content with his role, the losing seems to have gotten to Vanover, who is reportedly not happy with the way things have been working out the past couple years.
Vanover set career highs in complete games and wins (well, he tied that); this is probably as good as it gets for him. He's really not #2 starter material but that's not really his problem, is it?
Joe Hagan
RHP No. 2
RR, 5'11" 185 lbs.
Born 1940-07-31
Code:
Yr Tm Lvl W L Sv ERA G GS CG IP H R ER BB SO
1970 CIN MLB 20 12 0 4.25 36 36 8 249.1 235 122 118 98 214
1971 CIN MLB 9 17 0 3.85 35 33 7 249.2 252 123 107 79 155
1972 CIN MLB 8 13 0 4.48 30 26 3 182.2 170 93 91 76 144
It's been a rough past couple seasons for Hagan, who won 20 as recently as 2 years ago but even fell out of the rotation last in the year as the Reds looked for anything else. Hagan has a plus-plus change and a fastball that can be hard to track but he's got a really bad tendency when he get behind in the count to groove one over the plate. He led the league in HRs with an insane 39 last year and probably would have this year if he hadn't gotten shut down late (he finished with 29, 4th in the NL).
Hagan's also a guy who really wants to win, which is normally a good thing but on an underachiever like Cincy it means he's not super happy with the way things are going. If he could just control those dingers, you can really see how the guy could be a star.
Graham Panarello
RHP No. 7
RR, 6'0" 200 lbs.
Born 1944-10-31
Code:
Yr Tm Lvl W L Sv ERA G GS CG IP H R ER BB SO
1970 IND AAA 6 4 0 3.12 15 15 2 98.0 75 39 34 39 108
1970 CIN MLB 5 3 0 3.14 13 8 3 68.2 65 25 24 26 57
1971 CIN MLB 1 5 1 3.82 34 6 2 75.1 69 32 32 39 47
1972 IND AAA 4 7 0 5.29 12 12 4 88.1 86 56 52 38 59
1972 CIN MLB 8 9 0 4.58 21 17 4 125.2 118 69 64 58 91
Just barely missing from that line above is Panarello's 1969 at Hawaii, where he went 16-3, 2.71 in 20 starts (13 complete games) for the Angels' AAA affiliate. That might have set standards a bit too high for the guy. He did get his biggest trial yet and to be fair to the 27 year old, he did strike out a decent number of guys. A 4.58 ERA in 1972 is really not good though and he'll need to show something in spring training to not start the year in AAA again.
Amadou Toumani Touré
RHP No. 20
RR, 6'3" 199 lbs.
Born 1948-11-10
Code:
Yr Tm Lvl W L Sv ERA G GS CG IP H R ER BB SO
1970 ASH AA 3 3 0 3.63 9 9 4 57.0 58 26 23 25 23
1971 TR AA 12 14 0 3.25 29 29 19 243.1 218 108 88 52 163
1972 IND AAA 5 8 0 3.97 19 19 1 115.1 121 59 51 19 100
1972 CIN MLB 2 7 0 4.62 11 11 1 70.0 64 39 36 18 47
Toure, a native of the African nation of Mali, was perhaps pushed a bit too hard through Cincinnati's minor league system. Such is the fate of a hot prospect on a team that's desperate for pitching help. The good news is, that curveball of his looked every bit as devastating in the major leagues as it did in the minors. The bad news is, Toure has a tendency to hang said curve a bit - he gave up a whopping 16 HRs in just 70 major league at-bats. Still just 23, there are hopes that this can be trained out of him.
Brian Yates
RHP No. 30
SR, 6'2" 189 lbs.
Born 1944-09-02
Code:
Yr Tm Lvl W L Sv ERA G GS CG IP H R ER BB SO
1970 ASH AA 2 0 0 0.00 6 0 0 12.1 7 0 0 2 6
1970 IND AAA 5 2 6 2.84 40 0 0 66.1 51 23 21 39 65
1970 CIN MLB 0 0 0 8.10 1 0 0 3.1 4 3 3 1 3
1971 TR AA 2 0 1 1.66 13 0 0 21.2 17 5 4 8 18
1971 IND AAA 0 1 1 6.13 7 0 0 14.2 15 12 10 18 9
1971 CIN MLB 0 0 0 13.50 2 0 0 1.1 3 2 2 2 2
1972 CIN MLB 3 4 9 2.45 53 0 0 66.0 54 19 18 33 56
Yates, who claims dual citizenship between the US and Israel, was one of the few bright spots this season. After taking over the closer role from Pete Lynn in July, Yates who'd thrown all of 4.2 career innings in the major leagues, carried a sub-2.5 ERA and had 9 saves in 12 opportunities. As yo ucan tell, he didn't have a lot of chances to close out games but he sure made the most of them. Yates does that, um, Kaz Sasaki deal (look, he's a fictional player who played for the fake "Seattle Mariners" in the early 2000s) where he mixes a 4-seam fastball with a splitter. When he's on, both pitches look identical coming out of his hand and hitters have to guess whether or not the ball is going to dip out of the strike zone or not. That split-finger fastball is so effective that even if hitters guess right. they don't make a lot of good contact.
He may have come from out of nowhere but Yates' success seems sustainable.
Pete Lynn
RHP No. 8
RR, 6'1" 198 lbs.
Born 1945-10-02
Code:
Yr Tm Lvl W L Sv ERA G GS CG IP H R ER BB SO
1970 MIN MLB 10 9 18 3.32 60 0 0 94.2 83 42 35 40 93
1971 MIN MLB 6 9 19 3.31 69 0 0 100.1 93 49 37 29 92
1972 CIN MLB 6 11 11 2.95 55 4 1 94.1 90 32 31 31 80
The Reds acquired Lynn last December in a trade for volatile / failed closers. Maybe "failed" is too hard on Lynn, although the man did lose 9 games in relief and pitched himself right out of the closer role with a 0-3, 5.52 June. To be fair to the 27 year old, he recovered well in July (1-1, 3.94) and August (2-2, 1.42) and even had a run of 4 starts in September (he was 2-2, 2.30, which is notable too because that's literally 33% of the Reds' wins during that period). Lynn seems like a guy who could fit in either role.
Hector Fernandez
RHP No. 37
LR, 6'2" 201 lbs.
Born 1943-09-12
Code:
Yr Tm Lvl W L Sv ERA G GS CG IP H R ER BB SO
1970 EUG AAA 1 1 0 5.51 2 2 1 16.1 21 12 10 5 8
1971 EUG AAA 11 7 0 2.71 23 23 14 188.2 184 61 57 35 95
1971 PHI MLB 0 0 0 7.02 4 1 0 16.2 22 13 13 7 14
1972 CIN MLB 1 4 0 3.84 36 7 0 82.0 79 36 35 27 44
The Reds figured they were getting Fernandez for a steal last December when they picked up the right-hander from Bellevue, Wisconsin for minor league OFer John Penn. Fernandez was... fine. He's way too old to be considered a prospect but he did look really, really good in 1971 after missing almost all of '70 with a torn meniscus. This past year he was... healthy. Fernandez is a control guy but walked a pretty average 3 batters per 9 innings. In his big AAA year in '71 he was able to induce minor leaguers to hit into 22 double plays in 23 starts; this year he did get 10 GIDPs but rpeeating that might be a big ask for an iffy Reds' defense and evne with those, Hernandez was well below average as a pitcher.
Bastien Maurice
LHP No. 41
RL, 6'2" 205 lbs.
Born 1944-08-23
Code:
Yr Tm Lvl W L Sv ERA G GS CG IP H R ER BB SO
1971 IND AAA 11 7 0 2.41 22 22 2 156.1 133 53 42 70 62
1971 CIN MLB 3 2 0 4.66 14 6 0 46.1 42 26 24 18 23
1972 CIN MLB 1 0 0 3.07 36 0 0 38.0 25 14 13 14 21
Maurice, a known Canadian, signed on with the Trois-Rivieres Angles prior to the 1971 season and within a year he was in the major leagues. Maurice was on the Reds' roster the entire season as their resident lefty specialist. He held LHBs to a .214 average but perhaps he should get more playing time, as he completely shut down RHBs as well (.165 although with 2 HRs allowed in 79 at-bats). Even though he technically throws 5 pitches, Maurice really doesn't look like starting material, as outside of a plus cut fastball nothing else is particularly special, as evidenced by his walking more men than he struck out in his lone minor league season of 1971.
Infield
Oliver Williams
C No. 11
RR, 6'3" 214 lbs.
Born 1943-12-25
Code:
Yr Tm Lvl Avg G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB
1970 CIN MLB 0.273 123 438 61 120 23 1 6 64 59 70 0
1971 CIN MLB 0.241 124 422 30 102 12 0 7 44 37 61 0
1972 CIN MLB 0.208 124 393 28 82 11 0 8 41 40 58 0
Williams has been pretty emblematic of the fate of the Reds as a whole. Following a nice 1970 season where he made his first (and so far only) All-Star Game, the Tennessee'an has seen his production plummet each of the last 2 years. It got so bad in '72 in fact that the team tried replacing him for stretches, first with Jarrod Day (now in the minors thanks to a .150/0/4 output in 80 at-bats) and then Leron Lee (more about him below). Defensively, he struggled as well, only managing to throw out 22.5% of base-stealers, although he did commit just 1 error all season long.
You can see the hard work and grittiness this guy brings to the table. He just... needs to not be awful. Slugging over .300 (he slugged .298) would be a start.
Leron Lee
C No. 18
LR, 6'0" 201 lbs.
Born 1948-03-05
Code:
Yr Tm Lvl Avg G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB
1971 TR AA 0.226 67 230 16 52 6 0 3 23 19 48 0
1971 IND AAA 0.259 26 81 11 21 6 0 0 11 16 10 0
1972 IND AAA 0.285 95 319 36 91 10 0 10 43 33 73 0
1972 CIN MLB 0.216 15 37 3 8 1 0 0 1 6 4 0
In an alternative universe one could imgine the 24 year old Lee carving out a career in baseball in another country, Japan perhaps. In this truly true reality of truth, Lee is a guy who flashed double-digit power in Indy last year but who otherwise might be a little stretched as even a major league backup right now. He struck out way too much in AAA and while he cut that down in the bigs, that is one small sample size (and if we're giving him credit for that, where did the power go?). Lee has a superior arm to Williams and is also pretty agile behind the plate; he could potentially supplant Williams based on defense alone.
Alonzo Rivera
1B No. 22
LL, 6'2" 201 lbs.
Born 1948-01-21
Code:
Yr Tm Lvl Avg G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB
1970 IND AAA 0.426 24 89 25 38 7 1 4 20 15 2 1
1970 CIN MLB 0.292 58 65 12 19 3 2 3 14 13 6 0
1971 CIN MLB 0.403 21 62 7 25 6 0 3 6 3 5 0
1972 CIN MLB 0.302 108 387 46 117 24 1 7 52 31 28 0
Rivera has got the kind of bat control you only dream about. His issue is just staying healthy. After missing almost all of 1971 with a fractured knee, the 24 year old Venezuelan the fans call the "Big Dog" sprained his elbow in May and missed a month and a half. While he was was in, though, Rivera was one of the hardest to fan players in the league and he ate pitchers up in the rare instances that he got to bat in a clutch situation - a .333 average (28-84) in close/late situations with 7 doubles. There are hopes that he can one day develop power but even if he doesn't he's got a lot.
Rivera, as befits a first baseman, has mediocre speed at best, but he doesn't try to do more on the basepaths than he's capable of at least. He has occasionally been used in left field but even as a first baseman his primary position is hitter.
Rivera looks capable of being the Reds' #3 hitter for the next decade or more, and that's even if they get good again. Him and Jaden Weaver constitute a ferocious 1-2 punch - well, 3-4 punch if we're being technical about it.
Pedro Ortiz
2B No. 21
RR, 5'11" 181 lbs.
Born 1943-10-05
Code:
Yr Tm Lvl Avg G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB
1970 CIN MLB 0.306 154 656 98 201 26 12 6 56 69 39 26
1971 CIN MLB 0.265 148 622 77 165 31 6 6 43 68 79 28
1972 CIN MLB 0.257 146 594 64 153 31 6 4 37 62 46 35
"Speedy" might be a boring nickname for Ortiz but there's nothing boring about this man's game. Perhaps too much has been expected of him since a that huge, huge 1970 season he had but in the 2 years since Ortiz has been well above average hitting-wise and this year he led the NL in steals with 35 of them against only 11 CSes. He modified his swing to cut way down on strikeouts this year, although thanks to the Year of the Pitcher 2 this didn't give him the return to the land of the .300 average that he'd hoped for.
Ortiz is a good enough fielder at 2nd to have won the Gold Glove the last 2 years and is a real contender for his third. He isn't blessed with a great arm - that's why he's a 2nd baseman - and he's sometimes slow getting the ball out on the pivot to first base, but few second basemen in the NL have his range: he finished 2nd only to San Diego's Paul McCartney in total chances and led all NL 2B in assists (473).
The main question one has to ask about Ortiz is "why didn't he score more runs" but to be fair, the answer to that is mostly "because his team is bad". Look forward to even more hardware in '73 - a 7th All-Star Game, perhaps a 4th Gold Glove to (presumably) go with the 3rd he'll win this year.
Bobby Kraljevic
3B No. 6
LR, 5'11" 198 lbs.
Born 1943-06-18
Code:
Yr Tm Lvl Avg G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB
1970 CIN MLB 0.296 152 563 109 167 29 3 14 89 123 51 0
1971 CIN MLB 0.241 143 497 58 120 20 2 12 58 87 67 1
1972 CIN MLB 0.249 104 305 32 76 12 2 3 29 49 52 2
If you ask Bobby K, he's the straw that stirs the drink of this organization. That might be part of the problem: the Reds have absolutely floundered the last two seasons and so has he. Kraljevic led the league in on-base percentage in 1970 and also provided some decent power but ever since the high point of that season, which also earned him his only All-Star appearance, the now-29 year old has seen everything go south. Last year it was the average; this year it was the bat control (Kraljevic struck out more than he walked for the first time in his career) and, perhaps most distressingly, any semblance of power. Bobby K hit like a middle infielder last year. Somehow through it all, he continues to insist that he's the same All-Star he used to be.
Otherwise he's got a gun for an arm - maybe the best arm in the NL, in fact - and last year he did seem to concentrate a lot more in the field. He committed only 2 errors all season for a FA of .990, a far cry from his 1970 performance of 33 errors and a .913. He'll take an extra base on a hit or get the occasional steal if the chance is presented to him.
One possible answer here is to engage him even deeper in the platoon: last year he only had 47 at-bats against LHPs but hit just .149 against them, a sign that maybe even 50ish at-bats are too many. Maybe, too, the answer is to move him and his "too big for his britches" attitude along to someone else.
Fidelio Guerrero
3B No. 27
LR, 5'9" 171 lbs.
Born 1946-01-27
Code:
Yr Tm Lvl Avg G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB
1970 IND AAA 0.277 67 227 43 63 14 2 12 43 33 56 10
1970 CIN MLB 0.268 16 41 5 11 2 0 1 8 7 7 2
1971 CIN MLB 0.301 44 83 9 25 4 2 4 15 11 18 1
1972 CIN MLB 0.224 64 89 11 20 4 0 2 8 11 22 0
One thing that would make it easier to move on from Bobby K is if the Reds had anybody who could reliably step in for him. They really don't. Fidelio Guerrro is a 26 year old organization guy whose game more or less screams "replacement level". He can't even really platoon with Kraljevic since they both bat lefty. He does have that very, very impressive 1970 in AAA but even that's sandwiched around a whole bunch of mediocrity. Defensively he works hard but lacks the quick lateral movement that would get you range, even for a third baseman; obviously the middle infield is right out.
It's clear who Guerrero is and a starter ain't it.
Dusty McCully
SS No. 38
RR, 6'0" 189 lbs.
Born 1946-06-07
Code:
Yr Tm Lvl Avg G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB
1970 OKC AAA 0.264 49 174 15 46 8 2 2 19 11 39 0
1970 STL MLB 0.213 53 183 11 39 10 1 3 19 11 44 0
1970 HOU MLB 0.000 2 5 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 2 0
1971 STL MLB 0.253 149 549 53 139 19 3 9 58 35 73 0
1972 CIN MLB 0.241 138 496 43 120 21 3 8 50 41 75 0
I guess the best - and the worst - thing that can be said about McCully is that he's not part of the problem in Cincinnati. Don't get me wrong, that's kind of big: there are an awful lot of issues on this team. McCully cost the Reds their young closing phenom Edward James Olmos, a man who looks like he was going to "stand and deliver" for the Reds for the next decade, but the Reds have to be happy with the move. Hitting 6th in the order for most of the season, McCully did a good, solid job at the plate and even set career highs in doubles and homeruns.
Defensively he does have a tendency to take plays off in the field and the statheads tell me he had a negative ZR last year. It's definitely true that Cincy as a whole had a pretty bad defense. He's got a good arm - if Bobby K wasn't around (and if that power turned out to be a permanent addition) I could see him moving to the hot corner. He is surprisingly slow on the bases for a middle infielder.
All in all, this is a guy you can count on to put in the lineup every day and produce for you. McCully might never make an All-Star Game but there's a lot of room left to be a decent infielder in this league for the next 5 to 10 years.
Mike Wendt
SS/CF No. 25
RR, 6'1" 201 lbs.
Born 1944-04-05
Code:
Yr Tm Lvl Avg G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB
1970 CIN MLB 0.263 154 576 102 152 18 12 15 71 47 136 31
1971 CIN MLB 0.235 143 471 44 111 14 6 10 54 26 83 17
1972 CIN MLB 0.201 42 124 11 25 3 2 3 12 10 27 5
This is not exactly a Wally Pipp situation but Wendt is the guy McCully took the job away from this year. He's yet another Reds example of a guy who had a big career year in 1970 that he couldnt sustain. In Wendt's case, he still had decent power in 1971 but a combination of all of those strikeouts - he finished 5th in the NL in 1970 and surely would have placed in '71 had he not been relieved for a pinch-hitter so much - and being kind of the poster child for a messed up defense led the Reds to stick him on the bench. In fact, he barely even played until the last month or so, when a combination of injuries and poor play by the prospects led the brass to try him out in center.
If he could even hit .260 again, Wendt could possibly form a good 1-2 punch with Ortiz at the top of the lineup (this time, a real and actual 1-2 punch!). He'd have to stop swinging at so many pitches for that to happen and that seems unlikely. Incidentally, the 12 game trial in the outfield might presage his future: Wendt is pretty good range-wise and although he had zero assists out there, his outfield arm seems like an asset where his infield arm was holding him back.
Outfield
Alonzo Huanosta
OF No. 29
RR, 6'2" 201 lbs.
Born 1941-01-10
Code:
Yr Tm Lvl Avg G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB
1970 CLE MLB 0.345 139 585 87 202 37 2 20 92 37 52 3
1971 CLE MLB 0.260 141 591 80 154 27 4 13 57 46 70 2
1972 CIN MLB 0.275 142 537 69 148 27 0 6 63 45 62 11
There was a brief moment in August where it looked like Alonzo Huanosta had recaptured the stroke that had led the AL in hitting in 1970. He even made his 4th All-Star Game after missing in '71. Then, like the entire rest of the Reds team, he fell into a tailspin in September, hitting just .178 for the month and by season's end being pulled out of the lineup so the team could look at other options. It was that kind of streaky, up and down season for Huanosta, even if the final totals don't look so bad (especially by 1972 standards). The decline in power has to be considered a huge red flag; he hit 3rd or 5th in the order for the entire season and you just can't deal with a guy hitting 6 HRs for you doing that.
Defensively, Huanosta's a corner outfielder. He doesn't have the best first step in the world but does have a decent arm - he only had 4 assists in left last year because of his reputation more than any lack of arm strength. He'll probably eventually move to 1B if not DH - assuming he can hit for the positions - but the man's only 31 and is far from the worst OF out there.
All-Star Game or no, this has to be considered a make or break year for Huanosta. The Reds are paying him an awful lot of money, way too much to be an average player.
Carlos Gomez
1B/LF No. 36
RL, 6'0" 200 lbs.
Born 1942-01-30
Code:
Yr Tm Lvl Avg G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB
1970 SD MLB 0.247 146 484 67 120 19 1 22 63 66 109 0
1971 SD MLB 0.172 31 116 15 20 6 0 2 13 21 23 0
1971 CIN MLB 0.287 102 317 54 91 19 3 19 66 45 65 0
1972 CIN MLB 0.208 70 139 15 29 2 1 6 16 16 32 0
Part of me really feels for Gomez: although he proved that he could hit in 2+ years in San Diego, since being traded to the Reds (for OF Greg Cowan), he filled in really well for Alonzo Rivera last season - better than could be expected, really - and was then rewarded for that with irregular playing time and a lot of "lost cause" pinch-hitting duties that led to his worst season in the major leagues by far.
Gomez also seemed to be as affected by the distracctions in the clubhouse as anyone on this team. A change of scenery would probably be good for both sides.
Dennis bin Naim
CF No. 13
LL, 6'2" 200 lbs.
Born 1947-02-14
Code:
Yr Tm Lvl Avg G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB
1970 ASH AA 0.260 129 491 67 128 12 3 7 31 46 87 23
1971 TR AA 0.263 59 220 28 58 3 5 6 22 35 26 9
1971 IND AAA 0.194 22 67 8 13 2 1 0 6 13 7 4
1971 CIN MLB 0.268 27 67 8 18 2 0 0 5 4 12 0
1972 IND AAA 0.265 32 132 18 35 5 1 1 14 10 17 8
1972 CIN MLB 0.212 79 268 30 57 6 4 1 11 32 38 5
Dennis bin Naim was surely rushed to the big leagues: prior to this season he had all of 67 at-bats above AA. At the same time, he was drafted as a college senior in 1969 in the hopes that he'd contribute quickly and when the Reds traded away the incumbent Sonny Burwell for prospect Chris Cooper (who had a 21-game cup of coffee at the end of the year), hopes were high. Instead, he struggled, carrying an OPS of under 600 last year and looking overmatched in center field to boot. Things got so bad... well, just look at the Mike Wendt note above.
It's hard to see what bin Naim brings to the team going forward. In 1972 he hit like a middle infielder and fielded like a slugger. The best news about him is that he's still only 25 years old but, to paraphrase made-up, pretend manager Casey Stengel, he looks like a guy who might be 30 in 5 years.
Dan Issel
OF No. 31
RR, 6'9" 232 lbs.
Born 1948-10-26
Code:
Yr Tm Lvl Avg G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB
1971 TR AA 0.239 25 96 13 23 5 1 2 14 14 21 6
1971 IND AAA 0.237 102 374 50 89 17 4 10 55 42 58 23
1972 IND AAA 0.281 69 266 43 75 16 0 13 33 22 56 27
1972 CIN MLB 0.138 39 101 10 14 3 0 2 7 12 16 3
In many ways, Dan "The Horse" Issel, a center for the Denver Nuggets of the ABA in his spare time, was an even bigger disappointment than bin Naim was: where bin Naim just looked like a replacement-level guy, Issel showed a lot of reasons why he might be a great player in this league... and then completely failed to hit. It's crazy and if I were a person who believed in luck, I would blame it on that. Unlike a lot of guys who aren't ready for big-league pitching, the Horse didn't strike out overly much; instead, he seemed to specialize in groundballs right at the second baseman. Issel even hit well in AAA before and after his ill-fated call-up in late May.
He has world-class speed - weird for a guy who's nearly 7 feet tall but I'm not judging - which hopefully over time will translate better into his range. Also, it has to be noted that this kid is still just 23 years of age. Assuming this was just a bad stretch of games, the future still looks bright for him.
Jaden Weaver
RF No. 3
LL, 6'2" 200 lbs.
Born 1942-07-11
Code:
Yr Tm Lvl Avg G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB
1970 HOU MLB 0.256 149 558 99 143 33 2 48 132 80 122 1
1971 HOU MLB 0.303 131 501 77 152 27 2 37 104 52 85 1
1972 CIN MLB 0.234 132 495 73 116 20 1 32 88 54 90 1
The Jaden Weaver trade was highway robbery at the time and in retrospect it might have cost the Astros a shot at the pennant. At the same time, you could see in Cincinnati why Houston was so eager to ship him off in the first place: he complained about just about everything there was to complain about. Between him and Bobby K, the locker room was a near-constant brawl scene. In the field he got hurt and somehow, in spite of moving from the worst offensive environment in the NL to one of the better ones, his power and clutch ability slipped. In spite of having Pedro Ortiz hitting in front of him all year, Weaver fell below 100 RBIs for the first time since 1968.
All that said, he was still all over the leaderboards - 3rd in HRs, 4th in RBIs, 8th in total bases (234) and slugging percentage (.473), and 5th in extra-base hits - and realistically the Reds, even as bad as they were, should be building the team around him. The next six months will really indicate how serious this team is about doing so.
Robert Hopkins
OF No. 17
RR, 6'0" 198 lbs.
Born 1945-07-26
Code:
Yr Tm Lvl Avg G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB
1971 TR AA 0.302 29 86 12 26 3 0 2 8 12 12 0
1971 IND AAA 0.348 52 132 14 46 8 0 3 19 17 13 5
1971 CIN MLB 0.000 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
1972 IND AAA 0.236 13 38 3 9 1 0 2 7 4 11 1
1972 CIN MLB 0.254 46 118 11 30 6 1 1 10 9 21 1
I'm sure Robert Hopkins is a nice guy and everything but if you're a Reds season ticket holder and they choose to move on from Weaver in favor of this guy, you should demand a refund immediately. Hopkins probably had a career year last year and hit .254. 'Nuff said.