Wheeler: Pitchers first on list of who's to blame

[missionhockey21]

Pitchers first on list of who's to blame
Column by The Post's Lonnie Wheeler

I've run the gamut of usual suspects. To find a fall person for the Reds' spectacular failings, I've volunteered John Allen, John Allen's boss, Marge Schott, Marge Schott's successor, Jim Bowden, the white-haired gentleman who occasionally appears in the owner's box, Dan O'Brien, that banana man, Don Gullett, the guy who sets the payroll, Jim Edmonds, the milk-shake maven, Frisch's Big Boy (bad commercial karma), and - let me think, there was somebody else - oh yeah, Carl Lindner. Plus whoever's pitching.

Just to break the monotony, I thought I'd try to steer the discussion away from the starting rotation and the front office, just this once. On the premise that no team can pitch as badly as the Reds without some extraneous sort of sabotage, and having recently observed the Reds being soundly out-baseballed by both Boston and the Braves, I sort of wondered if advance scouting had something to do with it. Pitching with a plan, the Red Sox effectively termited the Cincinnati bats, rendering them rotten. Atlanta, as usual, made eight fielders appear as a dastardly dozen.

"Over the years," said Reds manager Dave Miley, who has not been mentioned here as a particularly blameworthy party to the team's undoing but remains the most likely candidate to be relieved of his job at any time, "it seems like they (the Braves) have guys in the right spots all the time. And Andruw Jones, he can run anything down in center field.

"But if the pitcher doesn't throw to the way you're playing him . . . "

That's where it comes in handy if your pitching staff includes some people on the order of Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine and John Smoltz. Of course, Smoltz is the only one of those remaining with Atlanta, but the Braves have stuck to their plan, and stuck it to the likes of the Reds.

"For years," said Cincinnati third baseman Joe Randa, "everybody has known that the Braves try to pitch you down and away, and play you that way.

"When you're a team that has some No. 1 pitchers, or you've got a Schilling or a Glavine, you can get by for a game or two when you're not doing the other things as well. But we're a team that has to do all three things to win - hit, field and pitch. And we haven't executed in all those areas. That's why we've been losing."

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[Saber]

Well, while it's true that the pitchers suck, the defense is also the worst in the game, which doesn't help.

[CincyRedsFan30]

It's the outfield and right side of the infield that's had the biggest problems on D(and the left when Aurilia is at SS)