Ruhle to give Milton room

[missionhockey21]

Ruhle to give Milton room
New pitching coach to let veteran lefty work his way through his difficulties

By John Fay
Enquirer staff writer

Job 1 for new Reds pitching coach Vern Ruhle has to be to get Eric Milton, the club's $25.5 million left-hander, back to being an effective pitcher.

So what is Ruhle's plan? Let Milton fix himself.

"For the most part, he's going to be self-coached," Ruhle said. "There are no major adjustments to be made."

Milton, who will start the opener against the Indians in Cleveland on Friday, has struggled in nearly every start this year. Only three of his 15 starts have been quality starts (six or more innings, three or fewer runs).

Overall, he is 3-9 with a 7.82 ERA. That from a pitcher who was 71-57 with a 4.76 ERA in his career when the Reds signed him.

"What he was defines him," Ruhle said. "He's a perfectionist and a hard worker. That has played into his frustration."

Ruhle thinks the frustration factor has as much as anything to do with Milton's struggles.

"Somehow he has to turn the page and go forward each day," Ruhle said, "get past the negative thinking, the doubt and uncertainty."

Ruhle had a bullpen session with Milton Tuesday, Ruhle's first day on the job. Ruhle has no doubt Milton can turn it around.

"He'll get there," Ruhle said. "Someone is going to have to pay for his struggles, because he's going to put up big numbers for us before long."

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[Slyder]

Heres another idea, dump the pitch to contact and see if that helps keeps balls in the park.

[CincyRedsFan30]

I actually like this thinking by Ruhle. It doesn't sound like the team will take Milton out of the rotation, so just let him be and hope something finally clicks, to at least a degree.

[Wally Mo Pena]

Lots of interesting stuff in this article. I think we can read between the lines of what rhule was saying a little bit. To me, "self-coaching" means forgetting what Don Gullet et al have told him this year. I think Rhule wants a clean slate, and he's telling Milton, "look, you're not this bad. Whatever they tried to get you to do, stop doing it. If you still struggle from there, we'll work on it in a different way." I'll be interested to see how it turns out tomorrow.

From later in the article: "Meanwhile, Chris Booker continues to dazzle at Louisville. He pitched a 1-2-3 inning for his eighth save Tuesday. He is 5-1 with a 2.67 ERA. He has allowed 21 hits and struck out 44 in 332/3 innings." Glad to see booker getting some press, someone has to go to make room for this guy, he's earned it and could really help the team.

That person could be: "The clock is ticking on shortstop Anderson Machado's rehab assignment at Louisville. Anderson is 12 days through the assignment, which has a 20-day limit, and he has not begun to hit. hrough Tuesday, Machado had one single in 28 at-bats (.036)." If DanO can get a taker for machado, (i still like olmedo better as a back up) like a failing prospect swap, then we could add booker to the 40 man.

Also from kearns: "If they want me to get at-bats, they're probably not going to do it (recall him to replace kelly), because I would play three games and take a seat."
Kearns did not play for the Bats Wednesday in their game at Charlotte.
Outfielder Jason Romano, who went 2-for-3 with a home run and scored three runs as the Bats beat Charlotte 7-4 Wednesday, is a possibility.

With how much DanO loves Romano (and he's not having a bad year) i wouldn't be surprised to see that at all, and that is going to burn kearns' bacon. I hope he understands why, it seems like he does. Kearns needs to keep swining the bat well down there for another month, and by the trade deadline hopefully this log jam will be taken care of.

Best case scenario to me is: trade Casey, move Dunn to first and sign him long term now, get kearns going again in the OF. Not that DanO would do that.

[bipster]

The more I think of this and see this about Kearns it really ticks me off. We sent down Kearns to AAA to get AB's, right? He plays 6 games and then all of a sudden needs a day off, how is that getting him AB's? The other big problem I have with the timing of sending Kearns down was the fact that we were in AL ballparks, using the DH. I cannot think of a more perfect time to get our "Big 4" OF's into the lineup at the same time, but no.....we sent Kearns to AAA.

[ghettochild]

fix miltons stiff leg

[CincyRedsFan30]

O'Brien is probably giving Kearns days off so the real outfielder...Romano... can take center stage.

[redsrbetter]

This pisses me off about Kearns as well. I was so excited about having our big 4 in the same lineup during interleague play, but we did not get the chance to see it. I agree fully with bipster here.

I bet Kearns was given the day off in Louisville in retaliation to his talks with the media lately.

[volzok]

O'Brien is probably giving Kearns days off so the real outfielder...Romano... can take center stage.

Good call CRF. We need to let the future play the most This whole Kearns mess is very confusing. I will be shocked if he ever plays for the Reds again at this point. Its just nuts.