It's Too Early

It's Too Early
ghettochild
07/19/06

In loo of the deserving starting third baseman of the Cincinnati Reds, Edwin Encarnacion, not getting his starts, I've decided to write my first article.

Being one of the only Reds fans here in Dallas, or quite possibly North Texas for that matter, I'm totally psyched whenever a Reds game comes on. I love nothing better than to sit at home from six until nine or so, and watch Reds baseball with my family. Mainly my Dad. We'll sit and talk baseball for the whole game. He's experienced it all. He's been through the Machine. He's seen Pete Rose get 4192. He saw the last game at old Crosley. Went to every home game in the '85 season (why he chose '85 I don't know). He went to games one and two of the 1990 world series.

Quite frankly, I'm jealous. I mean...Wouldn't you be too?

But lately he's been asking me this question. "Where's that En-car-nosh-i-ony guy?"

I always crack up at his pronunciation. I can't even pronounce it but I replied with a simple "Narron can't fill out a lineup card."

And its true.

Why would you keep such a young, good hitter out of your daily lineup? I mean, he's only second in the team in doubles, has a .377 OBP and a respectable .857 OPS. And he missed over a month on the DL!

The Reds are 32-25 when Edwin starts. That's a .561 winning percentage. It's not GREAT, but it's over .500. And when you're a Reds fan, as pathetic as it sounds, you'll take anything over .500.

"Well I know his defense isn't that great," my Dad mentions. "He makes a lot of errors I've seen. You know I got to see Sabo play...." and he goes off into one of his stories that make me jealous again. But I start to cut him off and mention this one number.

Fifty-Two.

"52?" He asks. "Yes, fiddytwo," I say in my thug voice, "The number of errors Larkin made in his first three seasons. Yet the management played Lark and as the saying goes, with time, comes experience. And with experience, comes good fielding."

Thats right folks. Barry Larkin, beloved by Reds fans allover, and my personal favorite player of all time, made fifty-two errors in three seasons. He went on to a career highlighted by twelve All-Star appearances, 1995 NL MVP, nine Silver Slugger award, and shocking of all, three straight Gold Glove awards from 1994-1996. How can this be? This guy made fifty-two errors in three seasons! Yet six years after his major league debut, he wins the Golden Glove not once, twice, but three times in a row! Not to mention that he was runner-up in a lot of Gold Glove races with the one they deemed "The Wizard".

Larkin went on to commit no more than seventeen errors the rest of his 19 seasons.

"What in the world is ghetto trying to get at here? All I've got out of this article so far is that he's jealous of his dad, and that Barry Larkin had a outstanding career" you may be thinking right now.

Well, to put it simply, Its too premature to give up on Edwin just yet.

Sure he's committed 15 errors in 54 games, but he's a young guy. How Narron can't obviously see that Edwin NEEDS to play is beyond me. This is the time of "little E". Like it or not, Cincinnati, errors are going to happen. I bet if Narron was managing A-Rod after his three error day the other day, Alex would be riding the pine while Richie Rich is taking his place. Errors are a part of the game, thats why in the box score it reads runs, hits, errors. Not runs, hits, Web Gems™.

The rule of thumb for managers is to play your best guys. And when given the chance between the veteran presence Aurillia gives, "Manos de Oro" (Juan Castro for you few non-Redlegs), or the hot, young bat of Encarnacion, I'll take Edwin please and thank you. Richie isn't even comfortable at the hot corner. He obviously struggles making throws to first, and when he does, they're either off target or in the dirt. Plus if I see "3B Aurillia" after Griffey in the lineup card one more time, I'm going to snap.

I'm not saying Richie isn't completely useless. He does hit lefties quite well. Against southpaws he's posted a .333 AVG (29-for-87) complementing with seven dingers, eighteen ribeyes, a .388 on-base percentage and a very healthy 1.066 on-base plus slugging percentage. But having Aurillia on the pony definitely boosts your bench a great deal. But other than that, I want Edwin starting 85-90% of the time. He needs at-bats.

After losing valuable hitters (and defense for that matter) to the trade with Washington, which I'm not even going to get into, you need to have someone who can produce the way Encarnacion can. Felipe and Kearns accounted for roughly 25% of the Reds offense this season. Thats 1/4th of every homer, double, RBI, SB, so on and so fourth, that this potent Cincinnati Offense can provide. I'd rather take my chances with Edwin thank you very much.

Its do or die for the Redlegs. We're in the race for the wildcard, and actually winning it! But the way Narron manages our team you'd think we're having a race for fifth place. Which is where we could be heading if our front office does not do something about this schmuck filling out our lineup cards.

Jerry Narron needs to go. Plain and simple.

"Why doesn't Narron play Edwin? From what I've heard its too early to give up on this kid so far."

That it is Dad, that it is. Now tell me how Eric Davis set the tone for the 1990 world series again. This game is making me sick.



this is the first article I have EVER written. I know it might not be much but I wanted to shed light on the whole Edwin situation and Narron's managerial skills. comments and sugestions on how to improve would be greatly appreciated. if you like my style and want to see more just tell and i'll keep writing. thanks for reading.