Reds broadcaster Marty Brennaman (above), quizzed by the Advocate Messenger’s Larry Vaught (link swiped from The Red Reporter and Baseball Think Factory, respectively).
What player has to stay healthy and play the majority of games for the Reds to be a playoff team?
Brennaman: “I wouldn’t say Ken Griffey Jr. any more because I think his time has come and gone in terms of being that guy who stays healthy. He’s 35. Injury upon injury upon injury has taken a toll. That’s not to say if he stays healthy that he won’t hit 35 home runs and drive in 110 runs. I don’t know if this club has a player like this.”
What about outfielder Adam Dunn (40 home runs, 92 runs-batted in in 2006)? Could he be the key?
Brennaman: “I am pretty close to giving up on Adam Dunn. I don’t know if he is capable of changing his approach to the plate, based on what the count is, and can be happy with shortening his swing, hitting the ball the other way and showing a measure of discipline. I am at the point where I don’t know if it can happen. He is a guy who drove in five runs in the month of September last year and didn’t even get to 100 runs batted-in.
“People constantly ask if the club is trying to trade him. I think this team waited one year too long to try and trade him. If they had traded him after 2005, they would have got something good. I don’t think there was a team in baseball that had any interest in him after last year.
“He is going to make $10 million this year. I get tired of people saying he hits 40 home runs and drives in 100 runs. Wonderful. This is a guy who should hit 50 plus home runs and should drive in 130 runs or more every single year. And he can’t do it because he leads the world in strikeouts. I think he was overweight last year. He walks to his position. He walks off the field. You see no energy whatsoever and that disappoints the heck out of me.”
Along with misidentifying the Giants’ principal owner as “Paul McGowan”, the usually reliable Tony Massarotti chatted with former Mets fixture Dave Magadan in yesterday’s Boston Herald about the latter’s new gig as Red Sox hitting coach. Another case of those who can’t do (for power), teaching.
The Lawrence Eagle Tribune’s Rob Bradford investigates J.D. Drew’s employment of a biochemical detoxification specialist. Gilbert Arenas, unavailable for comment.