Game 26 Open Thread: May 1, 2006

mulder arroyo
2-0, 3.53 4-0, 2.34

re anthony reyes' mysterious disappearance from the memphis rotation: bernie miklasz supposedly had some discouraging news on his radio show this morning. quoting from cardblog in walt we trust:

i have a call in to dyar miller, will let you know what i hear. the memphis redbirds' pr guy, kyle parkinson, was pretty tight-lipped; he says only that "it's good any time you can get a guy some extra rest," a non-answer that makes bernie's take sound all the more credible. reyes' regular turn was supposed to be friday; that originally got pushed back to tonight, but he's not pitching. dennis tankersley is.

more whenever . . . .

an update on brad voyles (does anyone care except me?), who injured himself while warming up last thursday: it's not his arm but his pec, which he popped somehow in the course of making a warmup toss. weird injury; parkinson says it may land voyles on the dl.

wayne krivsky has only been the reds' gm for four months or so. think he's made a difference? here's some of what he's done:

• traded wily mo pena for bronson arroyo. arroyo went 4-0 in april and has the league's 8th-best era (2.34). the reds haven't missed pena at all; on the contrary, the subtraction of his undisciplined bat probably improved the cincinnati offense, which leads the nl in scoring, on-base pct, and walks.
  
• picked up brandon phillips for cash. in 18 games at 2b, phillips has hit .349, slugged .587, and driven in 22 runs.
  
• signed scott hatteberg, re-signed rich aurilia. both bargain acquisitions, both playing well early on -- hatteberg posted a .431 obp in april, while aurilia slugged .521. could be either a) useful bench players if the reds stay in the race, or b) attractive trade chips if the reds fall out of contention.
  
• locked up adam dunn for three more years, cheap.

not bad for a start. some of his moves don't look so good; the pitcher he got for sean casey (dave williams) has a 9.53 era so far, and the tony womack acquisition didn't exactly work out for him. but on the whole he has done a nice job in a short span of redistributing that organization's talent and applying its resources.

the reds can't keep winning like this, for a whole range of reasons -- to name one, they've allowed a league-worst 41 homers so far, which extrapolates to 265 (!!!) over a full season. they have no rotation and no closer. but they have a surplus of young, talented position players, and if krivsky continues to manipulate it sure-handedly then brighter days may lie ahead for the reds.

the last time mark mulder pitched at great american ballpark, he had perhaps his most discouraging start as a cardinal. since that date he has an era of 2.90, which ranks 8th among nl pitchers with more than 100 innings pitched (thanks day by day database).