andrew dodson

As the Reds very quickly fade from the National League Central race, they’ve decided to start dumping players & salaries. This is a typical move for teams once they give up hope on the rest of the season. In the Reds’ case, they’ve been idiotic about their moves.

First, they traded Ken Griffey, Jr. This was a bit of a surprise to me, but after some thought, I was okay with it. He is getting older, he’s never contributed much to the Reds success (or lack thereof) during his stay in Cincinnati, and his contract runs out at the end of this season. We likely wouldn’t have him back next year anyway. What did we get in return? A relief pitcher by the name of Nick Masset. To his credit, he’s pitched fairly well since coming over from the White Sox. But, really? We traded a future Hall of Famer for a no-name relief pitcher?

Today, the Reds finally made good on the season-long rumors to trade Adam Dunn. The Big Donkey is a typical big-league power-hitter. He either smashes it out of the park, walks or strikes out. Not much in between. In the field, he’s slow and error-prone. Typically, I’d be okay trading a guy like this. But, the Reds offense has been dismal this year and Dunn is the only source of consistent power in the lineup. Dunn’s 32 HR not only leads the Reds, but the Majors. After Dunn, the player with the second-most HR is Edwin Encarnacion with 22. And this is coming from a team that plays in one of the most homer-friendly ballparks in the Bigs. At the outset of the 2008 season, the offense was not a concern. As we’ve entered August, the Reds offense has yet to produce anywhere close to the levels of previous years.

What did we get for Dunn? Three minor leaguers. The only player named in the deal so far is in Single-A right now and doesn’t look all that impressive.

Both of these trades come off the heels of trading offensive-super-power Josh Hamilton in the off-season. Of the three, the Hamilton-for-Volquez trade looks brilliant so far (at least up until the All-Star break). For Griffey and Dunn, the Reds become the trade losers. They received hardly anything in return for both players. Let’s just hope the core of Votto, Bruce, Phillips, Encarnacion, Arroyo, Harang, Volquez, Cueto and Cordero can pick up the slack in 2009. I’m not holding my breath.

I got a kick out of reading this blurb today from this article.

He won despite doctors telling him to rest.

Haney was with him in Florida when doctors told Woods the preferred
treatment for the stress fractures was three weeks on crutches and three weeks
of inactivity.

“Tiger looked at the doctor and said, ‘I’m playing in the U.S. Open, and
I’m going to win.’ And then he started putting on his shoes,” Haney said. “He
looked at me and said, ‘Come on, Hank. We’ll just putt today.”’

Get well soon, Tiger.

Reds fans were shocked when the team traded rising-star outfielder Josh Hamilton to the Texas Rangers for an “unknown” pitcher - Edinson Volquez. “What are they thinking?” we all asked. The fact that the offense-heavy Reds needing pitching help wasn’t debated. We just wondered why we’d trade one of our best offensive players from 2007 for a virtual nobody.

The Fall and Rise of Hamilton

Hamilton’s story is becoming more and more well-known. He was a highly touted top draft pick of the Tampa Bay Rays in 1999. However, the fame and fast paced life of a professional athlete got the best of him. He fell into struggles with drugs and alcohol. Between the years of 2002-2005, Hamilton was suspended by Major League Baseball for violating the substance abuse policy. He made several trips to rehab and attempted suicide three times [1]. It was also during this time that he found Christ - the strength to lead him away from his life of sin [2].

By 2007, Hamilton had made his way back to the Major Leagues, making the Cincinnati Reds’ roster out of spring training. He surprised everyone with a solid season (.292 BA, 19 HR, 47 RBI), while playing only 90 games due to injuries.

This season, Hamilton is shocking the world. He is currently near the top of each Triple Crown category in the American League - .327 BA, 12 HR, 53 RBI in just 52 games. I think it’s safe to say he’s returned to the form that made him a top draft pick in 1999.

Young Pitcher to Cy Young?

Edinson Volquez’s rise to semi-fame hasn’t been quite as dramatic as Josh Hamilton, but just as interesting. Volquez needed a bit of “humble pie” to turn his baseball career around.

A star in the Texas Rangers farm system, Volquez was eventually promoted to the Major Leagues. During two brief stints with the Rangers is 2005 and 2006, the Rangers were terribly unsatisfied with Volquez’s performance, both on the field and off. To bring Volquez to maturity - as a person and player - the Rangers demoted him to Single-A. They gave him rules to follow - including cutting his hair, who he could talk to and several other seemingly strict rules [1].

Not only has Volquez done what’s been asked of him, but he has excelled at every level along the way. Following the Hamilton trade, Volquez amazed the Reds organization in spring training - enough to make the Opening Day roster, with a spot in the starting rotation.

Volquez has been nothing short of amazing so far this season. He is currently 7-2 with a National League-best ERA of 1.31. With Aaron Harang and Bronson Arroyo struggling on the mound, Volquez has emerged as the ace of the Reds staff after the first quarter of the season.

The Best Trade Ever?

With the success of both Hamilton and Volquez on their new teams, we have to ask if this is one of the best trades in baseball history? Rarely have we seen a trade work out to this degree of success for both clubs. Hamilton has plugged an offensive hole in the Rangers’ lineup and Volquez is sustaining what could be a solid starting rotation for the Reds if the rest of the staff can get hot.

It’s that time of week… time to randomly blog:

• CLS has picked up steam over the last couple of weeks.  I’m going to try my best to keep up with blogging, but I am prepared to be working some overtime over the next several weeks.  Along with other projects, the blog might get forgotten about some days!
• NCAA Final Four this weekend - my pick in North Carolina, as much as I don’t like that.  I just think they’re too powerful.  With the way they’ve beaten people in the tourney so far, they remind me a lot of another extremely talented team that won it all by pounding teams in the tournament - the 1996 Kentucky Wildcats.
• Baseball season is now in full swing.  UK got off to an amazing start, but they’re now into SEC play, and have lost a handful of games over the last couple of weeks.  The Reds kicked off their season yesterday with a 4-2 loss to the Diamondbacks.  The staff gave up three homers, and the Reds only mustered three hits.  Fortunately, they have 161 games left to turn things around.
• Seriously - the Drop Trio is good.  Check them out.  The Leap album is a completely improvised album, which I’d normally love, but judging from some 30-second sound clips, it’s not as groove oriented as their other two releases.
• I’m enjoying Wordpress 2.5 so far.  If you haven’t upgraded yet, you should!

I’m just getting this one in under the wire.  Technically, there’s still an hour left in the day!

• UK kicks off NCAA tournament play tomorrow afternoon.  I haven’t filled out my bracket just yet, but I’m praying for a Stanford and Texas upset.  Of course, we have to get past a tough Marquette squad first.
• Georgetown’s men’s basketball team is still undefeated after the first round of the NAIA national tournament.  The Tigers are now 33-0 on the season!
• I don’t think UNC will win the NCAA title.  I think it’ll be somewhat of a surprise team.  While I’ve yet to fill out a bracket, I’m not ruling out a Louisville or Georgetown champion.  I still don’t think we’ve seen Louisville play to their full potential, and the Hoyas are pretty tough.  We’ll see how my bracket unfolds, though.
• If you need a church to attend for Easter, try The Point.

Go Cats!  Go Tigers!

As the steroid saga continues to unfold in Major League Baseball, I came across an interesting quote. This quote sums up sin and repentance quite nicely. In particular, this pitcher’s confession of steroid use publicly is an encouragement to the church. We should confess our sins to one another. Once they are made public, we have nothing to stand behind. If we are truly loved by our Christian brothers and sisters, they will show us mercy, compassion, support and encouragement. Here is the quote:

“I didn’t used to be this way, but I’m at the point where I know what I did was wrong 100 percent, no excuses, not justification, no rationalization. I screwed up and I crossed the line,” the 37-year-old pitcher told The Associated Press in an interview from his home in Scottsdale, Ariz., on Wednesday.

“I feel like I’ve been shown mercy in all of this,” Herges said. “If I’m not standing there naked in front of the world with my big secret, I’d still be holding onto it, hiding it. It would still be eating at me. It’s not fun by any stretch holding onto something like that, so secretive, so dirty. I’m grateful it’s out there. I’m freed a little bit, a lot actually.”

Read the full article here.

Thanks to some borrowed internet from a couple of floors below my apartment, I thought I’d celebrate with some random blogging (thanks Jeremy!):

Giants Win Super Bowl

No, this isn’t a news flash.  I’m a couple of days late on congratulating the Giants on their Super Bowl win.  I did want the Patriots to win.  After all, how many times will we get an opportunity to see a team go undefeated in the NFL?  It’s only happened once, so it’s not an easy feat.  But, Eli played great, the Giants defense played great, and they made plays when they needed to make them.  It is cool to see a Manning win the Super Bowl in back-to-back seasons.  I venture to say they may be playing each other in next year’s Super Bowl.  Finally, I thought it was a pretty punk move for Bill Belichick to walk off the field before the game was over.

New Apartment

I’ve settled into the new apartment, at long last.  My new love seat arrived today, so I finally have a place for people to sit!  I’m still debating on getting another chair, but for now, it’ll have to wait.  Next on the list is a dresser.  I’ve got my eye on one at Another Man’s Treasure.  I just hope it’s still there when I go back in a couple of weeks.  My old roommate certainly rubbed off on me.  His sense of style is pretty good for a bachelor.  I’ve found myself thinking like him while picking out stuff for the apartment.  No more hodge-podge of stuff that doesn’t match.  I want this place to look good!  Once I get settled in a bit more, I’ll take some pictures and post them.

 Current Reading

I’ve yet to start a book for February.  With the move, life’s been a little hectic.  I’ve kept up with my daily Scripture reading (barely), but that’s all I’ve had time to read each day.  Next on the list will be one of the following:  When I Don’t Desire God by John Piper, Faith in Future Grace by John Piper (re-read), or The Practice of Godliness by Jerry Bridges.

The Georgetown Tigers men’s basketball team is 22-0 as of this post.  Last night, they survived an overtime battle with Pikeville, 87-79.  They are now 2-0 in MSC games.  Go Tigers!

I’ve had a productive and yet restful weekend.  Friday evening, I spent time setting up my home electronic drums (a hodgepodge of different pads & hardware).  My new Alesis Trigger came in, so I wanted to get started using it with the included BFD software.  It came with BFD Lite, but it is a really cool piece of software.  I’m planning to upgrade to the full version to get access to more higher-quality sounds.

Saturday, I sat in disappointment as the ‘Cats dropped a game to Louisville.  This team is going to set new lows for the program.  Don’t believe me?  Read this.

Saturday evening, the Josh Martin Band had a belated Christmas get-together, sans Doug (who had a family get-together of his own).  We had a good dinner and enjoyed each other’s company - without playing music - for a change.  It’s rare that we’re all together to hang out when we’re not playing music.  We did, however, have a “band meeting” to discuss some plans for 2008.  Perhaps the biggest news is that we might be adding a new member to the group, along with recording our next studio project.

Today was a great day at The Point.  Please go listen to the sermon if you get a chance.  Good stuff.  This afternoon, I spent some quality time on the media site, revamping the structure of the sermons page.  My humble attempt to mimic Desiring God’s sermon resource library.

Random Link:

• Slate has a good article on Joel Osteen.  My favorite quote from Joel - “I’m not called to explain every minute facet of Scripture or to expound on deep theological doctrines or disputes that don’t touch where people live.  My gift is to encourage, to challenge, and to inspire.”  Get out of the pulpit then!

Here’s some random blogging for you…

• I watched most of the Dave Matthews Band’s Live at Piedmont Park DVD last night.  It’s great!  Of the live DVDs they’ve released so far, I think this one is the best at capturing DMB’s live performance.  I highly recommend picking this up if you’re a fan.  If you’re not sure if you like DMB, find someone that owns this and watch it.
• I’m really liking Sara Bareilles’ “Love Song” right now.  Very catchy.
• The Bourne Ultimatum is finally out on DVD.  I watched it this past weekend, and I’ll likely be watching it again sometime on my Christmas break.
• UK’s basketball team will finish around .500 this year.  Getting Jasper and Meeks back will help, but this team needs more size.  If the UAB game is any evidence, even when we shoot close to 60%, we’re still very beatable.  Don’t look for the Cats to crack the Top 25 until this time next year at the earliest.  I hope I’m wrong on all of this.

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