Homer Bailey is pitching for the Cincinnati Reds Friday night.
Upon his arrival, the Reds will climb out of the basement, leap past all the other NL Central teams en route to a 90-win season, a playoff berth and a sixth world championship.
Bailey will win the Cy Young Award despite only pitching from early June — Roger Clemens ain’t the only guy who can carry the load despite not arriving for two months! — and may even lead the league in strikeouts.
All will be forgiven after Bailey single-handedly carries the Reds out of the depths. Well, he already has the help of The Natural himself, Josh Hamilton.
It’s almost unfair!
…Uh, sorry about that. I fell asleep at the wheel for a moment.
First, it’s about time Bailey makes his debut. I’ve understood the reasoning behind not rushing a 21-year old pitcher, especially given the track record the Reds have had with growing pitchers! But this is a situation where Bailey has a sub-2.00 ERA over the last calendar year, and after getting lit up in big league camp, he has rebounded to dominate at the AAA level.
I’ve seen Bailey pitch. He’s the real deal and unless the curse of Schottzie rears its ugly head, he will join Aaron Harang and Bronson Arroyo as anchors of the starting rotation for the foreseeable future.
That said, Bailey’s been on such a limited pitch count that I don’t see him going more than five or six innings (Clemens similarity?) for the first month or so at the big league level. That leaves us with the same problem we currently have. Take Harang for instance. He gave up three runs in seven strong innings in St. Louis last night, only to see the bullpen walk what seemed like 30 batters, and the offense unable to get more than the three runs he had already given up.
Bailey can’t save the franchise if he doesn’t have a solid bullpen and a reliable, consistent offense backing him up. It’s the same reason Clemens won’t be the magic potion for the Yankees.
At this juncture, now 15 games under .500, maybe it’s best Reds fans focus on the few positives surrounding this team. Ken Griffey Jr., Brandon Phillips, Hamilton and Bailey are all either already having good seasons or will be interesting to watch the rest of the way.
Ah, but what if Bailey does win 18 of 22 decisions?