Reds Opening Day Starter

What is Dusty Bakers love affair with Volquez? He used him as the number one starter against the Phillies for the division playoff series and Volquez bombed.

Now Baker wants to use him for Opening Day. I would have thought that Baker had learned his lesson and would give the ball to a more experienced pitcher like Arroyo. I know Volquez had that one great season, but so far that is all he has had, and since coming back from Tommy John surgery his starts have been erratic and shaky at best.

I know Volquez is pretty much lights out when he is on his game, but he hasn't gotten that back yet.

I recently read on reds.com that Cueto's bicep was hurting him during an outing, and he was taken to Cincinnati for further tests. I really hope he is okay and the Reds don't lose a player to the disabled list even before the season starts.

I know its to be expected that a couple of players will have some stints on the disabled list through out the season, but I was really looking forward to Cueto pitching, because he had such a good last season.

Baker Relying Too Much on Starters

Seems like Dusty Baker is relying too much on his starters and needs to take them out when they get in trouble. At today's game Sam LeCure was pitching and got into trouble with two runners on base and nobody out. It was in the sixth inning, and the game was currently tied at one apiece.

Now what does Baker do? He leaves LeCure in and Seattle scores four runs. Three of them on a two-out homer. For me it looked like in the beginning of this inning that LeCure wasn't fooling any of the batters anymore and Baker should have gotten the bullpen warmed up after the first two batters hit the ball hard.

I know the bullpen has been struggling this year, but the manager needs to go to it especially when the starter is getting hit. I'm just really disappointed. It looks like the Reds are starting to fade. They had a poor home stand and this road trip is getting off to a terrible start.