Homer Bailey

The Baseball Jimmy with Caesar Cliffius Eastham and Sir Illya Charleton Harrell

Illya Harrell: Cliff, As Jerry Reed so eloquently sang in Smokey and the Bandit we, “Have a Long Way To Go and a Short Time To Get There.”

Down to brass tacks, who should the Reds attempt to acquire before the Major League trade deadline?

Entering the 2010 baseball season, the Cincinnati Reds and their fans had lofty expectation for the starting staff. Bronson Arroyo, Homer Bailey, Johnny Cueto, Aaron Harang, and Mike Leake have gone way above and beyond those expectations since, on April 24, manager Dusty Baker went "Bull Durham" on the entire team.

The month of May has been good to the Cincinnati Reds. They have gone 7-4 through a Cardinals, Cubs, Mets and Pirates slate.

The hitting is coming around, currently ranked fifth in the N.L. with 158 runs scored. But the major turn-around as been courtesy of the starting pitching.

After a magical one-hit complete game shut-out by Johnny Cueto, Homer Bailey followed suit. He gave up a whopping five hits over a complete game shut-out. The legendary Dayton Daily News beat writer Hal McCoy sums it up best:

Ramon Hernandez knocked in the winning run in the last of the eighth inning as the Cincinnati Reds did what they do best.

They came from behind to score the winning run in their last at-bat for the seventh time in eight wins.

The Reds evened their homestand at 3-3, while putting the skids on the San Diego Padres win streak at eight. They won the series against the Los Angeles Dodgers 2-1 before the Padres came to town.

After a bleak 0-2 start, the Cincinnati Reds kicked it in gear and won five of their next six, before losing two straight to the Florida Marlins

At the 10-game mark in 2010 there are some things that need to be noted.

First: The seven-time Gold Glove winning third baseman, Scott Rolen leads the team with three errors. He is the only Reds player to have committed more than one miscue.

Listed below, are the points and counterpoints about what the Reds should do about Homer Bailey:

Point: The Reds will give him the entire season and evaluate then.

Counterpoint: They may do that but a team that is serious about winning can't keep running Bailey out there.

P: They won't know what they have until September.

CP: It is obvious what they have. He is inefficient. He can't put hitters away.

P: He pitched very well at the end of 2009. 

A perfect example of Reds starting pitcher Homer Bailey came Wednesday night against the Florida Marlins. The frustration fans have felt about this guy is back.

We all thought he had turned the corner. We all thought the former phenom finally "got it." We all thought the Reds had found a solid starter for the next 10 years.

Looks like we were wrong.

Sure, the season is still in its infancy, and the marathon is still in the first mile, but so far Bailey has shown he is still not there yet.

Homer Bailey did not deserve what he was served by Dave Weathers last night.

Bailey was pitching one of the best games you could imagine.  Through seven innings, he had limited the St. Louis Cardinals to just two hits and was ahead 3-0.

Bailey entered the eighth inning with the dreaded 100-pitch count just in sight.  After giving up a pinch-hit single to Cody Rasmus, he coaxed Brenden Ryan to fly out.  With a man on and one out, Bailey walked Skip Schumaker, giving Dusty Baker something to do besides chew on a toothpick. 

CINCINNATI—Some losses are easy to take. Some are harder than others. Then you have the true heart breakers. The final stage of losses are the ones that make you sick—literally, like head over the toilet sick.

Friday night's Cincinnati loss to St. Louis falls into the latter category.

Homer Bailey started for the Reds and had his best outing in the three years that the team has been shuffling him up and down between the big club and the minors.

Though we are still a few weeks away from Opening Day, most pitchers have made three to four Spring Training starts at this point. It’s still a small sample size (the league leader in IP has just 14.2), but that hasn’t stopped some from being very impressive. With competitions heating up for rotation spots, let’s take a look at five pitchers helping their cause early on:

Homer Bailey, Cincinnati Reds: 10.0 IP, 0.90 ERA, 10 H, 1 BB, 10 K