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Bronson Arroyo Has Perfect Cincinnati Reds Start

by Jason Vernon
2006-04-22

Arroyo at 3-0
Cincinnati's unexpected early rise to second place in the National League Central can be mostly attributed to the steadying influence that newly acquired Bronson Arroyo has provided the starting rotation. Arroyo won for the third time Friday night and now has a 3.04 ERA in 26.2 innings of work. As a disclaimer, though, three of Arroyo's four starts have been away from hitter friendly Great American Ballpark.

Odd Stat Line
One of the strangest stat lines of the year so far has got to be Manny Ramirez's .259/.403/.278. Manny's getting on base just fine and his batting average isn't anemic but he only has one-extra base hit so far - a double three days ago. I can't imagine that this will continue. Ramirez is still getting around on pitches, doesn't look off-balance at the plate and seems to be in a good frame of mind. Instead, I think we're just witnessing a severe statistical anomaly that should correct itself soon.

Jays Nest
The Blue Jay bullpen features three relievers who are lighting up the late innings for the Toronto ball club. Closer B.J. Ryan and set-up men Scott Schoenweis and Justin Speier are currently combining for nineteen innings pitched and only nine hits+walks allowed. Schoeneweis continues to build on his career best season of 2005 with a great start to 2006. The thirty-three year old lefty may have found his niche as a full-time late inning specialist after spending much of his career producing mediocre results in the swingman role.

Brave's Jones Murdering the Ball
In watching a number of Jones's at-bats since the 2005 season it appears that he has patented a homerun swing that can (and does) produce towering homeruns. This started last season when he broke out and crushed fifty-one homeruns, the most he had ever hit in a season by fifteen. While Jones's adherence to keeping his weight on his back leg, dipping down and producing a looping upward swing has produced a much higher career homerun rate it has not produced any more strikeouts. In fact, Jones shaved thirty-five strikeouts off his 2004 total during the 2005 season when he crushed his fifty-one. That his doubles decreased from thirty-four down to twenty-four from '04 to '05 is further evidence of his swinging for the fences. Those ten doubles lost probably became homeruns in '05.

The trend lines of his homerun and strikeout figures are very impressive and tell us that Jones's best years should be ahead of him. Jones will be twenty-nine years old the rest of the season and sits at 309 career homeruns.

Check out Jason's other daily baseball opinions.