DUNEDIN, Fla. - The Reds will send out a lineup on Opening Day that includes five players who enter the season as everyday players for the first time. One of the big early questions will be: If they fail - or slump badly - when does Reds manager Jack McKeon make a change?
''That's a tough question,'' McKeon said. ''A lot of times it's a gut feeling. A guy may be hitting .129, but he's hitting the ball to the other side to get a run in from third, he's doing the little things to help the team win. So when you make the move depends on a lot of things.''
The Reds go into the season with two potentially big bats on the bench, and the Reds have struggled offensively this spring. They've scored two or fewer runs 11 times in 24 games, five of the last eight.
Melvin Nieves hit 20 home runs last year for the Detroit Tigers and 24 the year before. His career average is .229 and he strikes out with astonishing regularity - he averaged 157.5 the last two years - but if Chris Stynes struggles, isn't it better to have a guy with 61 career home runs in the lineup than a guy with six?
Stynes may be McKeon's favorite player, but that doesn't mean he'll be the left fielder for 162 games.
''He is today,'' McKeon said. ''But he can play second, third or left. I played him in all those last year, and I wouldn't be afraid to put him at any of those this year.''
But McKeon likely won't make a move before the season begins, even though Stynes has struggled in the spring. He's hitting .233 with one extra-base hit.
''I'd like to play (Nieves),'' McKeon said. ''But he's going to have to wait his turn. He'll temporarily be a pinch-hitter. He's got to be prepared. You never know when you're going to get a chance.''
Dmitri Young, who came over in the Jeff Brantley trade, also starts the season on the bench. Young won a Class AAA batting title in 1996 and was the Cardinals' everyday first baseman last year until they acquired Mark McGwire. He is hitting .375 this spring.
McKeon knows the new everyday guys - Stynes, Jon Nunnally, Eduardo Perez, Pokey Reese and Eddie Taubensee - Brook Fordyce - are subject to a lot of pressure.
''You always want to get off to a good start,'' Stynes said.
The problem is that slumps occur, and the pressure to get out of them often compounds things.
''You get to pressing,'' McKeon said. ''Like Willie Greene. He says, 'Everybody's counting on me. I've got a nice contract. I've got to do it.' Then he presses.''
McKeon has tried to step in before that happens.
''I told them to go out and do the best you can,'' McKeon said. ''Then you can hold your head high. It doesn't matter what the manager thinks, what the media thinks.''
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