Friday, March 12, 1999
REDS NOTEBOOK
Nunnally still a Red, for now
BY CHRIS HAFT
The Cincinnati Enquirer
SARASOTA, Fla. — Jack McKeon's door was closed. Inside the manager's office Thursday morning sat outfielder Jon Nunnally and General Manager Jim Bowden.
Surely, Nunnally was being told he was traded.
But when Nunnally emerged, he was still a Red.
“Just a little friendly talk, that's all ... to let me have a sense of what's going on,” Nunnally said.
What's happening is that the Reds are still trying to reduce their surplus of outfielders but haven't reached the deal they want for Nunnally, who would seldom leave the bench if he made the Opening Day roster. Toronto, Detroit and reportedly Boston balked at what the Reds wanted in return.
“They don't just want to give me away,” said Nunnally, who has a career average of .251 in parts of four major-league seasons.
Nunnally, last year's Opening Day right fielder who was sent to Triple-A after slumping early in the season, clearly would prefer a trade.
“I like it here. I've said that before,” said Nunnally, who batted .207 with seven homers and 20 RBI. “But the way it looks, I'm not getting very much playing time. You can only imagine what it would be like during the season. So I'd rather go somewhere where I could play a little bit, or a lot.”
MILD PROGRESS: Steve Avery came close to becoming the first Red to pitch five innings this spring before a couple of bad throws — one of them his own — scuttled his chances.
Avery, who's attempting to jump-start his career, yielded just one run in four innings on David Ortiz's fourth-inning homer. But Avery walked Chris Latham and threw high to second base on a force-play attempt, giving the Twins two on with nobody out. Then first baseman Hal Morris pounced on a bunt and threw wide to third base, loading the bases. Minnesota proceeded to score three runs in the inning.
Still, McKeon thought Avery looked better than he did last Sunday, when he blanked Toronto through three innings.
“Strength-wise, he seems to be getting stronger each time out,” McKeon said. “But he's still not there. It'll take him a long time to get to where he was a while ago. He needs to build up arm strength.”
SIX GONE: The Reds on Thursday released infielder Pat Listach and left-hander Joey Eischen, optioned left-hander Jim Crowell and right-hander Keith Glauber to the minors and reassigned infielders Jason Hardtke and Rod McCall to the minor-league camp.
ETC. Greg Vaughn will be a studio guest tonight on ESPN's Baseball Tonight.
• Managing Executive John Allen arrived in camp.
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