Saturday, April 22, 2000
REDS NOTEBOOK
Who bats second with Larkin out?
BY John Fay
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Gookie Dawkins will start at shortstop today, provided he arrives from Double-A Chattanooga in time. But he will not bat second. Dawkins, the 20-year-old rookie, was called up to replace the injured Barry Larkin on the roster.
He's capable of doing that adequately in the field but not at the plate. Dawkins has a career .273 batting average in the minor leagues and has only seven at-bats in the majors.
So he will bat eighth in the order.
The question is: Who will bat second?
“It depends on who plays,” Reds manager Jack McKeon said. “We've batted (Sean) Casey second, we've hit (Dmitri) Young second, we've hit (Michael) Tucker.”
McKeon said it will be one of the those three today.
Casey has batted fourth the last three games. Young hit seventh Friday night.
The loss of Larkin will rob the Reds of speed at the top of the lineup. Only Tucker is a threat to steal. He had 11 steals last year.
WEIGHTY ISSUE: A lot of players use doughnut weights on their bats when warming up to hit. Larkin has taken it a step further. He takes batting practice with the weight on.
“I've been doing it a couple years,” he said. “It's my offseason regimen.”
Larkin hits the ball with authority with the weight on. He'll occasionally hit the ball off the weight.
“It just goes funny someplace,” he said.
WOHLERS UPDATE: Mark Wohlers, the former Atlanta closer rehabbing after surgery on his right elbow, continues to progress.
Wohlers has begun throwing every other day, rather than every third day.
“The next big step is throwing a breaking ball off the mound,” he said.
Wohlers said he thinks his fastball is in the mid-90s. He threw up to 100mph before the surgery.
“My arm strength isn't quite there,” he said.
Wohlers isn't eligible to play until May 1 because the Reds didn't offer him arbitration. He's eager to get back.
“Rehabbing for so long gets old,” he said. “There are days when I don't want to do it.”
Wohlers, who was on the disabled list at the time of the injury with an anxiety disorder that kept him from throwing strikes, has had no problems with his control.
TO COOPERSTOWN: The Reds sent the batting helmet worn by Griffey when he hit his 400th home run to the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y. Griffey signed it, dated it and wrote No.400 on it.
STAT OF THE DAY: Entering Friday, Larkin was hitting .400 with runners in scoring position, Reds pitchers were hitting .333, and the rest of the team was hitting .198.
UP NEXT: The Reds play the Dodgers at 1:15 p.m. today. Right-hander Pete Harnisch (0-1, 7.07 ERA) faces right-hander Chan Ho Park (2-1, 3.79). Harnisch was moved from his scheduled start Wednesday to today because of stiffness in his right forearm.
“He's fine,” McKeon said. “He could have gone any day. We're being safe rather than sorry at this point in the year.”
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