Over at alt.sports.baseball.cinci-reds, someone wondered why Jason Ellison is on the team. One David Short replied:
Bubba Crosby and Dwayne Wise got hurt at the wrong time?
With injuries to Freel and Hamilton and Wise that left the reds with Junior, Dunn and Hopper as outfielders on the major league roster. While they became "versatile" with Freel, the roster was clogged because neither Hatteberg or Conine or either of the catchers could really play in the outfield. I guess they could have put Keppinger or Conine out there, but that still really leaves the roster with a single centerfielder, Hopper.
Either Crosby or Wise would have been pretty obvious fits. They can take 50 plate appearances and not bury you. They can cover centerfield. They're old enough that you're not hurting their development by having them sit on the bench every day. Unfortunately for them, they were hurt.
And they weren't the only ones. When this season started, Cincinnati had more outfielders than they knew what to do with. But injuries have been very cruel to the Reds outfield. Chris Denorfia had Tommy John surgery, and then was traded to the A's. Jerry Gil also had TJ surgery, and missed the entire season. And of course, Bubba missed all but two weeks of the season with shoulder tendinitis. Dewayne Wise has been on the DL three times this season for the same problem (hamstring), and is likely out for the rest of the year now. Chris Dickerson left the game Tuesday with rib cage pain, a problem he's struggled with before. At the big club, Griffey has had an odd assortment of ailments, Freel has missed most of the season with a concussion, then a knee injury, and Hamilton has spent large chunks of time on the DL with stomach and wrist problems.
So I'm not terribly surprised that the Reds have acquired yet another outfielder:
Buck Coats. He's not very good on defense (yet another converted infielder), and he's another lefty bat. But given how short the Reds system is on outfielders at the moment, I can understand why they want him. The other day, the Bats had an all-infielder outfield (Votto, Machado, and Bannon).
