To me, it’s a mental thing.

Phillips is a tremendous player. Excellent power. Excellent glove. Excellent speed.

He just doesn’t seem to feel comfortable hitting cleanup. Maybe he tries to hit for power more than he would hitting elsewhere. With his speed, it’s better if his power production dips slightly and he reaches base more often, and steals more of them.

It seems like Phillips tries to knock the cover off the ball sometimes, thinking that’s what a cleanup hitter is at that position to do. It results in less walks, less singles, and less pitches thrown by the opposing team.

Phillips can’t be faulted for altering his approach at the plate because of where he is in the lineup. He’s not a complainer. He won’t blame anything on anyone. He’ll just try to do what he thinks is best for team wherever they put him. That’s why he didn’t put the kibosh on shifting to shortstop when ideas like signing Orlando Hudson were brought up.

“What lineup would work better?” is quite an easy question to answer. Get Phillips out of the four-hole, and the team is better.

It seems like the Reds starting pitching this year will be decent. Offensively, players need to have defined roles….and those roles should be ones in which they can thrive rather than trying to do or be someone they are not.

The other issue which must be thought long and hard on is right fielder Jay Bruce. No one expected him to keep hitting .500 like he did when he was first brought up last year. While by no means is Bruce a bust, his struggles at the plate thus far in 2010 create more questions than Cincinnati’s brass currently has answers for.

It’s OK to strike out a lot while hitting a lot of home runs. The issue is Bruce’s production level, related to his home run hitting prowess.

The cliché about hitters having “holes” in their swings is true…and that’s probably how it got to be used so often that it sounds cliché. Upon Bruce’s arrival last year, it seemed like his power numbers would be excellent, but that he would also put the ball into play more than he has.

The Reds are faced with a tough decision. It appears that Yonder Alonso will be Major League ready in the not-too far off future. Joey Votto is the team’s first baseman, and if the team has its druthers they will take the necessary steps to keep him there for a long time. Just about anybody can play right field, and if the team isn’t completely sold on Bruce being there it would make sense for them to entertain trade offers for him down the road.

My concern about Bruce is that to a high degree, he has been figured out. Like Mike Jacobs, Rob Deer, and Pete Incaviglia before him, Bruce might just be one of those guys who will launch the ball about 400 feet nearly every time a pitcher makes a mistake and throws it over the small quadrant of the plate which he feasts off of.

If the pitcher avoids that part of the plate, hitters of this ilk have proven themselves to be turtles flipped onto their backs. Easy outs.

Is Bruce like the other players mentioned, a guy who can mash a pitch if it’s thrown into his spot? If so, very high strikeout totals, low OBP, and a number of home runs not high enough to cancel out the other factors could create a set of damning circumstances for his promising career.

Perhaps a hitting instructor can help Bruce adjust, and put the ball into play more often. Perhaps a trip down to Louisville could help him work on his hitting, and increase his confidence.

While Bruce did reach base a few times in the series opener against the Marlins, concerns linger that his 3-23 start to this season is a sign of things to come.

It’s certainly too early to write him off…but it’s also important to figure out if Bruce can blossom into more than a bad-ball hitter.

2010 will be the year in which the Reds have to figure out if Bruce can figure out Major League pitching, or if his career is going to be one of such streakiness (laced with periods where he looks simply outmatched) that playing him day in and day out is of detriment to the team.

Hopefully, over the next few months Bruce will get into the groove, start hitting above .250 and make the concerns expressed here seem silly.

If this does not happen, it might be best for the Reds to trade him while he still has value, and give him a fresh start somewhere else.

Is Jay Bruce someone who will blossom into a 40 HR/110 RBI slugger, or someone who will strike out with runners on in clutch situations most of the time?

Categorical scoring does not allow team owners to exhibit the riverboat gambler tendencies which are hallmarks of champion teams in head-to-head league play. Rotisserie scoring is kind of like a cassette tape. Perhaps it was useful once in the past, but I’m not sure why anybody would choose the medium when superior options are available.

My team has more stolen bases than yours, I win! Fail. On all parties.

How can a game played between teams trying to outscore each other be played in a fashion which has little to do with that core element? If one baseball team hits four home runs, and loses 13-6, should they take solace in the fact that the other team only left the yard once?
I have always been sure that head to head fantasy sports are better than rotisserie style, if by always you get that I mean the five years I have been playing fantasy sports.

Fantasy football is awesome because even if you get trounced by dozens one week, if you eke out a few victories in a row, the playoffs are in sight.

Rotisserie gaming creates insurmountable deficits. It also minimizes the one team against another facet of game play which creates rivalries, trash talking as an art form, and other aspects which contribute to the competitiveness of league play.

There is something boring about not having weekly specific opponents. Good luck making up that .75 on the ERA category after the All Star break. Not gonna happen.

What does happen in Roto leagues is people making Justin Verlander for Nyjer Morgan trades because they need stolen bases. Juan Pierre is as valuable in Roto leagues as he is nominal in head to head play.

I’m really not sure why I joined a Roto league this year. Perhaps I thought it would be fun, and I would be proven wrong. Again, not gonna happen. My guess is that of the 14 people in the Baseball Daily Digest organized league, six to eight of them will still be paying attention to it come August.

With my two leagues beginning tonight, I feel excited about the weekly roster setting (as opposed to daily in Roto) in my H2H league, and divisional play.

I don’t mean to be negative, it is just apparent to me that fantasy sports are fun because of head to head play….not pack pursuit of individual statistical categories.

Scoring points,whether it be by a single, a stolen base, and a run scored or a home run should be just that….scoring points.
When it becomes a five-month long, slogging race to the end the fun of fantasy baseball gets lost on me.

I meant, I can’t wait for this Roto league to start! I may not have a division, or an opponent, but this is going to be a blast!

For every guy who is brought along the right way, there is a Bill Pulsipher. When fans, and team brass expects what a scout tells them about a guy to translate onto the field, you have some of the base ingredients for failure.

Add in large amounts of money, and comparisons to Sandy Koufax, Cy Young, and Randy Johnson, and it is really easy to see why so many “next great pitchers” end up with no career at all (Brien Taylor)…or a very pedestrian one (Paul Wilson, Todd Van Poppel).

While much is made of how prospects for big-market teams like the Yankees and Mets are expected to be who scouts said they would be, we don’t often think about what it’s like for a guy like Aroldis Chapman….who signed with a team no one thought had a shot at inking him.

The Reds don’t often spend big money on anything, or any one. For them to invest $30 million on a 22-year old just because of a few dazzling World Baseball Classic performances, and three numbers that often pop up on the radar gun when he pitches is as daring and exciting as it is scary for all parties concerned.

With people saying “Randy Johnson and Nolan Ryan were wild when they were young too” each time Chapman walks a batter, it is easy to see how overanalyzing each step he takes can become quite the burden.

Ask Homer Bailey, who seems to be coming into his own after wrapping his head around the fact that despite what billboards and columnists said, that opposing batters would occasionally reach base against him.

With a lanky build, a gigantic gold chain, and a family still in Cuba, it seems like a very hard transition for Chapman to make.

A good thing about Chapman’s development and impending big league debut is the alarming lack of production from Reds’ fifth starters in years past.

Although fans probably expect Aroldis to mow down hitters, the smart ones will realize that he can roll out of bed and offer better results than the myriad cast of Reds’ starters who have gone through the revolving door during the past decade.

While people who like to imagine themselves as good writers tend to shy away from cheesy sayings like “time will tell,” I really think that is all we can say about the Red with the microscope on his every move.

I believe Chapman would be better suited starting the year down in Louisville, which would give Justin Lehr, or Matt Maloney (who I think can be solid) a chance to stick.

We can only hope that Dusty Baker coddles Chapman a bit, and his recent comments about how Chapman still needs to learn how to run the bases, bunt…and man his position defensively speak to that.

As Baker said, if the Reds were in the AL, it would be easier to throw him into the fire. The last thing the Reds need is for Chapman to take the mound, and watch the opposing team walk, bunt, and steal bases all over him. It could be disastrous for his confidence.

I strongly believe that given a few months in AAA, Chapman will arrive at Great American Ball Park better prepared to succeed.

The tough part is that GABP is not a place where you need “ground ball pitchers.” It’s so tiny you need strikeout pitching fireballers.

While Reds fans are so eager for a winner that they wouldn’t mind seeing Chapman start the season with the club, I don’t believe that’s the right move. As Monday’s outing against the Rockies showed, he still has a lot to learn, and poise to gain.

I’m not sure of the seriousness of the “lower back strain” Chapman suffered, but I doubt it is significant. What will be is the willingness and ability of the entire Reds organization to bring him along in a responsible manner.

If they do, they can avoid the mistakes made dozens of times by dozens of teams with dozens of young pitchers…who all too often end up on the scrap heap because they were rushed into things, and not given enough time to grow into the supreme talents we all expect them to be.