Posts tagged Josh Fogg at FanHouse

In the middle of last week, the Reds seemed really excited to have Josh Fogg on their roster. His presence allowed them to send Matt Belisle down to AAA to work on his form. I thought it was kind of funny to be excited over a middling pitcher, but hey, Josh Fogg, Matt Belisle, whatever. The problem for the Reds now is that they've got neither. Fogg pitched terribly in his start yesterday and now his back spasms have him on the 15-day DL. From the Cincy Enquirer:

"After the game, Fogg was complaining about his back. He had some back spasms and they look like they ain't going to subside. And we need some pitching help, bad," Reds manager Dusty Baker said. "So we couldn't wait with our situation, so we called up Majewski. We put Fogg on the DL."

Seeing Gary Majewski get the call-up is an ugly reminder of the Wayne Krivsky era, since he was the return in what was probably the worst trade of Krivsky's short reign in Cincy, the Austin Kearns trade. He may not be up for long, though, because the Reds need a starter to fill the hole left by Fogg and Belisle. Is it time for Homer Bailey to get another shot? We'll see later this week.

Paying back debts is never fun. Oh, so what -- so I borrowed like $30 from you that one night when I left my wallet at home and needed to buy a mojito and a cab ride for that one ugly girl at the bar. One time! You can't cut a guy a little slack?! You know I'm good for it! Ken Griffey, Jr. feels this pain. Screw actually paying someone back -- pay them back in pennies, ensuring they'll never use that money for anything ever again (via SbB):

Pitcher Josh Fogg arrived at his locker Wednesday to find it stacked with 60 boxes of pennies, 2,500 pennies to a box. He immediately looked at Griffey and said, "That's good, Griff, real funny. Kick me when I'm down." Griffey warned him but Fogg didn't believe it when Griffey said he was going to pay off a $1,500 debt in pennies. "I'm a man of my word," said Griffey. "When you owe a man $1,500, you pay him. You can't do a whole lot with pennies, can you? Just think, each box weighs 16 pounds so Fogg has 60 bowling balls in his locker."

For the record, Josh Fogg will make $1 million this year, only $400,000 of which is guaranteed. Griffey will make $12.5 million. I'm all for pranks, Griff, but sheesh: Fogg might actually need that money. Not cool, brah.

Alternately: A Fogg Descends Upon Cincinnati or Leading the Reds Out of the Fogg or any of the other 100 jokes about Josh Fogg's name that are so hacky and yet so very fun to make.

All winter, the Reds' tried their hardest to land some kind of veteran arm to bolster their pitching staff. They were at one point considered leaders for Eric Bedard's service and more recently, they've been rumored to be involved with the fire-selling A's in talks for Joe Blanton. Luckily, the good residents of Cincinnati don't have to worry about an inexperienced rotation any more because the Reds have found a solution: Dragon Slayer Josh Fogg!

Being a Pirate fan, I like to joke about Fogg as much as anyone, but his career stats show that he's a pretty average pitcher, and that's a steal for $1 million these days. He did have an impressive run with the rest of the Rockies last October, but the Reds have done well to not pay an increased price for that run and add a guy that can eat innings at the bottom of a rotation or fill space in the pen.

The real question is, of course, how Dusty Baker will handle his new veteran acquisition. There's not really any reason for Fogg to be in the Reds' rotation over Homer Bailey or Edinson Volquez, though I suppose there's a chance both of them could start the year in AAA. Given Baker's history with young arms, that's probably not the worst thing in the world either.

Mets fans aren't the only people sitting around waiting to hear the news that the Mets have signed Johan Santana to a contract extension, completing the deal that sent the Cy Young winner to New York.

Out in Colorado Josh Fogg is paying very close attention to the proceedings. Fogg is a free agent this offseason, but you haven't heard his name mentioned very often. Josh hasn't heard his name much either, but that could be changing very soon. Now that the Twins have a possible spot in the rotation to fill, they wouldn't mind filling it with Fogg.

The winter free-agent market is starting to thaw for Josh Fogg. The Minnesota Twins contacted Fogg's agent Thursday, and appear serious about adding the veteran right-hander if the Johan Santana deal goes through with the New York Mets.

Fogg went 10-9 with a 4.94 ERA last season for the Rockies, earning the nickname "Dragonslayer" from teammates after beating aces Mike Mussina, Curt Schilling and Brandon Webb. Minnesota is looking to add an experienced pitcher to help stabilize its rotation behind Francisco Liriano.

I don't mean to slight Fogg, but if you're a Twins fan, that can't be all that comforting. "Who cares if we lost Johan Santana? We're getting Josh Fogg!" It doesn't exactly keep you warm during those cold Minnesota winter nights. Though I suppose he'll come in handy should a dragon start terrorizing the Twin Cities.

The Reds have been trying all off-season to upgrade their starting rotation. That seems like a pretty good idea since they don't have much experience behind Aaron Harang, Bronson Arroyo, and Matt Belisle. Also, it seems like a pretty good idea because Matt Belisle is their #3 starter. They've been after Erik Bedard since the season ended, though their trade of Josh Hamilton for Edinson Volquez seems to have been the end of that pursuit. Now GM Wayne Krivsky appears ready to dive into the scrap heap. When asked about adding another starter he said:

"Yeah, I am," he said. "We'll see. We're still having conversations with a lot of people. It's the same as it's been."

Krivsky will not name names. But it's believed that the Reds have been in contact with right-hander Josh Fogg.

"I'm not going to confirm that," Krivsky said.

Josh Fogg! Oh yeah, now that's the cure for what ails ya. I understand wanting to add another veteran arm to the rotation, but at the same time what do Volquez and Homer Bailey have left to prove in AAA? If they add someone like Fogg to the rotation, there won't be room in the big league rotation for both of them and one will likely start the year back in the minors. I suppose the Reds think they have a chance in 2008 after the whole NL Central had back-to-back down years, but they should consider that their best way to contend is a lights out rotation where Bailey and Volquez step up behind Harang and Arroyo.

"Boom, Bust, or Bobby Bonilla" takes a look at MLB's Free Agents and the teams who need them in 2008.

Now gather 'round, dear children, and let me tell you a tale. 'Tis a tale fraught with temptation, poor statistics, and small sample sizes. Keep your ears open and listen carefully, for I'm only going to tell this story but once. The tale is that of playoff dragonslayer Jeff Suppan....

Jeff Suppan is and always has been a league average pitcher. He eats innings and generally will keep whoever he's playing for from getting beaten (he even had a winning record with the Pirates!). Still, he's not much more than average. Then a funny thing happened last year. Soup had a great post-season (his second great post-season in three years) and won himself an NLCS MVP right as he was filing for free agency. The Brewers rewarded that with an insane 4-year/$42 million contract. Now they're stuck with an aging league average pitcher that's getting paid so astronomically that they can't take him out of their rotation.

Why am I talking about Jeff Suppan? Because Josh Fogg is a lot like Suppan only he's a worse pitcher, he doesn't have an NLCS MVP award, and his "beard" is much, much more obnoxious. Still, his fluky .500 record and "Dragonslayer" reputation during the Rockies amazing run are probably going to get him paid by some GM with a short-term memory. Don't say I didn't warn you, though.

While Clint Hurdle was steadfast in assuming all responsibility and not assigning blame for his team's poor performance in the World Series, I will go ahead and say that the layoff did hurt his team. I would not go as far as to say that the Rockies would have beaten the Red Sox in the series without a layoff, but there's no doubt that they were not the same team that reeled off 21 wins in 22 games.

In Game 1, Colorado did not fare much better than any other team against Josh Beckett. On the flip side, Jeff Francis and Franklin Morales both got bombed despite pitching well in the NLDS and NLCS. Sure, the Rox got some runs on the board in Game 3 and Game 4, thanks to home runs from Matt Holliday and Garrett Atkins that brought them within one run, but Brian Fuentes only followed by allowing the Red Sox to increase their lead. The big hits from Kazuo Matsui and Yorvit Torrealba that were there earlier in the playoffs were nowhere to be seen in the World Series. Fuentes failed on the biggest stage, as did Francis, Josh Fogg, and mostly everyone in the Rockies lineup. Clint Hurdle began to panic, playing musical center fielders, and pretty much every move he made looked bad because his players didn't perform.

I don't know if the Rockies became rusty, or if they let the attention and reality sink in, but I do know that the layoff did not help them. Whatever momentum they had from sweeping to the National League pennant was lost in the layoff, while the Red Sox carried the momentum of returning from a 3-1 ALCS deficit against Cleveland. I don't think the Rockies would have beaten the Red Sox otherwise, but being off for eight days certainly did not help their case.

Actually, I think this is a bit harsh. I like Josh Fogg. I like him about as much as anyone can like a middling fourth or fifth starter that isn't really very good at baseball. Amazingly, despite a sub-par career (on a scale where 100 is perfectly average, Fogg has a career ERA+ of 91), Fogg's managed to rack up a record of 60-60 with two teams that have generally been the dregs of baseball when he's pitched for them, the Pirates and the Rockies. He's always had a knack for keeping the team he pitches for in the game, and I say this from the perspective of a guy who think statements like, "He's always had a knack for..." are total bullcrap in baseball.

Enter tonight. Faced with the biggest start of his career, Fogg was tracked with keeping the Red Sox mighty lineup in check in the thin air of Coors Field on a cold night. It wouldn't be an enviable task for anyone. Still, Fogg's job was to keep the game close and he gave up six runs in the third inning tonight. That's not keeping things close and that's a recipe for disaster in Game 3 of the World Series when you're facing an 0-2 deficit.

Still, it's hard to pin this one squarely on Fogg. Sure, he gave up six runs in less than three innings. But the Rockies did claw back to within one run, only to have Brian Fuentes shut things down. And Clint Hurdle did make the decision to have Fogg pitch instead of Franklin Morales, who shut the Sox down in relief tonight (though he was awful in Game 1). Maybe I'm just making excuses because I like Fogg, who seems like a genuinely nice guy. Still, he was the Dragon Slayer for the Rockies during their incredible run and he failed to come up big in the game of this series that they need him most. If it looks like a goat and sounds like a goat, it's probably a goat (for this game, at least).
Sorry, No Photos

For two days I've heard people say things like, "You know the Rockies aren't out of this series yet. If they can catch Dice-K in the thin air of Denver and pile some runs on, they can get a win and make this thing close." And yeah, that seemed vaguely possible. But no one was mentioning the alternative which was, "Umm, guys, not to rain on your parade or anything, but Josh Fogg is pitching for the Rockies against the Red Sox lineup in Game 3." So, yeah, maybe people should've been more focused on that possible outcome.

Before Fogg or the Rockies knew what hit him, the Sox had hung a six spot on the scoreboard in the third inning (lead by a two-run single from Dice-K!) and things were just about over.. To the Rockies credit, however, they certainly didn't go down without a fight. They scored a couple of runs off of Daisuke Matsuzaka in the sixth and Franklin Morales was electric out of the pen to stem the Red Sox tide at six runs for a while. Matt Holliday added in a huge three-run jack in the seventh to pull the Rockies to 6-5, but Brian Fuentes couldn't hold the Red Sox back and they piled on four more runs to put the win away. They simply got everything they need to win. Dice-K was solid, the lineup (particularly Jacoby Ellsbury and his four hits) picked up the slack they lost without the DH, and the pen was good enough.

I'll be honest, this game and this series have kind of gone the way I'd expect a fight between David Ortiz and Dustin Pedroia to go. The big guy laid a massive hurting on the little guy to open things up and since then he's had his hand on the little guy's head while his arms swing wildly around, desperately trying to land any kind of blow. The Rockies are certainly going down swinging in this series, but they're still going down and I don't think anything's going to change that at this point.
Sorry, No Photos

To keep up with all the action, be sure to check in on our Live Blog.

Josh Fogg's shaky two first innings seemed primed for a Red Sox burst ... and that's exactly what happened in the top of the third. The Sox batted around and scored six runs, suffered a dubious out call at the plate and benefited from an RBI contribution from Daisuke Matsuzaka, and put the Rockies in a serious hole in tonight's critical Game 3.

Jacoby Ellsbury started the inning for the Red Sox; nine batters and five runs later, Ellsbury ended Fogg's night with a line drive to left center field. The Red Sox probably should have added another run, as Manny Ramirez's turned a close play at home into a creative dodge-and-slap at the plate that seemed to salvage his slow trip from second base. Instead, Ramirez was called out, and the replays looked, um, inconclusive.

So, the Rockies: Not good. Their lineup is still potent, and they still have the ability to create runs. But they need to start tattering Matsuzaka soon before the Red Sox can turn the game over to their bullpen, or they will soon find themselves down 3-0 in the series, and totally, irrevocably screwed.