FanHouse ScottHatteberg

Michael Lewis' book about Billy Beane's strategy in making a small-market team successful in Major League Baseball, "Moneyball," is going to be made into a feature-length movie. Shooting isn't set to begin until June, but many of the key players are being put in place. Brad Pitt is going to play Oakland A's general manager Beane (the two are pictured side-by-side here) and Steven Soderbergh will be the director.

Now, according to variety.com, Demetri Martin has been added to the fray, and he'll play Paul DePodesta, currently employed by the Padres, but formerly the Dodgers general manager and Beane's assistant GM in Oakland.

I don't understand how it can be a day before the start of the season and a team can not have named a starting first baseman, but that's the situation the Reds are in right now. All spring the debate has been logic vs. Dusty Baker, personified by Joey Votto vs. Scott Hatteberg. When asked by John Fay about the first base situation today, he had this to say:

"(The starting first baseman) is whoever's playing that day. Joey Votto has a great upside," Baker said. "But Hatteberg had a great spring. We'll go with matchups. (The seven spot) is an important spot in the lineup. Adam Dunn had an OK spring. Edwin (Encarnacion) struggled.

Translated that means, "Everyone says that Votto can hit, but his veteranosity quotient is not nearly high enough for me and so Hatteberg is going to play." I love the comment about the "match-ups." Both Votto and Hatteberg hit left-handed and both hit much better against righties than lefties. Does that mean Hatteberg gets most of the starts against righties while Votto hits against lefties, giving Dusty more "evidence" to keep playing Hatteberg? I hope not, but that's where this seems to be headed to me.

It's not exactly a surprise, but the Reds said today that they're going to pick up Adam Dunn's $13 million option for 2008. It's a hefty price tag for a guy that's not the most popular player in Cincinnati, but 40-homer, .900 OPS guys don't just grow on trees. Plus, at least they can trade him if they can't extend him. From C. Trent Rosecrans' blog:

And, yet another note. Apparently Adam Dunn is off fishing and out of cell phone range, so you'll not be hearing from him today. I've left voice mails for everyone, will keep you updated.

Just talked to Wayne. Nothing too exciting.

Asked Wayne if there had been any talks of an extension for Dunn:
"Not at this point, right now we picked up this option, but I'm open-minded going forward."

The Reds also picked up options on Scott Hatteberg and Javier Lopez Javier Valentin (must still have the playoffs on the brain), while declining Eddie Guardado's. Of course, those guys aren't as interesting as Dunn. I'd imagine that for the rest of the winter, talk will swirl around whether the Reds are planning on signing Dunn to an extension or trading him.

Anyone who has read Michael Lewis' seminal book Moneyball knows of the saga of Scott Hatteberg. Hatteberg was a discarded catcher, a player whose talents were underrated -- and then totally written off -- after Hatteberg suffered a serious arm injury.

But thanks to his clinical approach at the plate, Hatteberg rescued his career at first base for the Athletics, who under GM Billy Beane have made a cottage industry out of finding overlooked talent. According to this story in the Cincinatti Post, Hatteberg realizes just how lucky he was to find Beane, or more accurately, to have Beane find him:

"I could be working at a Blockbuster somewhere," said Hatteberg, who played with the A's from 2002-05.

That's when he was approached by Beane, who wanted to turn him into a first baseman.

"It was his idea," Hatteberg said of the move to first. "He sold me on a bunch of at-bats and I couldn't ask for more than the opportunity and then I had to learn a whole new position."

Moneyball is a fantastic book, and Hatteberg's story makes for one of the most interesting in the work. But it does include plenty of embarrassing detail about Hatteberg's climb back into the game ... and Adam Dunn is being sort of a jerk about it:

Hatteberg said teammate Adam Dunn even bought the book just so he could read that chapter and make fun of him.

"I liked the part about his wife hitting him fungoes," Dunn said. "That's the only good part about that book."

(HT: BBTF)

The Phillies were cruising. They were working on a combined one hitter through 26 outs at the Great American Ballpark. All Tom Gordon needed to do was get one more out. With all that has happened to the Phillies this young season, they could have really used something to spark them. Instead, the Reds got the spark as Scott Hatteberg's game tying home run sent them to extra innings, where they beat the Phillies 2-1 in the tenth.

"It's definitely a hard game to swallow," said Gordon, who has a 5.68 ERA. "To get to that point where it's right there - it's a tough one."

That's the second day in a row where the Phillies and Gordon struggled in the ninth inning and beyond. Thursday, Gordon allowed two inherited runners to score in the ninth, but the Phillies had enough cushion to survive 4-2. Friday, there was no margin for error.

Earlier in the game, Charlie Manuel looked like a genius for replacing Brett Myers in the rotation with Jon Lieber. Lieber went 5 and 2/3's innings of scoreless baseball, and the much maligned bullpen, which included the man Jon Lieber replaced (Brett Myers), was phenomenal ... until Gordon. So does Manuel have another pitching shuffle in his future that he will announce at the end of another rambling press conference?

"Right now, Gordon's our closer," Manuel said. "He's been our closer, we signed him as a closer. That's something we haven't even discussed. We've got to get him sharp."

Color me not convinced.

Previously on The Fanhouse:
Charlie Manuel vs. Howard Eskin: Who Ya Got?
Phillies Send Brett Myers to Bullpen
Charlie Manuel is Full of Surprises

The Cubs and GM Jim Hendry received a ton of ridicule this off-season for their ginormous spending spree. Chief amongst the complaints was the money spent on pitchers Ted Lily (4 years/$40 million) and Jason Marquis (3 years/$21 million). The two guys certainly provide an upgrade over what the Cubs had in their rotation last year, but the price tag paid by Hendry is certainly steep.

After one series, the two new pitchers have acquitted themselves quite well. Ted Lily was flat out brilliant yesterday, tossing seven innings and allowing only one run on three hits to go with nine strikeouts to lead the Cubs to their first win of the year. Today was Jason Marquis' turn and he gave the Cubs another good performance, going six innings and only giving up one run on four hits. Unfortunately for Marquis, the 2-1 lead he had staked them out to didn't last very long as the Reds scored four runs off of the only part of the team the Cubs didn't spend an arm and a leg on this off-season, the bullpen, to gain the 5-2 win and take the season opening series from the Cubbies.

Scott Hatteberg lead the offensive charge for the Reds today scoring twice and ripping a two run homer in the eighth inning to give the Cubs enough insurance to pull away. Edwin Encarnacion also knocked in a run and scored a run and Kyle Lohse managed to only allow 2 runs in 6 and 1/3 innings despite allowing 10 hits over his outing. The biggest enemy to the Cubs, however, was themselves as the Reds' go ahead 7th inning rally was keyed by two walks and a wild pitch.

From here the Reds stay home to host the division leading (?!) Pirates (assuming the snow can hold off) while the Cubs go to Milwaukee to take on the Brewers.