Sidelined (Until the 9th Inning)


While Saturday's Mets/Reds game turned into the Ike Davis Show, one of my main reasons for being there was to see Billy Hamilton. The Reds rookie speedster is the name most likely to join Rickey Henderson, Lou Brock and Maury Wills in the conversation as baseball's most intimidating base stealers.

He was certainly a game-changer in the minor leagues. 395 stolen bases in 502 games -- including an eye-catching 155 with three minor league teams during 2012. Numbers like that -- and the departure of Shin-Soo Choo as a free agent -- led to Hamilton becoming the Reds everyday center fielder.

But there'd be no base running for Billy Hamilton on April 5th. After jamming the middle finger on his left hand trying to swipe 2nd base the night before, he was pulled from the Reds lineup on Saturday morning. You can see the bandage clearly as he sits on the bench. So I was more than a little surprised in the bottom of the 9th, as Cincy tried to close out a likely win, Hamilton was out in center field (see below). Of course, we never got to find out if Hamilton could swing a bat -- Davis' grand slam kept the Reds from coming to bat again. Are you as puzzled as I that came into game? What if he had to catch a sharply hit line drive or had to dive for a ball? This early in the season, I was surprised Brian Price took that chance with his most important newcomer.

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