New 'King Cobra' in town for Cincinnati Reds: the dangerous Fernando Cruz | Press Box Wag
ARLINGTON, Texas — What do you get the Cincinnati Reds pitcher who has everything?
Everything a pitch lab could dream up? Everything a manager could dream of having when the moment’s the hottest, the bases the drunkest?
If it’s reliever Fernando Cruz and that strikeout maker of a split-finger fastball, it’s gotta be a nickname.
“I’m not good at nicknames,” teammate Emilio Pagán said. “You can come up with one.”
Dominator? Nah. Houdini? Nope.
“Hey, Frankie, what’s Spanish for splitter,” teammate Brent Suter called across the clubhouse to pitcher Frankie Montas.
That would be Dedo Separada, Montas said.
Maybe?
“No,” Montas said. “We already found a name for Cruz. He’s the King Cobra.”
Yes.
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“We came up with that name,” Montas said, referring to the starting pitchers and trainer Tomas Vera.
“Every time after he throws an inning we say, ‘The Cobra attacked again.’ “
With all due respect to former Reds outfielder Dave “the Cobra” Parker, this might be the most appropriate Reds nickname since Charlie Hustle.
Cruz not only has the numbers through the first month of the season to rival anybody else in baseball for top clutch reliever, he looked downright predatory when he entered back-to-back games last week against the Phillies with the bases loaded and men at second and third, respectively — and only one out each time.
“I love to be in those situations,” he said. “I’d welcome 100 more of them.”
He struck out $300 million Trea Turner and got J.T. Realmuto on a liner to center to end the first threat and preserve a 5-1 lead. A strikeout and fly ball again the next day snuffed that rally to preserve a two-run lead.
“Any athlete wants those situations,” said Cruz, who calls his splitter, which is among the handful of best pitches anybody in the game throws, a “gift from God” he can use to help his team.
“When the game is in your hand it’s a whole different world, the concentration, the focus you have to have — the must-do thinking.”
The King Cobra.
“It’s another level of ‘here it is.’ It’s win or lose right here,” he said.
For the Reds it’s the kind of bullpen weapon few teams have — the strikeout guy who can face down even the most dangerous hitters in the hottest spot of a game.
“He’s fearless,” manager David Bell said.
Consider the results (through Friday):
In 20 plate appearances with men in scoring position, he’s allowed one hit (.063 average) and struck out nine.
With the men at second and third or bases loaded, that improves to no hits and six strikeouts in 12 plate appearances.
In 27 PAs in so-called late-and-close situations, it’s two hits allowed (.087) and 13 strikeouts; in 20 “high-leverage” PAs it’s 1 and eight.
Not surprisingly, the Reds are 8-3 when he pitches.
“It’s an amazing thing,” said Cruz, 34, whose long-and-winding path to this point in his career took years of perseverance and a decade of working on that signature pitch after first learning it — with stops in independent ball along the way.
“It’s a blessing from above right now in the situation where I am,” he said, “with the team and how they’re using me. I’m just blessed, man.”
The Big Number: 0
That’s how many errors Reds shortstop Elly De La Cruz committed in his last 16 games through Friday after making five errors in his first 11 (including four in a week). The Reds are 1-3 when he makes an error.
For what it's worth, that number also is how many days De La Cruz hasn't been in the starting lineup.
About Time
With umpire vacations approaching, an MLB regular-season debut for the first woman big-league umpire could be imminent — albeit, years behind the NFL and nearly two decades behind the NBA.
“It’s definitely time,” Bell said. “I’m surprised that we’re even talking about that. It should just be normal.”
Former Hofstra softball star Jen Pawol worked a Grapefruit League rotation of big-league games this spring and is one of seven minor-league women umpires. She’s a Triple-A crew chief and is on MLB’s callup list for possible fill-in assignments for injuries and vacations.
Bell laughed when he was asked if it would change the way he approaches arguing with an umpire. His 27 career ejections put him among the top six active managers in getting tossed.
“No,” he said. “I don’t see any difference.”
He Said It
“I always think about the next base.”
*De La Cruz, who leads the majors in stolen bases.
In fact, his 17 through Friday put him on pace for 106 — which would be second all-time in franchise history to the esteemed Hugh Nicol, who nabbed 138 bags in 1887 (and another 103 the following year).
Talk About a Sweeper
Until splitting that four-game series against the Phillies to finish the last homestand, the Reds had played three consecutive series that ended in sweeps (sweeping the White Sox in Chicago, getting swept in Seattle and sweeping the Angels at home).
The last time the Reds had three consecutive sweeps?
De La Cruz’s first two weeks in the majors last June, when the Reds longest winning streak since 1957 (12 games) included sweeps at Kansas City, Houston and at home against the Rockies.
Book Club
A few days ago, Reds players arrived to the home clubhouse to find on their locker chairs a children’s book titled “The Binky Bandit.”
It wasn’t just any day. It was Earth Day (April 22).
And it wasn’t just any book. It was teammate Suter’s semi-autobiographical, environmentally conscious story about a pet dog who learns a valuable lesson about plastic waste after being caught destroying multiple plastic pacifiers belonging to the new baby in the house.
When he was with the Rockies last year, he did the same thing, gifting teammates the book on April 22.
“I guess it’s a tradition,” he said. “It was well received for sure. People liked it. They said they read it to their kids a lot.”
The Reds should seize the opportunity and partner with Suter, a Moeller grad who already is quick to participate in team or community events.
The Brewers, for instance, sold Suter’s book in their team shop when it published a couple years ago while he pitched for Milwaukee.
Suter, who has a Harvard grad in environmental studies, has used his platform as an environment advocate for years. He said he’s welcome anything the Reds might want to do with his book to promote its message.
“It’s really nothing we can’t agree on,” he said. “It’s just about less plastic waste.”
Another Big Number: 13 1/3
Suter also is the author of a scoreless innings streak he took into Saturday’s game in Texas that spans six appearances and that number of innings.
Bad #%*@ Company
The 2022 Reds have more company in the Awful Season Starts club, with the White Sox on Thursday matching that team’s 3-22 face plant before inexplicably beating the Tampa Bay Rays on Friday.
That’s now four teams since 1900 that have started 3-22 or worse, with all the previous bad starts leading to 100-loss seasons. That includes the 2003 Tigers (also 3-22) and the “leader” of the pack at 2-23.
It’s a club so bad we can’t print its acronym.
Did You Know
Reds fans who watched Cincinnati’s sweep in Chicago a couple weeks ago know the White Sox are so terrible they have a very real chance of catching the all-time terrible 1962 Mets for worst record in baseball history with 120 losses (by the way, that Mets team started 7-18 before reaching midseason form with 17-, 11- and 13-game losing streaks).
You might even know that as bad as the White Sox are, their timing is even worse. Under the rules of the third-year draft lottery, they already have zero chance of drafting first next year because they’re not a payee in league revenue sharing and as such are ineligible for the lottery in consecutive years (they won the fifth pick this year).
But did you know that even those awful Mets did not pick first in 1963?
Their timing was as bad as the White Sox’.
The first amateur draft wasn’t until 1965 — when the selected second overall and took Montana prep pitcher Les Rohr. Eleven rounds before stumbling upon some guy named Nolan Ryan.
Maybe it was just as well.
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: There's a new 'King Cobra' in town for Cincinnati Reds | Press Box Wag
