CNATI: Cincinnati OH Sports Journalism

Spring Training 2010

Bruce hoping to bounce back

By C. Trent Rosecrans, CNATI.com Posted March 28, 2010 7:10 PM ET

GOODYEAR, Ariz. - Jay Bruce has one word for his 2009 season - "embarrassing."

At 22, Bruce hit 22 home runs, but hit just .223 with a .303 on-base percentage.

"I was embarrassed with the way I played last year, I expect way more than what I was doing," Bruce said. "That's not me."

Although it wasn't conscious, Bruce said he believes, looking back, that he let the home runs get to him.

"I wasn't being productive. I wasn't helping my team win at all, really," Bruce said. "When it comes to hitting, I'm not a home run hitter, I consider myself a line-drive hitter, I stay gap-to-gap, when I start getting too pull-happy and I was winging at everything, it kind of all snowballed for me. It may have been a blessing in disguise."

His broken right wrist may have been another blessing in disguise - while missing two months, Bruce changed some of the mechanics of his swing, simplifying his swing and taking out a tap of his foot. Upon his return, Bruce hit .375 in 12 games.

He's kept those changes and worked on them this spring, they're nothing major, but it also allowed him to take a break mentally from his struggles.

Bruce's stats through 16 games and 40 at-bats aren't markedly different - he's hitting .250/.286/.475 this spring, but he's feeling much more comfortable at the plate and is ready to get back in action in the regular season.

"I'm still working on that every day to be consistent," Bruce said earlier this week. "It's going well, I'm making progress and things are going where they need to be going."

His teammates see a player who is improving and still won't turn 23 until Saturday. Joey Votto, the team's best hitter, disagreed with Bruce's assessment of 2009.

"I don't think he should be embarrassed for last year, first of all," said Votto, who debuted in the big leagues less than a week shy of his 24th birthday in 2007. "To be 22 years old and in the major leagues, there's nothing to be embarrassed about. I get his high expectations. When guys fail in the minor leagues it doesn't affect the big league team, he was with the big league team and he'd fail and it genuinely didn't affect us. We weren't going to win even if he performed well."

The expectations for Bruce haven't been lowered, not by himself or anyone around him. Once the top prospect in baseball, Bruce made a splash his first couple of weeks in the big leagues before struggling some. He has 43 home runs in the big leagues before his 23rd birthday and still some say he's been disappointing. Earlier this week, MLB Network had a graphic that had Bruce among "formerly hyped outfield prospects" as if he was washed up. Nothing could be further from the truth.

"He hasn't even scratched the surface on what he can do and what he's going to be," said Reds manager Dusty Baker, who was 19 when he debuted in the big leagues.

Still, for a Reds team that could be challenged to find enough runs to record the franchise's first winning season since 2000, a productive season by Bruce could be the difference between playoff contention and yet another losing season.

"He's an extremely important part of our team," Votto said. "Like I said, he's not the X-factor or anything, because that's too much pressure and disrespectful to the rest of the team, but he has to play well for us to be competitive as a team, and I think he will and I think we will."

If he does struggle, Baker has said it's important to stick by him and keep him in the lineup. Bruce's potential in the long-term outweighs any short-term struggles.

The player Bruce is most often compared to, Larry Walker, hit .241 as a 23-year old rookie before hitting .301 with 23 home runs in his third season and making his first All-Star team.

"If he hits .223 or whatever he hit, I would be absolutely shocked. I think everyone would be. I think he's fine," Votto said. "I think it's a good year for him, I don't think it's a bad year. Everyone thinks having a bump along the road is a bad thing, I think it's a great thing for him. It happened in the best year for him, when we were losing."

Bruce's expectations are as high as anyone else's - and it's only his own that he's worried about.

"There are expectations I have for myself and I'm sure people say a lot of different things, but I'm going to play the game like I know how to play it, no matter what," Bruce said. "If I'm playing Whiffleball in the back yard or if I'm playing in the big leagues, there's expectations I have for myself, and that's all I worry about it."

If he meets his expectations, perhaps the Reds can meet theirs, not only a winning season but meaningful baseball in Cincinnati in September and beyond. There's no shortage of prognosticators picking the Reds as a potential surprise team, and if Bruce comes through, they could. But those are still "ifs."

"Every year there's a buzz around us, they always say we can be the sleeper, darkhorse, whatever, but the bottom line is it comes down to doing it," Bruce said. "We haven't done anything in 10 years and until we do, it's going to be tough to make people believe we're capable of doing it. If we go out and play this year like we know how and take care of business and people stay healthy, we've got as good a chance as anyone. We're as capable of anyone of doing it, but we've got to do it, that's the bottom line."

Categories: Cincinnati Reds, Featured Stories, Spring Training 2010

Tags: Dusty Baker, Jay Bruce, Joey Votto, Larry Walker