Playing stupid

[JohnU]

The manager has an 8-9 lineup that has batting averages of under .100.
Bruce tries to hit a ball to the left side with a man on 2nd, none out.
The man on 2nd, one out, tries to score on an infield out.
It's no wonder this team is 10 days out of 2nd place.

 

[JohnU]

An outfielder, coming in on a fly ball, will almost always throw somebody out at home plate.
Geezus fucking Christ.

 

[JohnU]

Man, the White Sox are awful.

 

[eburg5000]

Thank god, Reds win in spite of the selfs . Hope we can get the next one

 

[JohnU]

I tend to rant when these guys do things that are just not done by winning teams.

 

[JohnU]

They just never cease to amaze me on how they can fuck up an ordinary inning.

 

[JohnU]

Reds can make a dead man look like a CY winner. Who runs bases like this?

Mesoraco is helping this team in what way?

 

[JohnU]

Price doing a Dusty ... lets the meatball pitcher come out for another inning.

 

[JohnU]

You can't even DREAM UP ways to fuck up games like this team can.

 

[Hit-n-Run]

The additional Wild Card playoff spots have really changed the perception of whether a team is a pretender or contender. As poorly as the Reds have played at times they remain 1 game out of the last wild card spot. That seems to be the goal these days.. . just try to not be bad enough to miss the last spot.

The current system is more profitable for the MLB, owners, and players....but I think it only serves to dilute the true measurement of what a playoff caliber team really is.

 

[Redsfan1507]

Reds are around .500. So, that's speaks to half the teams being about as bad. That's about the most positive thing I have to say right now.

 

[Redsfan1507]

Wow...Bruce jogs back and stops short on a ball he normally catches and plays it into a ground rule double...Votto makes 2 bad plays on D- gets in the way of Phillips on the first, then isn't even on the bag on a 1-3 grounder....and the scoreboard says no errors, so far.

...then Barnhart thinks he has to tag the runner at the plate on a bases loaded grounder to 3b...luckily, the replay was kind.

...and it's a 1-1 game. ATL sucks, too.

 

[JohnU]

I was going to contribute my final rant but the entry would be too bizarre to even approach fact.
What I have seen since September 2013 is a team that could have trouble sweeping the St. Petersburg Oddfellows Slow Pitch Association league champion.

I watched the last 2 innings of Monday's game, stunned at what I was seeing. Three hits.
In the 9th, Price has to use the lusty hitting Negron because -- get this -- he has NO DEFENSIVE OPTION.
(He could move Hamilton to SS, I guess) ... but Cozart was hurt and the man on the bench who can only pinch hit is a catcher who can't play SS.

I can't fucking believe this. Votto has evidently decided that leading the league in walks is better than getting a hit with 2 out and the first 2 hitters in the lineup already having struck out. Hamilton has zero bunt hits this year. NONE.

The only guy who can hit is Phillips, who is the unhappiest Red of all.

Frazier won't get any more HR pitches, just bouncing betties in the dirt. "Here Todd, one-arm this one into the seats!"

Bruce is so far below Mendoza that they are going to rename the award.

The outfielders are going to strike out 600 times. Byrd had a great 4 games. Thanks, big guy.

Hitting is hard, as is witnessed by the Reds 6.70 bullpen ERA. Hell, I would make the All-Star team if I faced these turkeys. Badenhop, evidently dispatched to the kids ball field back of the Sun Deck, means the Reds now have a 23-man roster because the fucking idiot who runs the roster didn't see fit to DL a guy who can't play shortstop, has 3 hits on the year and can't run fast. Hey, you can't even use the guy as a pinch hitter because you have no defensive options at shortstop.

When you come into camp with Marquis, Maholm and Gregg as the only good choices to fill a roster that lost an all-star rightie and a No. 2 starter ... you really weren't really ready for the season. Price said the fans didn't really "get to know Gregg," who had come to camp raising optimism he could be an 8th inning guy after giving up 11 runs in 10 innings and 3 taters last year. Did nobody actually look at a game film?

Our best relief pitcher went 1-10 last year. He's the heart and soul of the bullpen. Chapman is showing serious signs of being angry at how things are going. He needs to pitch better than that, but watching how it works for Cueto, I would guess he's not going to jack it up too much.

Meanwhile somebody resembling a hitting coach has a team hitting .200 with RISP, and Skip Schumaker as our best pinch hitter.

Bryan Pena at least smiles.

Two or three rooks in the rotation ought to be just about right. But Price will quietly let this team rot on the vine.

 

[Redsfan1507]

I think the team at current roster best is mediocre, but is actually under performing at the moment. This is a team, with better competition, that might have lost 100 games, I think given the stark ineptitude of at least a team or two in every division, the Reds might only lose 88-90...a shame, but considering full heath prospects might have only won 85, it's probably time to get a new sheet of parer....

IMO, the Reds won't trade Cueto, Leake, Chapman, (maybe Bruce?) until they are substantially below .500, or at the trade deadline, which ever comes first. Unortunately, they wil be selling low on all if they do trade them this year. Technically, Cueto might be the only guy they are under pressure to trade, even though Leake is also eligible for free agency, maybe the Reds are thinking he might be willing to consider the "qualifying offer" of $13M or so for a single year...they know Cueto won't, and it won't harm his value on the market for not taking it. Chapman has another year on his contract, but if they choose to start over, who needs a closer more than what they could get for Chapman, from a team he would be wiling to sign with ? He DOES have substantial trade value, IMO.

It's good Votto is hitting. It's also good Phillips is hitting, because they are both signed until they are retired, basically. Ditto for Bailey, who may have to be hitting for a living after a Tommy John NOT done at the ATL home of TJ experts, but in Kremchecks kitchen in the Nati, where it seems everyone he carves on needs a second surgery.... Mesoraco signed an extension, so I'm hoping he can play full time again before it runs out, and doesn't let Kremcheck make him a one legged catcher or DH for life... I think Frazier and Cozart will be FA eligible in 2-3 years , or about the time Bruce's and Phillips extension is up. There is a real chance the 2017 Reds may only have Votto, Bailey and maybe Hamilton and Mesoraco if all are healthy, and a couple or three young pitchers that stick that long left on that team. IMO, there might be 18-20 players turned over by then. I'm looking for guys currently in AA for players that are likely replacements by then.

 

[JohnU]

I found that three of my rants didn't hold up.

• Hamilton did indeed get a bunt hit.
• Mesoraco did indeed get a GW hit. (Fuckin' Lorenzen can run!)
• Frazier did hit a meatball in the seats.

I don't think my rants are going to turn it around. With 2 and 3 rooks in this rotation, plus Marquis, these guys are not capable of a 6-game win streak. You have to have a few of those if you want to win a pennant. You cannot go 5-5 on road trips to places where you play sub-quality teams.
You have to go 8-2 on homestands if you go 5-5 on the road.
And you can't have the middle of the infield with a sprained wrist and a broken toe.
The road trips to KC and Cleveland will slice open the melon so we can see if it's seedless.
I am not optimistic. But I got my season pass to the RailCats -- so all is good.

 

[Redsfan1507]

We'll expect a daily rant from you if it means a win.

I've resigned myself to the Reds embarrassment this year, but in still interested- in what they'll do roster wise. In the spirit of THIS topic, how long they'll suffer guys like Marquis, and Jay Bruce...who has become Adam Dunn without the HR and BB, offensively. He is a defensive plus, but he's being paid to hit like Tarzan, not Jane.

I hope Iglasias is impressive tonight. They're going to need him on a regular basis soon I think.

 

[Hit-n-Run]

The Reds up the middle sound like the see, speak, and hear no evil monkeys. They have the no run, no throw, no catch version with the current injury situation.

The Reds OF has played great defense with exception of the occasional Jay Bruce having no idea where the wall is. But man......they're hitting has been painfully woeful the first six weeks. The IF including Pena as starting catcher have four .300+ hitters and Frazier has 11 home runs while struggling a bit with the BA. The IF defense has been lacking sound fundamental play at times...but most of it doesn't appear as errors in the boxscore....so on paper they appear to have played better than reality at times.

Four of the SP's have ERA's under 3.00....then there's Marquis. I don't expect the sub- 3.00 to continue...but there's no reason to believe Marquis can't keep performing at the same level...Ugh!!

The bullpen...never mind.

From a glass half full, half empty perspective.... Half the team has met or exceeded expectations and the other half are drowning in the empty half of the glass.

 

[JohnU]

Mostly what I see is an extension of being snake-bitten just a little. Some of that is preventable and some isn't. One night a wild pitch, Reds runner breaks for plate, ball hits backstop and bounces right back to the catcher, runner out at home. What the fuck?

I think there were four or five plays with a guy leading off 2nd base and a line drive that the infielder snared and doubled the guy off base.

Chapman throws a 103 and it sails like a paper airplane. No catcher can get that. How did the guy reach third? Blame it on Chapman? No, blame it on the entire infield for not saying, "ya gotta guy on second who is going to steal 3rd if you don't check him."

Brain cramps. Teams that win don't suffer that shit.

Last night, the only break the Reds got was Atlanta having Gomes replace Johnson in LF. Both of them blow owl shit on defense. Any real outfielder cuts off that line drive that Mesoraco hit.

Anybody who watches Bruce hit can see what he's doing wrong. The hitting coach evidently has some other viewpoint. Bruce couldn't hit with a boat oar because he isn't looking at the ball.

If Hamilton could get to first base, he would make a difference. Once Votto gets to first, which is oftener, he makes me think of the Keystone Kops.

Frazier could take himself out of a slump by simply refusing to hit a pitch that isn't on Broadway. He'd get called out some on low pitches but he would send a message to the pitcher that they guy had better make it a strike or he's going to take it for a ball. Phillips loves to hit with men on base. Not always with the desired results.

 

[Redsfan1507]

Everyone should quit smoking. Alcoholics shouldn't drink. Thieves shouldn't steal. These guys are dedicated to the dumb shit they do. It's who they are...what got them where they are, after all.

Yeah, I'm sure Jay Bruce would like to put up MVP type numbers, but until he gets benched, or it costs him in sone other way, he's gonna blow it off like hitting is just a random lottery and his numbers will come up by themselves one of these days. There is no pressure for Hamilton to bunt more, because there is no one pushing to take his job, and Pete Rose is telling him he needs to fake bunt on taken pitches and hit hard line drives. Joey Votto wasn't the MVP because he played great D and was a good baserunner.

It's rare when improvement happens through self motivation, because it takes additional work. These guys work from noon-2pm some days and 5pm-10pm most days, and some of them just have to show up and dress. Don't get me wrong, I think these guys are trying and hustling in games, but I don't see much evidence of improvement of weaknesses going on. That isn't done in game, it's done in practice.

For whatever reason, the Reds usually have to get different players to get different results.

 

[JohnU]

I just snipped this graphic. Two parts of it are components that make no sense.