Reds VS Cardinals Series Thread

[bengaldoug]

Yep. And it's not because of the manager, or the hitting coach, or the ballpark they play in, or any other excuse anybody wants to come up with.

They just have better hitters...period.

The bright side? Hitting comes and goes with every team.

The Reds will be in the postseason. Win that play in game? Get hot at the plate for 2 weeks?

That's all it takes.

And Sam LeCure sucks. He's no better than Ondrusek right now.

That's the only part of your post I can take issue with. Right now their hold on the second wild card looks decent. But one streak by Arizona and it can quickly become precarious.

 

[Kate Upton]

You really are joking, right? You must be joking.
The Reds are the third best team in the NL-C and probably the 6th best team in the NL ... part of the time, except when they play a 3-game series.

No I'm not.

You could have said the exact same thing about the Giants last year, or the Cards in 2011, or the Giants in 2010.

All it takes is getting in, and getting hot once you get in.

 

[Kate Upton]

That's the only part of your post I can take issue with. Right now their hold on the second wild card looks decent. But one streak by Arizona and it can quickly become precarious.

Their lead is 4.5

They're not a sure thing obviously, but I think most would be surprised if they don't make it.

This series aside, their starting pitching is too good not to hold on to that spot, and their September schedule is pretty easy.

 

[eburg5000]

Truth is Pitching up till this series has been pretty good. Maybe their burn out knowing that they have to pitch a shutout in order to give their team a chance.

This team is not the team that we expected to see at the start of the season. Its pretty disappointing to see them totally collapse like this.

I see a lot of holes in this lineup, that I'm not sure can be fixed anytime soon. When Choo leaves The Reds are going to only have 3 1/2 consistent bats in the lineup. Catchers or ludwick might make a 4th.

Who's going to play center next year? I very much doubt if Hamilton is going to be ready or ever will be.

Can the Reds afford to keep to weak hitters like Frazer and Cozart in the everyday lineup?

Is Ludwick going to be able to hold down the left field ?

The bench has to be better. It might be the weakest part of this years team. The pitching is good and hopefully the bullpen won't have the injuries they have had this year

If the Reds can't fix these area's. I see the Reds becoming bottom feeder again

 

[Scorpion14]

Cozart and Frazier are good players but both have underachieved this season. I think Frazier is the most disappointing of all and maybe the biggest difference is he had Rolen right there pushing him. This season he has basically been handed the position and Dusty just keeps throwing him out there day after day.

 

[JohnU]

Their lead is 4.5

They're not a sure thing obviously, but I think most would be surprised if they don't make it.

This series aside, their starting pitching is too good not to hold on to that spot, and their September schedule is pretty easy.

Those easy schedules ... does this mean teams like Seattle?

If the Reds play .500 ball from here on out, I will be shocked.

 

[JohnU]

Birds were reeling ... nothing like playing the hot-hitting Reds to get your groove on.

 

[eburg5000]

Cozart and Frazier are good players but both have underachieved this season. I think Frazier is the most disappointing of all and maybe the biggest difference is he had Rolen right there pushing him. This season he has basically been handed the position and Dusty just keeps throwing him out there day after day.

underachieved or who they really are?

 

[eburg5000]

that was supposed to be a quote, I'm not sure Cozart or Frazier are major league hitters

 

[JohnU]

that was supposed to be a quote, I'm not sure Cozart or Frazier are major league hitters

Well, as it stands now, they aren't.
So with a million-dollar film room and all the coaching and analyzing, they still can't hit.
Maybe they suck, maybe they just need help.
Either way, another season has come and gone and we won't know the answer to that.
But we will continue to say "the coach can't do it for them."
All I know is what I observe.
This team can't hit.

And worse, they give up in the 5th inning again today.

 

[Redsfan1507]

You know what getting hot means ? It means you play better than the other team. Better teams get hot more often than worse teams. If this team makes the playoffs ( they won't playing the way they've played for the last 60 games), without beating the teams they meet in the playoffs in the regular season, odds are, they won't get "hot" and beat them in a one game playoff, or if they are lucky enough to do that, first series win is a long shot too.

This team has some talent- they have comparable pitching, defense with any other good team. They have about 4 hitters, actually not many more than most playoff teams. It's THIER limitations that make them unlikely post season heros. They're station to station, HR dependant, and they simply don't have that many power hitters. They don't steal, bunt, hit and run, or even run the bases well. They make fundamental mistakes that better teams don't usually make in key situations. It doesn't matter if they have a quality LHSP, Dusty wont sit a veteran to start him in a short rotation. It doesn't matter if players have speed, he won't steal them before 2 strikes on the hitter.

The roster has holes, and Dusty does too. It's a bad combo.

 

[Scorpion14]

You know what getting hot means ? It means you play better than the other team. Better teams get hot more often than worse teams. If this team makes the playoffs ( they won't playing the way they've played for the last 60 games), without beating the teams they meet in the playoffs in the regular season, odds are, they won't get "hot" and beat them in a one game playoff, or if they are lucky enough to do that, first series win is a long shot too.

This team has some talent- they have comparable pitching, defense with any other good team. They have about 4 hitters, actually not many more than most playoff teams. It's THIER limitations that make them unlikely post season heros. They're station to station, HR dependant, and they simply don't have that many power hitters. They don't steal, bunt, hit and run, or even run the bases well. They make fundamental mistakes that better teams don't usually make in key situations. It doesn't matter if they have a quality LHSP, Dusty wont sit a veteran to start him in a short rotation. It doesn't matter if players have speed, he won't steal them before 2 strikes on the hitter.

The roster has holes, and Dusty does too. It's a bad combo.

I pretty much agree with everything you said. The Cardinals for the most part almost always make contact and that's what you need to do if you want to win. This team does play as if they are stocked with big home run hitters and they aren't. How many times has the defense put the shift on Bruce and any kind of roller on the left side of the second base bag is a hit and he still whacks it to the right of the second base bag. How many times does Phillips jog down to first base when he hits a ground ball. How many bad throws will Cozart make because he likes to sidearm his throws to first base. This team lacks discipline in a huge way.

 

[steelparrot]

I just dont think the dbacks or nats can catch anyone in the NL central, the only 2 real sellers are in our division and those teams are just laying around .500 anyway.

You guys will be in the coin flip game, probably @ Pittsburgh.

I think the Cards are just getting lucky as hell hitting with risp, no way they are a .340 risp hitting team, it just has to be a healthy dose of luck.

 

[redsfan03]

This team is like an animal that got hit by a relatively slow-moving car. It's still alive but barely clinging to life, twitching and flailing about. You wonder whether you should help it or whether it's even worth trying, and secretly you just kind of hope it will die off to end the pain.

Roadkill Reds, I guess?

 

[JohnU]

Sadly, not unlike last year or 2011, whichever it was coming up on a Dusty contract, a lot of us were afraid the team would do just well enough to not replace that dugout staff. How bad did it have to get?
Not bad enough yet.

I sure don't want to turn into the Brewers but either you have a contender or you have a pretender.

 

[Scorpion14]

I think that's why you make Chapman a starter. Give him some starts and the guy with his stuff could get you that one game playoff victory. I highly doubt it will happen and we will probably lose that game like 6-2.

 

[WvuDieHard]

The Reds could get healthy and be a much better team. They could make the playoffs as a wild card team and again get hot and win its way onward. Odds are that wont happen and if it did, the odds are even better that the toothpicker would run you out of an inning with Bruce or Frazier caught stealing, not PH when he should, sac bunt relief pitchers and then pull them to start the inning, watch his starter get shelled but wont pull him because he leads off the next inning, and refuse to bring Chapman in to the game in the 8th inning with the sacs jammed and a power left handed hitter up facing Lecure. Now there you have the reason the REDS wont win JACKSHIT with a JACKSASS BULLSHIT manager running this club. Monkey see, monkey do.

 

[Redsfan1507]

No one on the losing side is happy after a drubbing.

It IS a team game, and there have been lots of contributors to where the team is. It amazes me that even though this team has played under .500 for the majority of the season, their record isn't terrible, and a one game playoff is still well within reach.

I have to believe other teams fans are similarly frustrated, too...other than frontrunners and unexpected contenders. How ya think Angels fans feel ?

 

[JohnU]

The frustration I feel is that this team isn't currently competitive on any level.
They can't hit, as evidenced in LA and SD.
They can't play good defense and run bases poorly.
Getting HAMMERED relentlessly in games this weekend, they can't even get pitchers past the 5th inning. Relievers are in there to throw in the towel.

This isn't completely a new trend. This has been the lifeblood, so to speak, of the dugout staff since the end of MAY.

Going 4-8 against the one team you knew you had to beat ... demonstrates the Reds will not beat them in any series. In a one-game playoff, the Birds will bring their bats. They have learned to play a long season and wear down their opponents. Losing 7 in a row and they picked up a game on the Reds in the standings. How's that work? Parrots, meanwhile, also have a 6-5 record against Cincy.
Obviously Friday's beatdown didn't stir their morale, and I would guess that Sunday's other ass-kicking almost makes up for the fact that ... shucks, Cingrani pitched well. Hint: The next time, St. Louis will have looked at game films of Tony ... evidently something Reds dugout idiots don't do. Any retread can pitch a 2-hitter against the Jerkoby strategy.

Sorry, but I'm done watching this team with any interest until they commit to fixing what is obvious.

 

[Redsfan1507]

Losing to the Cardinals isn't new. It also doesn't change less Carpenter, Wainwright, Pujols, LaRussa, McGwire, Duncan, Furcal, Garcia, Lohse, Freese, Molina, or whoever they happen to be playing without at the time. They may play the clubhouse staff and ball girls against our Reds one day, and beat them.

Meanwhile, our Reds are celebrating getting our "missing puzzle piece" Ryan Ludwick back, and BTW, the Cardinals have been beating the Reds since they've been without Ludwick, too.