Reds roster

And other various sundry stuff

Reds roster apparently will either have Kemp on the bench or Peralta in the bullpen.

Dietrich appears to have made the team. What isn't clear is if Senzel starts the year in Cincy or Lousyville.

Reds' Opening Day roster falling into place

No real surprises, but I still think that whether he knows it yet or not, Kemp isn't a full time OF anymore...hasn't been for 4 years. He's got a potent bat though- will be much more so in GABP than anywhere else he's played at home.

Winker has little speed, range or power so far, but he looks like a higher OB hitter than any Reds leadoff hitter in a long time. Schebler so far looks like a two tool player-he can catch (what he gets to) and he has power.

Puig is a total wildcard, literally and figuratively. Scuttle around the Dodgers, one of the most player friendly organizations in MLB, was that Puig never really acclimated to American culture...dunno what that means exactly, but they took exceptions to a frequent unplanned absences, giving fans the finger, fighting with teammates, and a few other not well described off field incidents. You would think coming from a communist despot state, he would understand some restraint...The guy is a physical gorilla though. He has flashes of all 5 tools. I've seen him show some spectacular running plays in the OF, and a few real stinkers on bad routes or simply not making a play on catchable balls, some and real strong but equally wild throws, too. Possibly, erratic is how best to describe his behavior ?

I saw Senzel at Tennessee. He's a hitter, and was a good glove/arm with maybe a little above average range as a thirdbaseman...dunno how that will equate to MLB CF however. If you compete with Sheb and Kemp, it may be a no-brainer though. You think the Reds will really forego a year on his clock by giving him an opening day job ? Stunner if they do. Wouldn't surprise me if he has some a minor medical issue to rehab in the minors for a month...wink,wink.


If healthy, this team will hit. Pitching is the glaring weakness on this roster.

Redsfan1507 said:

Wouldn't surprise me if he has some a minor medical issue to rehab in the minors for a month...wink,wink.


If healthy, this team will hit. Pitching is the glaring weakness on this roster.

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They can Senzel back to get some 'experience' in CF, which is a joke. Triple A ballparks are not MLB stadiums.

My opinion on the makeup of the roster:

Lineup:
SS Peraza
1B Votto
3B Suarez
2B Gennett
RF Puig
LF Winker
CF Schebler
C Barnhart

Bench: Casali, Farmer, Iglesias, Dietrich, Kemp

Starters:
Gray
Castillo
Roark
DeSclafani
Mahle (I think Wood starts on the 15 day DL to start the season)

Relivers:
CL Iglesias
Hernandez
Hughes
Lorenzen
Garrett (because he is out of options - even though based on spring Peralta has earned it)
Krol
Duke

I think they send Senzel to AAA to work on his CF, and they will have a legit excuse for delaying the start of his MLB clock, because he is working on defense at a position he had never played. Which, honestly, Senzel playing CF scares the hell out of me. He is so unnatural out there, he looks awkward, like he is unsure of himself. Saw his diving catch, looked like a duck begin shot out of the sky. His running catches look clunky. I think he is going to hurt himself playing the outfield. Best thing they could do is just leave him in AAA at 2B and let him prepare for next year when Gennett moves on with a new contract.

CrashDavisSports said:

My opinion on the makeup of the roster:

Lineup:
SS Peraza
1B Votto
3B Suarez
2B Gennett
RF Puig
LF Winker
CF Schebler
C Barnhart

Bench: Casali, Farmer, Iglesias, Dietrich, Kemp

Starters:
Gray
Castillo
Roark
DeSclafani
Mahle (I think Wood starts on the 15 day DL to start the season)

Relivers:
CL Iglesias
Hernandez
Hughes
Lorenzen
Garrett (because he is out of options - even though based on spring Peralta has earned it)
Krol
Duke

I think they send Senzel to AAA to work on his CF, and they will have a legit excuse for delaying the start of his MLB clock, because he is working on defense at a position he had never played. Which, honestly, Senzel playing CF scares the hell out of me. He is so unnatural out there, he looks awkward, like he is unsure of himself. Saw his diving catch, looked like a duck begin shot out of the sky. His running catches look clunky. I think he is going to hurt himself playing the outfield. Best thing they could do is just leave him in AAA at 2B and let him prepare for next year when Gennett moves on with a new contract.

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Senzel hasn't been told of his situation, according to him. The service time thing is pretty hard to ignore from the Reds POV and to be honest, I agree with it.

The idea that being nice to him now will pay off later is bullshit.

I don't agree with 13-man pitching staff but Bell evidently is going that way.

JohnU said:

Senzel hasn't been told of his situation, according to him. The service time thing is pretty hard to ignore from the Reds POV and to be honest, I agree with it.

The idea that being nice to him now will pay off later is bullshit.

I don't agree with 13-man pitching staff but Bell evidently is going that way.

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I think they will go with a 12 man pitching staff when it comes down to it, because you don't want to lose any of the bench players I listed. I doubt they jettison Iglesias or Dietrich, gotta have a backup catcher, and you are not honestly going to cut Kemp right? So the only other player that leaves is Farmer, and you just traded for him, he is controllable for several years, cheap, can play a couple positions and has been hitting well this spring. I just can't see Bell heading into the season with 13 men.

Farmer is likely to go to Louisville and I don't see a good way of getting rid of Iglesias. He has an opt-out on the 23rd. But I do see a reason to have a strong bullpen into May. It's a deep rotation for a change, even if it's not a great one. But nobody is getting 6 innings from a starter now.

JohnU said:

But nobody is getting 6 innings from a starter now.

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The "good" teams that do that, do it to limit innings over the season, and leverage a deep pen. The Reds starters may all throw 100 pitches by the 4th inning. I haven't seen too many Reds SP this spring that look like they have many MLB outs in them, yet....GABP is going to look plenty short to those guys.

I think they'll score some runs though...I hope so...Better score... A LOT.

Redsfan1507 said:

The "good" teams that do that, do it to limit innings over the season, and leverage a deep pen. The Reds starters may all throw 100 pitches by the 4th inning. I haven't seen too many Reds SP this spring that look like they have many MLB outs in them, yet....GABP is going to look plenty short to those guys.

I think they'll score some runs though...I hope so...Better score... A LOT.

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Pitching will be better because of maturity of the starters and that may be enough.

I think the hokus-pokus by the dugout staff plays pretty well in March. They are going to be creative with Iglesias in the pen until the first game comes when they have to do what they did the last 20 years with closers.

They also plan to use Lorenzen in CF. My question is: Don't you have any other outfielders, and does having a pitcher play there make you somehow smart?

With Scooter out, who is going to play 2nd base. Leaves a place for Stenzel. Iglesias will probably start the season there I suppose.

I think they slide Peraza over there and put Iglesias at SS.

Defensively that would probably be the best thing to do. But it would be a spot to see how Senzel will do.

Scooter may not be back until July. I would say his playing days with the Reds are almost over. Do to the Reds reluctance to resign him anyway. For some reason he doesn't appear to be in the Reds plans moving forward. Arguably he has been the best offensive player on the team the last few years.

I think a lot of people are making this out to be a glum moment, which is amusing on any level. It's like when somebody parks in front of your house without telling you in advance. You get all riled up thinking the guy will leave the car there for the rest of the summer.

One turkey on social media is convinced the Reds plan to use Winker in CF because he played there Sunday for 4 innings. The rest of the team was probably back at their apartments packing for the trip to Atlanta.

I also think the plan to replace Scooter is to have Peraza play 2b, use Iglesias at SS, and delay Senzel's clock by having him play in AAA for a month. No real surprises there. I'd say Scooter's injury will delay his trade, but ultimately, I think he's on the way out just due to the paycheck. Much of the core roster is likely to turn over at the end of season anyway, because of so many 1 year deals, Scooter included. Gray is on a 2 year deal... to be honest, I'm hoping he just pitches well enough to play both years out. If he pitches like he pitched in Yankee Stadium last year, we're probably not going to want him to.

Not sure how much the Reds can gain in the standings this year with the Puig, Kemp, Wood, Roark, Gray, etc. additions, but I'm hopeful of escaping the NLC cellar, at least for a year. I think the only NLC team the Reds can pass might be the Pirates, and then it's probably back to the "rebuild" with Senzel and possibly Trammell playing full time next season.

In order for this team to improve, they simply have to have a LOT more effective pitching. I'll have to see some pleasant surprises pitching- wise, before I get too enthused about improving the W/L enough to play .500, much less contend for post season.

It may be a matter of the rest of the division being worse and not the Reds being better. I guess I am still thinking the Brewers are more of an 85 win team than a 95 win team.

St Lou' has upgraded but they haven't been transformed. If the Reyes kid is what they say, they can stay in the hunt. Miller gives them a bullpen.

The Cubs are playing diminishing math games with that pitching.

The Pirates are doing it with mirrors.

If anything the Reds pitchers won't be reaching 100 pitches by the 3rd inning, using every pitch they have to get past the first 4 hitters. I don't like Cincy's bullpen much, which is a minority opinion. I'd upgrade if I could.

The hitting will not drop off much with Scooter out, and he was due to regress anyhow. Iglesias' 2nd half numbers last year were equal to Scoot's and he's a better fielder.

Senzel being sent back was a mistake and I've been talked into that as opposed to earlier thinking it was smart. Winker as a backup CF isn't horrible for most plays. That outfield blows on defense.

Curious about Senzel. This sprained ankle will delay his season by a couple of weeks but none of that deals with his service time issue.
Wisler will be waived.

Senzel is either unlucky or injury prone. He's having a bad stretch the last 6-9 months. Broken finger, elbow surgery, and now a sprained ankle.

Scooter's injury may not hurt the team on the field nearly as much as it potentially hurts the club's ability to trade him.

Iglesias to SS and Peraza to 2nd should improve the infield defense. The outfield defense is going to be an adventure.

Personally I don't think it's a given that the pitching is vastly improved. There's the potential for it to be better, but there's equally the potential for this staff to nose dive. Lack of organizational pitching depth is still an issue.

I don't currently have a lot of faith in this bullpen. Last year Hughes and Hernandez had career type seasons. There's a good chance they both regress. Lorenzen is inconsistently mediocre. Stephenson and Garrett are both still here because they don't have options. Duke and Wandy don't instill much confidence either. Iglesias is still the only guy that you can somewhat can assume what you're going to get.

Well tomorrow is opening day.

Hope they do better in April than they did last year.

It's hard to start off much worse than last April. I could see a good start and a bad finish to this season.

Yeah, my thoughts exactly on the bullpen. Garrett is really not dependable. Stevie will get shelled and of the bunch, I only like Hughes and Iglesias.

I watch Puig play right field and if he's trying to be cute, it isn't working. Catching a ball at your hip with a runner on 2nd base is just stupid. He's done a couple of those.

But if the fans are thinking that all they need is Senzel, geez ... what flavor is that Kool Aid?

The starters: I've seen a couple of them pitch this spring. That is not much to go on. Roark is going to disappoint us. Disco may not. Wood already has.