A year later

[JohnU]

This isn't relevant but it's interesting.
The Reds are clearly better off this year than last year but ... geez, how often do the Birds expect to lose?

Last year's standings on this date:

Regular Season Standings | MLB.com: Standings

 

[Redsfan1507]

Last year, 10 NL teams were playing.500- this year, only 7 are. Last year, ALL NLE teams were at .500, now only 1 is. The Lastros are in the AL. The Brewers and Marlins are decidedly worse than last year, and the Cardinals might be better. St.Louis plays the same bad teams we do, and have played a few wins better against plus .500 teams is my guess.

 

[JohnU]

It's unrealistic for any team to play .670 although it's been done often enough to believe that it can happen. I think the NL, up and down, is much weaker this year than people tend to evaluate. The Mets, Marlins, Phils, Brewers, Cubs, Padres and, now to some extent, both the Giants and Dodgers, are all capable of losing 2 out of 3 to anyone.

That does not bode well for the Reds overtaking the Cards and running away like in 2012.
Still, seasons are all different and that's also historically proven. The difference between the playoffs and bitching about it is 2 wins a month.

 

[Redsfan1507]

No argument the NL is weaker, but how is that possible without the Astros ? Personally, I think the Pirates haven't improved more than a few wins over last year and will fade again as pitchers have more innings on them, like the d-backs and Rockies...but theyll take wins away from frontrunners until then. The Cardinals and Braves look like they're in for the long haul. The Giants will win plenty. The Dodgers and Phillies have enough talent to make a run if they get healthier. The Brewers can't pitch, the Padres can't hit, and the Mets can't do either enough to count. The Marlins and Cubs are terrible, but I guarantee the team that misses the playoffs by 1 games will regret losing a couple to these guys back in the early season when it "didn't matter".


Offenses generally seem to struggle more, but that's just a feel, not because I know facts. I know this, if the Reds lead in runs, and they also struggle to score frequently, so is everyone else. It's about winning more and being the last team standing in October. IMO, that requires beating the good teams too. There aren't that many if them, but is start with trying to beat the one in our own division once in awhile.

 

[JohnU]

I think the "games you can't win" category is pretty important. And squandering games like Sunday don't help much in September. Had it been 11-2 or something, you move on. The Reds are not losing many 11-2 games but they are losing games late that could be won.

I suppose all teams have this. What is a problem with teams like the Fish is that they will bring in a lot of kids to pitch, guys nobody has a book on ... and they end up throwing 2-hitters in their first game. The Cardinals are benefiting from that with Lyons, Maness and Wacha. It takes time to catch up to kids who are overachieving.

 

[Redsfan1507]

I think there are several Reds hitters that are guessers. They're guessing fastball or breaking ball, or that it's going to be a strike or a ball. Good hitters don't swing at the first pitch after a walk, or at all on 3-0, because they know they get the same pitch on 3-1. The can setup for a fastball and still stay behind the breaking ball because they see and react. Bruce, Cozart and Heisey always assume inside is a fastball and away is a breaking ball. Frazier chases a lot in the dirt. Doesn't take long for pitchers to catch on to that. Hitting instruction sucks here, or they have some really slow students.

 

[Dr. Cranfill]

Per usual, Redsfan1507 hits the nail on the head...Reds still have too many guys at the plate guessing.

 

[Kate Upton]

Good times...


And for you old timers...

 

[JohnU]

I remember some of this ... we got it on cable when the Ark docked at Ararat.

 

[Kate Upton]

I remember some of this ... we got it on cable when the Ark docked at Ararat.

I was 2 years old in October of 76.

Skip to the 59 minute or so mark and they show Joe D. and Cary Grant sitting together up in a stadium box.

Pretty cool.

 

[JohnU]

Honestly, I don't have a lot of powerful memories of the 1976 Series, mainly because it was over before it started and wasn't really all that competitive. I remember the big deal about Mickey Rivers trying to plunk down infield hits ... and essentially getting nowhere.

I do recall how it was unfair that the BRM was allowed to use the DH.

 

[eburg5000]

I was 25 year old when the Reds beat the Yankees like a drum. It was my high point as a Reds fan.
How in the hell, did the Reds not get into the playoffs again until 1979? Oh, that's right Dick Wagner fired Sparky and dismantled the team.

 

[JohnU]

No doubt, that team had another title ahead of it, even if the pitching was unpredictable.

 

[Redsfan1507]

I remember the BRM well. It really started in the 60's before Sparky and the big Astros trade.

They got manhandled by the Orioles 4-20 game winning rotation, and the Robinsons(Brooks & Frank) in '70, missed due to Bench's lung surgery and the Cemente/Stargell Pirates in '71,derailed by the '72 A's mini dynasty, the '73 Mets, the Dodgers in '74.

The '75 series v Boston might be the best of all time, but the '76 Reds went undefeated in the post season, and might have been the best team ever. The Perez trade was ill timed, as was Rose leaving. Griffey, Foster, Gullett and the rest,less Concepcion, soon followed the exodus. IMO, the rest of the '70's was less about the Yankees, Dodgers, Pirates, etc. as it was the dismantling of the BRM at the infancy of free agency and downstream financial impacts. That team would have a $300 million payroll today...Phillies took Pete, Joe and Tony to the top just for clarity the Reds dumped too soon.

The Reds might have had the best record in '81 but missed the playoffs due to strike shortened 1st half/ 2nd half qualifiers. Pretty dismal Reds teams after that for a while, as the Cardinals and others became prominent again. IMO, the game still had HOF heroes in the 80's- Schmidt, Brett, Ripken, Boggs, Murray, Ozzie Smith, etc...but the game was changing in response to much larger dollars, ultimately the largest motivator for the PED generations to follow. It was the end of an age.

 

[chico ruiz]

actually, that was the '71' O's that had 4 20-win starters. and as you know the pirates beat that team behind a superlative world series performance by roberto clemente.

 

[Redsfan1507]

I should have said "soon to be" 20 game winners. Same pitchers predominantly though- Palmer, Cuellar, McNally, Dobson.

 

[Redsfan1507]

Tragic storybook year for Clemente, one of the all time greats, and the best bad ball hitter ever, IMO.

 

[chico ruiz]

yeah. i collected baseball cards, and basically ate, breathed, slept, and pooped baseball from 67 till 76. so, i remember that stuff. dobson pitched for the padres in 1970. i can still picture the different card stylings from year to year. my dad bought a who's who every year that was always on the back of the toilet. i shit you not. i know what you mean about clemente. i've had an opportunity to see a lot of yankee film the last few years, and yogi berra would swing at a lot of pitches out of the zone. good lord, that little man could hit. i still remember seeing manny sanguillen swing at a pitch that i swear to you looked like it was over his head. crazy thing was he laced it into the right center field gap.

 

[Redsfan1507]

Lots of good teams back then, partially because there were fewer of them, and great for fans because players stayed longer with teams.

 

[JohnU]

Sanguillen made a career out of hitting pitches a foot over his head.
Pirates also had Rennie Stennett, who never swung at a strike in his career.