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Hit-n-Run

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Outrighted the Quack to callup the Shack. Not much of an upgrade.
 

JohnU

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The thing I found interesting in the Mahle game was his 6th inning. He had been sitting around 94 with his fastball most of the night. In the 6th his velocity jumped touching 98 once and 96-97 on others. I think he had an adrenaline rush and that inning drained his tank. It's not uncommon to see a SP drain his tank and throw harder his last inning, but I don't think it was by design for Mahle. I think he just got caught up in the moment of having a no-no working.

Garrett stretching into his 3rd inning of work makes me wonder if the intention was to stretch him out in the event Finnegan continues to struggle.
Pitchers need to stop worrying about complete games, shutouts and anything other than turning the game over to the BP. It is not what we learned 50 or 40 years ago, but it's how they play now.
 

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I thought tonight's game was very winnable until Shackelford came in. I also think Hamilton was a poor choice to pinch hit with bases loaded.
 

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Finny Dinny needed to throw a couple of shutout innings.
Can't expect to come back every night.
Mediocre bullpen.
 

Hit-n-Run

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The biggest problem I see with the bullpen is they keep replacing weak links with weak links. Stretch the chain and it's always going to break.

Shack wasn't sharp in the 8th, so bring him back in the 9th. I like Brice more than Shack. Brice has a pretty good hard sinker with arm side run. I'd rather see Shack run out of town.

Finny wasn't terrific, but this defense continues to plague this team. The Votto error that wasn't scored an error has been the rule rather than the exception. Overall Finny was somewhat pitch efficient for the most part. He ended with 77 pitches and 1 walk through 5 IP, which is pretty much where you want your SP to be. Wasn't pretty, but he exited with the team in position to post a W.

Suarez will be back sooner than expected. I'd prefer to see either Penny or Gosselin sent packing, but the Reds MO is to option the young guy. Blandino has hit better his last few starts. Begs the question why he didn't start more games? The answer is in the organizatonal MO. Blame the managers if you like, but it's become apparent the veteran preference MO starts in the front office and flows downhill.
 

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If the strategy is to give the starters 5 innings (6 on rare cases) then they need to be able to find at least 2 more relievers every game. If they couldn't use Garrett or Hughes because of the 12-inning game, and don't want to use Iggy or Peralta every game, then having 3 mediocre guys in the pen is going to yield mediocre results. The breakdown is that not every starter is going to go 5 strong innings.

I don't see this as unique to the Reds, however.

Yeah, the defense is murdering this team. It's bad for morale.
 

eburg5000

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Maybe sending a fresh arm out in the ninth the night before. Might have given Riggelmen more options last night.
Point when you have only won 3 games in 20+ games, you don't play with a 4 run lead
 

JohnU

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Maybe sending a fresh arm out in the ninth the night before. Might have given Riggelmen more options last night.
Point when you have only won 3 games in 20+ games, you don't play with a 4 run lead
Well that is the point, isn't it?
If they only expect starters to throw 100 pitches every 5th day and they claim their relievers can't throw 30 pitches three times a week, it seems they either need to get somebody else to do something or they need to stop over-thinking the metrics. Otherwise, having 3 decent relievers and some league-average rag arms isn't going to win many games.

Burning up the bullpen to win one game would be OK if it was a pivotal game. But if they needed to win this one in panic mode because they hadn't won in a week, fat chance this one is the game that turns the season around. Poorly managed baseball coupled with mediocre roster construction usually yields a 5-20 record.
 

Hit-n-Run

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There's no denying the trend toward going to the pen earlier and the strict governance of pitch counts, so unless the next CBA is going to include roster expansion teams need to find more arms within the current 25 man allowance. I'm not in favor of expanding the roster.

I'd like to see teams go to a four man rotation. If the SP is capped at 5-6 IP and 85-90 pitches as we've seen a lot with the Reds this season, then why not go with a four man rotation and add the extra arm to the pen? If a pitcher is exiting a game with gas remaining in the tank his recovery time should be shorter. One potential problem I see would be pitchers that don't recover by the second day following their last start. There's normally a bullpen day between starts and would be moved up one day if switching to a four man rotation. Individual recovery time varies.
 

JohnU

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I think the metrics that have suggested starters only go twice through the order would come equipped with the disclaimer: Who pitches after that? If you only have 5 starters and 3 back-end guys, you have 3 other pitchers, tops. If you don't want them pitching 5 days a week, you need a plan that goes beyond pure metrics. If you can't use your closer twice in a row, why have a closer?
 

Hit-n-Run

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If you have a deep bullpen everything works itself out. But if that's not the case assigning roles doesn't make much sense. There's really only two roles that should matter. Getting hitters out or losing your job.
 

Hit-n-Run

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Well, maybe there is a change in thinking.

Suarez activated
Errvin and Pennington sent packing.
Rosell Herrera contract purchased and called up..

Suarez and Blandino are in today's lineup
 

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I think home runs and doubles are also part of the thinking.
The Braves execute flawlessly.
 

Hit-n-Run

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The Braves have some pretty good looking young players. That's what you expect from a team that states it's rebuilding.
 

JohnU

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I was thinking, if the Reds bring up Senzel, do they suddenly go from 5-20 to 6-20?
 

Hit-n-Run

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It's not the elite prospect that makes the biggest difference. It the dozen or so bums filling out the roster.
 

eburg5000

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I don't believe I have ever seen the attendance that low. The 1st 2 games didn't look like there was 2000 fans there. I think the Braves fans saw that after the 1st 2 games they could get as many seats as they wanted and drove up from Atlanta. because it sounded like The Reds were on the road the 3rd and 4th games. I hate to see that things have gotten this bad. Maybe this will force management to take notice
 

JohnU

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I don't believe I have ever seen the attendance that low. The 1st 2 games didn't look like there was 2000 fans there. I think the Braves fans saw that after the 1st 2 games they could get as many seats as they wanted and drove up from Atlanta. because it sounded like The Reds were on the road the 3rd and 4th games. I hate to see that things have gotten this bad. Maybe this will force management to take notice
Plenty of Braves fans in Tennessee, east of Nashville. That's a pretty easy trip. There probably are that many every year, you just don't hear them. They only come to Cincy for one series.
 

Hit-n-Run

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Nashville raises a good question about Reds country. The Reds still have an affiliate in Clarksville TN which is in the Nashville area, but long gone are the days when radio and the Big Red Machine were kings. There has to be a market share worthy of having the affiliate to make business sense, but I wonder if the outer lying areas of Reds country are going to eventually disappear from radio.

MLB TV and At Bat allow fans to choose their favorite teams. Which for most younger fans that means the team that is winning. But it cost money to follow a team on any format other than radio, so that's a consideration for many.

Do the Reds still maintain the same level of fan interest in the areas you other guys live in?

That question may only be relevant to Eburg in terms of zip code. John has posted he grew up in close proximity to Cincinnati, but I'm not sure if his current area is or ever was Reds country.

A neat Reds related fact to where I live. My house is built on property previously owned by Powell Crosley. It was sold after he died in 1961.
 
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