The season so far

[JohnU]

1-8 after series against division rivals:

We expect the pitchers to pitch better, the hitters to hit better ... and we should expect the outfield to play defense better. Has it been the reason the Reds have lost?

No.

The hitting has sucked, the pitching has not.
The bullpen is not as bad as the non-experts have claimed. Every bullpen loses a game twice in 9 tries.

The Brewers are good. The Pirates had more luck than skill.

 

[JohnU]

Trying not to make much of a 14-0 blowout.
Mattingly has some work to do in Miami.

 

[Hit-n-Run]

Urena allowed 4 runs in 5 IP and his ERA went down. Chen was left for dead or 6 outs, which ever came first. Regardless of the caliber of the Marlins pitching it's still nice to see the offense explode. Be nice to see it carry over moving forward.

Two more with the fish and a Friday of no baseball. Then it's St. Louis and a west coast swing. The rest of the April schedule is pretty tough.

 

[eburg5000]

Nice to see the win... Puig was lucky, to only get a two game suspension. I think if Bell would have stayed on the bench. Everyone would have stayed on the bench and Archer would have still gotten his 5 day suspension. But I do understand why they call Pulg "The Wild Horse".
I thought when Votto got hit last night, and started walking toward the mound. We were going to see another brawl, but he picked up the ball and tossed the ball to the pitcher, and went to 3rd.. not sure what was going on there

 

[JohnU]

Urena allowed 4 runs in 5 IP and his ERA went down. Chen was left for dead or 6 outs, which ever came first. Regardless of the caliber of the Marlins pitching it's still nice to see the offense explode. Be nice to see it carry over moving forward.

Two more with the fish and a Friday of no baseball. Then it's St. Louis and a west coast swing. The rest of the April schedule tabis pretty tough.

The St. Louis series is in Mexico, btw.

 

[JohnU]

Nice to see the win... Puig was lucky, to only get a two game suspension. I think if Bell would have stayed on the bench. Everyone would have stayed on the bench and Archer would have still gotten his 5 day suspension. But I do understand why they call Pulg "The Wild Horse".
I thought when Votto got hit last night, and started walking toward the mound. We were going to see another brawl, but he picked up the ball and tossed the ball to the pitcher, and went to 3rd.. not sure what was going on there

5 games for Archer is a joke, as it always is for pitchers. He will miss a start unless they shove it back a day. The team will pick up his fine, if there is one ... and he becomes an innocent bystander.

The Votto hbp was a bad pitch and Votto knew it. The benches were warned which was stupid, another ump not caring about the game.

 

[JohnU]

Still pretty good pitching, so maybe it is at least legit for the moment.

 

[eburg5000]

5 games for Archer is a joke, as it always is for pitchers. He will miss a start unless they shove it back a day. The team will pick up his fine, if there is one ... and he becomes an innocent bystander.

Archer should have been ejected for having pine tar in his pants. The umpire didn't even check him, and worse yet, the Reds didn't ask the umpire to check him. This could be because if we check there guy, they will have are guy checked.

 

[JohnU]

Archer should have been ejected for having pine tar in his pants. The umpire didn't even check him, and worse yet, the Reds didn't ask the umpire to check him. This could be because if we check there guy, they will have are guy checked.

Everybody uses pine tar. Archer was just a bit too messy about it.

 

[Rod Freakin' Dangerfield]

Should've kept Riggleman.

 

[JohnU]

Should've kept Riggleman.

yeah, that's what they're saying down at the sewage treatment plant.

 

[Hit-n-Run]

I'd say most fans thought the pitching would get better with the addition of Roark, Wood, and Gray. The reality is it's mostly been guys that were already here.

Derek Johnson was touted as a guru and through 12 games the pitching has made him look like one. We're seeing some of the young arms make strides in the right direction. Can't say that about his predecessors. None of the young guys were progressing and if anything were regressing under their tutelage.

I thought cleaning out the dugout was the right thing to do with one exception. I thought Don Long had done a nice job as hitting coach. I view him as an undeserving casualty of the ineptitude of the group as a whole.

 

[eburg5000]

Three wins against Miami makes things look a little brighter. A few against ST Louis would look even better

 

[JohnU]

The surprise has been Stephenson, who I suspect will have to prove he can pitch after he gets beaten up a couple of times. The veterans guys know how to do that.

Honestly, the Alex Wood puzzle is just that. He sure isn't looking like a guy they want to throw money at this fall. I'd give Roark an extension if it's not expensive.

The problem with the hitting is that if these guys are anywhere near .500 in July, they will have to decide if dealing Puig is a good idea. Gotta see what they do with Scooter, I suppose.

 

[Hit-n-Run]

I don't expect the Reds to extend Wood or Roark. They potentially already have four of the five rotation guys in place. Castillo, Gray, Mahle, and Disco. Disco is the most questionable of the those four, but he is under team control through 2020 and is still cheap. Wood and Roark are making nearly $10M each in their 3rd arbitration year. If indeed they end up only looking for one addition to the rotation they could do better than either of those guys for the same $20M.

 

[Hit-n-Run]

I think by the beginning of May we'll have a better idea of how good this team is. If they can hold their own the rest of the month against some pretty good teams that would give me a reason to be more optimistic.

 

[JohnU]

I don't expect the Reds to extend Wood or Roark. They potentially already have four of the five rotation guys in place. Castillo, Gray, Mahle, and Disco. Disco is the most questionable of the those four, but he is under team control through 2020 and is still cheap. Wood and Roark are making nearly $10M each in their 3rd arbitration year. If indeed they end up only looking for one addition to the rotation they could do better than either of those guys for the same $20M.

I agree, they'd have to get Roark cheap. Depends on how the market shakes out and it's not looking as good for veteran pitchers as they thought it would. A couple of reasons for that are being spread around.

The eye is on Santillan, who is maybe the best choice they will come up with. Oddly, Stephenson is showing some signs of life. He may end up being better than Roark.

The boat's sailed on almost everybody else, Jimmy Herget notwithstanding. The setback for Hunter Greene probably isn't a catastrophe but it's annoying.

There's a kid Packy Naughton at Daytona who seems a little bit interesting to me.


It's too early for a trend, but at least this outfit is keeping the ball in the park, which is large.

Miami is even more dreadful than they were last year. When the hoss of your offense is Neil Walker, we should send sympathy cards to Mattingly.

 

[Hit-n-Run]

If it looks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, then it probably is a duck. This offense sucks and so does Norm Duck.

 

[JohnU]

This latest game is more like what we're used to seeing with the Reds. It could be a duck.

 

[eburg5000]

I'm not sure what to say, But it does look like a duck. Plus it isn't going to get any easier as we go on to San Diego then come home to play the Braves.