I think Earl Weaver might have had a different philosophy if he had a rotation of Scott Feldman, Bronson Arroyo, Rookie Davis, and Tim Adleman. For starters he'd needed two 3-run homers to play .500 ball.
I think this is a brain-buster for the Reds. A year ago, they said Reed had nothing more to prove in the minors. Obviously he hasn't proven he can get anybody out there yet either.I'm thinking Reed went down instead of Stephenson. Is because this is Stephenson's last chance with the Reds to show he can pitch in the majors. I'm thinking he will be a bust before he is a solid major leaguer. At least as a Red. Not saying they let him go and he hooks up with another team he won't figure it out.
Bronson will be the Straily of the staff and become the de-facto ace.
Finny is out for at least a month.
Disco is out for the year.
I frankly don't g.a.f. about Homer.
Garrett needs another year to be any good.
Adleman will be there when they need a game pitched.
Not sure how many games that will include after May 1.
The bullpen will run out of gas.
Meanwhile, Kivlehan ....
This pitching staff is like a jigsaw puzzle with a few missing pieces. I can't fathom any SP on this team having 200+ innings, or how they can fit 7-8 of them to get 150. It's good the bullpen has exceeded expectations, because it seems the Reds don't have a single pitcher in the rotation with even odds of making it 6 innings. Not sure how long a bullpen can go tossing as many innings as they have, though...no surprise, Reds P do have a lot of success when opposing hitters swing at pitches out of the zone, unfortunately not so much when they don't. With only a 1 game exception, Garrett has been a rare SP that consistently threw enough strikes to be impressive. I do fear the opposition's advance scouting report in a few weeks making the Reds younger arms have to resort to less predictable 2nd and 3rd pitches...when they have so much trouble locating their best pitches.
It appears the Pirates just can't solve the Reds, but the Brewers can, and the Reds already won a series in St. Louis, so it's been an odd start in that regard. It seems to be a perennial theme to "wait until the rotation gets off the DL", but I'm neither optimistic about that going as planned, or confident that the re-assignment of pitchers will improve the team, if Bailey and Desclafani DO get back, and stay in, the rotation.
It's nice to see Votto hitting his weight before at A-S break, DuVall has done well, and Suarez is hitting like he may go oh-for-some month soon to make up for looking like Ted Williams so far. Would be nice to have Hamilton and Peraza above the Mendoza line, because this team is going to have a tough time if they combo for .220 BA and 1200 PA, no matter how many bases they steal.
In baseball,, you just never know until you play the games, and I'm pleasantly surprised the Reds are within a win of .500 after 28 of them. We'll have to see how the next 134 go.