Votto

[JohnU]

Votto to the DL.
We call up Lutz? Nelson? Move Frazier to 1b?
Pena to 1b, take Mesoraco off the DL, keep Barnhart?
Or do we jettison Bernadina and bring up the ghost of Eddie Milner?
Soto awaits ... 7 years in the minors didn't hurt this guy at all.

Walt needs to turn a real deal here and stop fooling the fans with these AAA callups.
Votto, if he really is hurt, will be out at least 6 weeks.
Assuming Bruce can play and Mesoraco can still hit, we might be OK.
I doubt it with this anemic squad.

By 6 weeks, that's midseason -- these guys are 10 under or worse.
That's usually a team that sells.
If you don't sell, you finish 5th.
The good part about that is that in 2015, they get to talk about how the team will probably be better.

 

[redsfan03]

I'd probably bring up Nelson and move Frazier to first or move Pena to first and keep Nelson as a bench bat. Lutz isn't going to provide anything above Neftali Soto production (or lack thereof). Problem with this team being a seller is who do you sell? The most sell-worthy candidate, in my opinion, is Mat Latos. Nobody wants to buy on him, though, since he's been sitting on the DL this whole time. Nobody wants a single batter from this useless lineup that isn't a front office-deemed untouchable. Nobody wants Homer Bailey because it's fairly clear the Reds grossly overpaid for him. Ditto for Phillips. Cingrani and Leake could bring modest return, but I don't think the Reds want to give up either one. Everybody wants Cueto, but he's not going anywhere. I could maybe see the Reds trying to get something for Pena as long as he keeps producing. Possibly Alfredo Simon, too, if he keeps it up. That's about it.

 

[JohnU]

Our questions on the roster were answered.
As for a market for Reds players, strangely ... anybody who is in a big-league lineup is a good fit somewhere. We may not see it that way. Todd Frazier would be a great addition in Philly, near his home. The Angels could also use him. A few others. At the deadline, teams in a pennant race would have wet dreams to have Cozart as an infielder. We would rather find somebody better. Goes to show you.
Pitching is always on the table but personally, I don't trade pitching for anything unless it's better pitching. The Sean Marshall deal might be an example of how that doesn't work.

 

[TKOSpikes]

Who are they kidding? Why wait out the inevitable? Put Votto on the DL now, instead of wasting a bench spot for a series!

 

[Redsfan1507]

Dunno...maybe they don't want to piss on the upcoming Holiday homestand sales. After all, the only thing worse than losing, is losing money too.

The days of Johnny Bench taping a quad and catching 4 out of 5, getting a break playing 1b for a game, are over. I do blame fans some for a situation where if Votto has a sore muscle and his BA drops to BP's career average, they start crying Votto needs to be a 2 hitter and not walk so much. Managers are supposed to manage more than the lineup, but get pressure from the GM, and players raised in a kinder gentler world where performance with discomfort is a foreign concept.

I wouldn't bring up another glove for Votto. Pena can play 1b, and if I had Ludwick's arm, I would have bought a 1b mitt a long time ago. Lutz and Soto were 1b, if your afraid of Luddy at 1b, and Schu in LF. Personally, I'd alternate Pena and Mesoraco there, and get them both everyday AB's.

 

[Redsfan1507]

Ironic to abort the lineup that won the previous day, so Cueto could keep his comfort level with his adopted catcher, Pena...then the patchwork D blew up, and the personal C couldn't stop Cueto from falling apart.

Personally, I would have kept the best hitter (Mesoraco)in the lineup, Frazier at 3b, and Cueto 's buddy at 1b. Could have turned put the same, but replacing Meso with Santiago as a bat, and playing 2 guys out of normal position doesn't sound like it was worth Cueto having his normal catcher. A little too much comfort level for a team not scoring many runs to pay, IMO.

 

[JohnU]

Price seems to be learning the old-school way ... if you can't win, don't make it worse.
The only thing I'd have done was to not start Cueto and give Marshall the ball in the 1st inning.
For folks who think 'anybody' can play 1st base, a bad first baseman will make an infielder look even worse.

 

[Redsfan1507]

Is this guy ever going to play ? I read Price says Votto has to go on rehab because the only way they'll know if he can play, is if he plays. Duh...I often wonder if the problem is in his head, not his leg.

 

[JohnU]

Chicago Bulls ran into the same issue with Derrick Rose, who keeps "rehabbing" instead of going out to see if he is healed. What degree of perfection does the human body have to achieve before it's good enough? I haven't seen anybody hit .800 over more than a week anyhow.

 

[Redsfan1507]

They're very mum on info. Hard to believe with an entire sports med staff available they aren't sure what status is. They just don't want to say for whatever reason...if he's playable hitting .280 or .260, and that's unacceptable, what about guys hitting .240 playing everyday ? Or .140 playing twice a week ? Until Bruce starts hitting something, the Reds need another guy with potential to hit a HR...especially since this team is scoring about 41% of their runs via the HR.

 

[JohnU]

Just watching Cozart pretend to actually have something of a clue, one wonders what the limbo bar is for a hitter.

Now I see where Latos has had a "calf" pull.

Sounds like a bull pull.

 

[JohnU]

I WOULD RATHER have my toenails pulled out than watch Hunter Pence bat.

 

[Redsfan1507]

Pence is a geek. Hyperactive, and unconventional, with several obvious flaws. His plate coverage exists from the middle in, above the waist. Last I checked that leaves half the strike zone, low and away he can't get a bat on with his left foot in the 3b coaches box. Yet, the Reds still keep pumping the ball to his wheelhouse...and he still keeps hitting them. Go figure.

He's also a RF that throws sidearm. Yet, he has good OF assist numbers every year, because baserunning has become as much a lost art as common sense.

 

[Redsfan1507]

BTW- the same hitting coach working with Frazier and Mesoraco is working with the rest of these whiffaholics. Worthy of note, Frazier appears to have improved by being more selective. Mesoraco by being more aggressive. Neither has changed their swing much.

Cozart's swing plane may quite possibly be the worst in MLB for the length that the plane of the bat is on plane with the trajectory of the ball...making square contact with the ball about as likely as dropping a pea from the roof into a coke bottle on the sidewalk with a 20 mph cross wind. His swing plane is way too verticle on a mostly horizontal pitch. The mound woyld have to be 6 feet tall for him to be on plane. He should be introduced to a ball on a tee, where he might not miss half the time.

Cozart's never hit much. He may go on a month long "hot" streak and wind up hitting .240 again...but that's only 10 more hits a year than hitting at his present .220 pace, and only a few of those would be homers.

Bruce, though...the guy has always struggled with focus- swinging at randomly horrible pitches but hitting some of them a long way. Now, he seems to be mixing in just not swinging at all, at strikes thrown in consistent, exact same locations. He also refuses to try to hit the ball to the left side, where the defense is absent in a shift. Is he blind, or just stupid ? If .250 is the benchmark for him, he's about 23 hits a year behind the pace, of which half might be long balls.

In those terms, Cozart isn't helping us, but Bruce is just killing us hitting .210.

We've all seen the increase in steals by the Reds this year- they're among the NL leaders for the first time in decades...but dont get tje impressuon that means theyre mastering small ball...even though theyve expanded ways to get them over...they're still among the leaders in pct. of runs scored by a HR- and HR are down...so getting them in hasnt improved. The Reds BA is poor. Their hitters don't walk much and strike out often, so getting them on is still a problem. They have advanced on steals more, but have gotten thrown out on senseless stretch attempts past 2b with both 0 and 2 outs. They don't bunt well, and hitting the ball at all is a struggle, so asking them to be hitting behind a runner seems a bit overly optimistic.

Offenses this flawed and or limited aren't cured by a hitting coach alone. Gotta start somewhere though, and getting rid of a singular minded (homer or starve) manager and hitting coach is just a start. It doesn't help when an already thin roster has to go less their best hitter, their best catcher, their best power hitter, their best closer and their previous year best SP for a substantial time. If the league wasn't full of similar teams, we might be 15 games back already.

 

[JohnU]

Watching today and last night, it is clear that the D-backs don't do a good job of scouting the hitters.
The Giants do.
Guess which team is in last place? The other is in first place.
SF has marginally better hitting than the D-backs do -- in part of their order.

Watching the Reds hit, there's so much predictability as to be amusing. The only thing I sometimes don't predict is when a ball gets down the line for a double on a play the 3B just didn't get a glove on.

Hamilton trying to steal 3rd with none out is a sin of major proportion.

Anything else smacks of amateurism. Bailey and Cingrani have mastered the art of pitching to a scouting report that is non-existent. Leake got screwed again with 3 hits (2 by Frazier) and left himself no margin for error. A mistake or two is fatal with this offense.

Whoever thought the Reds could contend needs to get some better dope. Now Votto isn't "100 pct." again -- and since that's been going on since the last time he was supposed to be, well ... hell, Latos might just need another rehab start or two.

I don't see 2015 as being much better.

 

[Redsfan1507]

Dunno if the word was used out of context, but the other day in pre-game conversation, they said something about needling to evaluate the level of "atrophy" of Votto's quad. I'm not a doctor, but I thought that term described degraded tissue dueled to lack if use or disease. Are they saying his quad has reduced capacity due to impacts of his knee surgery, or lack of use since ? I certainly hope not...a botched surgery and or physical therapy in rehab would be my first guess if that term was used by the med staff. Surely it was the wrong term...

 

[JohnU]

Well, he sure knows how to get a rally going.
That base on balls is just what it takes.

 

[Redsfan1507]

I still think he's got some kind of mental issue. Talk around Reds media always suggests Joey isn't having any fun...hey...they maybe he ought to go work in a lumber yard for $10/hr. for a while and them re-think how much fun he's having. I'm really unsympathetic to all that jazz.