John Fay has this piece on Felipe Lopez, and his recent struggles.
Felipe will come out of it. You can’t expect him not to have any slumps. He’s still one of the best thing this organization has going for it.
I get excited when I think about the young nucleus this team has, a group that could be the backbone of the next Reds championship team. Adam Dunn. Felipe Lopez. Austin Kearns. Wily Mo Pena. Edwin Encarnacion.
Then, I get depressed when I think about whether the Reds management actually values these players. I’m not sure that they do.
Gotta love Fay… NOT!!!
Anyway, in the last week the Reds have faced 3 LH starters and Lopez had to bat RH much of the time.
Lopez from the right side is a bat on the ball hitter. He walks very few times (in the neighborhood of 1/16 ab over the past 2 seasons RH) and his BA this year has been way down, thus his whole OPS RH is affected by this. His approcah LH has approved so much it’s hard to smash on him for his RH approach. My guess is he will probably have years good and bad from the RH side until he increases his walk rate.
That said his play in the field the past week makes it easier to forget the whole 0-19 run, even though he’s killing my fantasy team right now. 😉
i think it’s clear that they value the youth since they had so many overtures to deal an OF and took weren’t interested by any. They’ve hyped EdE for a long time now, and FeLo is certianly untouchable at this point.
What depresses me is that we put up runs and can’t win because of our pitching (that and good lefties kill us). I wish DanO had been able to deal Casey for any pitching.
that and good lefties kill us
Bad ones too, this team has been making soft tossing LH’s look like gold for the past 10 years.
A month ago the Reds nubers were not as good against LH’s as it is now. Lopez has been struggling against them all year too. But the past few years is the crux of what I’m speaking of. The Reds have had problems with LH’s and it will manifest itself in certain situations. It seems soft tossers who have good junk always befuddle them.
Reds vs LH’s last 3 years
.236 .316 .393 .709 – 2004
.232 .309 .365 .674 – 2003
.229 .316 .371 .687 – 2002
Felipe needs a day or two off to recharge the batteries. He looks a little tired. Isn’t this why the Reds signed Aurillia in the first place?
Felipe is the best. No matter what he does i will still always love hima nd adore him. All u ppl that don’t like him i have no idea why u don’t.:grin: