(Ed.: Bumped to the top; didn’t want it to disappear down the page too quickly. Newer posts below.)
There are so many things going right for the Cincinnati Reds right now. Add to the list that they have the best offensive catching tandem in National League. They are second in all of baseball only to the New York Yankees in batting average and OPS.
– Ramon Hernandez: 20 starts, batting .300/.417/.386 avg/obp/slg
– Ryan Hanigan: 17 starts, batting .368/.478/.561, and tied with Jay Bruce for 5th on the team with 16 RBI (in less than half the at-bats.)
It looks like Dusty Baker has found the right balance of playing time to keep each player fresh, and playing time has been shifting to Hanigan so far in the month of May. Hanigan has made 8 starts in May compared to 6 starts for Hernandez.
Hanigan and Hernandez lead the Reds with the best and second best batting average on the team.
Stats are through games played Saturday night:
| Rk | PA | R | H | 2B | 3B | HR | RBI | BB | SO | BA | OBP | SLG | OPS 6 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | CIN | 145 | 13 | 42 | 11 | 0 | 2 | 23 | 23 | 17 | .347 | .455 | .488 | .943 |
| 2 | SFG | 145 | 22 | 43 | 8 | 0 | 4 | 15 | 12 | 16 | .339 | .410 | .496 | .906 |
| 3 | PHI | 139 | 20 | 36 | 6 | 0 | 2 | 13 | 24 | 24 | .321 | .442 | .429 | .871 |
| 4 | CHC | 143 | 21 | 34 | 4 | 1 | 4 | 11 | 26 | 27 | .293 | .423 | .448 | .871 |
| 5 | NYM | 148 | 18 | 37 | 7 | 0 | 10 | 23 | 7 | 20 | .274 | .311 | .548 | .859 |
| 6 | MIL | 155 | 17 | 34 | 9 | 0 | 5 | 22 | 22 | 17 | .266 | .374 | .453 | .827 |
| 7 | COL | 147 | 20 | 33 | 3 | 0 | 10 | 21 | 14 | 40 | .250 | .320 | .500 | .820 |
| 8 | ARI | 150 | 15 | 32 | 7 | 0 | 5 | 23 | 21 | 39 | .248 | .353 | .419 | .772 |
| 9 | ATL | 155 | 20 | 31 | 5 | 0 | 3 | 16 | 26 | 25 | .252 | .394 | .366 | .759 |
| 10 | LAD | 160 | 21 | 36 | 5 | 0 | 4 | 15 | 17 | 25 | .263 | .348 | .387 | .735 |
| 11 | SDP | 146 | 15 | 34 | 5 | 0 | 3 | 22 | 17 | 33 | .266 | .352 | .375 | .727 |
| 12 | WSN | 153 | 15 | 44 | 11 | 0 | 1 | 18 | 4 | 20 | .303 | .325 | .400 | .725 |
| 13 | PIT | 149 | 8 | 34 | 7 | 1 | 3 | 19 | 11 | 25 | .252 | .322 | .385 | .707 |
| 14 | STL | 152 | 9 | 34 | 7 | 0 | 2 | 24 | 12 | 20 | .252 | .329 | .348 | .677 |
| 15 | FLA | 156 | 14 | 35 | 7 | 1 | 2 | 13 | 12 | 28 | .245 | .308 | .350 | .657 |
| 16 | HOU | 125 | 8 | 24 | 4 | 0 | 2 | 11 | 4 | 28 | .202 | .232 | .286 | .518 |
| TOT | 2368 | 256 | 563 | 106 | 3 | 62 | 289 | 252 | 404 | .273 | .356 | .417 | .773 |
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table Generated 5/16/2010.