Welcome to the Big Leagues

The Good
–Jay Bruce had a nice night tonight. Two hits, including a home run. Toward the end of April, when Bruce’s numbers did not measure up, I made a point of predicting on Twitter that he would be fine. I’ve reiterated the stance over and over and guess what? Bruce’s current OPS is .788. His career OPS is .789. He’s right around a 30-homer pace. If that’s not fine, I don’t know what is.

–The offense was generally solid elsewhere. Votto, Phillips, Suarez, and Hamilton hall had two hits, and Billy added two steals to the mix. HIs 87% success rate on steals is a nice turn around from last year.

–Contreras, Adcock, and Mattheus combined for four innings of two hit, two walk relief. That was nice.

The Bad
–Josh Smith, welcome to the big leagues. We’ll assume that he had the yips a bit, but his performance stunk like limburger on a summer side walk. Three innings, six (!) walks, four runs. That won’t do.

–And then there was Villarreal, who didn’t exactly help matters, throwing error or not.

–It was kind of an ugly game in general tonight.

Not-So-Random Thoughts
–How come I keep drawing losses and rain-delays for my recaps? The Reds have been alright lately, throw me a bone, guys.

–I’ve been going back and forth on the extent of a rebuild, but with the way this team is going, I really would not mind the Reds going all-in and selling whatever they can sell as long as they get legit, premium prospects in return. What I don’t want is the kind of down-the-middle path they’re likely to take.

–More baseball tomorrow. Mike Leake toes the rubber, should be okay for the Reds.