Here’s my latest column for Cincinnati Magazine:
As I predicted a few weeks ago, three Cincinnati Reds have earned trips to this year’s All-Star Game. Joey Votto is going for the sixth time, while Scooter Gennett and Eugenio Suarez will make their first appearances on a National League roster at this year’s Midsummer Classic. Many thousands of words have been written about Votto and Scooter, and rightfully so. But I want to talk about Suarez for a moment, and here’s why: Eugenio Suarez is one of the best third basemen in the history of the Cincinnati Reds. And he’s still getting better.
Some of you are nodding your head right now. Some of you think I’m out of my mind. But is the statement above any crazier than that time I said It’s Garry Shandling’s Show is one of the top three television comedies of all time? I was right about that, too.
Hear me out. Last season, at age 25, Suarez posted 4.0 Wins Above Replacement. That is one of the top 25 individual seasons for a third baseman in Reds history. It was a very good season, but not quite enough to put him in elite territory. Yet.
Read the entire piece here, and let me know what you think.
Solid stuff Chad. I have one complaint but I’ll get to that later. It seems like we’ve spent decades hoping for the next good Reds third baseman. We had can’t miss prospects who missed, aging veterans who were good but kept aging, and misplaced hope in infielders who were never going to shine. And now the Reds have a great third baseman in Suarez who is a delight on and off the field, and a top prospect in Senzel who may be just as good. That’s a nice problem to have. Eugenio deserves more good press, and more of our cheers.
On the complaint – RLN is awesome, and you and Steve and all the writers are fantastic ambassadors for the rest of us ordinary Reds fans. So I’m disappointed by your representation of Alfredo Simon. From what I know he may have done some awful things, maybe even criminal. And he certainly had no future on field value to the Reds when he was miraculously converted to Suarez by trade with Detroit. But the “bloated corpse” line was unnecessary and doesn’t represent Reds fans well. I wish you’d stuck to the baseball facts on that one.
Thanks as always for all you do, and I for one am glad you’re at the helm of our RLN ship. Even Eugenio may strike out once on a 4-5 night. Steady on, Captain.
I don’t know about 3rd base, but Larry Sanders Show was better than It’s Garry Shandling’s Show 😉
Yes, trade Gennett to an AL team (DH). The Reds should not get stuck in another injury situation similar to Bailey.
I don’t see that Suarez is yet in exclusive company but I do think he has one positive in particular, among many, and that’s presence.