Sonny Gray will make his spring training debut today as he takes on the Texas Rangers at 3:05pm ET. The lineup has plenty of regulars in it for a road game, and the pitching staff should see plenty of MLB arms for Cincinnati on the day.
Cincinnati Reds (1-2) Starting Lineup
- Josh VanMeter – 3B
- Joey Votto – 1B
- Nick Castellanos – RF
- Mike Moustakas – 2B
- Tucker Barnhart – C
- Phillip Ervin – DH
- Mark Payton – LF
- Christian Colon – SS
- Travis Jankowski – CF
- Sonny Gray – RHP
These guys are expected to pitch in relief today: Michael Lorenzen, Robert Stephenson, Lucas Sims, Cody Reed, Tejay Antone, and Vladimir Gutierrez.
Reserve players on today’s roster:
Pitchers
Catchers
Infielders
- Brantley Bell
- Michael De Leon
- Jose Garcia
- Jonathan India
- Ibandel Isabel
- Alfredo Rodriguez
- Blake Trahan
Outfielders
Seattle Mariners (1-2) Starting Lineup
- Jake Fraley – CF
- Austin Nola – C
- Carlos Gonzalez – RF
- Daniel Vogelbach – DH
- Evan White – 1B
- Patrick Wisdom – 3B
- Julio Rodriguez – LF
- Dee Gordon – 2B
- Sam Haggerty – SS
- Justin Dunn – RHP
Where to watch/listen/follow the game
The game will be live on the Reds on Radio Network. In the greater Cincinnati area the game will be available on 700 WLW AM. You will also be able to watch the game on Fox Sports Ohio, as well as MLB.tv. Unlike the game on Tuesday, today’s broadcast will feature the Fox Sports Ohio crew calling the game.
Reds links and news
Kyle Glaser of Baseball America wrote about Cincinnati Reds pitcher Jose De Leon following his start on Tuesday for the Reds against the Angels. There’s a lot of good stuff in there from De Leon, so be sure to go read the entire piece. But what stood out the most to me was that the right-handed pitcher was throwing 90-94 MPH. That’s a tick or two above where he was throwing last season while in Triple-A. And he’s doing it in February – when most pitchers hit their peak velocity on the season in mid-to-late June.
After hitting two home runs in the game yesterday, we wrote about Jose Garcia earlier this morning with some background information and what you need to know about how he’s progressed since signing with the Reds out of Cuba in the summer of 2017. If you missed it, be sure to check it out.
Will Leitch of MLB.com looks at five big-name players primed for a comeback in 2020. Among those players is Cincinnati first baseman Joey Votto. Leitch notes the big drop off in walks, as well as the drop off in average as a reason for the decline in 2019 and things it’s unlikely both repeat themselves.
This isn’t a Reds link, but more of a Major League Baseball link. The Atlanta Braves are owned by Liberty Media, a publicly traded company. That means that they have to open up their books for investors a few times a year in their earnings report. They are the only team in Major League Baseball that has to do that. And, well, the Braves did awfully well for themselves. They had baseball revenues of $438,000,000 in 2019 with an operating expense of just $340,000,000 according to Eric Jackson of the Atlanta Business Chronicle. They also had another $38,000,000 in revenue from the real estate development directly around the ballpark.
Final: Mariners 5 – Reds 3
Sonny Gray looked good, as did a few relievers, but the Reds fell short of their second win of the spring on Wednesday.
The Highlights
Sonny Gray looked good on the day. Making his spring debut after having elbow surgery to remove bone chips following 2019, the right-handed starter tossed 2.0 shutout innings while striking out three batters and generating three outs via the ground ball. Robert Stephenson, Tejay Antone, and Vladimir Gutierrez all threw a perfect inning of relief.
At the plate the Reds got RBI hits from Nick Castellanos (1-3) and Christian Colon (1-2, RBI double). Alfredo Rodriguez drove in the other run on a ground out. Rule 5 pick Mark Payton went 2-2 on the day. Jose Garcia, who homered twice on Tuesday, doubled off of the wall in right field on Wednesday afternoon. Phillip Ervin and Travis Jankowski also had a hit in the game – with Jankowski’s being a double. You can see the entire box score for the game here.
If Farmer is the projected SS backup, IMO he needs to be in the lineup, more than once in the first bunch of games..
Wonder if Shed Long will get in the game for Seattle?
what? no Schebler and Dietrich?
Why they (the Reds) kept Schebler over O’Grady will puzzle me for the rest of the year.
Joey is a great hitter and has the record to prove it, but sometimes he overthinks various aspects of hitting.
To paraphrase a Past US President what is the definition of is. I could go with was and maybe is.
Garcia is certainly a promising player to watch. As he is young and early in Spring Training, most pitchers “breaking stuff” is not season ready. The scouting report (well, Doug’s article yesterday) indicated that Garcia has had trouble (and who doesn’t) with breaking balls.
So once he learns pitch recognition and strike zone of breaking stuff, then I think he is ready. So early spring training pitching…..meh. But yeah, a guy to get excited about.
This might be the earliest in a season when I can say I am sick of Thom Brennaman. It was going to come eventually but it got here early. Doesn’t have daddy as a safety net anymore maybe e will stop getting a pass.
Let’s hope the pink slip comes as soon as possible.
I try to not think about Thom during the off-season, but when I do, I’m sick of him.
Thom has a high-level national broadcasting position, so there are those whose job it is to know what works who think a lot of him. Those are not easy gigs to get. He also lives in Cincinnati full time and does community work, so he has the PR resume and many strong local relationships to go with his stature. We may not like his (anti-) analytical style, but the chances of him getting pushed out would seem to be zero.
You might have spoken too soon.