Let’s play two, again! The Reds will host the Los Angeles Angels in Goodyear. Out in Las Vegas they will once again take on the Chicago Cubs. Both games will be at 4:05pm ET.
Cincinnati Reds (6-7-1) Lineup and Roster
| vs Angels (Goodyear) |
vs Chicago (Las Vegas) |
|
| 1 | Shogo Akiyama – CF | Jesse Winker – LF |
| 2 | Joey Votto – 1B | Mike Moustakas – 2B |
| 3 | Tucker Barnhart – C | Phillip Ervin – CF |
| 4 | Matt Davidson – 3B | Aristides Aquino – RF |
| 5 | Boog Powell – LF | Kyle Farmer – SS |
| 6 | Jose Garcia – SS | Mark Payton – DH |
| 7 | Scott Schebler – DH | Christian Colon – 1B |
| 8 | Alfredo Rodriguez – 2B | Alex Blandino – 3B |
| 9 | Brandon Barnes – RF | Francisco Pena – C |
| 10 | Trevor Bauer – RHP | Vladimir Gutierrez – RHP |
| Expected to Pitch | Expected to Pitch | |
| Joel Kuhnel | Jose De Leon | |
| Brooks Raley | Alex Powers | |
| R.J. Alaniz | David Carpenter | |
| Ryan Hendrix | Matt Bowman | |
| Sal Romano | ||
| Tyler Thornburg | ||
| Tony Santillan |
Note: Tony Santillan is listed as scheduled to pitch in Goodyear in the Reds game notes. But he’s listed on the Vegas roster and I’ve been told that he’s there. So I made the executive decision to list him as expected to pitch in Vegas.
Reserve players on today’s roster:
| Angels (Goodyear) | Chicago (Las Vegas) | ||
| P | Austin Orewiler | P | Ryan Lillie |
| P | Julio Pinto | P | Ryan Nutof |
| P | Jesus Reyes | P | Dylan Rheault |
| P | Junichi Tazawa | P | Walker Weickel |
| C | Curt Casali | C | Tyler Stephenson |
| C | Ernesto Liberatore | C | Mark Kolozsvary |
| C | Val Martinez | C | Morgan Lofstrom |
| IF | Derek Dietrich | IF | Jonathan India |
| IF | Freddy Galvis | IF | Blake Trahan |
| IF | Eugenio Suarez | IF | Josh VanMeter |
| IF | Alberti Chavez | IF | Brantley Bell |
| IF | Michael De Leon | IF | Alejo Lopez |
| IF | Miguel Hernandez | OF | Stuart Fairchild |
| IF | Ibandel Isabel | OF | Narciso Crook |
| IF | Gavin LaValley | OF | TJ Friedl |
| OF | Nick Castellanos | ||
| OF | Travis Jankowski | ||
| OF | Nick Senzel | ||
| OF | Michael Beltre | ||
| OF | Lorenzo Cedrola | ||
| OF | Michael Siani | ||
| OF | Andy Sugilio |
Note: It looks like there’s a lot of starters on the bench today in Goodyear. Those guys usually don’t come in as reserves in the spring – but they are on the roster sheet today, so I’ve listed them here.
Chicago Cubs and Kansas City Royals Lineups
| Angels (Goodyear) | Chicago (Las Vegas) | |
| 1 | David Fletcher – 2B | Kris Bryant – 3B |
| 2 | Luis Rengifo – SS | Anthony Rizzo – 1B |
| 3 | Michael Hermosillo – CF | Josh Phegley – C |
| 4 | Jared Walsh – DH | Ian Happ – CF |
| 5 | Max Stassi – C | Nico Hoerner – SS |
| 6 | Jose Rojas – 1B | Jason Kipnis – 2B |
| 7 | Arismendy Alcantara – 3B | Noel Cuevas – RF |
| 8 | D’Shawn Knowles – LF | Trent Giambrone – DH |
| 9 | Orlando Martinez – RF | Ian Miller – LF |
| 10 | JC Ramirez – RHP | Colin Rea – 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 Angels game will be available on 700 WLW. The Cubs game is not available on the radio. But the Cubs came will once again be available on MLB.tv (no Angels game).
Reds links and news
Joe Posnanski’s Top 100 Baseball Players of All-Time countdown continues and on Saturday we saw former Cincinnati Red Frank Robinson come in at #20 on the list. He only spent half of his career with the Reds, and is widely regarded as being a part of the worst trade in franchise history (let’s note that the fabled trade of Christy Mathewson almost assuredly never happened).
David Laurila of Fangraphs appears to have been in Reds camp recently as he’s talked with several players and written about them in the last few days. This morning he has some notes on Jose Garcia, who says the players he enjoys watching the most are Albert Pujols and Javier Baez. There’s also a note in there about a small adjustment he made this offseason at the plate. Go check it out.
Tyler Kepner of The New York Times hit up Goodyear and wrote about the Cincinnati Reds hiring of Kyle Boddy as their Director of Pitching Initiatives/Pitching Coordinator. It’s an interesting read into his background a little bit, and how and who he’s worked with. There’s a quote in there from Dick Williams, though, about how things used to happen with their pitching development that sort of hurts your soul and shows that the plan for a pitcher kind of ceased to exist from an organizational standpoint and was up to the whims of whichever pitching coach happened to be in control of the team he was on in the minor leagues at the time.
Nick Senzel had some good things to say about 2019 1st round pick and left-handed pitcher Nick Lodolo after facing him in live batting practice earlier this week, including to “put him in the rotation now”. We wrote about why the Reds won’t have to do that, even though Lodolo is probably one of the most polished pitchers drafted by the Reds in the last two decades.
Final: Reds 8 – Angels 8
The Reds had an 8-4 lead heading into the 9th inning, but the Angels put together a rally to tie things up. That’s where the game ended after the bats for Cincinnati went quietly in the bottom of the inning.
The Highlights
We’ll start on the mound where Trevor Bauer allowed just one hit – a solo home run – in 4.0 innings. He walked one batter and struck out four. After the outing he spoke to the media in Goodyear and said he was ready to go (for the regular season). R.J. Alaniz and Joel Kuhnel both tossed shutout innings of relief. It was a tough day for Brooks Raley (1.2IP, 3ER) and Ryan Hendrix (1.0IP, 2ER, 2UER) out of the bullpen on the day.
Shogo Akiyama got the start in center and led off. He raised his average this spring to .346 by going 2-3 with a double. Joey Votto went 1-2 with a walk and he scored two runs. Matt Davidson continued to do damage, hitting his second homer of the spring and drawing a walk. He’s hitting .375 for the Reds. Boog Powell also homered for Cincinnati, smashing a 3-run shot in the 3rd inning. Alfredo Rodriguez went 1-3.
Among the reserves who came in later in the game, both Ibandel Isabel and Miguel Hernandez doubled, with each going 1-2 on the day. Michael Beltre and Alberti Vhacez would both also add singles. You can see the entire box score for the game here.
Final: Reds 11 – Cubs 9
Tough day on the mound for a pair of pitching prospects as Vladimir Gutierrez and Tony Santillan each gave up four earned runs – but the offense came through with a big day against the Cubs pitching to pull out a victory in Las Vegas.
The Highlights
Phillip Ervin hit a long solo home run and TJ Friedl had a 3-run double that put the game away for Cincinnati. Kyle Farmer had three singles on the day, going 3-4. Alex Blandino picked up two singles of his own, going 2-3 on the day with an BRI. Christian Colon played the entire game, going 1-3 with two walks. The Reds as a team picked up 10 walks on the day. Aristides Aquino had one of those walks, and he also had a single, an RBI, a stolen base, and he scored two runs.
Matt Bowman, Sal Romano, and David Carpenter all tossed a perfect inning of relief. Alex Powers picked up a shutout inning of his own. You can see the entire box score for this game here.
“ There’s a quote in there from Dick Williams, though, about how things used to happen with their pitching development that sort of hurts your soul.”
I sure said ouch when I read it.
Can’t make that stuff up—and it’s frightening.
The unprofessionalism of the Reds over the last two decades that is coming to light has me flabbergasted.
It’s like Mike Brown has somehow been running things.
Here’s to better days!
I will be 65 on Tuesday and I am with you.Maybe just maybe we are starting to get it
Seat- I’ll be down there next weekend. If I learn of anything cool I’ll pass it along.
Was the advice you got in a thread or from DM from others? I’d like to take a look at it myself.
i am glad Scott Schebler is getting so many looks this Spring. I am expecting big things from him this year!
Agreed. Worth the read.
You left off Farmer, who is almost a lock, since he can play SS and be the 3rd C.
Ervin is out of options so unless he is traded he is a lock. No way he passes through waivers. Cant see how Powell or Jankowski makes it.
I’d guess tomorrow we see some moves. With the team spending two days in Las Vegas this weekend it didn’t make sense to start sending guys to minor league camp.
With less than three weeks left of ST, it’s very likely that one of the OF spots will go to Ervin unless traded. The battle for the IF bench spot has turned to be more interesting than expected, with VanMeter, Blandino and Davidson, all putting excellent numbers.