The Cincinnati Reds hit the road this afternoon to take on the Milwaukee Brewers. First pitch is scheduled for 3:10pm ET. Radio broadcast only.
Reds (7-18-1) and Brewers (12-11-3) Lineups
| Reds | Brewers |
|||
| 1 | Jesse Winker | LF | Kolten Wong | 2B |
| 2 | Nick Castellanos | RF | Jackie Bradley Jr. | CF |
| 3 | Mike Moustakas | 3B | Christian Yelich | LF |
| 4 | Eugenio Suárez | SS | Avisail Garcia | RF |
| 5 | Tyler Naquin | CF | Daniel Vogelbach | 1B |
| 6 | Tyler Stephenson | C | Travis Shaw | 3B |
| 7 | Kyle Farmer | 1B | Omar Narvaez | C |
| 8 | Jonathan India | 2B | Orlando Arcia | SS |
| 9 | Jeff Hoffman | SP | Corbin Burnes | SP |
| 10 | No DH | No DH | ||
Reserve players on today’s Reds roster:
| Pitchers | Infielders |
| Cam Bedrosian | Alex Blandino |
| Sean Doolittle | Cheslor Cuthbert |
| Amir Garrett | Mike Freeman |
| Cionel Pérez | Alejo Lopez |
| Lucas Sims | Alfredo Rodriguez |
| Edgar García | Outfielders |
| Dauri Moreta | Narciso Crook |
| Matt Pidich | Nicky Delmonico |
| Catchers | Mark Payton |
| Deivy Grullón | |
| Mark Kolozsvary |
Where to watch/listen/follow the game
The game will be live on the Reds on Radio Network. The broadcast will be on 700 WLW AM.
Reds links and news
The Rotation is set to begin the season
Cincinnati’s rotation is set for the start of the year. How long it remains that way is up in the air with both Michael Lorenzen and Sonny Gray making progress as they come back from their injuries, with both hoping to be back and ready to go soon. Luis Castillo and Tyler Mahle will start the first two games of the season. After that the order isn’t yet decided, but Wade Miley, Jeff Hoffman, and José De León will make up the rest of the rotation.
No Joey Votto today
After playing on back-to-back days, Joey Votto is not making the road trip to face the Brewers. But as Bobby Nightengale of the Cincinnati Enquirer noted this morning, he may play in the Reds simulated game in Goodyear today according to acting manager Freddie Benavides.
Nick Senzel on the field for the B Game today
Charlie Goldsmith of the Cincinnati Enquirer has Nick Senzel on the field today in Goodyear for the Reds B game. He’s dealing with a mild groin strain that’s kept him out of the regular lineup for the last three days.
Nick Senzel is leading off in today’s B game (really it’s more of a live batting practice).
A key step toward him being ready for Opening Day. pic.twitter.com/k1xwQRLtvs
— Charlie Goldsmith (@CharlieG__) March 28, 2021
Does Kyle Holder fit onto the Reds roster?
Over at RedsMinorLeagues.com this morning I wrote about how it’s tough to fit infielder Kyle Holder onto the Reds roster this year. In a different era you could make a better argument to carry him, but in today’s game it’s a tougher sell.
Final: Brewers 7 – Reds 1
Tough start for the Reds doomed the day.
The Highlights
Jeff Hoffman allowed four runs in 0.2 innings and Sean Doolittle allowed two in 0.2 innings – both within the first two innings of the game. Amir Garrett, Lucas Sims, and Cam Bedrosian each threw a perfect inning of relief. Cionel Pérez allowed a run in his inning of relief.
The offense struggled to get going. Tyler Naquin hit a solo homer, going 1-2 while starting in center field. Tyler Stephenson went 2-3. Kyle Farmer went 1-3. No one else had a hit on the day.
You can see the full box score for the game here.
Tomorrow’s Game
Another afternoon game – the final games of the spring as the Reds take on the Seattle Mariners at 3:05pm ET. Radio broadcast only.
Don’t know that Hoffman is gonna make it to his first start.
Including today’s start …
Hoffman has made 6 Spring Training starts
-Only once did he not give up at least 2 runs and that was vs. the Rockies
-ST totals – 17.1 IP / 13 Runs (all earned) / 17 Hits
Shaping up to be another impressive outing against a central division rival. Time for Bell to start substituting.
Bauer and DeSclafani’s SP innings might be really missed by us fans as soon as the first week.
(Disco was OK but the HRs allowed really dragged his work down).
IMO, tough to see what aspect of the Reds stands out as playoff material.
Maybe hitting will be the best part of this team in 2021, but they have to be able to do it consistently from GABP.
Well, all I can say is we are going to be out of contention by May 1st if Hoffman and Deleon are in the rotation.
Out of contention by May 1st – with Bell managing you expected something else? I’ll be happy if the Reds finish ahead of the Pirates. I’d love for Bell to win MOY and prove me wrong but I feel pretty confident that won’t happen.
You can’t have 2-3 question marks in your rotation to start a year. That and an offense who strikes out too much. Going to be a long year for a team with talent.
Listening to this on the radio today was painful. That first inning must have lasted a half hour. Yuk. I sure hope this isn’t a portent of things to come.
I listened to the top of the 1st. Leadoff man lines out on the first pitch. 2nd and 3rd hitter both strike out on balls in the dirt.
Without knowing the team, I could have identified this as the Cincinnati Reds just from the result.
Gearing up for another long year.
It’s still spring training, which means the inability to get anyone out or score a lot of runs is irrelevant because results don’t matter. As soon as the season starts, Hoffman will stop giving up millions of runs and hitters will stop swinging at balls in the dirt and looking at strike three. They’re just getting all the bad stuff out of their systems now. Or something like that.
I just simply don’t understand why Hunter Greene is not in the rotation. There is no way he could be worse than Miley, Hoffman, or really anyone besides Gray and Castillo. Other teams let their young stud pitchers play in the majors. Why are they protecting him, is this for team control? I am really baffled. He would give us instantly one of the best rotations if he can throw strikes.
He’s thrown less than 80 professional innings in his life. You should not be baffled in any way about why he’s not in the rotation. He’s still learning how to be a starting pitcher.
Comeon Doug, the White Sox threw that young fireballer against us last year who had no major league experience and he baffled us. The kid throws 100MPH multi pitch arsenal, how much experience does it take to dominate with that kind of stuff? If he can throw strikes he is ready. Hoffman can’t even throw strikes at this juncture from what we saw today.
Would ya say same for Lodolo?
Not entirely because he at least pitched in college a bunch, but mostly, yeah, I’d still take that same approach. Lodolo’s had a lot more development time post high school than Greene has. That stuff is important.
Let’s establish a conservative ETA for Greene and Lodolo. Average rate of development.
Greene: June, 2022
Lodolo: September, 2021
I think that’s reasonable. Obviously the best case scenario is sooner for each guy.
Hoffman can maybe squeeze in a simulated game before his start. Hopefully he works out a lot.
Note the Reds ran out a close approximation of their Pen and, aside from Doolittle who has only looked serviceable during his best moments this spring, looked very good.
Bell pulled all the starters pretty early too.
Archie Bradley has thrown 10 innings this spring with 9Ks and 1 ER. They traded Iglesias for nothing and released Bradley. This team has no desire or will to be competitive and as fans we should be absolutely disgusted and refuse to support such a terrible franchise until we have a new ownership group. Blind optimism in the face of terrible decision making is not something I am prepared to do, no way am I even paying one dollar towards MLB.tv to watch this clown show.
Letting Bradley go will haunt them big time. They traded two prospects, he only pitched 8 innings for them last year, and then they let him go. What a joke. Given how Garrett and Simms have looked so far, that would have left them with a solid bullpen. Just scratching my head about that move.
Aaron-ya not wrong. That said, I missed the hell outta MLB last year. And so want 162 game season, that I just can’t miss this year.
Yes, yes I am a sick person…
While I disagree with you comments above regarding Greene, I pretty much agree with these points.
For the owner, a multi billionaire from family money, to cry poor when they made no real attempt to sign Bauer for market price, and then charge the price they are charging for tickets this year, I say no thanks.
Nobody held a gun to his head and told him he had to buy controlling interest in the Cincinnati Reds. He did it. He said he would bring a winner. He has done the opposite. He has put curbs on good decision making that were either money related or his own like or dislike for certain players. The net result is/was predictable.
Did you really expact the Reds to give 1/3 to 1/4 of their entire slary base to one pitcher? You are not dealing in reality. Only the richest team in baseball could meet his demands.
2 things John. First there is no evidence they even tried to sign him. Second, yes I expect them to be competitive in the Bauer situation. Bauer was paid the going rate Cy Young award winners who are free agents are paid. The Reds never even entered the discussion. Shame on them.
Agree 100% . The off season moves were atrocious. This franchise and city deserves better than Castellini and cheap ownership group. I’m not spending a dime to watch the Reds get thumped daily.
Exactly why I never get excited when Reds R rumored to be trading someone. Recently, they’ve done well w/ Suarez, Castillo and Gray trades, but miss completely on so many others it’s downright scary. Couple that w/ their marginal ability to develop their own players, and it’s downright depressing.
Thanks…that’ll be one less person standing in the beer line.
Doolittle has done little to earn a slot in the pen. C’mon better guy let go.
After today’s game it’s safe to expect a change of direction regarding Hoffman, Deleon and Doolittle.
Just hard for me to accept the game was over and over early but we have seen it so many times.We have to be able to score early as the Brew Crew did and take the pressure off of our starters.I didn’t listen but Greenfield Red’s account of our top of the first is just so like us.Surely we know that this year especially early in the year that starters will only go 4 or 5 innings and that you may face a new guy the second or at least the third time up.It will be everybody’s strategy because of the few innings guys went last year.We must make the pitcher work,we must take walks,we may have to play some small ball early but we have to get out in front and early.We will not get a chance against a struggling starter in the 5th inning.It will be against a fresh arm throwing gas.This game as it turned out was over before the first inning was over.Most starters,not all but even the good ones,take a while to settle in and I am not saying Burnes is good. When you swing and go out on the first pitch and the next two strike out on balls in the dirt followed by the home team plating 4 its over even if it is spring and nobody cares.Its even worse in the regular season cause you don’t have 20 pitchers to finish the game.I am not defending Hoffman because he was awful but we have to score too.We had 5 at least and maybe 6 starters in the game and we score once and get 4 hits.
I agree Roger. I knew it was over after the top of the first. I shut it off and went about my day.
They can say ST results don’t matter because they’re not trying to win. Well the other team is not trying to win either, but they’re doing it 3 out of every 4 games. I have a bad feeling the Reds won’t sniff .500 this year. They msy lose 95 games.
Good comment. I also feel the Reds will struggle this year to reach and stay around a .500 record. It all depends on winning or splitting more of the 52 series than they lose. We, fans, shall see.
Hahahaha! Angels sign Noe Ramirez! Was that even 24 hours since his official bye bye? This is one of Nick Krall’s worst nightmares! I’m laughing way too much this …
Noe
I don’t know Nick well enough to say this for certain, but I feel pretty confident that because he’s a human that his worst nightmare actually involves being eaten alive by spiders.
Doug I know you are preaching optimism on the Podcast, but lately you sound like you might be applying for Reds PR director. Are you going to admit this is a clown show? These guys see how inept management is running things, its not a mystery. We need to shame ownership into selling period that is the only way forward as a real fan. Blind optimism just keeps this farce alive that much longer.
The Cleveland Spiders?
Sorry, I’m not going to be down and out on a team that has Eugenio Suarez, Jesse Winker, Nick Castellanos, Mike Moustakas, Nick Senzel, and Joey Votto in the lineup everyday until I’m shown otherwise that they aren’t going to produce, nor a pitching staff that’s got two of then 10 best starter pitchers in it’s rotation in the National League. You can start the year being mad online if you want to. I’m not going to do it. This team has some real talent on it. They aren’t the Dodgers, but they aren’t the Pirates, either. They’re a solid team with some upside.
So many players given away within the last year or so in exchange for nothing.
Taylor Trammell is going to make the Seattle roster out of camp. Nice to see another prospect gone.
Counterpoint: It was also nice to see Bauer win a Cy Young in a Reds uniform and lead us to a playoff appearance.
I’m not optimistic about this season, and I agree at times we have traded too many good prospects for short term gain (ie…Gray and Downs to LA). But I’d trade Trammell for Bauer all over again.
No one is crying that we traded away Strailey for Castillo, or Simon for Suarez, or Long for Gray. That’s the way trades go most times, one team gets the better end of the deal.
Not sure if this is analytics run amok but it was noted by many commentators that the pitchers picked up by the Reds this offseason were almost always “high spin rate” guys that could be conceivably brought back to former glory with the Driveline system.
Now, it seems certain that Hoffman, DeLeon, and Doolittle will be the primary contributors from that effort for the time being.
This sparkling trio has an ERA of 9.70 and the rest of the new crop is either worse, green or didn’t get much of a chance to prove themselves. So what is David Bell to do now?
I know, SP doesn’t mean anything but how does a player feel when the 28 game warmup is over and the team hasn’t even managed to win 2 in a row?
Most believe and it is proven that over a 162 game season that the best teams with the best talent usually win.The Reds have talent which on offense did not produce at all in the shortened season and so far in the spring we see the same.I am referring to scoring runs and when they do its usually by the long ball.Doug is right in that I should not get mad until they prove they will not produce.What I read into that however and he may not even meant it this way was the word everyday.Based on past history of guys like Wink and Senzel and the age of Moose and Joey they will miss some games because of injury.Throw in the off days they will get and need to get along with Bell and his never ending need to get everybody at bats and in the game then an every day lineup won’t happen as often as we need it to.So for me when our every day lineup is in there they must produce and quickly.Now I don’t know last year how many times we had that lineup out there nor do I know how many times we have played our regulars together in the spring.I just know in the last close to 90 games we are struggling to score runs.Lets just let it play out but until it changes its still the same.
Health matters a lot to every team. Injury prone isn’t a thing unless it’s a guy who continuously has the same injury over and over. A guy who simply injures different things isn’t injury prone as much as they are just having bad things happen for no predictable reason. Winker and Senzel have both had injuries throughout their careers that have kept them off of the field often. I don’t think either of them has had the same injury twice. I know other people are going to strongly disagree with what I just said there, and that’s fine – but that’s where I’m at. I’m not going to just assume “these guys are going to get hurt because that’s what they do”.
Someone is very likely to miss time this year. Heck, several guys are. We’re already seeing it in the rotation with Lorenzen and Gray. When thinking about how the team is going to perform though, I just kind of factor in that some guys are going to get hurt along the way and just try to adjust in my head what a normal amount of injuries would do rather than try to pin the injuries on specific players for ABC number of games. If Luis Castillo misses the year that’s going to be a much bigger issue than if Jeff Hoffman does. But we can’t really predict that is going to happen to either guy, ya know? We just know that it’s incredibly likely that the rotation (and bullpen) is going to have some guys miss some time. It happens almost every year.
But until we see those injuries happen, and those performances from whoever replaces them start costing them games, I’m not going to just be preemptively mad, upset, bothered by it. In the last 24 hours I’ve been getting the Redleg Nation staff predictions. They’ll be out before Opening Day. I’ve been fairly positive online about the team, but I think those who are mad at me for being so might be surprised with what I’ve got to say in that one.
I’m not mad, and I’m usually a glass half-full guy. But I just don’t see it with this team. They weren’t very good last year. I think the pitching will be a lot worse. I think the defense will be a little worse. And as much as I want to say the offense will be a lot better, I just don’t see it happening. I think the O might be a little better because it appears they are getting another potential positive bat in the lineup (India).
However, I don’t see any evidence there is any kind of change in plate approach by anyone on the offense. The BABIP which was historically horrible last year was attempted to be explained away by bad luck. I don’t buy that for a second. There were almost no attempts to hit away from the shift last year, and there hasn’t been hardly any attempts this Spring either. I can’t base my case on three at-bats, but there was my evidence in the top of the first yesterday. Lineout (into the shift I assume) on the first pitch yesterday followed by the next two striking out on balls in the dirt. That’s the top 3 in the lineup (not 7, 8, and 9), and that sounds a lot like last year to me.
The offense was perhaps the unluckiest offense of all time last year. They’ve replaced the shortstop offense (from last year) with Jonathan India’s offense this year. I expect the offense to be significantly better this year. Pitching and defense…. that’s another story – but I still expect the pitching to be good, just not quite as good. They may not have to be, though.
Wasn’t challenging you but was agreeing.Again all you have said I agree with for sure.I just was referring to what has already happened injury wise and performance wise and that it is what it has been until both change.I was referring to the offense only and the need to score runs when our best are on the field together.
I love your work here Doug, but I predict 67-95. I hope I’m wrong. I’d be interested in other predictions.