The Cincinnati Reds game against Cleveland has been postponed. The game will be made up on August 9th. If you were hoping to see who would take home The Ohio Cup you are going to be waiting quite a while.
But with a few hours of time freed up this afternoon with no game, why not check out a cool story about one of the Cincinnati Reds more intriguing prospects?
Interview with prospect Jacob Hurtubise
Last summer the Major League Baseball draft was cut to just five rounds. In 2019 in was 40 rounds. Many players that normally would have been drafted simply weren’t given the opportunity. That left teams scrambling to try and sign as many free agents as possible. Cincinnati signed the third most free agents of any team in baseball last summer and one of them was outfielder Jacob Hurtubise.
He spent four seasons playing for Army at West Point. In the past he would not have been eligible to play professional sports directly out of college and would have had to serve in the armed forces before making an attempt to come back to play. But that changed in the last year and a half, giving him the chance to play now and defer his service time until after his playing career.
In college he hit .301/.453/346 with 105 steals, 142 walks, and just 83 strikeouts. Through three games with the Dayton Dragons this year he’s kept on getting on base, hitting .250/.571/.375 thanks to five walks.
Just before the season began he spoke with the media that covers Dayton for 17 minutes, telling his story. It’s a good listen.
This may be a generalization, but I’ve had several students who attended USMA, and they all had outstanding character like Jacob. With his enthusiasm and positive attitude how could you not root for him to be successful?
He’s got me for a fan!
Getting on my soapbox:
Today’s rainout will mark the 4th straight day that Tejay Antone won’t pitch. The Reds were off on Thursday, Miley pitched a no-hitter on Friday, and yesterday was a blowout. And who knows if and when Antone will be needed in the upcoming PIT series.
It makes zero sense to have one of our best pitchers sit by idly while Jeff Hoffman is guaranteed innings every 5th game.
+1,000 I too would like to see what TA can do in a starting role!
+ 2,000!!! Love to see 5 innings from TJ.
Here’s a thought – how about we bring up Lodola from AAA? He’s looking really good, following on his work from last year. I think he’s more seasoned that Green and better off-speed pitches. Why keep throwing out guys who are inconsistent and haven’t shown much in yeras past – put them in the BP where they only come in for an inning or two.
Tomn, his name is Tejay, not TJ.
And it’s Lodolo. And he’s in Double-A, not Triple-A. And it’s also Greene, not Green.
The word from the beginning has been the ultimate goal is to stretch him out. So how long does that take?
Hoffman and Antone switching roles would be a good move, provided Antone keeps it going.
Starting pitching thus far has outperformed the bullpen. Moving TA further weakens the bullpen. What’s the solution, assuming the ownership/management isn’t willing to spend money? Iglesias isn’t setting the world on fire in LA and Bradley isn’t doing terrific for the Phils and is injured. So I don’t know that letting them go in the off season was a bad move. I’m more concerned with SS and the lack of hitting despite the fact that they hit well in first part of the season and now it’s back to feast or famine.
It takes forever if you aren’t actually doing the work to stretch him out.
Getting stretched out one pitch at a time will take TeJay until he’s 50.
Antone is not going to be a starter in 2021. The Reds decided that already He’s pitched 3 total innings in may after 14 innings in April. A starter workload is to be ramped up to 75 pitches minimum.
The Reds play 28 games in the next 29 games with 4 at Coors field. He will pitch plenty out of the bullpen and after 4 games at Coors field next weekend, krall be sending the I71 shuttlebus to Louisville for pitching reinforcements.
Driven by the immediate needs of the day in exchange for 180 innings later. Just dumb. Sorry, not sorry.
And Garrett hasn’t pitched since last Sunday (May 2). I hate to see how rusty he is when he enters a game this week in Pittsburgh. A batter or two may get plunked… (But good thing Romano and Perez pitched yesterday, two guys who are almost certainly seen as lower by the organization than Garrett on depth charts.)
Absolutely!
Agree 1000 %
… about TJ starting. No way Hoffman should be starting over him .
A rainout is a good opportunity to put up a sign for Help Wanted — Bullpen Pitchers Apply Within on the box office window.
And take qualification of of Must Throw Strikes out of the fine print at the bottom.
Gausman, DeSclafani, Cueto, and Alex Wood are all posting brilliant numbers this season…for the Giants. If only the Reds could have kept just one of them (preferably Gausman), things would be in much better shape now.
SF is over performing. Does @nyone actually think they can keep it up? Still think Dodgers or Padres, likely Dodgers.
The Reds need to take advantage of the schedule this week. Anything less than winning 5 of the 7 games is unacceptable, and given the fact that the Pirates and Rockies are two of the worst teams in baseball, six wins should be the goal. The Pirates are missing two of their top hitters in Hayes and Moran. Polanco, though he’s not hitting well, also just got placed on the Covid IL due to violating protocols. Since being called up April 22, Todd Frazier is hitting .086, which rose from .032 after getting two hits today.
If Hoffman struggles Tuesday, the Reds absolutely need to move him out of the rotation, especially considering that Sunday’s start would be against the Rockies in Colorado.
Move Hoffman to the BP today. Bring up Lodola – more seasoned, better off-speed than Green and have him get his intro to MLB this week!
Why wait?
Bell has made it clear that he prefers to use Antone
(1) when the Reds are leading
(2) in close games
(3) for multiple innings
That’s a tough trifecta to hit.
Maybe that’s why he has pitched in fewer games than Fulmer, Doolittle, Romano, and Perez (and Garrett and Sims, too).
Sorry, that’s just mismanagement of assets.
You can’t use him every game. I thought one game last week, he seemed pretty tired. Gotta pick the games and innings when it’s most critical. I know that we all know that.
My point is to move him into the rotation rather than leaving him in bullpen roulette.
Totally agree …. but Bell is good at mismanagement . Dude is stubborn and is a poor strategic manager .
You guys may well be right about Bell and Antone. But we are not privy to the information Bell has concerning Antone’s readiness increase his pitch counts substantially. This team is frustrating because it looks good in flashes, but how many of us really believe that it’s likely to be a serious WS contender? Antone is possibly a centerpiece of a near-future, talented and young pitching staff, and rushing him now–in a year when realistic expectations are modest–may be short-sighted.
The Cards and Brew Crew have begun to separate from the rest in our division and do play each other this week.The Reds can get closer if they HIT.For the past several games its been feat or famine pretty much which reminds me all to much of the team we are trying not to be at the plate.Time to learn how to win on the road.Cut down on the punch outs,put the ball in play,go the other way and get those runs home.The 13-12 game last Sunday was a bad omen cause then the swing swing swing thought process takes over and we struggle which we have since that game.Wink and Larussa won 1-0 and the Tribe gave us 3 runs Friday night to back Miley and his no no.