The Cincinnati Reds just announced that the afternoon game, dubbed “Re-Opening Day” has been postponed due to the rain that is currently happening and expected to continue all day in the Cincinnati area.
The game will be made up on June 28th at 6:40pm ET. That was an off day for both teams.
Cincinnati will now hit the road for a 4-game series against the St. Louis Cardinals that will go through the weekend before an off day on Monday.
It would appear that Re-Opening Day will now be on Tuesday night when the Milwaukee Brewers show up for a 3-game series.
Joey Votto’s rehab pushed back a day
Last night it was raining in Louisville and the Bats had their game postponed. That means that Joey Votto’s rehab assignment didn’t start. The first baseman is coming back from a broken thumb. He was scheduled to be the designated hitter in the lineup last night. He mentioned last week that he was feeling fine swinging the bat, but catching the ball was still uncomfortable. Seeing live pitching while he’s comfortable swinging the bat even if he’s not quite there yet in playing in the field makes a lot of sense. While everyone is always working on their defense there’s less “need” to get that work in after a little bit of time off as there is to see live pitching.
With the Reds game being postponed today, we turn to the radar in Louisville….. Oh no. Just like Cincinnnati, the rain is already happening in Louisville and according to weather dot com it’s going to be 2am before the chance of rain dips below 50%. For both the Reds and Joey Votto, they may be waiting even longer before things get started – at least in terms of games – for the rehab process to begin.
This might help a little in that we may well have several guys back from the IL by then.
Is this due to the mercy rule?
+100 🙂
It does give Bell and Farmer a day off from getting beat up.
Is saying “a guy that’s always been a backup, is not the solution to SS” beating him up? I don’t think I’ve read much worse about Farmer, most everybody likes him.
I dont agree with that. I absolutely love Farmer and he is a great bench player but he shouldn’t be playing every day. He is taking one for the team obviously and trying his best. The front office put him in a spot. There is no way Farmer should be the last guy making the team. Same thing for Suarez. I know Suarez is not having a good year but he could have very easily stayed at 3rd. He tried to help the team out and play shortstop and it didnt work out well. Cant blame him for being a team player. Alot of pressure on his shoulders. I wish nothing but the best for both players. Life is hard enough without thousands of people watching you every night.
I’m with JB on this one. Farmer should not be the shortstop and neither should Suarez. The owner and leadership handcuffed the team by not providing them an adequate chance to sign a real SS when plenty were on the open market. I sure hope to god they have learned their lesson and will go for a real SS this coming offseason.
Also would like to point out that Geno does still have 12 Homeruns and a ok amount of RBI’s. Yes his batting average and defense at SS have been pretty bad. At 3b he has continued to do a pretty nice job when he is playing there.
As for Farmer I feel eh… about him. He is a nice utility bench player at best and its sad they still haven’t gone out and got someone that at least can hit over .250 and can get on base @ at least a .300 clip.
Jay the Red, those cumulative stats are deceiving since he has more PA than anyone on the team and has mostly batted between 4-6 with greater on base opportunities. He isn’t markedly better with RISP so he’s squandered a huge amount.
Hence those stats being overshadowed by actual WAR.
A day for the Reds to devise more anti-Cardinal strategy.
If ever there were a time to get guys back and healthy, it’d be now. With the rainout make up date, the Reds get one off day from Tuesday 6/8 until the all star break.
Hopefully we can see Joey back for Milwaukee (or earlier!).
No idea what, but something has to be done for the bullpen. Stating the obvious here, but it’s a mess, and unless Sims, Antone, and Doolittle can pitch every game, it ain’t getting better. Maybe a Hoffman and Lorenzen in the pen could help, but who knows when that’ll be?
Some consolation and wisdom from Ebby Calvin “Nuke” LaLoosh:
Lousy timing for the Reds and Re-Opening Day. Lousy timing for Votto. But the bullpen did need some rest. I think that was Blandino’s longest outing of the year!
I honestly don’t know why they don’t try him more. ML hitters obviously cannot hit slow pitching. lol It may be Blandino’s greatest asset. 🙂
Nobody likes a rainout, but it’s clearly a fortuitous happenstance for the team after last night’s little league play. Too bad David Bell didn’t respect his seeming “20 pitch rule” for relievers in Blandino’s case to preserve his good pitching record. Five of so pitching outings by position players with two of them first day off the bus from Louisville is quite the oddity after only 53 games.
Unlike Bell’s attempt to set the MLB record for getting tossed came up a bit short in 2019, it seems he might be able to nab an obscure prominence for “managing” the most position player pitching appearances in a single year.
It’s a bummer for me because I always look forward to the game whether they stink or not. On the other hand rain might be the best thing thats happened to the team this year. Maybe Miley can figure out what is wrong with everybody in the bullpen on his day off.
I don’t really understand why Ohio opens to 100% 2 days after a holiday, was it to avoid a big crowd on Memorial day weekend?
I believe it had to do with the preset expiration dates of various orders in effect and was supposed to lessen confusion.
The reds need an immediate bull pen reorganization ! Maybe they can use the time off today to send some guys packing and bring up decent arms from the minors
Garrett has a fastball that just shouts “clobber me”… 94 straight as an arrow. I think he’s allowed 7 HRs in 16 innings. He needs a stint at Louisville, while Perez, who gives up 3-run innings like he’s handing out ice cream. needs to be permanently released.
94 is plenty fast enough if it effectively spotted and located. Garrett’s issue that it is neither. Same with his out pitch, the slider. He’s got to be able to throw at least one of them for “safe” strikes, called or swinging.
I am no pitching guru; but maybe he needs to throw an occasional cutter to try to keep batters on edge and have them guessing if it is full fastball or full slider when it is in fact neither?
I agree with both comments. He seemed a better reliever when he was a converted starter and had bigger repertoire. No that he’s basically a two pitch guy he doesn’t seem all that good at anything.
@GrandSalami? To my mind’s eye Garrett has never been the same pitcher since he suffered that hip pointer (or whatever the exact injury was) all those years ago which ended his apparent breakout run as a starter (I2017).
Per Fangraphs, despite constant velocity on the FB (95 per Fangraphs) he has gone from 60%+ usage of it, 22% on the slider and 15% on the change up in 2017 to basically a 50/50 FB/Slider split with no change ups in 2021. In 2018, he was a 60/30 FB/Slider guy. By 2019, he’d flipped that to nearly 60/40 Slider/ FB and all but dropped the 3rd pitch.
I am left wondering if that injury all those years ago despite not directly involving his arm did something to change his body geometry and cost him spin and movement in his straight wrist pitches.
Bold of you to assume there are decent bullpen arms in the minors.
I think one of the problems is that there are no decent MLB ready bullpen arms in the Reds minors unless they cross the line of using top starting pitcher prospects as relievers; and, they do not want to do that (yet at least).
Going to see Hunter Greene pitch Friday in Huntsville Alabama. Nick L. pitches Saturday but I have had a long scheduled poker game so will miss him. I know some folks up in Chattanooga and they are very excited about Greene and Lodolo. They are both fan favorites and lighting it up. I am really looking forward to seeing the game.
@moon> Hope you enjoy your trip and Greene is as good looking in person as he has been via TV to me. Particularly interested if he looks as muscular and physically imposing on the mound in person
There’s talk of nuking this team for a rebuild on previous posts. My question is this: when will we ever have two of the best hitters in the MLB again? We have a solid catching core and some nice surprises like Naquin, and India’s not half bad. Mahle is great, Miley is solid and Gray hasn’t reached his best yet. Antone could (should) be a starter. If we can return Votto, Senzel, Mous, and some more of our walking wounded and get some seroius bullpen help, the second half could be huge. Bring up some pitching. Buy some pitching. Keep working with Suarez. We play the Pirates 13 times in the second half. We control our own destiny with the rest of the division. This is why we got Castellanos. Go for it.
You’re definitely not wrong, but Castellanos has played himself into the same situation as Bauer. He’s gone. They cannot afford to get nothing for him to pursue something as unlikely as winning the division. The wildcards are even more unlikely with LA, SD, and SF all rolling.
We’ll see soon enough. They finish 4 in SD on June 20. Thats my determination date. Personally I think they’ll be 9-10 out because the schedule is pretty rough
Castellanos to the Yankees for P-Jonathan Loaisiga and OF-Clint Frazier. They’re both young & talented. Frazier was a 1st rounder and .771 lifetime ops. He’s 11 for last 36 with 2 hrs. He’ll be 27 next week and pretty talented imo. Loaisiga might be able to start of be a key member of the pen. The Yankees might give up more? Their offense has been horrible.
What an optimist. And I’ve read a bunch of negatives on Frazier when he was touted last year.
As for the rainout? At least, it isn’t a loss.
Lifetime .771 ops isn’t bad, but Frazier just hasn’t been turned loose. They had a loaded OF previously and he got off slow this year. He could be a righty Tyler Naquin except 3 years younger.
Are they bringing back the universal DH next year or not? That affects trading & rebuilding for the future obviously. Schwarber will be a free agent and 11 hrs/140 at-bats at gabp, but he’s a DH and we already have one in Winker.
Clint Frazier
2020 Stats: 160 plate appearances, 8 home runs, 26 RBI, .267 average, .394 on-base, .511 slugging.
Analysis: His defense soared and regular at-bats helped him produce a terrific 2020. Now he has to keep it up. The AL executive believes, comparing Frazier’s career arc to the likes of Justin Turner, Chris Taylor and Nelson Cruz as players who emerged even as the baseball world doubted them. “Frazier is a grinder, I know that,” the exec says. “It takes time for some guys.”
The rainout can be a positive for the stressed pitching staff.
Need to shop him now.No way he comes back short of a long term deal where we over pay and the keys to the City.Probably wouldn’t even stay for that.Dude wants to win.Gives Shogo a shot and may be he performs and we can unload him as well.Reds are along way from competing with an aging roster owed big bucks.Shop a starter or two and see if anybody bites.Miley is a real good option for somebody and there is always some that think they can fix and probably can Castillo.Value for value is all we are looking for.Build your next good team around TY Steve,Wink,Senzel,Naquin,Greene,Lodolo,India and others we get in these trades.Improve next year and again in 2023 and then we have more money off the books in Joey and Moose who by the way still may help some to win some along the way.Its not all gloom and doom if ownership reacts.
I don’t know but to me this team has no fire and seem to be going thru the motions without a care in the world. Example last night Tucker can’t find the ball after blocking it and this allows the runner to move from second to third. The camera zooms in on Geno at 3rd and he has a big smile on his face. Should he not be upset about what just happened?
I think for the most part the team has shown fire and a don’t quit attitude until the pitching (typically Castillo or the pen) has put them into an unrecoverable situation. Last night @lancemcalister tweeted the following:
53 games into the season the #Reds have allowed:
19-17-14-13-12-11-10 and 9 runs four times.
In these 12 games, that’s over 20% of the games played so far, it would be easy to see why the position guys were worn down by later on.
As far as the Barnhart play last night, my first thought was that since he took that nasty bounce of the ball squarely in the mask, the cause of his confusion might have been that he was stunned. I did not see the Suarez reaction to it.
i agree Angelo. at times, the fire has been there this year. But, i have said this many times , this team still has a lot of Brandon Phillips in it. the attitude is that , yes when we go out there we are probably going to lose, but lets have some fun while doing it. Let’s give the fans at least some entertainment while we are getting are heads beat in by the opposing team. i didn’t mind it so much initially (2014-2016) when we clearly didn’t have any talent to compete. But this is going on 8 years now . the happy go lucky, aw shucks, lets get them next time, just have some fun, attitude is getting a little stale and quite frustrating to me
The Reds’ biggest need is a plan, put together and executed by an experienced, successful baseball executive. I don’t personally have baseball executive experience or know how but I have observed over decades the process followed by winning sports organizations. And it’s obvious Big Bob and tinker Bell don’t know how to produce a winner.
Cubs were total losers before Theo. The Giants’ rebuild is lightning fast compared to the Reds. Bloom in Boston has already created a winner and he came from Tampa where people don’t even like baseball. There are other examples all over baseball. Dick Williams had a plan but Big Bob yanked the rug out even though he had to have been on board with that plan going into 2020.
Hire a man with a plan, preferably from a successful organization, and turn him loose. Let him hire a legit field manager and make the moves that need to happen.
Cindy loves it’s baseball and it will fill the stands for a winner. It’s not rocket science Bob! But you have hire winners to build a winner.
VegasRed: a real good comment. Dick Williams did have a plan. The organization misses his leadership. Change (trades) needed. Play the young guys. Don’t keep players too long.