As we continue our countdown of the longest home runs hit by Cincinnati Reds in the 2022 season we move on to the 8th spot on the list today. Over the last decade or so we’ve been given the ability to at least *sort of* be able to compare the distances on home runs thanks to ball tracking technologies.
The 8th longest home run of the season in 2022 by a Red was on September 9th by Jonathan India and it went an estimated 433 feet. The home run came off of Cincinnati’s own Brent Suter.
The Video
The Metrics Behind The Blast
A left-handed pitcher throwing an 86.7 MPH fastball dead-red middle of the plate to a right-handed hitter doesn’t tend to work well in college. It definitely doesn’t work well in the big leagues and Jonathan India did exactly what you’re supposed to do with those kinds of mistakes – crush them. In at 87 and out at 111.
Distance Metrics
Distance: 433 Feet
Reds Ranks: 8th
Major League Baseball Rank: 378th (tie)
Jonathan India Rank: 2
Other Metrics
Launch Angle: 24°
Exit Velocity: 110.5 MPH
Reds Exit Velocity Rank (home runs only): 3rd
MLB Exit Velocity Rank (home runs only): 341st (tie)
The Story Behind The Blast
Both teams scored early in the game with the Reds taking a 5-0 lead in the 1st and the Brewers getting two runs back int he 3rd. That 5-2 score is where the game remained until the top of the 9th inning. TJ Friedl led off the 9th with a line drive into center off of Brent Suter, who had just entered the game. He had gotten ahead of India 0-1, but his second pitch was about as bad of a pitch you can make and it led to Cincinnati extending their lead to 7-2 as India nearly hit the ball through the back of American Family Field.
You can follow along the entire series here
I’ve seen a number of articles, of suspect veracity, that suggest India is on the block. Sounds like a Reds style move though. Not quite 26, and no obvious guy behind him ready to take over. Hopefully, it’s not happening this year.
Sources?
One of the writers on Red Reporter and scattered other stories. Again, unsure of their credibility. But the Nightengale article quoting Krall still hovers over my shoulder. If you didn’t see it, Krall commented on the young core about which the Reds were building. It did not include India.
I’m guessing, but I had to see that as a Bull Krall faux pas rather than something intentional.
Even if it were on his mind, what type of management would purposefully commit that kind of a blunder with personnel, even if you were going to fire someone the next day?
That kind of managerial ineptitude doesn’t work in the clubhouse, the steakhouse, the boardroom or the construction site.
No one needs to light a fire under India to get him to play his hardest.
Pretty bush league (or maybe NYese) to let someone twist in the wind by parsing conversations with the online ‘press’.
If a manager tried to pull that jive off in my line of work they be gone in, well, a New York Minute.
Same here. But performance doesn’t seem to matter in the Reds culture. After all Castillo us gone- Bell isn’t
No idea the interview youre talking about, but it sounds to me like youre just assuming stuff about a guy im certain the team values. This is much ado about nothing, par for the course around here.
Not seeing where RR even has this, much less “scattered stories”. Sounds like nothing but rampant and baseless speculation to me.
The Krall interview was following the GM meetings with Nightengale. 2020, your confidence in the Reds management is hilarious.
There was a discussion about India being traded on blogredmachine recently, but it seemed to me like it was just mindless speculation. I have read it other places, but can’t remember where (maybe here lol)
I don’t think India will be traded this year. But as soon as he is due a substantial (read minimal) pay increase he will be traded. As soon as, he is traded there will be those posting here and telling us what a brilliant move it was by Nick Krall. After all, in return, the Reds will likely receive a player who is almost league average and crushes left handers, every third Sunday, following a home night game, in which the Reds offer a bobble head to the first 15,000 fans.
@2020ball
LDS said the articles he read were of “suspect veracity”. LDS states that it in his very first sentence. Why would he lie about it?
I have also seen it mentioned in articles and other baseball groups. I also don’t put much stock into it, but the rumors are out there.
LDS was giving his opinion. There is no need to insinuate that he was making it up. LDS stated he wouldn’t be surprised if the Reds would traded India. That is his opinion, which is kind of what the group is about, people sharing their opinions on Red’s baseball.
https://blogredmachine.com/posts/reds-3-surprise-trade-candidates-2022-2023-offseason-jonathan-india-alexis-diaz/amp/2
Well, to be honest, India wasn’t very good last year. He had a bWAR of -0.4 and an OPS+ of 91.
Granted, he had nagging injuries all year, and it affected all parts of his game. But he also admitted that he had tried to bulk up last off-season, with the intent of staying strong all season, and that the injuries could be related to that decision. Maybe a good idea, and maybe not, but it was clearly bad execution.
I think India is now better suited at either left field or third base, especially with the ban on shifts next year, which will put a premium on agility and range at second base. (He got his second base gig more or less by accident in 2021.)
His bat ought to recover in a corner spot, but it remains possible that his rookie season was his career year. Let’s hope not, because I agree that there is no doubting his competitiveness.
At any rate, trading India now would be selling low, which doesn’t make any sense.
We saw flashes of 2021 India this past season in the midst of the the injury down time.
He admitted he was trying to make up for some of the lost long ball production from Castellanos, Suarez and Winker. And Votto. And what didn’t materialize from Moose.
That might have been the big mistake of 2022 for him…maybe altered his swing, his pitch selection and clearly demonstrating less patience at the plate.
Which was one of his strong suits in college and in his RoY year.
Did anyone speak with him about it from the coaching staff or teammates?
This being the Reds one might safely guess, no.
Put him at third or among an improved lineup and with his health steady I would look for greatly improved peformance over 2021 even.
To even talk about shopping India right now is a sign of further desperation on the ballclub.
Castillo was a really great talent, but the amount of money he would have wanted was not in the Reds’ budget, and would have been a risk in their eyes, based on Luis Castillo’s age.
Not quite what I think, or what others here think, but it’s always easy to spend other people’s money, such as $100 million dollars or thereabouts, which is what Castillo got from the Mariners.
Yeah, I would keep India. Move him back to third, his natural position. IMHO.
I’d suggest that banking on Fraley, Williamson and Dunn to produce the quality of play that the Reds got from Castillo is a risk as well.
Doug had a great piece here on the relative affordability of Castillo’s contract.
I don’t think the “easy to spend other people’s money” tag is a viable discussion platform.
The Reds spent $10M of their own money, willfully, on a washed up pitcher after shedding $Ms on productive players from their 2021 team and not even discussing a contract extension with their most productive hitter.
How much got dropped on Pham in an attempt to paper over the loss of 3 of your most productive run producers?
The Reds are about to spend $2-3M on a journeyman SS/2b with Reynolds already on the team. And after how many SS have been drafted or traded for?
“Reds trade for shortstop….” has got to be one of the strangest headlines I’ve read.
How the Reds budget their $$ and direct resources to personnel in the near, medium and long term really is fodder for discussion.
I think there is a contingent here (and I’m one of them) who don’t believe that it’s impossible to be competitive now (in a weak division) and also develop a longer range action plan.
That involves taking some risks.
Bailey’s arm fell off. Twice. After pitching two no-hitters. That’s going to spook you from signing a great pitcher long term?
Moose was a reasonable signing, but he failed to produce. So now the Reds can’t sign anyone?
Shogo was a crapshoot. Not a good risk at all. The guy admitted that MLB fastballs blew him away. That should have been forseen.
The Castellinis can hoard their money and Krall can hoard his “prospects”.
I’d love to see India try out a 3b or LF. But I don’t think Bell could even wrap his head around the idea.
In Bell’s mind if he’s not shuffling defensive locations, batting orders or relief pitchers every inning then he’s not “managing”.
Stoner, these acquisitions arrived via the Suarez/Winker trade.
“I’d suggest that banking on Fraley, Williamson and Dunn to produce the quality of play that the Reds got from Castillo is a risk as well.”
The Reds’ are in a cycle which will continue to be “un-virtuous” in terms of both the quality of play, winning and perhaps most importantly, getting fans to the games, or even watching on TV. Because people are not going to pay to see a lousy product.
The justification for being parsimonius with their funds is, of course, revenue. I have no idea, really, what the Reds’ revenue stream looks like.
Some intelligent people on this here blog have made some good estimations, but that is different from KNOWING.
My remark about “easy to spend someone else’s money” goes back to a lot of comments the last couple years, from keeping Castellanos, to keeping Castillo, to signing better free agents, to flushing Moustakas and letting him go, which means (to the Reds’ managing partners) eating a lot of money (~ $23 million for the last year).
There are other things that could have been done, but not really knowing what the Reds’ revenue stream is makes this all fun but problematic Fan Guesswork.
Indeed, the free agent money spent on Minor and Pham was really flushing cash down the drain. About $14.5 million, with Pham going at the end of July (not on the hook for the full 7 mil).
I don’t know what I would do if I owned the Reds, but as they continue to squander what remains of any Fan goodwill, they will fulfill their own expectations, and make less money.
The Pittsburgh Pirate’s model. Losing and failing baseball, and ….it will get worse.
@David “It’s easy to spend other peoples money” Who’s money are we spending? I’d love the ability to spend the money being pocketed by the Reds, if I only had access to it. With the national tv money, the local tv money, the luxury tax money, Bob is socking away cash every year. Look at Forbes, and they show you if a team is running in the red or black. Most teams are willing to lose a bit every year to keep a competitive team on the field. They know their building the teams value, for sale or, getting an increase in their next TV deal.
@MBS, the Forbes data shows Operating Income for each team, not Net Income, which includes expenses such as interest and taxes that are annual cash outflows and are a business’ bottom line. The data actually shows the Reds operate on a break-even basis over time.
@BK, that doesn’t account for ownership steak in Bailey Sports, or othe tie in the team has. Also most of the good teams again are operating at a loss.
Some large market teams have shown narrow operating losses over the last two years. This is likely a result of COVID. The latest Forbes report showed the Reds at zero for operating income—that means they lost money. Their analysis includes national revenue, revenue sharing, etc. Revenue for the parent company of Bally Sports Ohio was reported down by over 14 percent in May. It’s highly unlikely teams are pocketing even a slim profit let alone a hidden windfall. That’s what the data we can see shows.
I’m not the teams accountant, so I can’t possibly know how much they make. I’m just going off of Forbes, reds broke even, cards lost 38 m, Yankees lost 40 m, Mets lost 96 m, etc… do you really think they lost that, or do you think it comes out of revenue that hasn’t been released. Obviously the Reds can’t compete with their spending, but they could do more.
Why would anyone be in business to just break even or to lose money? If that is the case, the Castellinis could resolve the issue by selling the team.
@votto, exactly, none of them are truly losing money, maybe in 2020, but I doubt even that.
Sorry, been traveling all day. The data in the Forbes 2022 report covers the 2021 season, a season when COVID still impacted attendance. The 2020 or 2021 seasons were anomalous. Lots of teams lost money. Teams with strong revenues are more likely to absorb some short term losses. I agree teams aren’t losing money long term, but the Forbes data absolutely supports the Reds claim that they have operated to break even over time.
Bob Castellini has an obligation to field a major league team and that means he will need to spend money.
Maybe, I can’t tell Bob Castellini how to spend his money, but I won’t pay major league prices to watch a minor league team.
If Bob finances are really in such poor shape, he can address the problem, by simply selling the team.
V4L: agree 100%
Ownership of a sports franchise is participating in a public-private partnership with the city they represent. Owners should feel obligated to put out at least a mediocre team that generates income and tax revenues to offset the ongoing public outlay in tax perks and publicly funded infrastructure that they received.
If ownership refuses to fulfill their half of the bargain like the Reds seem to be doing, the public should be able to tell the team to take a hike. (And given the history of team relocation, I’m pretty sure the Reds would never move despite grandstanding).
In the grand scheme of things, pro sports is really just entertainment. On some level, one should feel morally offended that the Reds are putting such a shoddy product on the field. Tax revenues that would be collected from a successful team and successful businesses around the stadium /should/ be going back to support the public and instead, it seems like the team is just sitting on revenue share dollars that is probably tax-free.
@MadMike spot on
Is anyone else having issues seeing the Video as of 12:07am Central Standard Time it wouldn’t run for me. I’ll try rebooting my computer to be sure nothing is amiss.
Error I am getting says no asset found for provided key.
Kind of surprised Doug hasn’t put anything up about the Senzel toe surgery this week? Why does it take 16 weeks from date of injury to diagnose this on an important part of your 2023 team? Surgery on any weight bearing bone likely means 12-16 weeks of downtime. Meaning spring training definitely in jeopardy.
@Redsvol
My thoughts exactly. I was very surprised to hear about the delay in his surgery, especially for a player fighting to keep his spot on the roster.
It would be nice to see India in RF if his arm permits LF if not. Our OF is in rough shape, but I have my doubts the Reds will move him off of 2B. He’s been one of the worse fielding 2B’s in the MLB for 2 straight years. His bat is good enough to play a corner OF, and I bet he’d be a more proficient OF than he is a 2B, or he maybe another Castellanos in the OF. Who knows?
We knew the off season was going to be a drag. But they haven’t even filled the coaching vacancies. No significant rumors. The biggest news is Senzel having toe surgery. The porcelain doll being repaired once again. At the end of the day, I think keeping Aquino and DFA/NT’ing Senzel may have been a better decision. The Reds need to find someone that willing to engage in a reclamation project for Senzel, maybe getting a low-A player in return.