The Cincinnati Reds return to Goodyear Ballpark this afternoon to host the Texas Rangers. First pitch is set for 3:05pm ET. Hunter Greene will get the start for Cincinnati and we’ll get to see the first game for Kevin Newman in a Reds jersey.
Rangers (1-2) at Reds (1-1)
Rangers |
Reds
|
|||
| 1 | Josh Smith | LF | Jonathan India | 2B |
| 2 | Brad Miller | 1B | Tyler Stephenson | C |
| 3 | Jonah Heim | DH | Wil Myers | RF |
| 4 | Mitch Garver | C | Chad Pinder | LF |
| 5 | Ezequiel Duran | 3B | Kevin Newman | SS |
| 6 | Travis Jankowski | RF | Will Benson | CF |
| 7 | Mark Mathias | 2B | Luke Maile | DH |
| 8 | Bubba Thompson | CF | Noelvi Marte | 3B |
| 9 | Jonathan Ornelas | SS | Christian Encarnacion-Strand | 1B |
| 10 | Martin Perez | LHP | Hunter Greene | RHP |
Reserve players on today’s Reds roster:
Where to watch/listen/follow the game
The game today will be available to watch on Bally Sports Ohio as well as MLB.tv. If you are looking for the game on the radio you can tune into 1360 WSAI AM.
Reds links and news
Trying to bounce back with Joey Votto
Jay Jaffe of Fangraphs looks at Joey Votto and the 2023 attempt at bouncing back, not just from his down 2022 season, but his shoulder surgery, and perhaps one last bout against Father Time. Jaffe points out that once Votto ditched the hockey puck bat on April 27th he was a slightly above-average hitter the rest of the season before the campaign came to an end in August when he opted for shoulder surgery. There’s plenty of numbers involved, including the full range of outcomes in his ZiPS projections as well as comps to other 39-year-old hitters over the last decade and how they performed. Speaking of Joey Votto……
Joey Votto is ready for the aliens
I can get behind the Reds sweeping the playoffs and being World Series champions. I’m not so sure I’m ready to embrace our alien overlords just yet. Your mileage may vary.
Someone was stealing MLB equipment in Denver
Stephanie Apstein of Sports Illustrated published an article this morning that is fascinating. Back in 2020 someone had stolen 15 jerseys, two pair of batting gloves, and Johnny Cueto’s jelly beans while several teams were in Colorado to play the Rockies. It led to a long investigation to track down who was behind it and it’s a bit of a doozy.
I’m interested in what the infield looks like when Bell subs in the 6th
1B – McGarry
2B – Lopez or Solak
SS – Barrero
3B – McLain or Elly
This is the first ST I have been really interested in for awhile. Enjoying watching the youngsters. Where he plays Barrero, McLain and EDLC and how they do is must see tv for me.
The Kevin Newman era begins!!!
Shaking with anticipation at the thought of it
Don’t leave Pinder and Reynolds out of it!
Bell is shaking with anticipation at the thought of all the ‘managing’ he can do!
In 80’s and before pitchers first outings were three innings. Sometimes second was five. I can remember complete games by the end of ST. Now they will be lucky to get to five by the end. Seems like there were feeer injuries back then as well.
I agree MK, but I think the thing everyone forgets about in this discussion of fewer complete games than 20 or more years ago, is that you now have starters throwing in the high 90s. That really wasn’t the case then. I can remember in the late 70s people talking about Tom Seaver’s 90 mph fast ball.
I know guys are in better shape now and have better diets and such, but I don’t think it changes the fact that the human arm probably isn’t suited to throw 100 mph.
Just my opinion.
I contend that one of the reasons (and there are probably a bunch of different reasons) it seemed there were fewer injuries is because the guys who got hurt in high school, college, and the minors never resurfaced because coming back from a real arm injury back then was still really tough to do. So by the time you had guys in the big leagues you had already weeded out a lot of guys who had the mechanics that led to arm injuries.
Of course throwing harder because you have to these days isn’t helping. Neither is more guys throwing the slider. Most guys throw more secondary offerings than they throw fastballs these days and that’s putting extra stress on your arm. Not having to face 2-3 hitters in every lineup who struggle to hit the ball out of the infield doesn’t help pitchers either because there’s no one in the lineup you can just say “easy out” to and just throw junk up there and know that 95 times out of 100 this guy isn’t hitting the ball hard enough to matter.
great point doug. I feel like it is time to retire the slider from mlb. it would benefit both the pitchers and hitters tremendously. the game needs to be more about offense and defense and base running and less about pitching in my opinion so banning some of these impossible, injury causing pitches would be a good idea. if it is over 85 mph and bends it should be banned.
Agree with you, Doug.
I also wonder if lowering the mound 8” after Bob Gibson’s 1.12 ERA season made a difference with respect to pitching injuries. Seems to me that 8” changes the downward angle considerably, and may also result in more effort to spin balls to get sufficient vertical movement.
There were certainly high velocity pitchers in the old days. Gibson, Ryan, Duren were no slouches. But could it also be that their arms were better prepared by the end of ST? They were training to pitch nine innings, so their arms weren’t smarting by the time they hit 50 pitches.
When did radar guns actually become common? We should have data that go back awhile.
The early 90’s was basically when all scouts finally had radar guns. They started popping up in the 70’s with some organizations on a limited basis, then in the 80’s more teams started using them but they still weren’t everywhere.
There is currently a great write up with Joey on the Athletic right now.
Wade Miley was made for this pitch clock.
Wade Miley IS the pitch clock.
Should name it after him.
At least Greene’s first outing is under his belt. Looks like we’ll need a little luck today to contend with the Rangers. But in the end, who knows? It’s kind of like playing a bunch of 2-3 inning games in a row. That early 2-spot hole may trouble us.
Even if this all feels too familiar, remember it’s only game 3 of ST. It has to get better.
Wow, Will Benson has some real wheels. Stole a base and ran down a ball in the gap.
Benson Single, Stolen Base and great catch so far.
I know it’s early but man I am really liking the Benson acquisition! Power/baserunning/defense combo is legit. The Guardians just didn’t give him much of a chance after he killed it in AAA last year
Fraley
Friedl
Benson
Myers
Senzel/Solak/Pinder/Fairchild
Has a chance to be a sneaky good outfield
I think you got it right. I think it will come down to one of those final four for the 5th spot but tons of time left. I do like Benson so far.
Won’t be 2 1/2 hours today. Reds relief pitchers are making sure of that.
Even with the shift banned the reds shifting as far as they are allowed still bugs me. 2 rbi ground ball hits where India would’ve been playing. 1 in the 1st and 1 in the 3rd
If Barrero, EDLC, Marte, and all develop like we think they will (that is to say, become better-than-average MLB players), would you try to trade India and move one of them to 2B?
We’d likely know if all 3 of those pan out + McLain and Steer before India’s final year of arbitration. Also have Arroyo, Jorge, Balcazar, Acosta, and Cabrera coming behind those players.
I think there’s other options like DH and a move to the OF that could happen before a trade but I will say these young guys do Give the front office plenty of time to decide on any extensions with him.
Yes
For the right return
Probably the same guy that stole George’s box of raisins.
Overton has 33 good innings last season. But, as several folks posited last year, given his age, they were likely a fluke. If this outing is any indication, that prediction may turn out to be true.
A fair number of pitchers on the Reds staff who didn’t have 33 good innings last year.
And that was no fluke.
Not too hard to predict how they’ll do this year.
That’s true. But, we know the Reds pitching is thin this year. And they did little in the off season to remedy that.
Encarnacion-Strand,Benson, Marte are some big boys.
I was surprised to see how big Marte is. He’s built like a 3rd baseman.
That was a report I read at the deadline that his body was maturing him off of shortstop.
As good as Benson has looked today, it’s worth remembering this is his Age 25 season coming up. He had a really good year in AAA last season, almost putting up a 20-20 season with an outstanding OBP (which he seems to always do). His only real issue has been, before last season, he’s never hit for much average (and even last year he hit .279 in AAA).
But still, he’s about to be 25. He could be a late bloomer. He obviously has an elite speed tool and gets on base, which would be ideal for a leadoff hitter. If he could just learn to make a little more contact, I’d be fine with him playing CF going forward.
On a team like Cleveland where there is some established talent 25 would be average for a rookie there
His age?? 25??? What in the world?
Did he play college ball? Remember players lost a year when minor league season was canceled. But 25 is still young in the game of baseball. Heck 30 is young in the game of baseball
CI3J- He has a different swing this year. Holding hands different. Muscled the first hit that was inside and next hit was a bullet. Hands looked quick but what do I know. So far so good.
Barrero looked bad there on that strikeout. Swing looks long and he has been late on fastballs in both strikeouts that I have seen from him this spring. VERY early still. But I was rooting for him to come out hot this spring.
Enarnacion-Strand has a good looking swing, if he can prove he can field he could be this Springs surprise.
Along with Will Benson.
Nice article about Votto in the Athletichttps://theathletic.com/4191913/2023/02/27/joey-votto-reds-oral-history/
Interesting about the theft what was going on in Denver.