The Cincinnati Reds and Chicago Cubs played to a cancellation on Wednesday night. Chicago had a 2-1 lead in the bottom of the 4th inning when the skies opened up and and the rain poured down. After what was perhaps a 15 minute delay the game was cancelled.
| Final – CANCELLED | R | H | E |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chicago Cubs (10-7) | 2 | 4 | 0 |
| Cincinnati Reds (9-10-1) | 1 | 4 | 0 |
| W: No One L: No One |
|||
| Box Score | Game Thread | |||
The Highlights
After a scoreless 1st inning, the Chicago Cubs got to Connor Overton in the top of the 2nd with a 2-out rally. Zach McKinstry singled into right field and stole second base. He then scored when Jake Slaughter singled to put the Cubs up 1-0. Cincinnati would get the run back in the 3rd when Jonathan India started a 2-out rally with a double and came around on a Joey Votto line drive single into left field.
Comeback szn ? pic.twitter.com/nFOytKYXMS
— Cincinnati Reds (@Reds) March 16, 2023
In the top of the 4th it was Connor Overton back to the mound. He walked Mike Tauchman to start the inning before getting a force out on a grounder. That would be it for Overton on the night as David Bell went to the bullpen to bring in Brooks Crawford. A stolen base, walk, and a single later and the Cubs got back on top 2-1. After a mound visit Crawford struck out Sergio Alcantara to end the inning.
In the bottom of the 4th inning the sky opened up and it started pouring, but they kept playing. Chad Pinder struck out to start the inning before Kevin Newman singled into center. After Curt Casali struck out the umpires decided that it was raining too hard and called for the tarp. Roughly 15 minutes later the game was cancelled.
Here’s what the box score looked like when the game was cancelled:
Friday’s Game
Cincinnati has an off day on Thursday. They’ll return to the field on Friday night to take on the Cleveland Guardians at 9:05pm ET.
Tough break for Herget, Duarte, and Martin I guess. Off to minor league camp.
A couple of comments regarding Sportico’s MLB Team valuations today:
Across the board, MLB is being outperformed by the NFL, NBA, and NHL. NFL valuation changes on the last report range from 10 to 26 percent growth. NBA valuation changes ranged from 5 to 56 percent (most high single digits to in the 20s). NHL valuations grew by 3 to 21 percent (most high single digits to low double digits).
In other words, the best MLB franchises are growing slower than all NFL and nearly all NBA and NHL franchises–MLB’s growth is negative when inflation is considered. The lack of cooperation between the Owners and MLBPA, and the larger market franchises’ consistent leveraging of their greater revenues to buy competitive advantage, continues to underperform all competing leagues.
Could the Reds be run better? Absolutely. But Sportico’s annual report provides additional evidence that the underlying MLB business model is poorly performing. Insufficient revenue sharing, and a CBA that pits players and owners against each other, will never perform as well compared to leagues with aligned incentives for all parties toward growing revenue.
I’m a huge Sports fan and I’ll turn the Reds game off in order to watch the Bengals or My hockey team( Rangers).
Thank you for providing the box score on this one Doug
I saw Votto’s hit the other way. Looked vintage to me. Good sign.
Looking at the averages points to a long year. Sad thing there are better and much younger hitters they have already sent down. To bad the best players don’t play in this organization. 100 loses is possible. Praying for a miracle.
Mark, isn’t it possible that CES and company demonstrated areas that they nee3ded to work on before they’d be able to hit real, in-season major league pitching?
Seems illogical that as the opposition nears their opening day rosters and the pitching strengthens, to send down the higher level prospects and keep the lesser prospects who have no chance of making the team. For example , send down EDLC and keep Arroyo. For that matter , it makes no sense to send down CES and keep Pinder but that’s the Bell way. And yes watching ST unfold suggests that Bell influences the roster far more than folks here claim.
LDS’s point is well taken.
If CES, EDLC and McLain are your top level prospects, wouldn’t you want them to see as much pitching as possible before sending them out?
We can speculate as Green Mountain does that their MUST be some reason they were shipped out. Of course there was.
Some reason.
If CES had areas of concern, that would be a great thing for Bell and Krall to articulate.
What we hear from Bell is “Today wasn’t the day.”
We’re seeing that Votto and India need work on getting ready to hit MLB pitching.
Mercy, we’re seeing Pinder approach the sub-Mendoza line <.100
Any fair minded observation would suggest he's demonstrating some areas that need to be worked on.
The fix has been in on Pinder and Strickland since the start of ST.
Their performance hardly matters.
Once can say they aren't any different than India or Votto in this regard.
But saying that Pinder and Strickland aren't any different than India or Votto won't build any credibility.
@green, I’m with you. Like everyone else I had images of CES and McLain breaking camp with the team dancing in my head. The Reds have said that they don’t want to rush their prospects, so it would seem as if they don’t think they’re ready yet. Some or all of CES, McLain, EDLC, Siani, and McGarry will probably push their way onto the roster at some point in the season. The wait doesn’t bother me like many on here.
What bothered me was the lack of spending in the offseason. At this point with the RSN debacle that doesn’t even bother me. I do think the Reds knew it was coming.
Bell addressed this the other day. Basically, CES and EDLC know what they need to work on to be a major leaguer. CES has to improve “the little things” on defense and there was an article where he was working on the back fields with Votto on the nuances and intricacies of first base. I love CES potential but if he is the first baseman of the future, and defensively he’s not there, then he needs to go the minors and play every day at first base and learn the position. Hes making a position change from 3b to 1b.Krall was emphatic after last season the infield defense has to improve.
Bell said EDLC needed to improve his defense so he needs to go work on his SS defense. He’s only played 47 games above A ball so nothing wrong with playing another 60 games in the minors every day and getting daily reps and cleaning things up defensively.
It sounds as if McLain is the closest to major league ready based on Bell’s comments.
Nonetheless, if these young prospects are pushing forward, that’s a good thing. But, they have to be ready to play every day and be major leaguers and while they may possess some MLB tools, that doesnt mean they are ready to play every day at a major league level and hit and field at that level. I was in the camp of let CES get a cup of coffee at 1b until Votto comes back but they arent doing that.
Either way, patience is needed and lets see what we know on Memorial Day. Some will break down the door, others may struggle. Same goes for Barrero and Steer and for that matter Senzel. Lets see how they look on Memorial Day.
To paraphrase Lou Brown, those young guys got a lot of those hits against guys who will be bagging groceries in a few weeks.
It is similar to WBC, I saw Manny Machado taking a curtain call after hitting a 400’ home run off Reds lefty Evan Kravetz who spent most of last year in Dayton. Give me a break Manny.
@LDS Krall touched upon this in a radio interwiew. The fact of the matter is that people shouldn’t place too much weight on spring training stats because the competetion in often uneven. You’ll have MLB guys facing single A guys. Is CES hitting homers off of Degrom or is he hitting his homers off single A guys? Most fans don’t take that into consideration when they complain about a guy like CES being sent back down; They just blindy focus on stats.
Don’t you think if the Reds felt like CES was ready to face MLB pitching he would be on the team? Believe it or not the guys getting paid to evaluate players are better evaluators than some guy who has watched a couple of innings of some spring training games or looked at some box scores.
Sorry folks but I don’t see that anyone addressed the central point. If EDLC and CES all need to work on “things” and have been sent down, in what way are Arroyo and those still on the roster ready to face more major league quality pitching? It doesn’t discount that EDLC, CES, Marte, McLain, et al need additional work. We all expected that. I wanted them sent down so that Bell has no influence on their development. However, the younger, less mature guys don’t need work? It’s okay for them to face Burnes, Greinke, et al? And what about guys like Pinder who can’t hit his weight in ST and hasn’t had a good season in years, i.e., below average. And Strickland speaks for himself. Why keep these warm bodies around, other than it makes Bell happy to work with “veterans”. Those who say the Reds won’t lose 100 games this year may prove to be right. I wouldn’t bet the farm on it though.
@LDS, I am definitely not an expert on spring training, but is it possible that CES, EDLC and the like are getting more work on the minor league camp then they would as roster fillers on the MLB camp? The MLB camp is going to prioritize playing time for players who are likely to break camp with the team, and use the ones who aren’t as filler.
One reason why Arroyo may be getting a few more looks in camp is that his defense is already that good. In fact, from what I’ve seen, he’s already at Barrero’s level. So, you just don’t know, if they have a rash of injuries at short stop, perhaps Arroyo gets the call because he can catch better than anyone else. Or they simply want the others to get settled in with their teammates without bouncing around any more. Ultimately, being spring, it’s a non issue. Guys get pulled up to fill innings constantly.
It absolutely makes sense; they believe that CES etc. have serious promise and need more work to capitalize on it. They hit well against lesser pitching and the team recognized weaknesses They know that they won’t contend this year–the bullpen and the 4th and 5th starter situation assure that–so the job is to nurture the young talent. Pinder would gain little if anything from being sent to AAA. He’s a place holder.
Mmmm…could be they know what they got in the ones sent down, and still evaluating those left…many of whom may be gone before the years out.
Best example greenmtred is DeLaCruz, has a 33% K rate at no higher that AA. That cannot portend success in the majors. Let him work on things this year, and let’s hope next year he is really ready.
@Gunswally I wonder what striking out 33% of the time in A and AA projects in the big Leagues? 50%?
EDLC really needs to cut down on the strikeouts before he is called up or fans are going to be very disappointed.
It is amazing he put up some crazy numbers even while striking out 1/3 of the time. But, major league sliders are unforgiving.
Green it is possible but we’ll not know if they don’t have a chance.
They’ll get the chance. The people evaluating them aren’t limited to evaluating only their spring training at-bats, which aren’t great indicators ( India is hitting something like .154, for example) Not all players benefit from being rushed to MLB before they’re ready.
The pundits have pointed out, to not get to excited about CES getting so many hits against minor league pitchers this year. Let’s also not get to excited about Votto getting a hit against a minor league pitchers yesterday. I love Votto but father time never loses.
Exactly, Barrero tore up spring training a couple of years ago, as did A. Garcia last year. It good to see, but it doesn’t mean much in spring training. Your facing minor leaguers, and even the pros are working on things, using pitch sequences that they normally wouldn’t so they can get their pitches ready for the season.
Sounds like the Mets may be looking for a closer soon.
https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2023/03/edwin-diaz-helped-off-field-with-right-leg-injury.html
I think I know where you’re going with this. What would they give us for Strickland?
+10K
2dozen used baseballs as long as Reds pickup the postage.
A ream of copy paper would be my top offer.
A fruit basket from Bob’s banana stand
My heart sank when I read the espn headline “pitcher Diaz injures knee in wbc”
If the Reds are sending CES, McCain, and others down because their good hitting was against spring training pitchers. That may be accurate, but how many other hitters like India, Spephenson, and the several others who are hitting around .200 or less OK with what they are doing when they are hitting against the same pitchers and doing a whole lot worse. If a rookie can hit against spring training pitchers then the others should be able to also–unless they are not as good.
India and Stephenson are pretty well-known quantities; they have bodies of work at the MLB level. And as MBS pointed out above, the big leaguers are often working on stuff and not concerned with batting average.
Im not sure how many ST stats anyone here whining about the young guys have paid attention to in the past, but its apparently not much at all. Countless examples of guys who bang and then flop in the regular season and vice versa. Dont care at all that they sent down CES, the three catcher thing is whats blocking him, not frickin Pinder. Doesnt matter the facts though, RLN loves the constant whine so theyll grasp for anything.
I know it’s been mentioned, but there must be a reason Arroyo is still in major league camp while all the other big names have been sent down. Hard to understand.
Perhaps the Reds coaches want to work with him and see him and give him pro instruction on the back fields so he can go back to the minors with a plan?
Probably true. Could he actually be ahead of ELDC and Marte because of pitch recognition which is probably the single biggest hinderance to a ML career?
Even if he indeed isnt there ahead of others, as is noted below, it still has to be excellent experience for him to be around just a reserve. I’m sure he’s enjoying it a great deal.
Arroyo isn’t and never was in major league camp. He is one of about 40 minor leaguers assigned to the Reds during spring training to help fill in when needed.
I preferred not to look much into why he was still around, and it turns out there’s a great reason not to. Thanks Tom, appreciate the info. I figured he was just being kept around as a “back-up ST SS”, I was actually very confused to see him at all since I didnt think he was ever invited.