Tonight will have the Cincinnati Reds playing hosts to the Seattle Mariners under the lights in Goodyear. First pitch is set for 9:05pm ET.
Mariners (12-10-2) vs Reds (13-11-1)
Mariners |
Reds |
|||
| 1 | Julio Rodriguez | CF | Jonathan India | 2B |
| 2 | Kolten Wong | 2B | Joey Votto | 1B |
| 3 | Teoscar Hernandez | RF | Tyler Stephenson | C |
| 4 | Eugenio Suarez | 3B | Jake Fraley | LF |
| 5 | AJ Pollock | DH | Wil Myers | DH |
| 6 | Jarred Kelenic | LF | TJ Friedl | CF |
| 7 | Tom Murphy | C | Henry Ramos | RF |
| 8 | Tommy La Stella | 1B | Nick Senzel | 3B |
| 9 | Sam Haggerty | SS | Jose Barrero | SS |
| 10 | Chris Flexen | RHP | Brandon Williamson | LHP |
Reserve players on today’s Reds roster
| Pitchers | Infielders |
| Joel Kuhnel | Chad Pinder |
| Bennett Sousa | Matt Reynolds |
| Alex Young | Jason Vosler |
| Zack Brown | Leonardo Balcazar |
| Manuel Cachutt | Tyler Callihan |
| Randy Wynne | Steven Leyton |
| Catchers | Outfielders |
| Hayden Jones | Jay Allen II |
| Rece Hinds | |
| TJ Hopkins |
It’s good to see Jay Allen II back up from minor league camp for the day. He exited his last big league game with an injury.
Where to watch/listen/follow the game
There will be no television broadcast of the game tonight. If you want to follow along on the radio then tune in to 700 WLW AM.
Reds links and news
Forbes franchise valuations for 2023
The crew at Forbes has published their valuations for the 30 teams in Major League Baseball and the Cincinnati Reds value is the same as it was a year ago – $1.19 billion. We wrote a little bit more about it earlier today if you are interested in checking that out.
Minor league musings
Among some of the Cincinnati Reds cuts on the minor league side of things were two notable names this past week. One player was on the 40-man roster within the last year and the other is a teenager who got the top signing bonus in the international class just a few years ago. More on that over at RedsMinorLeagues.com from this morning.
MLB Pipeline ranks the Reds farm 5th best
The crew at MLB Pipeline unveiled their 2023 farm system ratings last night and put the Cincinnati Reds 5th on the list. That’s tops in the division, but the division is also quite strong when it comes to farm systems and the Reds aren’t on an entirely different level than the other teams according to MLB Pipeline’s rankings.
Let’s see how comfortable Senzel looks back at his natural position tonight.
Yep, long time coming for Senzel at 3rd. Sorry but he is not a centerfielder and this is probably his last chance in a position with Cincinnati. It’s not out of the question that he will regain his confidence and Steer might continue his struggle so hope for a decent competition. But, with Pinder and Reynolds both on deck for today’s game and in the future, there is certainly “strong” backup to remove him early if the need arises.
You have Pinder, Reynolds, and Vosler tonight. No Benson. No Steer. Hopefully, that means they’ve already made the opening day roster. Pinder has been here for close to a week. He has ONE hit. But, I’m guessing he’s Bell’s new Superman. Sadly, I won’t be surprised if he winds up with more PAs than either Steer or Barrero.
I thought Senzel was going to open in AAA and would then likely be just getting some introductory work in at 3B during ST?
Mercy, give the man a chance to get resettled after the CF debacle without The Chad hanging over his head.
It’s still spring training. The Reds have a solid Young Turk in Steer who had a good ST.
Pinder is the “strong” backup. LOL. All .107 of him.
Oh and there’s Bell’s other favorite: Reynolds.
I’d much rather give Steer and Senzel the extend look rather than either of those two.
CES is the real strong backup.
Bell is simply exhausting.
Reynolds outplayed a lot of guys lasst year and he’s nothing special. But sure, Bell shouldve been playing a single A prospect instead or whatever it is yall think he shouldve done different
Can’t properly evaluate without seeing him on tv. 🙂
Looks like Williamson has 2 walks in 2 at bats. Cant walk guys
Cessa and overton it is
Likely so.
Hopefully Williamson goes at least 4 to get his head straight after the rugged start.
Maybe he got his instructions confused.
Reds relief pitchers are supposed to walk the first batter and walk or hit the second.
Not the starters.
Bingo! William son’s control stinks. He has no one to blame but himself if he doesn’t make the rotation. They’ve tried very hard to set him up for a rotation spot and he just hasn’t seized it. Gotta go get it young man!
Well, doesn’t look like Williamson will be the Reds 4th starter! Am extremely happy with the performances of what looks like the Big 3 – Greene, Lodolo & Ashcraft
Ive never understood pitchers who wont throw strikes
Its the first rule of pitching
You arent a pitcher if you cant throw it over the plate
Agreed! Get ahead in the count, pitch to contact and let your defense do their job! No defense for a walks or walks!
Well, the alternative to a walk was a tater and a double.
Rough night for #4.
Some work to do.
I hope Virgil Vasquez has a plan.
I know it’s early in the game but, it’s the same problem the Reds SPs had last year – too many walks! Gotta do better!
More and more looking like the weight of carrying the day for the Reds on last spring’s big trade with the Mariners is on the shoulders of Jake Fraley and Connor Phillips
Williamson has shown some promise this spring, too.
I realize he’s already 24 and thus more than a few years older than when RLN fans give up on a player.
But I think we can give him a little more time to work things out.
Couldn’t consistently throw strikes last year; and, he is starting down the same road this year. Command and control always takes the day over stuff in the final analysis.
I agree, Harry.
Williamson seeing big league hitters. He’ll learn from this.
Let’s see if Williamson can steady himself.
Ouch
Wow… 7 runs in 3 innings.
Talk about wilting under pressure.
Make that NINE (9) runs (all earned) in 2.2 innings! Yikes!
An impressive start by Williamson. Going to be a rough year.
Needs to start at aa or aaa
Clearly had nada tonight.
The kid had 77 bb in 122 innings last year.
A lot of work to do.
An impressive start would have been pretty impressive.
Down 11-0 before the Reds get through the lineup once is not stimulating my optimism for the season which is pretty low to start with. At least Barrero seems to be hitting better. Probably means Newman gets the start while Barrero heads to Louisville to work on something.
It was impressive! For all the wrong reasons!
Who is Cachut? Never heard of him before? Did they recruit him from the stands?
Wow I’m glad last nights game was televised, and I’m ok with this one not airing. I wanted Williamson to come East with the club, but this outing is probably killing that. Cessa and Weaver seem like the 4, 5 once Weaver get back.
Well, Weaver’s pitched a total of 5 ineffective innings so far this spring so it’s going to be a long road back.
Overton in the meantime…or another last minute trade a la Minor?
Cessa and Anderson is my call. I’m not sure Overton has the fastball to be given 20 starts. He would be fine to call up for few starts if one of the big 3 needs a DL stint. Anderson and Overton need at least another start but Anderson was effective last year after the first 2 rushed starts due to injuries.
Do they have the Mercy Rule for ST games?
Barrero with another hit hitting .294 on the Spring and playing pretty good defense. Can’t complain about that.
And JV up above the Mendoza.
I’m not sure the Reds have exactly planned for Barrero to be successful.
Will throw some complexifications into things if he is.
Barrero succeeding doesn’t fit some people’s agenda on here either.
Votto will be fine! Notorious slow starter! I’m worried about the other starters not named India!
“Votto will be fine! Notorious slow starter! I’m worried about the other starters not named India!”
As long as Stephenson is healthy you don’t need to worry about him.
Votto hitting a lot of line drives up the middle and the other way. Good sign.
What’s the record for runs scored In a ST game?
Oh, I dunno about Williamson.
I can remember Johnny Cueto giving up 8 runs to the Phils in his rookie year, and not getting out of the 1st inning. Yet Cueto went on to be…pretty good.
I think the thing about young pitchers is that they are inconsistent. Good, bad, sometimes just lousy. Not thrilled by Weaver, Overton or someone else (where’s Chase Anderson!!!!) being in the rotation. I still think Williamson will progress faster and better with Derrick Johnson working with him every day.
I think Weaver is hurt, and don’t know where Anderson went.
I was going to post earlier, at the start of the this thread, but I anticipated CIncy getting clobbered tonight by Seattle. I think the Mariners are now a top tier team, overall, in about every way, better than Cincy.
I agree about Williamson. Give him time and at least one full season at Chattanooga or somewhere. Realize he’s 24 but he’s obviously not ready, whatever his age.
They’re currently pummeling a single A pitcher.
Why Bell stuck the poor kid out there is something only Bell will understand.
And I’ll bet he has no clue as to why he did so.
But the Reds have a load of former Seattle top-tier prospects.
I’ll ask again, who’s Ka-choo
Bless you.
Thank you. I feel better now.
I am the walrus, koo koo ka-choo?
Lol. Seriously I’ve never heard of the guy.
Do they have a 10 or 15 run rule in ST? Asking for David Bell so he can adjust his substitutions 😉
Bell pulled Senzel already? 1 at bat and Reynolds is in.
Bell scheduled some rest for Senzel about four weeks ago.
Got to get Reynolds going.
haha Don’t start cracking me up now. 🙂
Did senzel dive for an infield popup and hurt himself? Sorry. That’s really not nice.
Gotta get Reynolds going. He’s a vet, he earned the right to play.
This, of course, ignores the fact that this will be Senzel’s 5th year in MLB. But Senzel isn’t 30 years old yet, so that’s not good enough for Bell.
Different pitcher ,same results. Where’s Strickland when you need him.
We don’t need Strickland.
We need Blandino.
Free agent Blandino. Maybe he can take the 5th spot in the rotation.
Ramos. Hitting .579 but it’s not his time.
He did all he could do.
He really showed us something.
He did everything we asked.
Left it all on the field.
Still has some things we’d like to see him work on.
“Today’s not the day.”
Hey if anything we get a lot of good one liners from the clowns in charge.
Lol. +1000
Ramos now at .579. Does he beat out Pinder? Probably not, lacks the veteran presence, and the utility. After all, he’s only an outfielder. Look how that worked out for Fairchild.
Different picture, same results. Hmmm seems Deja Vu.
This is an interesting game, and perhaps not as horrible as it seems at first glance.
Seattle clearly tuning up for the regular season – those are all MLB players and pitchers thru 5 innings. Reds still sorting positions and roster spots. They still score 6 runs, largely against their regulars/MLB players. That’s the good news.
The bad news – AAAA and lower pitching won’t help much against the better NL teams. Also, they don’t have enough MLB talent in the lineup or on the 26 man roster – Haggerty essentially replaced Fraley for the Mariners, and he’s their 5th OFer – Fraley may be the Reds best OFer this season. That’s a 4 player gap just in the outfield.
It’s unlikely Williamson is this bad, though this seems to ticket him to Louisville for a month or so, but he’s still clearly part of the future. It will just be a stretch of Anderson/Overton/Stoudt/Weaver/next-week’s-waiver-claim to get us to June.