Cincinnati Reds infielder/outfielder Nick Senzel has been named the National League Player of the Week. Senzel found tons of success against the American League West.
After going 0-3 with a walk and an RBI to begin the week, Senzel reached base at least twice in the other five games during the week. He would go 10-21 during the week with a double, two home runs, nine runs batted in, eight runs scored, four walks, and a stolen base. All of that led to him posting a .476 batting average, a .560 on-base percentage, and an .810 slugging percentage. Senzel struck out just three times during the week.
After starting the season on the injured list and beginning in Triple-A on a rehab assignment, Nick Senzel joined the Reds two weeks into the regular season. He started out slow and was hitting just .139 after 11 games. But then he caught fire in game two of the series against the Texas Rangers last week and raised his OPS from .392 to .787 thanks to the heater that he went on.
Senzel has been playing both center field and third base, and with Mike Moustakas and Joey Votto still out of the lineup, that is likely going to remain the case. He’s back in the lineup tonight, starting in center field and batting 7th as the Reds open up a series against the San Diego Padres at Petco Park.
Moose is not on the team, so while your statement isn’t false, it really isn’t relevant to Nicks playing time
But it is, it so is, and we are all pleased about it.
I knew he had a good week but I didn’t know he had THAT good of a week.
I’m happy for Nick! I hope he can stay healthy and put up some solid numbers all year.
If he keeps playing this well, I don’t think Moose or Griffey Jr. are likely to be back in the Reds’ lineup anytime soon.
+500
By the way, Moose has been in 18 games for Colorado. .222/.321/.378
They’ll still be paying them both.
+50,000 for Nick!
And the 4M reference (I assume it was supposed to be Myers) made me smile 😀
I needed to smile after seeing the line-up for tonight.
Is Nick Senzel starting tonight in S.D. after winning the NL award?
Yes, CF batting 7th.
David Bell was a mediocre journeyman who bounced around 6 different teams, and was forced to play multiple positions to stay on the field.
So, it only makes sense that now he is a manager, he is overplaying the mediocre journeymen, and making the better prospects move all over the field, and limiting their playing time.
AMDG – you nailed it.
Not really. He’s also overplayed veterans who can’t really play any positions anymore, as well as veterans who basically play only one position. He’s also overplayed bad veteran starting pitchers and bad veteran relievers. The theme with Bell isn’t overplaying mediocre journeymen, the theme is overplaying mediocre (or bad) veterans of all sorts.
Their’s a diagnosis for that but since I’m not a psychologist don’t know what it’s called.
Could it possibly be that he’s living vicariously through the “mediocre Journeymen” he likes to play? 🙂
It’s abuse of power. David bell is using his position of power to right his perceived wrongs in his past. He only employs this power on players who are young and still establishing themselves or haven’t achieved a level of success that passes his( journeyman vets ).
Moose,Suarez, and Votto were always exempt because they had more skins on the wall. India has a ROY. He tried to bench Castellanos his first game as a Red as a defensive replacement and Castellanos embarrassed him, reinforcing the notion that Bell selectively benches guys based on his power over them. He mistakenly thought he had power over Castellanos and he got embarassed. I was at Bells first game as manager OD 2019. Every outfielder had cards in their back pocket and they were looking at them every hitter. Not Yasiel Puig. He was doing his own thing. Tommy Pham same way. Bell was afraid of both.
Bell calculates who he has power over and who he doesnt. TJ Friedl is this year’s loser.
I’m sticking with my theory that Bell is extremely risk-averse. He doesn’t want to make the vets angry, so he plays them. (And almost always has them hitting in the top 6 unless they’re catchers.) And if the vets fail, he can say “it’s not my fault,” whereas if a young guy fails, Bell is likely to take a lot more heat for letting them play and/or not developing them. He plays the righty/lefty matchups for the same reason. If he lets Friedl hit against a lefty and he strikes out four times, Bell thinks it makes him (Bell) look bad, whereas if a righty strikes out four times, that’s not Bell’s fault, because he was doing the “smart” thing. This is a manager who NEVER calls a hit-and-run no matter how many times his guys ground into double-plays, NEVER seems willing to give a “take” sign, almost leaves a starter in the game if he’s around the hundred pitch mark no matter how well he’s pitching. And I have NEVER seen him do or say anything to any player that suggests “what you just did was a stupid thing.” Because that would mean taking a risk that the player would get mad or something. Most of his decisions, as far as I can tell, are based on wanting to make sure his players don’t get mad at him and nobody can “blame” him when things go wrong. He has no “I’m sticking my neck out and going for it” instincts whatsoever. He’d rather die by a thousand cuts than do anything that even resembles bold leadership.
*almost NEVER leaves a starter in the game…
So happy for Nick! Well deserved! Hope this propels him to an outstanding season!
Good for Senzel. No idea how things go from here, but hes had a rough few years so a little sunlight is always good.
I just wish we could get Senzel and Steer at 3b every day with Senzel getting some time a day a week at 2b to spell India until this infield good problem of Steer, India, Barrero, and now Senzel with McLain in the background works itself out. Newman is just mucking up the waters and that what David Bell does for his guys he sympathizes with.
It shouldn’t be this hard with a DH and Steer manning some first base and Myers, Votto, and Moose all under contract in 2023 and none of them playing at the moment. Myers temporarily, votto for significant time and Moose never.
Thankfully no Moose this year. Colorado needs him to be 2019 Moose but he’s more like 2022 Moose so far.
No Moose! No Moose!
or
No Mas! No Mas!
You make the call!
It seems really weird to me that a highly paid Major League player would not work harder to stay in shape. For all the crap we throw at Nick Krall and the Reds, I think that cutting their losses with Moose was a good idea.
And maybe, just maybe, Nick Senzel has the year in 2023 that we all hoped he would have. Just don’t get hurt, Nick. And…he should be playing third.
As I recall, Petco Field is a pretty big ball park.
Good for Senzel. He’s seen plenty of rough times and deserves now to see the opposite. Hope he keeps it up (and stays healthy).
Super happy for this young man. He sure has had a tough go of it between injuries, a bad-fit position change, and being managed by David Bell. He has battled through and persevered to at least a short stint of success here. Hopefully he can sustain this success, keep his confidence, and be the player we hoped he would be. Way to go Nick!