Luke Weaver struggled again and gave up four runs, while the Reds bullpen also gave up four runs as the San Diego Padres topped Cincinnati 8-3 late on Monday night.
| Final | R | H | E |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cincinnati Reds (12-17) | 3 | 8 | 0 |
| San Diego Padres (16-14) | 8 | 16 | 0 |
| W: Snell (1-4) L: Weaver (0-2) SV: Tapia (1) | |||
| Statcast | Box Score | Game Thread | |||
The game didn’t start out well for Luke Weaver. He gave up a single to Fernando Tatis Jr. and followed up by walking Manny Machado. Then things got a bit weird. An inside pitch to Juan Soto went off of his bat, but Soto acted as if it hit him. Everyone seemed confused and the baserunners eventually trotted up a base. But the umpires ruled it was a passed ball. Apparently you can’t challenge the call. The next pitch Soto saw he crushed off of the wall in center for a 2-run double. Weaver would get out of the inning from there with no further damage.
Cincinnati tried to get going in the top of the second inning with two outs when Kevin Newman and Nick Senzel singled before Jose Barrero struck out to end the inning. The next inning they found things a little more in their favor. Luke Maile led off with a single and Spencer Steer singled with 1-out. Stuart Fairchild then came through with a double that plated both runners to tie the game up at 2-2.
Juan Soto led off with a single in the 3rd inning, but he got doubled off when he broke on contact but Xander Bogaerts lined out to Nick Senzel who fired to the infield and Jonathan India made the relay throw to the bag to make for a fun double play.
In the bottom of the inning it was the Senzel show again as he crushed a go-ahead 394-foot solo home run. The Reds lead wouldn’t be there for long because in the bottom of the 4th inning Ha-Seong Kim and Trent Grisham hit back-to-back doubles to lead off the inning and tie the game up. Derek Johnson then made a trip out to the mound. It both didn’t work and did. Brett Sullivan singled, but Grisham could only advance to third. Fernando Tatis then flew out, but not deep enough to score Grisham who bluffed at trying to score. Then Manny Machado grounded into a double play to end the inning.
In the bottom of the 5th the Padres offense really went to work. Xander Bogaerts singled with one out and that led to Alex Young coming into the game to replace Luke Weaver. Matt Carpenter followed up with a single before Ha-Seong Kim hit a 3-run homer to break the tie.
Casey Legumina came out to pitch in the bottom of the 6th and he fired two shutout innings with three strikeouts, but the Reds offense couldn’t get anything going and it remained 6-3. Reiver Sanmartin took over for Cincinnati in the bottom of the 8th. He gave up an infield single and followed up with a walk. That brought Fernando Tatis Jr. to the plate and he singled into left field to load the bases. Manny Machado then came through with a grounder into right field to plate two runs and extend the Padres lead to 8-3. A walk of Juan Soto loaded the bases once again with no outs, but the Padres couldn’t capitalize on anything else from there and the game headed off to the 9th inning.
Domingo Tapia returned for the 9th inning for San Diego to try and close out the game for the Padres against the bottom of the Reds lineup. The former Reds prospect made easy work of things, getting two ground outs and a strikeout to end the game.
Key Moment of the Game
Ha-Seong Kim’s 3-run homer in the 5th inning.
Notes Worth Noting
Cincinnati has lost nine games in a row in San Diego.
Casey Legumina lowered his ERA to 1.23 on the season.
Nick Senzel is now hitting .310/.385/.500.
Up Next for the Cincinnati Reds
Cincinnati Reds vs San Diego Padres
Tuesday May 2nd, 9:40pm ET
Graham Ashcraft (2-0, 2.10 ERA) vs Michael Wacha (2-1, 6.75 ERA)
It would be nice to see a consistent lineup with the best players playing for any sort of stretch to see what this team can actually do. Regardless of opponents staring pitching. Just killing the positive vibes Friedl was giving the team. Fraley, too. I wonder what Fraley’s stats are like before he got pinch hit for Newman a few weeks back compared to what they’ve been like since. Straight confidence killers.
Games like this are going to happen. San Diego has a lot of firepower. It’s just another reason to not let up and push as hard as possible to beat teams like the A’s when you have them down.
Doesn’t help to get that bogus call by umps of passed ball. Outrageous. Losing fair and square is one thing – but Reds are not in position to overcome idiot calls.
“Nick Senzel is now hitting .310/.385/.500”
He is amazing me. I pretty much left him for dead when it comes to helping the Reds. I’m glad for him and hope very much injuries stay away.
Chances are injuries will stay away, imo, if Senzel remains in the infield. Bouncing off walls is not good for Senzel.
I agree. He can play outfield, but always looks a little out of place to me. He looks natural at third. And certainly he is less likely to get injured at third.
He got injured playing 3rd a few years ago. It was a non-contact play.
Glad I missed watching this terrible game. Another bonehead lineup by Bell I see. Another time pulling a starting pitcher at around 80 pitches. Though he probably didn’t want Weaver to get more than 4 earned runs.
San Deago is a good team so there is that too.
Weaver was barely hanging on every inning and was lucky to get out of some jams early on. But when he was yanked he had completely lost it. They were starting to hit him like he was placing it on a tee. I’m the biggest Bell detractor here, and I agree it was time to pull him last night.
The time to pull him was pregame warmups. Everything San Diego hit last night was hard….even the outs
After a recent start by Ashcraft when he was pulled after around 80 pitches, he (Ashcraft) acknowledged that he was completely gassed.
That’s the problem with today’s game. When you look at minor league games, starters are only going 4, 5, and 6 innings. That’s why they are gassed so quickly. One of the parts of today’s game I hate; that and the sissy rules protecting anyone from any contact.
A few notes – 1 – S Diego is good; 2 – Young was due for an outing like this; 3 – Is this Senzel’s MLB high water marK? If so, welcome top prospect, and stay healthy and play 3rd.
Part of what occured is called Tatis, Soto, Machado, Boegarts, Cronenberg, etc.
This is what a championship lineup looks like
It’s natural law
S.D. has spent money, which winning teams do, and loaded up on offensive power in the last couple of years. Now the goal has to be to get the best of the LAD’s.
Didn’t follow game, however a few things I don’t understand with this manager and his “style” Fairchild had 1 hit and 2 rbi’s and he was pitched hit for. Mahile had two hits and he was pitched hit for.
Bell does this alot, like it does not matter of your 3-3 he will pitch hit for you.
Senzel is hot Mahile batting over 300. Barrero batting 200.
Padres should win as they have a great team that Money has bought them.
As been written here several times and which u disagree with,bell punishes success
No he doesn’t, that is just a ignorant statement. I will never believe a manager “punishes success ”
If analytics weren’t around it maybe it would be different. In terms of management style
I think you are both correct. Bell does punish success when players succeed by benching them after a good game or pinch hitting for them anyway such that most players never get game to game reps/continuity/stability. On the other hand, Bell would tell you HE is creating a players success by creating matchups that allow them to succeed and conversely, he is helping them avoid failure and allowing someone else to succeed with his creative brilliance and genius and rotations and handedness and situational pinch hitting and batting orders and matchups.
Kevin, I agree with you that David Bell doesn’t punish success, I disagree that “a manager would never punish success” .
There are many examples of managers being jealous of their star players and trying to screw them over. Some examples include Leo Durocher/Jackie Robinson, Leo Durocher/Arky Vaughn, Billy Martin/Reggie Jackson, Billy Martin/Thurmond Munson, Whitey Herzog/Gary Templeton, Earl Weaver/Jim Palmer… there is just a very long list.
Managers are people. People can be very petty.
At OS, Look down the thread for my Fairchild 2023 handedness hitting spits. It looks like Bell has done a great job of spotting Fairchild vs RH pitching (134 OPS+ in 24PAs) and perhaps overexposed him vs LH pitching (105 OPS+ in 39PAs). 😉
Kevin, what you need to understand is that punishing success refers to the result of the managerial action, not the intent. Most people don’t believe Bell actually intends to punish a player because they have done well. However, in his mind, he gives them “the day off” as a “reward” for success. But his mind doesn’t seem to comprehend that what his “reward” is actually doing is punishing the player by preventing the continuity of play that breeds continued success.
Luke J – Yep. As I stated in a previous post if it not for a late scratch Senzel would not have been in the lineup after getting three hits the game before. He was very fortunate to be able to continue his hot streak. I doubt if he were benched that game that he would have played well enough to win Player of the Week honors. Sometimes/often the best move is no move. David Bell just CAN’T STAND to do that. He has to have everyone talking about him good or bad.
Could Legumina be considered as a top Reds prospect right now?
I’m almost convinced Barrero is never going to hit. Constantly feeding him breaking balls which end up nearly in the dirt and he swings over them every time. The word is out and he hasn’t adjusted.
For the luv of gawd, get Friedl and Fraley in the lineup and bat Senzel higher. Right now, Maile is our best option at Catcher. It’s not that hard to roll out a lineup which makes sense Mr. Bell.
Steven Farley is Terrible agains LH pitchers.Welsh mentioned it on the broadcast Sunday. He is hitting under 200 career against them.
And that lineup is? Consider last night’s box score and the cumulative contributions of India, Steer, Stephenson and Ramos: one hit from the combined efforts of four of their better hitters.
A defining characteristic of the Reds under Bell is very few players qualify for any type of batting award as it requires 3.1 plate appearances per game played or 502 PA for the season. Most never hit enough to be in the conversation for counting awards either- Runs, hits, doubles, etc. Right now, India, Steer, Stephenson and Friedl qualify. Fraley is literally 1 or 2 at bats away from not qualifying as he is at 3.17 at bats after Reds 29 games. Throw in any sort of injury to Friedl or Steer and they wont qualify either.
At some point, I would think quality players and free agents would not want to play for the Reds if lefties never get an opportunity to play against lefty pitchers and are uniformly platooned with a AAAA player or vet journeyman or rotate from the 2 hole to the 7 hole. Most players know they wont be able to qualify for any awards., including defensive awards. (Aquino last year). A week ago or so Friedl was in the top 10 in the NL in hits and was scoring a fair number of runs out of the 2 hole. That has all but vaporized with his 3 game benching.
Yep
Here is some more of the platoon craziness we see from the Reds:
Fairchild vs RH pitching in 2023 (24PAs) OBP/SLG/OPS is .375/.471/.846 that’s an OPS+ of 134 compared to all MLB hitters facing RH pitching. This is better than his same numbers versus LH pitching (39 PAs) .368/.375/.743; 105 OPS+ compared to all hitters facing LH pitching.
BTW for 2023, he is better than Fraley from both sides of the plate (114 OPS+ vs RH pitching (78PAs); and -15 OPS+ vs LH pitching (14PAs))
However, over the last week, Fraley has been the hotter hitter of the two (1.236 OPS vs .912 OPS).
Monday when the team was 3 runs down with 6 outs to go, the better strategy would seem to have been to let Fairchild lead on off the 8th inning and hold back Fraley to spot later with (hopefully) men on base instead of lifting Fairchild for Fraley to start the inning.
Fraley was just starting to wake back up, before the 3 game bench-job
@VA>> Yes Fraley was warming up. My thought is it didn’t make sense to pull a guy with a .412 OBP and .900+ OPS over the last week and a .375 OBP/ .846 OPS in 2023 vs RH pitching as the lead off guy when they needed 3 runs to get even.
The spot for Fraley in the 8th inning was either (gulp) Stephenson (GIDP risk) or Newman. If Bell was concerned they might drop a LH pitcher on him in one of those slots, then there wasn’t a spot for Fraley in that inning given Friedl had been used making Fraley the last LH bat on the bench.
“At some point, I would think quality players and free agents would not want to play for the Reds”
I don’t think David Bell is the type of manager who attracts free agents. There is something to that I’m sure.
Last night’s game went exactly as I suspected it would…complete and total buffoonery at every turn…
– home plate umpire Chad Fairchild reconfirming why he is rated one of the worst umpires in the game (not Angel Hernandez or CB Bucknor bad, but close). He, and the entire crew, missed an obvious foul ball and allowed the Padre runners to advance. Plus he has the reputation of rarely asking for help on check swings.
– John Sadak calling the Padre pitcher IAN Snell for the first three innings. Problem is his name is BLAKE Snell. Sadak also apparently does not know that a batter cannot run on a dropped third strike if first base is occupied. This situation was another botched play by the entire umpire crew. Once Barrero failed to run to first it is strike three, third out, inning over.
– Barrero not paying attention. Once the runners advanced to second and third, and therefore first no longer being occupied, he should have realized he could run. The umps, having already botched the call, waited for him to run. The Padres knew what was going on and completed the strike out by throwing Barrero out.
– David Bell pulling his starter with one out and a runner on first because he was facing the order for the third time. This is the second consecutive game he has done this.
– Bell stayed true to form and immediately pinch hit for his RH hitters when the Padres brought in an opposite handed reliever. The Padres knew, just like the entire league does, that Bell would deplete/empty his bench to do this. He does it time after time.
Can’t wait to see what happens in game 2…probably much of the same, sadly.
Just so you know, a player can run to first on a dropped third strike, even if there is a runner on first, if there are two outs.
Oh no, take me back to 10 u baseball with under 2 out first base occupied and the parents screaming to the hitter who struck out to run on a dropped 3rd strike , the kids on base panic and run , the catcher then either:
1.) panics and overthrows first base down the right field line and 2 runs score in the chaos or the well-coached team catcher calmly throws out the runner mistakenly thinking he has to run and its an inning ending double play. Fortunately, usually on the well coached side of things
Looked up the rule and you are right. Thanks for the clarification.
I wasn’t sure what the call was here. Was it a checked swing third strike (late call by the first base ump), or a dropped ball third strike? The late call by the ump scenario suggests Barrero didn’t even have the option to run to first.
The related question is the Barerro timetable. Obviously 220 doesn’t cut it. Aren’t we getting close to the point where the white flag gets waved? Another month? There are some small signs of improvement but there needs to be a lot more to call this a major leaguer. He is also taking opportunity away from others at this point.
Rob, you nailed it. I think the team has shown that they don’t really believe in him and frankly I don’t either. I would like to be wrong but I see him as a serviceable career utility player with more AAA time in his future whether it’s in this organization or the next.
Stats for pitchers 3rd time through the batting order are sobering.
Sobering?
Well, I’ll drink to that!
It seems like Luke Weaver is about the pitcher the rest of the league thought he was. Not very good.
Frankly, Blake Lively is actually pitching pretty good in AAA. Maybe they should bring him up as the 5th starter.
As a bonus, maybe Ryan Reynolds will come to a few of the games whenever Blake is pitching.
I think we’re starting to see why the Reds carried three catchers. They know after watching Stephenson the last 2 years that he’s too big of a defensive liability behind the plate to be a full-time catcher. Maybe that
reality is mentally affecting his hitting.
Question for Doug or any of the GM’s in the comment section: has Casey Legumina ever been tried as a starting pitcher? He has great stuff. They tried with Cessa, any chance Legumina could be stretched out?
He started when he was in the Twins’ farm system.
Yeah, and as I recall (and….you could look it up), he was pretty bad. As a reliever, he is pretty good.
Nice thought, but I think we keep Legumina where he is.
A closer game than I’d expected until the end, and had they gotten the call right when Barrero tagged the guy out on the helmet at 2nd, the complexion of that inning might’ve been different. Maybe that 3-run HR never happens.
But again, I must point to The Unfathomable Rules of Bell. You bat Fairchild 3rd–and he’s hot, hitting the ball hard–and then you pull him cause… well, you “have to” now because they took their LHP out. You’ve “obligated” yourself to making moves late in games because you don’t just play the best guys to begin with.
It’s like he’s in a car race but he doesn’t want to use 7th and 8th gear unless he REALLY REALLY REALLY has to, but by the time he realizes what everyone else already knows, maybe 7th and 8th gear aren’t as well-oiled as they would’ve otherwise been, so their effectiveness is anyone’s guess.
–Weaver looked decent for most of his start but had no feel until midway thru the first. He has a nice pitch mix with a strong changeup. In a world where Abbott is the #4, I like Weaver at #5 over any other internal options.
–Until a week ago, there wasn’t a single metric that suggested what Senzel was about to do. Even if this is just a hot streak, I’m still astonished. Let’s hope his confidence snowballs.
–I hadn’t seen Barrero string together 3 terrible at-bats in quite a while until last night. Teams are preying on his overaggressive approach.
–Young got hosed on a potential 3rd strike call, and as per usual in baseball, got stung by the next pitch, the 3 wall scraper run homer. Still, I like what he does a lot.
–Similarly, Legumina looked very good. One of the best lineups in baseball had some very odd reactions and poor swings. His fastball has a lot of deception and late life and his changeup is good.
I agree with most of this….except…
I think Weaver could possibly be a 5th starter for Louisville
The problem with the Reds is not so much their line-up (although there are real problems there), but with their pitching.
Starters don’t go deep enough into the game. Ashcraft, Greene and Lodolo are “young” in terms of ML experience, but are on the road to improvement.
Weaver is not that good, and never was. He is a poor 5th starter.
Cessa is a make-work 4th starter.
The Reds either need two more real starters, or let’s pull the trigger on this rebuild and get some of the young guys up here and get rid of the older guys that are past their prime.
Pitching wins and loses games. As much as we get excited when someone hits well (and somebody has to score runs), pitching will win games. Bullpen is not quite as bad as last year, or the year before. The Reds do actually have some talent down there. But starting pitching puts them in the hole almost every night. I can live with the young threesome of Greene, Lodolo and Ashcraft being inconsistent, but tire of the Cessa and Weaver being below-replacement level starting pitchers, and they AREN’T going to get better.
Go ahead, give up on Barrero. Newman’s the guy to lead the Reds in the future. Seriously, Barrero is 25 and has only 380 PAs in MLB, coming off an injury. He’s definitely having problems against LH’ers. Senzel on the other hand has over 1000, is a couple of months short of 28. If you believe that his current streak means he’s turned the corner finally and is becoming what he had the potential to be, why then give up on Barrero so soon? To figure out Barrero, he needs to play every day, always at SS, quit PH’ing for him, etc. Under Bell, that’s not happening. And that’s why calling up CES, EDLC, Abbott, or any other high potential prospect is a bad idea. Bell will ruin them.
You want to win games or you want to be Barrero’s nurse maid. Most want him replaced by McClain, not Newman. I know you have this love affair with Barrero. Unfortunately a lot of us had the same crush with Aquino. At least he had a month for the record books. Barrero hasn’t had 2 good weeks in a row.
check dave concepcion’s numbers his first three seasons. they were worse than barrero’s; concepcion held the job for nineteen years. it isn’t about being in love with barrero or being his nursemaid – its about seeing if can do the job, if given a good enough chance, in a season of rebuilding.
If the Reds are going to spend like the Rays and the A’s, they need to maximize what they get out of their best prospects… splitting time with never-weres and having him learn CF at the major league level doesn’t seem to me to be the way to do that.
It’s called being rational. Expecting McLain to come up and maintain the same hitting isn’t. And you don’t want him coached by Bell. Give Barrero time. Personally, I think AA was mismanaged as well but whether he’d ever amount to anything – well he got too old to wait it out.
“check dave concepcion’s numbers his first three seasons. they were worse than barrero’s; concepcion held the job for nineteen”
I agree about Concepcion and I too believe that Barrero should be at SS every day. The problem that Barrero has that Concepcion didn’t have is a bunch of talented SS breathing down his neck trying to take his job. That’s a lot of extra pressure on top of trying to compete with a David Bell/Newman thing already.
We are not privy to what orders Bell does or does not have from Krall about how to use players. However, the way the Reds are going about things day to day does not inspire confidence in their organizational ability to successfully bring up, complete the development of and integrate the rising groups of players into a winning MLB team.
If I was Krall and did not like the way games were being set up and run, I’d call Bell onto the carpet for an evangelical meeting post haste.
Exactly. We don’t know what are Bell’s decisions or what his marching orders are from the front office. I know his in game decisions are his, but in the larger scheme of things, under what, if any, decisions are being made within an organizational framework. Wow, if this can’t be considered word salad I don’t know what does!!!!
@Jim, frankly I doubt Krall has the clout to push Bell too much. Bell is an insider. Krall doesn’t have the connections.
Barrero positions himself for that throw to 2nd and does a Javy Baez swipe tag and could’ve saved the team 3 runs last night. Yeah he’s athletic and rangy, but are we seeing adjustments at the plate? If he misses the 1 heater they give him then its most likely a K on garbage in the dirt. I will say there is something to be said with the comparison to Senzel. I gave up on him atleast 3 years ago, but you can’t play everyone.
Bottom line is they’ve got guys on the doorstep and who do you want to see more of? They’ve already got Senzel as their Ben Zobrist style utility guy. Barrero wasn’t even a good hitter at Lville last year (.639 ops)? I’d get McClain and CES into the lineup after the Kris Bryant/extra year delay and see what happens? Sometimes you’ve got to move on from a guy with talent if/when he gets beat out and the audition times are always fair. Thats life
aren’t always fair.
I’m not giving up on Barrero. He’s still on this team. In my above post, I am just taking a shot at predicting his future as a utility guy. I would much rather see him at SS than Newman but I am very much in favor of calling up McClain now and the SS job is his 50-60% of the time (and also gets some reps at 2B/DH). In this scenario, Barrero would get reps at SS/LF/CF.
We agree today LDS ..
@KevinH, some of us have to be patient. We can’t all be crows chasing the new shiny. Bell, on the other hand, has had enough time to show he can manage at this level. He cannot.
We may disagree on terminology used in describing the Reds manager, however nothing indeed has changed. It is baffling to me just baffling.
It is rather humorous to me picturing in my mind David Bell treating EDLC the same way he treats Barrero. hahaha!!! I wander how that would fly. hahaha!!! The ONLY thing that might save EDLC in Bell’s mind is the fact that he’s a switch hitter. He’s got Ramos doing that and then EDLC too? What a nightmare. 😀
Good for Senzel again! I didn’t watch past about the first 30 minutes or so.
As for the rest and the outcome … meh! Really wish we could have wrapped up the final W in Oakland. Would make things more palatable for the SD series.
No further comment on the line-up tinkering. I said elsewhere that I get resources are limited, but my “little non-baseball” mind just can’t wrap itself around most of what I see from Handy DT Bell. That’s key to my frustration.
Well DT went a long way toward managing them out of that game 3 in Oakland too. 😉
@Jim hitting with runners in scoring position with less then 2 outs was the reason we lost game 3 at Oakland
JimT>>> Agree the lack of hitting with LT 2 outs and runners in scoring spots was a big piece of the problem; but, Bell sealed the deal.
Bell went off the tracks by burning most all his bench early (6th inning) when he didn’t have the bullpen to hold a 1 run lead through 12 outs.
Then just like Monday night, he pulled Fairchild as the lead off guy of an inning (this time in the 7th with a 1 run lead), using his last viable bench bat (India) in the process. Subsequently he was forced to let Friedl and Fraley both bat versus a LH pitcher in the 8th and both K”d
On to the bottom of the 9th with the game now tied….. Bell sent Law out for his 2nd inning, let him get into trouble then belatedly brought in Diaz. If he was going to use Daiz in any situation in the 9th, it either needed to be from the get go or as soon as someone reached with less than 2 outs.
@jim Have to disagree with you Jim. Trying to get the lead in the 6th was exactly the right move. This game was on the players failure to deliver
Great write ups and points Jim. Always enjoy reading your thoughts on Reds baseball
In my view emptying the bench in the 6th inning is not wise. Especially considering Bell used three guys for one AB. On top of that the original guy in the lineup (Friedl) hits both lefties and righties.
I’m a Barrero fan. I really don’t want to give up on the kid just yet. I’ve seen adjustments from him at the plate. Let’s not look at last night alone because I watched the whole game and Snell made a lot of hitters look bad. Now in saying that, he has a ways to go. He needs to play every day. Does McLain need to come up? Yes he does. He has done everything in the minors in my opinion and so has CES. They both have figured it out. Some people take longer than others and some don’t. There is plenty of room on the major league roster for them both. There is no reason for the three catcher theory. None. Let one go or send one down. Newman. Newman wouldn’t be a bad player on a team just starting a rebuild. The Reds are not that team. They are close to breaking out. It’s time for McLain to take his spot. Trade him to the Dodgers for a bucket of balls. There is plenty of room for everybody to get playing time now that there is a DH. Reynolds? For the love of God get rid of him. AAA is where he belongs. Freidl needs to play everyday. Fairchild needs to play everyday. He has had hit around .300 in his last 7 games. Fraley I would play as well. He stinks against lefties but let’s give him some at bats against lefties to see if he figures it out. Ramos is not bad but would we be better off giving Hopkins a shot? Try it. 4th and 5 the spot in rotation needs to be fixed. I would send Cessa back to relief when Abbott’s ready. Weaver has decent stuff for a 5th starter. JMO
I’m totally with you until you got to Luke Weaver and Luis Cessa.
Yes, Cessa has had a couple of really poor outings this year as a starter. Nick Lodolo had a couple of really bad ones, too.
But unless we (well, the Reds) can come up with two more good starters, we are stuck with Cessa and Weaver. Not a Weaver fan, at all. He just is not that good. I would waive him or whatever, and maybe bring up Blake Lively next.
Andrew Abbot is a MAJOR talent, but I would like to see him get some more starts in AAA. It is a BIG jump for pitchers to come up from AAA to the Majors. He has the talent, but still has to work on refining and controlling his location. What was overpowering in AA baseball (his curve especially was baffling for AA hitters) may not quite be that good in the Majors. He is almost ready, but let’s see him take a few more turns in the AAA rotation.
98% agree with David and JB. Agree that Cessa and Weaver should stay in the rotation for now. Next time they bomb, it’s Abbott time should he succeed in AAA. Overton should be AAA bound when returns from the IL.
I also agree McClain and CES are ready and the Reds and doing a disservice to these guys, the team, and the fans by not bringing them up. To see Reynolds called up instead has to have them upset. Like I have referenced, Fan Graphs predicted CES to have 27 HR’s this year (in MLB) so it’s not just fans that think he is ready.
I agree with you, JB. Barrero should play SS everyday, and needs 4 or 5 PA’s 5 or 6 days a week, at least until the AS break. Newman needs to be on the trade block, and Reynolds needs to be depth in AAA. EDLC should be taking reps in RF, that way when the Reds get rid of Ramos; either by trading to a contender because he has stayed hot, or by DFA when he sinks, EDLC has a spot warmed up for him and his talent. The SS of the next decade needs to be either Barrero holding it down, or holding the spot for Arroyo. McClain would be my preference for 2B, but he very well may force the issue.
I managed to watch most of the game last night, and I agree with your assessment of Weaver also. He got hit hard when he hung his breaking stuff, but he does have some good movement. If his command rounds into form, his stuff will play for his role. He’s already better than Mike Minor.
A lot of great comments and baseball knowledge. Has anyone noticed how Mahile is getttin hot. Small sample size yes, however he is hitting as of now. I have been a big Senzel fan and was starting to think perhaps he wasn’t going to hit considering how he started this season. I bring this up as mentioned Barrero needs to play and give time to see what he can do. I was in the corner of let him go, but that isn’t true anymore as he needs time. Same with Fairchild, looking at the splits and seeing what has been shared he needs to play more as well.
Can the Reds make playoffs this year more in likely no. Can they win 80 games? Well alot has to go right.
It is hard for me not to get frustrated with the lineup and the in game mismanagement, however I am doing my best to just stop. As it does no good to get annoyed LOL..
Would still like to see the lineup that scored 11 runs against the A’s. I bet the Padres lineup will be the same tonight, and oh did they pitch hit anyone when Young came out to pitch? Gonna bet no they didn’t
A lineup we haven’t seen since that game. Alas, we agree again.
The top four for San Diego are pretty static in the lineup (Soto, Bogaerts, Machado, and Tatis). They also have more than 126 bWAR accumulated throughout their careers. Pretty easy to pencil these guys in almost every night.
For comparison, our two hitters with a track record 7.5 combined bWAR, India and Stephenson have been mostly static as well–India has led off in all 28 of his starts, Stephenson 4th in 25 starts, 5th in two other starts. Friedl has hit 2nd in all 18 of his starts against RHP, and bottom third in his five starts against LHP. The Reds have a lot of unestablished players.
RH Nelson Cruz pinch hit for LH Matt Carpenter last night against LHP Sanmartin last night in the 8th inning. I picked a random day last week. On that day six teams started LHP. The opposing managers started 9 LH batters (13 percent of starters) against them. Playing the handedness game is not an exclusive David Bell technique.
One last thing I want to say is the Front Office needs to stop, from here on out, of signing players to flip at the deadline. That time period is over. These guys are just taking roster spots now from guys that need to be in the Majors. The Reds are now at the level where they can fill out the roster with 13 players that can play enough during the week and rest a day or two and produce . If they think calling up McLain is going to hurt him because he won’t play is bull crap. Newman, Reynolds get plenty of playing time during the week.
Wil Myers is the only player I think the Reds signed with the intent to flip. His OPS+ is about 40 points, where it has been the last 3 years. So, the early returns aren’t great.
Reynolds has started once. That’s one data point. He was also signed on a minor league deal.
Newman has played far more than I expected. Barrero has played less than I expected. I haven’t read/heard an explanation. I don’t think Newman has or had much trade value. Like you, this one perplexes me. That said, I think this problem would go away if Barrero were to heat up at the plate.
Ain’t happening. If, if, if….,,….
Myers is a bust. Newman is so so and Reynolds should never have been called up. Bring up Mclain and Chuckie Robinson, see what they can do. Send Reynolds back down and then think long and hard about Casali. I love the guy, but I think he is kind of a liability right now. Just my thoughts.