You’ve probably read plenty about Matt McLain this year. And you’ve probably read plenty about Elly De La Cruz over the last year. It’s for good reason on both fronts, too.
Matt McLain has had a heck of a start in Triple-A this season. And last night he just kept that going. McLain who has been playing both second base and shortstop this season for Louisville, went 3-5 last night in Omaha with two doubles and a home run.
The home run gave Matt McLain nine of them on the season. His two doubles pushed his total on the year in that category to 10. He’s also got a triple in there. Through 31 games it’s been The Matt McLain Show in the International League as he’s hit .336/.449/.681 with 21 walks, 28 strikeouts, and eight stolen bases. He’s cut his strikeout rate from last season, hit for tons more power, a much higher average, and he’s walked a whole lot once again.
Elly De La Cruz had himself a pretty good night in Omaha, too. He picked up a double and a home run of his own. Both of those hits were the hardest contact of the game and it wasn’t particularly close. His double came off of the bat at 110.2 MPH. In the 9th inning his home run exploded off of his bat at 116.3 MPH and went 439 feet to center. That is the 4th hardest hit ball in Triple-A this season. Two nights ago he made a throw of 99.2 MPH, which tops the leaderboard across all of baseball.
If you take a look at the stats on the season for Elly De La Cruz you aren’t going to see anything that’s all that inspiring. But context is needed to understand just how well De La Cruz is playing right now. After starting the season on the injured list with a hamstring injury, was activated after three weeks. He went 1-21 to start the season with a bunch of strikeouts and no walks.
Since then he’s been on fire. Elly De La Cruz has had 46 plate appearances since that point and he’s gone out there and hit .364/.391/.659 while cutting down on the strikeouts (23% in this stretch). The rough stretch to begin the year makes it appear like he’s not doing a whole lot, but small sample sizes can certainly play tricks on you when there’s a real bad stretch in there to start.
Louisville Bats offense has a lot of intriguing hitters right now. Aside EDLC and McLain, CES hit 2-5 , Hopkins was 2-5, RBI , Robinson 1-3 , 2 RBI. That trio are hitting .396 , .330 and .420 avg respectively. Even I noted a barely rising of Will Benson in last games, he went 2-3 , 2 runs and 2 walks yesterday.
If the Bats had any pitching they would be in contention. They’ve lost way to many games this year when they’ve had 4 & 5 run leads. They lost one game when they scored 16 runs & another when they scored 9 runs.
And the hot starts for the year began in AZ where CES and McLain had OPS numbers of 1.748 and 1.167 (EDLC .739).
EDLC needs more development in the minors, but CES and McLain belong in the bigs sometime (very) soon.
I feel like TJ Hopkins isn’t talked about enough. Is it his age? He is a little older than you’d like, but he’s two years younger than Freidl.
He’s killed LHP his entire minor league career. He would be perfect in a platoon with Fraley
No platooning he needs to play every day
I don’t get it either, He’s ready for a call up. Friedl, Fraley, Myers, and Hopkins should be our 4 man outfield. Obviously Myers will get some 1B time, so Hopkins will have a decent amount of playing time, plus the mandatory Fraley off days when a lefty is pitching.
Monday 5/8 Hopkins up Fairchild off the 40
Monday 5/8 McLain up Maile off the 40
Monday 5/8 CES up Karcher off the 40
Sunday 5/14 Abbott up Kuhnel off the 40
These guys are not going to come up without losing something. Anyways those are the moves I’d make if I were Krall. Our 40 man is currently lopsided to the pitching end, this would cut that down to 21 pitchers, and 19 position players.
Excellent choices. I saw someone mention Siani off the 40 and I don’t like that idea yet. Let him play the season and see where his numbers end up. The 4 guys you mentioned aren’t helping the team try to win the division next season.
Reynolds getting DFA’d opened up a spot on the 40 man already. Don’t like DFA’ing Maile. He’s been fine.
Bell just isn’t using the 3 catcher roster well at all. Newman at DH today while one of our starters is still on the bench with a Bad back is a perfect example
Also wouldn’t DFA Fairchild
For the 4 players you mentioned adding I would
Use the open spot on the 40
DFA Karcher
DFA Kuhnel
Move Overton to the 60 day IL
For the 26 man
Option Newman
Option Fairchild
Option Ramos
Option Sanmartin moving Cessa to pen
DFA’ing either of the backup catchers wouldn’t be smart. Bell has misused the position this year but I’d keep the 3 catchers until Votto is ready to return and have a trade lined up for one of them.
@Mario, exactly these guys are just filler.
@BDH, You’re right about the 40 man, so I’d keep my moves the same, but I’d option Newman. I don’t think it’s smart to continue to carry 3 C’s on the roster. If you can trade one, that’s always the best option, but if not one will need to be DFA’d.
I’d option Fairchild, lol can’t get the non important players names right.
Doug how does McCain project as a fielder at SS? I see he has 5 errors on the year to this point. Would he be a better fit playing another position? Who is the better fielding SS between him and ELDC?
I do want to see EDLC continue to lower his strikeout rate – it will only go up when he faces better prepared, higher quality pitchers in the majors. But boy these two, plus CES, are exciting. Added to the energy and impact of India and Friedl, plus the potential of some of the younger prospects in the system, and I’m really looking forward to the Reds offense starting next year or perhaps even later this year. Go Reds!
Bingo 100%
You really sort of see an Astros-type core (Springer, Altuve, Correa, Bregman, and now Gurriel) forming for us. Two rings and three World Series wouldn’t be bad, without cheating of course.
Do we bring back Dusty? 🙂
Something needs to give at some point. Right now you have 5 players in triple A who are knocking on the door. You have a starting pitcher as well knocking on the door.
Then you have a few more prospects in double A and high A making noise.
I do think Senzel stays at 3rd and Friedl in cf..
Do you package a couple of players for a starting pitcher?
Personally I would start giving Elly reps as a corner outfielder. If the plan is to keep him at SS then McClain has to be your second baseman. I love India, they need to keep him, but his defense at second is well below average. I view him much like good ol’ Pete Rose. His bat and energy make you find a spot for him. Leftfield seems logical. This organization has the pieces, it’s the job of management to figure out how those pieces best fit together. They need to start experimenting this year to be ready to be a serious contender next year. My dream lineup for the second half of 2023.
1. India (7)
2. Freidl (8)
3. EDLC (9)
4. CES (DH)
5. McClain (4)
6. Senzel (5)
7. Stephenson (2)
8. Votto (3)
9. Barrero (6)
Bench
Steer, Hopkins, Fraley, Robinson
SP RP
Ashcraft Mop up inning eater: Cessa
Lodolo Middle: Farmer, ? Setup: Young, Antone, Simms
Greene Closer: Diaz
Abbott
Weaver
Depending on how 2023 goes, if Votto is done, replace with CES at first. If Barrero under performs move Elly or McClain to short.
I know this will never happen, but we can always dream. I try to stay positive. Hope is a dangerous thing.
i’d go with :
1. India – 2b
2. Friedl – cf
3. Stephenson – c
4. Votto – 1st/dh
5. CES – 1st/dh
6. Fraley – lf
7. Myers – rf
8. Senzel – 3rd
9. Mclain – ss
de la cruz not in the lineup until next year, unless he’s absolutely tearing it up in louisville by august.
Except that EDLC may need a little longer than that to improve his pitch recognition, I like this roster Soto. I’d expect the lineup to vary a bit based on long term performance (hoping Votto hits well enough that he should hit 5th, for example) but the lineup is a good start. There’s maybe some room for upgrades in the bullpen, and Weaver might not be the best option at 5 (deadline trade perhaps?) but that’s just rearranging deck chairs. I haven’t seen a proposed roster that I like better without some fantasy trade involved. I second the motion.
Moving India to LF or 1B is my preference, and I would go with LF. He can also do some DHing. CES is the future 1B or DH, so it may depend upon him. I’d like to see McLain at 2B, as it seems like a better fit than SS. Barrero or EDLC at SS. I’m not 100% sold on Senzel yet. If he continues to have success, then keep him starting at 3B. If he resorts back to his old self, then EDLC or Steer at 3B would work. Steer is the utility guy for 1B, 2B, 3B, DH if EDLC is at 3B.
Still, in my opinion, all the movement hinges on mainly one guy (maybe two, in Senzel)…and that is Barrero. That is why he needs to start every day at SS, so we can know by the end of the year what we really have in him. If he falls short, SS is EDLC’s, and he becomes the ultimate utility guy. If he succeeds, then SS is his and EDLC needs a new position. That would be 3B if Senzel has a setback. If Senzel excels, then EDLC needs to go to CF or RF. It would be nice to put that tall frame of EDLC at 1B, but he is far too athletic to waste on 1B.
Like it, but would trade barreo and senszel for a projected number 2/3 pitcher with 4-5 more years of control. Hand McClain SS and ELDC ss/3b when he is ready from steer. Make steer a super sub.
Need to bring Robinson up and make him our primary back up.
Trade young controllable talent for young controllable talent.
I really hope Votto can come back. It would be great for the young guns to get to play with a healthy Votto and learn how to conduct themselves as professionals from an all-time great. Their youth and energy could help energize him for one last run. Hope springs eternal!
July 14th starting lineup should be:
1) India LF
2) Friedl CF
3) Senzel 3B
4) Stephenson C
5) Fraley RF
6) Steer 1B
7) EDLC SS
8) CES DH
9) McClain 2B
Bench: Casali, Barrero, two of Newman/Ramos/Fairchild/Votto (if he ever comes back
Alas, that’s the August 20th lineup – trade deadline is August 1, so we shall see Myers and Newman until then. FWIW, ELDC and CES need another 200 ABs in AAA as well. McLain should be here before June 15.
An interesting perspective. McLain has 113 ABs in AAA and is about 100 pts above last season’s AA BA. CES has only 53 ABs in AAA and is also above his AA average last season, though he did hit .300 last season as well. I don’t see that either have the PAs to justify promotion. Vosler and Ramos were both monsters the 1st couple of weeks, Dietrich, Aquino, and others as well. Leave them in AAA and let them play daily. After the trade deadline, depending on the Krall moves, consider them then. Patience seems prudent at this point. Play Steer, Barrero, and Friedl daily, along with Fairchild regularly in that time and see how they develop. Forget Newman, his stats and career trajectory are evident to all but Bell and the Reds’ FO. Myers? There was, at least, a chance he could bounce back but thus far hasn’t. And dump the 3rd catcher, flip a coin on Maile and Casali, neither will hit much over the full season – who handles pitchers better? And Votto? I doubt we’ll see a revitalized Votto. If anything, the team may be worse with him. In his case, veteran presence could become veteran privilege as it did much of last season – always starting, batting 4th, regardless of performance. There are no quick fixes for the Reds without spending some money. Right now, the Reds are 4.5 games ahead of the Cards. That’s a good season, even if they are in 4th place.
@LDS since when is being prudent fun? Baseball is also supposed to be fun. I was with the hold off on promoting McLain, and CES bandwagon, but I jumped onto the other more exciting bandwagon. I want W’s, and I want them now.
@MBS, wins? What are wins? This isn’t a winning culture. It’s not a winning ownership group – that was all rhetoric. In fact, the Reds through all their incarnations since 1890, the Reds are 6 games under .500. Sparky and the Big Red Machine were 277 games over.500 in 9 seasons. Bell alone is 49 games under.500 in now his 5th season. In fact, the Reds haven’t won 90 games or more since Baker and a young Votto and company. So, wins? It’s just not a cultural thing here.
Lol, reminds me of Jim Mora’s playoffs rant.
I think McLain is ready due to the development path – he’s had very good BB/K% throughout and added power last season and returned to avg. and OBP this season – not much more for him to show.
CES and EDLC both need work on BB/K% – though their extra power offsets that to some extent, especially if EDLC stays at SS. Right now CES seems at the Davidson/Vogelbach level, but if he gets a little improvement in zone discipline he improves a great deal. And, both need more defense work.
Post deadline I’m liking this right now
1 India – LF (position switch won’t happen until offseason imo unfortunately)
2 Friedl – CF
3 De La Cruz – SS
4 CES – DH
5 Votto – 1B
6 Stephenson – C
7 Fraley – RF
8 McLain – 2B
9 Steer – 3B
Senzel – 2B/3B/OF
Barrero – SS/OF
Maile or Casali – C
Hopkins or Benson – OF (Hopkins more deserving right now but Benson gives a needed left handed bat)
Basically could be the same thing next year depending on what they do with Votto and Casali’s options although the longer Votto stays out the less likely I see that happening. Could really add another solid bat from free agency with all the freed up money
Bdh you and I are on the same page. India to LF is IMO the best long term play looking at the projected 2024 roster, so I could absolutely see waiting until the off-season to make the position move
And we’re looking at the same team with different gameday lineups I feel. One thing I do like about where the reds are at is they do have flexibility in lineup and positioning. Which given to David Bell is probably a curse…
I’m curious about India’s arm. I know Fraley and Friedl arms are generally considered weak. Makes me think India might be better off in RF than LF with your above roster configurations. Other than that I’d say it’s spot on assuming Votto ever returns, which doesn’t feel as certain anymore. We could really use a 2021 JV on the roster.
Lineup is out today along with this tweet from Terrell:
“161 MLB players have logged at least 900 PA at the big league level since the start of the 2020 season.
The one with the lowest wRC+ (66) and wOBA (.267) in that time is the Reds Designated Hitter for the day today.”
https://twitter.com/wickterrell/status/1655230835954692096?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1655234561377173504%7Ctwgr%5Eede6ad7f17a18e0a774da8c769947609456adc1c%7Ctwcon%5Es3_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fbleacherreport.com%2Fcincinnati-reds
Tinker Bell’s love affair with mediocrity continues. I guess Fraley is still “spasming”, Casalli and Maile can’t hit much, that leaves Fairchild, who I would always start ahead of Newman.
You may be correct that Bell does not enjoy winning. He put Steer in the 3-hole, when Steer is 7 for his last 44. Stephenson, hitting 4th, is doing his best Bill Plummer imitation. Senzel is placed behind those guys, to ensure that even if he doubles, it will mean nothing.
Bell is at least playing Friedl.
The three-catcher theory assumed that Stephenson would hit, which he is not doing. He apparently woke up one day in late March and forgot how everything he ever knew about hitting. I suppose that they could drop him to 8th in the order, but that would require some logic.
It would require Bell and Krall (and whoever else) to admit the 3 catcher scheme was a bust they buried a sunken cost of just under $4.5m (Casali and Maile combined guaranteed money) into not including Stephenson’s pre-arbitration salary of $740K.
I actually see Stephenson as something of a victim in this situation. His shoulder situation is mostly likely Votto all over again in terms of reduced strength and ability to effectively extend his swing to cover the zones he used to cover.
If they throw the pitches where he can get to them, he hits them well enough to have a .257 batting average in support of a .349 OBP; but, he doesn’t have any power (slugging .310). Yet they keep running him out to hit in the middle of the lineup.
LDS you’re way too pessimistic most of the time, but you are consistently so and I respect that. I haven’t seen the lineup but I’m guessing you’re referring to Kevin Newman. If so (or whoever it is) I agree wholeheartedly with your implied point that it’s a ridiculous choice. If the choice is between someone who has proven they’re bad at hitting AND has been around long enough that they’re very unlikely to benefit from more experience, why wouldn’t you start someone younger and with a higher ceiling, and who might benefit from the extra at bats and be a tiny bit closer to realizing his potential? I approve this post!
Yep
I said in ST that Newman would get plenty of AB’s at DH (instead of CES). Some laughed. It hasn’t been as many as I imagined but 1 is too much. Newman is not a bad player but he is a backup SS!! Wish Krall would tell that to Bell.
As the old saying goes, pessimist is what an optimist calls a realist. I’m looking at numbers, trends, and choices. I don’t care about non-public information, so frequently alleged here, to defend Bell’s choices. I don’t care about the analytics myth. In fact, Friedl is a perfect example of the analytics fallacy. His EV and HardH% have fallen every year of his ML career. His HR% and BB% are both down and his SO% is up. And yet, I think everyone would agree that he’s having his best year yet. He’s putting the ball on the ground more and hitting more to CF. His XBT% is 30 points above league average. Let’s hope the coaches don’t start tweaking his swing to improve his LA to get more FB.
Who was available? Fraley is hurt. Nobody on the bench has been hitting much and, for the recency bias-afflicted believers in hot streaks, Newman has had a few hits lately.
It’s obvious that you don’t care much about information, commonly known or not. Friedl is having a great season so far and, as you say, some indicators make it hard to explain,. I’ll posit that in my youth (and yours), before advanced stats were tabulated, there might have been head scratching about his decline in power, but more to the point: the advanced stats are not a myth; they are just information. Not, as you say, predictive , but certainly indicative, just as HR, BA and RBI are indicative.
@Greenmtred, the innumeracy pandemic is spreading. The more obsessed teams become with analytics, the greater the decline in the quality of the game. Corporations have been going through these analytics spasms for decades. Ever worked in a PMP driven company? It’s laughable.
I don’t entirely disagree, LDS. A glut of information can be distracting and not all of it is useful. I can tell from your comments that you preferred the way the game was played years ago, and so do I. That said, there is useful information to be had from advanced stats: For instance, the awareness of the value of getting on base–OBP–leads to understanding that a player’s value is not best understood through batting average alone. Like most new “things” I expect that with time the wheat will be separated from the chaff. In the meantime, the rules changes seem to be encouraging an older style of baseball.
Agreed that Fairchild should start over Newman at DH. At least Bell doesn’t have Newman in the five hole today.
Anyone who still defends the threecatcher roster needs to take a good look at today’s lineup and realize this is what what happens whenever a starter isn’t available. Not only is Newman the DH, but Fairchild is the only bench player you might actually want to use today for any reason whatsoever. If Fairchild were the DH, then Newman would be the only bench player you might possibly want to use. It’s a bad situation to be in.
The specific lineup reflect’s Bell’s inability to react to real-world events, which is why he’s got TS hitting cleanup again, but it’s not Bell’s fault that two of his bench players are catchers and he’s forced to choose between Newman and Fairchild because he’s got nothing else.
Hi J. I understand your points. The main reason to carry catchers was to protect their best hitter (at the time) Stephenson from the riggers and dangers of catching. Now so far this year he is not hitting (who knows why) people say just have him play catcher full time again. I have always maintained Stephenson is not built to play catcher and is an injury waiting to happen. He may come out of slump and hit well again. Who knows. I see both sides of the coin. With all the good players waiting to come up from AAA looks like it’s back behind the dish for TS. Hope he gains a few pounds. 🙂
Wait, people he is using basically the same line up for 3rd game in a row. Yet some still complain? It isn’t Bell’s fault he has two catchers as bench players. Fraley still out and either Newman or Fairchild as DH.
To suggest Bell likes to lose is again silly as it is to suggest a few other things.
I don’t think Bell is the answer and yes his management style is poor at best, however Reds bullpen is great this year. Reds for most part have been in every game. They are better this year
+1,000
“Likes to lose” probably isn’t the way to say it, but “is willing to lose a lot of games rather than rethink all his dumb theories and admit he’s been making mistakes” is probably accurate. Losing games doesn’t seem to be his worst fear when it comes to managing.
The original formulation was that Bell “doesn’t like to win,” crafted with both exasperation and a tongue in cheek, if I may read LDS’s mind. Nobody doubts that Bell wants to win, but everybody doubts whether he is agile enough to pull it off.
@OBE, sometimes I can’t read my own mind. No reason why anyone should be able to. I think Bell knows he doesn’t have to win to keep his job. Clearly, he prefers players that reflect his own career, hence the Newmans, Farmers, and others that have bounced around a lot of positions and had few if any 100 or better OPS+ seasons – Bell career 85, Newman career 77, Farmer 84, Senzel 75, and so on. Move Steer to 1B. Move Barrero to CF, etc. Flexibility, etc., etc. Fairchild is at 99 OPS+ and prior to Bell’s platoon strategy, had relatively balanced L/R BAs. with an OPS above .740, a good 100 points above Newman. Numbers tell you what happened, not what will. But, we have enough data on Newman to know he’s not a starter on any other ML team except the Reds.
Nope it is either the same or it isn’t. Period!
CFD and DW it seems we are on the same page. The organization seems determined to make EDLC the everyday shortstop. If so they need to start getting India some outfield work. I agree that they need to let Barrero get everyday work at SS to see what he can do. I’m not ready to give up on him and his tools, but it is make or break time for Mr. Barrero. As my grandmother would say… “It’s time to @#$% or get off the pot.”
With all this hitting ability and future stars at AAA you would think we would be above .500. Not really sure how this will translate to improve a team that is under .500 already. Would like to see some winning at some level at some point preferably MLB level.
Another baseball legend gone.
https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2023/05/vida-blue-passes-away.html
If anyone wants a nice value today. Same game parlay on the A’s of all teams
KC under 5.5 runs
Miller 4+ Ks
Rooker 2+ bases
$50 pays $236 with DK boost
Miller is their Hunter Greene
Have to agree w/everyone and chuckle at Bell today. Fairchild bats 3rd/4th last week and can’t beat out Newman at DH today.
He’s much faster then Ramos and would be an improvement defensively too
Was a lefty pitching when Fairchild started? I would guess there was because that’s when Fairchild starts. He doesn’t hardly ever start when it’s a righty pitching. The guy pitching today is a righty.
Newman shouldn’t be playing today. But neither should Fairchild.
But one of them has to unless you’d prefer Maile in the lineup. This is one of the many reasons why the 3 catcher roster is a bad idea if the goal is to win games.
Guys until we are out of playoff contention Im in the trying to win games mode. I’m playing my best players to support that effort. No one is running away with this division or the wild card at this point.
It’s weird to me that a site that won’t allow PG-level swearing (or at least not PG-13) will allow comments encouraging gambling. Maybe someone can explain the logic to me without using any unwholesome words.
J you may want to address that with the moderators privately.
Doug, you should hire me as a comment monitor. I’d allow an occasional swear word to describe something Bell has done, but no personal attacks. I’d work pretty cheap, and you could get a little rest. It’s win-win-win.
There’s only one person who can explain it to you, and that would be me, since I get the final say on all of it.
Swearing leads to bad discussion and gets people even more riled up in arguments/discussions/disagreements. The comments section can be a disaster without that, and it would be unbearable with that. Also, it can impact stuff within how search engines handle ranking your site, which impacts how much money I’ve got to pay my bills.
Gambling stuff – I’m not going to be talking about it in articles or anything like that. While many other places have incorporated that kind of stuff into their “content”, it’s not going to happen here even if it would mean a little more money (probably). I do accept gambling advertising via Google and the video ads. With people talking about it in the comments section…. it’s tough for me to try and link that to some harm being done. While I don’t gamble on sports and I do think that it’s probably a real bad idea and one that we’re going to look back on in two decades and see that it was very bad for a lot of people – it’s happening. It’s legal in many places now. And it’s not a secret industry where you need to go find some illegal bookie to do anymore. The same place the comments about it were posted on (the phone or computer) is the same place you can use in 3 minutes to set up an account at a legal place to do it.
If someone starts showing up daily and linking to GenericSportsBook dot gamble or whatever with bets to make – I will handle that. That’s very different than saying “Hey, I think Graham Ashcraft’s going to strike out 6 batters today and the line is 5”.
Thanks Doug. I really prefer to talk sports.
Thank you for all that you do.
There is a difference between swearing about something, than at someone. However I get your take on the swearing, and it’s probably easier to cut it out completely than moderate it as a case by case situation. That being said I could use several tastefully chosen swear words to describe how hard EDLC his hitting the ball.
Sometimes it seems “fun” to toss obnoxious insults at other commenters when YOU (and I mean that towards everyone in the first person) thinks that they have made an absurd comment, or responded to what another person thinks in an obnoxious way.
But it lowers the whole tone of any site that tolerates that. Whether this is considered a “family site” or whatever, once you start, it’s a downward spiral. So as Doug Gray owns this site; his site, his rules.
Sometimes I think someone has made a comment that is, well, disagreeable in either tone or content. Stop. Who knows that that person is really thinking? Or perhaps, how a comment YOU (all of us) have sometimes made that another reader thinks…”boy, what a bonehead!”, or something more explicit.
So censor yourself; if you can’t make a cogent point without a measure of “profanity”, then maybe the problem is you, not Redleg Nation.
Thanks, I come here to read other’s ideas and thoughts, and keep up on the Reds. And sometimes make comments, sometimes too many on one thread. And I am sure that I have annoyed other readers at times with a pedantic rant about my own personal opinions.
Well, obviously it’s your site and you can do as you please, but I’ll just point out that swearing is allowed on virtually every other discussion-based website I look at, and some of them seem to be doing pretty well, financially. (Getting people riled up is probably good for business, I think.) Some of them also have reliably interesting and thoughtful discussions about sports even though people are swearing a lot. There’s a pretty well-known site for OSU sports, for example, which is loaded with swearing and also loaded with thoughtful discussions about OSU sports. There’s a difference between saying a “bad” word and saying bad things, and I think most people can be trusted to figure out the difference. I actually have my own experience running online discussions about controversial topics, and participants are allowed to swear but not attack each other. It always works fine.
So, that’s my pro-swearing argument. I assume the policy won’t change, but thank you for reading.
As for the gambling stuff: I don’t have particularly strong feelings, but it does bug me that someone is allowed to promote gambling on this site (not even gambling associated with the Reds!) but I can’t use a “bad” word to describe one of Bell’s decisions because it might have negative effects.
There are, roughly, 500 comments on this site per day. I don’t have time to moderate them all, read them all (though I do try), and still get the work done. There simply isn’t enough time in my day. I’m already working like 10-14 hour days. And if anything my 20-something years of running websites has taught me – it’s that no, you absolutely can not trust people to figure out the difference in nuance and tone online and that no, it doesn’t always work fine. I don’t allow cursing here as it it and nearly every single day there are commenters attacking each other.
As for the gambling…. you’re confusing them saying they gamble and them promoting it. Promoting it would involve them linking to and or telling you where to go to get in your bets. Learn to say “this crap sucks” instead of saying this “poop” sucks. You’ll be alright.
100% with Doug on the profanity policy, and believe other sites would do well to follow that lead. OTOH, I do like the occasional old-style, throwback cartoon/Batman swearing – &#$(*&#&$ and the beep/boop sound effects.
I’ve made hundreds of comments and never violated a policy, or even come close to violating a policy as far as I know. So it’s not a matter of me having to “learn” how to avoid swearing. You’re missing the point. I do prefer “adult” conversations, but my real beef is that the site bans swearing while allowing posts such as: “If anyone wants a nice value today. Same game parlay on the A’s of all teams KC under 5.5 runs Miller 4+ Ks Rooker 2+ bases $50 pays $236 with DK boost Miller is their Hunter Greene.” That’s a little different than “I think Ashcraft will strike out six today,” which could at least misconstrued as an innocent comment about Reds baseball.
Them’s the rules for now.
I’d prefer to turn comments off. But as one of like two websites left that actually allow fans to comment it’s probably not a good business decision to do so, even if most days all it does is cause me anxiety and headaches.
Doug, I have to say I enjoy the fact that there is no swearing here. We are adults but we should be able to communicate effectively without having to swear.
Doug do you ever take vacation though? Working all those hours man is not good for the mind. Hopefully some of your other writers or staff can help you get a break from time to time.
I wish I knew what a vacation was. I haven’t taken more than 1 day off in over a decade and that was under the worst possible circumstances.
Looking forward to retiring.
Dude,
First of all, thank you for you dedication. But…while today’s culture may deem such doggedness commendable and/or virtuous, in reality, it is neither. Nor is it healthy. The machinations of today’s world do not depend on each of us, despite our illusions to the contrary.
Take a vacation/time off — when appropriate.
Oh, I don’t mistake this for being tough or anything – it just is what it is. The offseason provides some more downtime. And most Mondays I get less work done because I’m not covering any minor league games and sometimes it’s also a day off for the Reds. Those days are nice because it also allows less work on Tuesday.
But there were multiple days last week where a minor league game started at 11am or noon, and then the Reds played an evening game, as did other minor league teams – so I was watching and writing about the games from 11am until like 11pm, and then still had the “non-game” article to work on for the minor league stuff. Those days suuuuuuuuck.
End of the day, I guess it’s what I signed up for starting/running a business. The dream is to get to a point where I can hire someone else to do a lot of the game recaps so I can have *some* nights off and work less. Well, the dream is to just retire, but that’s still a ways off.
J has a good point. His comment was not about swearing so much as it was about gambling. I have often wondered the same thing.