Last night the Cincinnati Reds lost 6-3 to the Miami Marlins. It was the first game in a 3-game series at loanDepot park in Miami. On the surface that doesn’t mean much, but it leaves the Reds with an opportunity over the next two days to put an end to a streak they’d like to put behind them. Joel Luckhaupt of both the internet and the FanDuel Sports Network Reds broadcast booth where he serves as a statistical researcher of sorts for whoever is in the booth that day points out that Cincinnati has failed to win 33 straight series after they lost game one of that series.
That’s a whole lot of series. That doesn’t mean that they’ve lost all of them, though. Some series have been 4-gamers that have been split after the Reds have lost the first one. But this is a 3-game series in Miami and that means there’s not going to be a split. Someone is going to win more games than the other team. The Marlins can extend the Reds streak tonight with a victory, but Cincinnati has a chance to at least make the Wednesday match up one that carries a little more intrigue.
Elly Has Risen
Davy Andrews of Fangraphs wrote about Elly De La Cruz this morning. More specifically he wrote about the catch he made on Sunday to rob Jackson Holliday of a hit and likely an RBI. Sure, that likely didn’t matter in the context of a game that the Orioles wound up losing by 22 runs, but at the time of the play the game was just 1-0.
The first part is about what Elly De La Cruz does. But much of the article is about what everyone else in the stadium did as the play unfolded. It’s a fun read and a fun view that includes many different video clips.
Chase Burns is one step closer
Last July the Reds selected right-handed pitcher Chase Burns with the #2 overall pick in the draft and signed him to a record setting $9,250,000 signing bonus. The best pitcher in the draft, Burns was expected to move quickly through the minor leagues and reach the big leagues in a flash.
Cincinnati, though, began Burns in High-A with the Dayton Dragons this season. His stay was just three starts and the final of those three starts wasn’t even a full one as it was interrupted by rain and limited him to just 4.0 innings. The Reds are promoting him up to Double-A Chattanooga this week, as first reported by Charlie Goldsmith of the Dayton Daily News. Burns had allowed four runs in 11.2 innings with Dayton (3.09 ERA) while allowing four hits, walking five batters, and striking out 20 of the 45 hitters that he faced.
Breaking the string of losing series (after losing the first game):
Tonight’s match (on paper) looks about even from a pitcher’s statistical viewpoint.
When will Nick Martinez turn the corner and start showing why the Reds paid $21 Mil for his services this year?
I hope the “warmer weather” location in Miami will be the key that unlocks his season….or maybe more of the same.
Wednesday night feature Singer versus Alcantara. Alcantara used to be a real “hammer” but his numbers last year were not great, and are even worse this year.
So maybe the Reds are odd-on to win Wednesday.
And Joel Luckhaupt was also known as “Slyde” at Red Reporter, when I used to follow that fan blog.
Hopefully, the Nick Martinez question is when vs. will. Last year was obviously the best of his career. And at 33, does he do it again? We all hope he does. In all honesty, I think Krall was gambling on the draft pick and didn’t expect Martinez to accept the QO. Generally, he hasn’t been willing to spend that kind of money on anyone. Otherwise guys like Castillo would still be around – probably.
speaking of that price point, Tyler Mahle and Sonny Gray sure would be nice right about now.
I perceive you are not a fan of Mr. Krall – hardly a day passes when you don’t underscore this. I wonder why – is it because you want to ensure that others are aware, are you trying to convince others of your view, or he is just the object of your disdain. Really doesn’t matter in my view – it’s just tiresome. Have you noticed who plays leftfield for the Reds? How about the starting catcher while TS rehabs? I might have missed your Krall comments on those two players. Or how about their number three starter traded away for infielder who is now hitting at a .206 clip and “injured.” Have a sunny day. Thank you.
@m2, you’re barely 20 games into the season. It’s far too early to be canonizing Krall. Yes, he has pulled off a couple that are performing well at the moment. But the failures are far more common. Perhaps in your world, bad judgment and execution are normal. In my world, they are not.
Disagree here LDS – As I recall, many may have been surprised they extended the QO, but I don’t recall anyone, either here, in the bigger Reds fanbase, or even the national MLB pundits, thinking it was anything other than right around the market price.
So – for everyone cavilling about not signing FAs, they got one of the top 10 pitchers available last winter.
As for the rest of the FO history, I’d rate it better than average, especially considering the ownership constraints. The trades have been better than the signings, but in the end they’ve done good if not excellent. We all have our favorites and our duds, but I’d be wary that it could be much worse, rather than much better.
Good news as both Stephenson and Moll will start rehab assignments in Louisville
That Elly article is GREAT.
There are commenters here that say Elly is too tall to play SS. Yet he made that play specifically because of his height and reach.
And there are yet others who think every SS in MLB is made equal except for the number of errors they make. And their short-sightedness prevents them from understanding that Elly is the only SS in MLB that makes that play. Nothing against McLain, but if he’s SS, he’s not making that play either.
Was reading Posnanski’s Why We Love Baseball and he was talking about Ripken being considered too big to endure at SS and certainly not able to endure it every day when he started. Guess a few people were wrong. Agree that was a great article, and I don’t worry about Elly in the field… more looking forward to the day he gets the strikeouts under control.
Ripken is 6’4″
Elly is 6’5″. Plus we now know he can fly.
My middle daughter loved baseball and we used to go to one or two Red Sox games a year. Going to Fenway was always like going back in time, for one. But we’d go see the great Pedro/Big Papi teams because those two were too much fun. But the thing she remembers most was a game when the Mariners’ Jay Buhner robbing not one, not two, but three HR’s in RF. We were down the RF line kitty-cornered with the RF fence. First one, Buhner leans against the fence and pulls one back. Goes up to bat, K’s and breaks his bat over his thigh. Crows boos. Re-takes RF, gets booed even more. Then he robs another with more of a leaping catch; crowd boos some more, both after the catch and at bat. Finally, Buhner goes up to take away a third HR but goes over the fence and into the bullpen. Crowd gave some polite applause. At bat next time, the Bahston fans finally stood and cheered. We laugh about it to this day.
Noone doubts the fact he will make a great play here and there. Its the routine ones he misses that are the problem. No SS makes that diving play perhaps, but how many try to backhand a routine ball and miss it like Elly did against Baltimore? Not many, if any.
Cruz w Pittsburgh and Elly led the league in errors last year. What do they have in common? They are 2 of the tallest SS in history, Guess who leads the league again this year? Some def statistics are subjective, such as def runs saved etc. The ones that are not subjective are errors. We see those w our eyes. He isnt getting moved from SS until he leaves Cincinnati so the argument isnt even relevant at this point.
I’m not gonna lie – I’m laughing at the idea that ERRORS are not subjective.
You can explain the ‘move elly’ reasoning all you want, but it still isn’t logical and it still isn’t supported by virtually 100% of Major League baseball. I am not trying to be mean, but how do you have this special knowledge that all of professional baseball doesn’t have? You have an opinion that tall players cannot be shortstops. False. You have an opinion that EDLC is not a satisfactory shortstop. False. You have a belief his errors are disqualifying. False. If any of this were true, don’t you think more than 0% of pro baseball would agree?
Elly is not O’Neill Cruz. Fact. Elly is rated the best Reds shortstop. Fact. Elly is has more range and a stronger arm than most if not all major league shortstops. Also fact. As for the ‘move elly’ reasoning, it collapses after one point — teams do not move their best player off of their best position, especially when that best position is the most challenging position to play. What you are stating is that it is good to take your best player, move him to a position where his skills are minimized, and do this by moving him off of the most important position on the field. It is no different than having the best weapon in the arsenal and saying, no, we don’t believe it’s true, and even if it were true, we aren’t going to use it. In fact, we are going to shelve it.
Similarly it’s premature to demonize Mr. Krall. Find another topic to bemoan …I’m sure you have ample opportunity in your head. Why not use this forum to share the joy of the sport – Oh it’s not all butterflies and unicorns but not nearly as bleak as your incessant castigation would suggest. Enjoy something today. Others on here do – I would urge you to read DaveCT’s post about ten times – you could learn.
LDS has a spine of steel and it was Gods will that he be the Reds FO’s biggest critic.