The St. Louis Cardinals pitching and defense dominated the Cincinnati Reds offense on Tuesday night. Cincinnati was held to just three hits on the night and they couldn’t score a run as St. Louis picked up a 3-0 win and took a series lead with two games remaining.
| Final | R | H | E |
|---|---|---|---|
| St. Louis Cardinals (65-62) | 3 | 7 | 0 |
| Cincinnati Reds (60-66) | 0 | 3 | 1 |
| W: Leahy (10-4) L: Abbott (6-8) SV: O’Brien (32) | |||
| Statcast | Box Score | Game Thread | |||
The starting pitchers in this one had things going well for them early on. The two traded zeros through the first four innings of the game. But St. Louis broke through against Andrew Abbott in the top of the 5th inning when Masyn Winn hit a 1-out solo home run to put the Cardinals up 1-0. Kyle Leahy followed up with a scoreless bottom of the 5th, completing his day.
Andrew Abbott remained in the game and threw a shutout 6th. He returned for the 7th inning and gave up the second double of the day to Maysn Winn, who had all three of the hits for St. Louis. Jose Fermin followed up with a double of his own to bring the run in and make it 2-0. That ended the day for Abbott as the Reds went to the bullpen to bring in Zach Maxwell with one out. Pedro Pages came through with a bloop single into shallow left-center to put runners on the corners. Maxwell would strand both guys, picking up a strikeout and an easy grounder for a force out to end the frame.
The Cardinals would tack on a run in the top of the 8th. Jordan Walker led off with a single and then took third on a double by Alec Burleson. Joshua Baez then plated a run with a sacrifice fly to extend the lead to 3-0. Zach Maxwell would return for the 9th and kept the deficit at three, giving the offense one more shot to get something going. They didn’t, going down in order as they lost 3-0.
Key Moment of the Game
Masyn Winn’s home run in the 5th inning that put the first run of the game on the board. It would ultimately be the only run that St. Louis needed.
Notes Worth Noting
Cincinnati had just three hits in the game and they walked just once. The Cardinals not named Masyn Winn had just four hits, but he had three of them all to himself.
Up Next for the Cincinnati Reds
St. Louis Cardinals vs Cincinnati Reds
Wednesday August 18th, 6:40pm ET
Matthew Liberatore (5-10, 5.07 ERA) vs Chase Burns (14-2, 2.47 ERA)
“Cincinnati had just three hits in the game and they walked just once”
Well the Reds are still bringing up the rear of MLB in both BA and OBP. They are 26th in OPS and Runs Scored. Not much else to say is there?
Not to mention and not surprisingly last in hits.
They do strike out a lot. So, there’s that.
“They do strike out a lot. So, there’s that.”
haha Guess you’re right. Second only to the Pirates, by one, in SO. Sheesh 🙂
Guessing they will just wait until the year’s is out to make changes. Not our year at all.
The changes next year (this winter) will have to be massive to be competitive. We are 17 games behind the Brew Crew and 12 games behind the Cubbies, and possibly growing. That is not minor or moderate ground to make up. I was hoping Krall’s “we intend to be contenders” had some substance to it last winter but he whiffed on Schwarber and then (after much consideration) chose not to trade Hunter for the much needed and talked about power hitting OF. Result was our Opening Day OF were the beasts Friedl, Benson, and Marte, backed up by Steer and Myers, with Hinds, Bleday, and Dunn waiting in the wings in Louisville. Much improved over 2025?? And our starting IFs on Opening Day 2026 included the mighty 2025 starters McLain and Hayes. Again much improved? Obviously very little improvement if any.
Not as we are beginning to turn the page on 2026, the winter time task has magnified. The offensive weaknesses are glaring. We know with 95% certainty that McLain, Hayes, Friedl, Benson, and Marte can not hit, or certainly can not be given any benefit of doubt on having a starting role. Tendering any of these guys would seem questionable. We know that 2 of our better offensive hitters (Lowe and Stephenson) will be free agents come October and will require bigger paydays and longer term contracts in 2027 to return. Or their replacement in kind will require just as much money or just as long as contracts. And the mega part may be that our most likely trade pieces (Greene, Lodolo, Arroyo, Steer, HRod) probably have considerably lesser trade value than they had in the winter of 2025/2026. Greene’s TJ probably makes him valueless. Lodolo with 1 contract year left is no longer a long term investment. Probably very doubtful now that Arroyo or HRod could get you a strong starting offensive piece in return. It seems like from my perspective that you are deficient in trade options that will bring you the offensive firepower you need. That means you are going to have to spend $40-50M more than you would have thought in free agency to chase the Cubs and Brewers. Now if you don’t want to win 90 games in the fast closing Elly window, then do little and shoot for 4th place agin.
Ya but Melvin some say we had a chance .
This ownership ugh.
Good pitching needs runners across the plate to win. The money provided by ownership to Krall & Co. has built pitching but not hitting. Both are needed for a playoff team. A hitting spark, such as Lowe, was lacking in the 3 hit 0 run loss last night in the Red’s quest for 3rd. place in the NLC.
This team can be so boring.
Good outing by both Abbott and Maxwell.
They only had one runner reach second base, and that’s only because Myers tagged up from first. Most of the Reds hitters would have still been stuck on first.
A discussion topic for the off season for RLN to ponder…. Why do the reds struggle to hit so much at gabp?
Because too many of their hitters swing for the fences in the Reds smaller park…
Because it really is not as hitter friendly of ballpark as people tend to think. Easier homerun ballpark, but very little space in the outfield for hits to drop in or get extra base hits as easily.
Because they only have two good hitters?
+1000
Did Uecker cuss when the Bulls had 2 hits or 3 in Major League? That pretty much sums this one up.
Has everyone finally conceded that the Reds aren’t making the playoffs this year?
I’m just curious.
About six weeks ago.
Listened to Trace and Nick on Chatterbox and I think they both hit it on the head with Francona. He has been a massive failure here and cares more about his legacy than he does the Reds. Sending down Marte was the issue and how Francona talked about it to the press, taking no blame, like maybe the staff could have helped him more. The bottom line is that every player who played for Bell has regressed under Francona. I am sorry but I agree with them 100%. I am not a fan of Francona and he has turned this team into a boring one that at times I honestly don’t know why I am watching. He won 83 games last year and backed into the playoffs and this year has been an absolute disaster. Please don’t come back next year Francona. The Reds need a manager that wants to build a reputation and not one that lives on his reputation. Good night I have said enough.
Agree.
The other managers failed too, each with their own shortcomings. The biggest issue has been the teams lack of talent, lack of depth, bad trades, bad free agents. The ownership puts their gm in a bad spot and the gm isn’t good with what he has to work with and puts each manager in a bad spot.
I’m not defending Tito, he’s also seemingly failed. The players can’t overcome their talent shortcomings.
Baseball TALENT wins championships not the manager, coaches, medical staff, trainers, bat boys, ball girls, or clubhouse attendants!
Brian1,
you have very good points. I would also throw in injuries, we have had some to key players. HG, Lodolo, Pegan, GA, TS, Elly, and many others.
Very difficult for any team to win with all those injuries to key players.
Especially difficult when you lack depth and good minor league talent.
Then you have players that flat out cannot hit, KBH, MM, TJ, Marte, Benson, etc. Not sure Tito wants to come back, I was actually hoping for David Ross before they hired Tito. Krall needs to though.
Hey mark luv those guys they don’t s sugarcoat anything.
What those guys said today was a great summary of how this organization has been an ultimate failure since 23 on handling this opportunity.
TF has done absolutely nothing to help develop , or actually fine anything in general since he’s gotten here
I strongly believe in Nick’s take on TF in that all he cares about is his own legacy .
I’m actually hoping for a complete lockout and cancelling of the 27 season this organization needs a complete reset . I’m hopeful if something like this actually happened they would take advantage of it. This franchise can’t keeping barreling down the same rabbit hole.
Just look at the 40 man roster out all The position players how many are everyday players what two . The rest are bench guys or platoon guys . That is a really bad state to be in . With the lack of development in there Minor league system there’s absolutely no hope. They screwed up by nit selling at the deadline and to me that starts with TF
Sparky Anderson could not win with the “talent “ on this squad, but yeah, let’s beat up Terry Francona.
Tito won TWO World Series titles with the Red Sox. How did he do that?
He led an Indians squad that was competitive for numerous years. How did he do that?
Now he leads a losing, talent challenged squad and he his worried about his legacy?
The insipid comments complaining about Terry Francona and the coaches is tiresome.
Some of you should truly explore the underlying causes of this team’s failure instead of succumbing to espousing quick reaction emotional dribble.
@Ant my friend, what exactly are Tito’s developmental responsibilities? Please elaborate.
Good stuff Doofus….exactly right.
Some of you folks refuse to come to terms with the fact that this Cincinnati Reds squad is NOT talented. You blame everyone for this except ownership.
I agree, but maybe Houdini couldn’t fix this dumpster fire
Reds .220 at home, .234 on the road. Ops is better at home with the Gabp specials, but I don’t remember any 9 run explosions at home like the game I went to in Chicago. Bet the Over in Boston tonight….they’re fun to watch. Sort of like Tampa in that get guys on, bunt for hits, or sacrifice. Homer occasionally, but don’t live and die by it
Tampa is 1st in BA, 5th in OBP, 6th in OPS, 3rd in Hits, 21st in HR.
1st place in AL East 75-50
Brewers just put up 22 runs tonight, matching the Reds’ output for the last eight games.
Wow! As frustrating as this year has been…just imagine being a Mets or Mariners fans who had World Series aspirations. Even Detroit, Toronto, disappointments, although still in the WC race in the weak American League.
The Reds are last in batting average this year in MLB, and last year were 18th. Not great, but better of course last year. When looking at the stats, specifically the players that have had huge drop offs and had a lot of at bats were Friedl and Marte. McLain has been just slightly worse than last year.
The average MLB hitter, hits .243. Friedl and McLain were supposed to be the catalysts for the Offense setting the table for EDC, Stewart, and they’re hitting .158 and .192. Marte was supposed to be the outbreak young hitter, and he’s hitting .189. Add in Hayes at .149 and they just couldn’t overcome those deficits for the year, at least to this point.
Hayes was not a good hitter of course, but he wasn’t this bad. 2 veterans, 2 somewhat younger players. To me it speaks to something more systemically wrong with the Reds organization’s approach, than just individually all these players just having historically bad years. Or that for whatever reason, they’ve been the worst adapting to the ABS system.
It’s not just the Reds…other teams are having similar issues, but the Reds with the worst average in one of the best hitters’ parks stands out.
Good home run hitters park, but not a hitters park.
I’m going tomorrow (Wednesday) night and the next day (Thursday afternoon). A friend from Tennessee is coming up for the games. Scout Club seats behind home plate. $430 for 4 tickets (2 each game). It’s a lot but it’s my vacation every summer since 2022.
Hope you have a great time at the park!
Sounds fun, and you’ll get to see Chase Burns pitch too so that is cool.
Reds win both games. Money worth spent. Have a great time.
Hey I get it your dough though I sure you could find better things to spend that money on but more power to ya.
I guess people just go to the ball park to socialize rather than see a good performance put on by a mlb team
Again have fun not knocking you
I was planning on a Trip in September but I cancelled. I can’t phathom spending any of my money on an organization that cares nothing about it’s fan base ..
So instead I’m going to fly into Columbus go to an ohio state game then jet over to Cincy and go to a Bengals game.
It stinks because I was truly looking forward to watching the reds battle the dodgers in early may when I was mapping out my vacation but this team stunk it up in every way .
Heck I’d still go if there were some young guys called up or some young guys traded to the team during the deadline nope. Knowing my luck I’d get to watch TJ freefall and company. Couldn’t do it.
I won’t dignify that with much of a response. I have been following the Reds since 1956 and attended my first game in 1958. May I suggest that you find another team more to your liking. The Reds have been (more or less) a .500 W-L team throughout history except for the Big Red Machine decade. The 2026 Reds are slightly above average W-L % for Reds teams of the past 25 years.
Antreds, you’ve been very abrasive since you started posting here. It hasn’t gone unnoticed. Not exactly against the rules for posting, though. But being overly repetitive with your comments can be so just keep that in mind.
But we do draw the line with making up nicknames for coaches, players, etc. “TJ freefall” ain’t it chief. Don’t do that. You can be critical without stuff like that.
Have fun, Oldtimer! Even during years like this, I still enjoy going. I’m a lifelong Reds’ fan and will always root for them to win as long as they are playing a game.
+10,000
@OT, bring them some luck. They certainly need it. Once I relocate, if all goes well, I’ll go to a game or two each year myself. Right now, that’s a 7-8 hour drive and a non-starter. Once it’s 1-2 hours, I’ll again go once in a while. And the money isn’t trivial, it does seem cheap for a couple of days with an old friend. Though I’m sure a couple of cold ones will drive that cost up a bit.
It was a fun, delightful evening the light rain came. Stewart crunched that HR to CF. It was hard pitching (both teams) in the rain in the 8th and 9th.
Parking at the stadium is $30 now.
The only thing that surprises me about the Reds and their offense this year is that they have not been the victim of a no-hitter this year. Yet.
Lol good one Randy
It’s funny I think about that vas well it’s going to happen I’m telling you
Looking bat what’s ahead of them and the pitching they are going to face . I’d take the over that it happens.
They’ve flirted with that outcome plenty enough.
Another rough night to be sure. The frustration continues and the search for a .500 record fades. Finishing ahead of the WLB Dirty Birds isn’t likely to happen without a couple minor miracles.
Inconsistent offense with signs of improvement is one thing but this is just a poor hitting team overall. Almost 2 full seasons now of a very poor hitting McLain, Hayes, etc. is tough to overcome. Hitters naturally have ups and downs, but this Reds team needs Elly and Sal to be on every single game. Unrealistic. No way should Bleday be hitting third. His stellar May is long in the rearview and he’s really struggled to adjust. Marte, Friedl, just too many holes in this lineup.
Reds sadly wasted a very good outing from Abbott.
Well said and I think when players don’t improve, and even get worse, at the rate that this team has you have to put a large portion of the blame on the coaching. How many remember when Francona took over him telling Elly he wants him to be the best player in baseball? Well Elly has been good but he is nowhere near one of the best players in baseball = another Tito failure. The failures are adding up and as I mentioned earlier I am done with this entire staff.
So every team with players hitting below .230 should fire their hitting coaches? There would be many unemployed hitting coaches.
THE REDS NEED TALENTED HITTERS not talented hitting coaches!!!! But yeah, let’s keep whining about the coaches.
Folks, focus your angst towards ownership. They are the ones who proclaimed in 2006 that they know how to build championship teams.
Wow. Blaming Tito for Elly not being the best player in baseball.
Just a thought here but last night the Reds 1-5 hitters,the best hitters had 1 hit.The 6-9 hitters had 2 hits.The point is the 1-5 hitters fanned 9 times but 6-9 did not strikeout.The Reds have 1 legit home run hitter and thats Geno the rest just are not home run hitters even playing at GABP.No problem swinging for the fences but with two strikes they must put the ball in play and thats where the problem lies.I said way way back I would like to see Arroyo,Myers and Dunn in the 8 9 and lead off spot.Why?Because they are not home run hitters and got on base.How many games have they only scored via a home run and how many times are they solo shots.The pitchers know what this team is trying to do and they know at times they guess and then down 2 strikes they chase.Some talk about situational hitting.Well when you dont hit anyway with the approach they use and have few runners on base how can we expect them to change and make contact,hit a fly ball or a ground ball to score a run.How many hitters will we have hit 30 homers is a better question or even 25.Playing at GABP thats not a home run hitter,its just not?
I’ve been flipping over to MLB Network after our games are over where they have four games playing at once. I enjoy it so I know this year’s version of the Reds has not totally killed my love for baseball…but man, they’re working on it.
Yeah, I feel ya A.B. At least, on MLB Network we get to see “good teams” playing “good baseball”. Just now watched the Pirates walk-off the Tigers with back-to-back home-ninth bombs. Not that either team is “good”, but it was fun to watch.
Reds manage just three hits … Well we have heard that twice this week and it’s only Thursday. I’m sure we will here that alot more before the season is over.
Burns-Elly-Sal are making around 3 million total this year. The other 128 million is what you see. 128 million for that group who cant hit their weights or not walk men with the bases loaded. Invoices will eventually be due and that train is coming to a halt soon. Then itll be real fun around here.
Has there been a bigger mismanagement of a professional sports franchise? Small market team who wastes money like this one?
Good points, except we aren’t seeing “all” of that 128M. A 16M chunk is being paid to Candelario, making him the highest paid (non)player (not) on the team.
Marte, Friedl, Mclain, Hayes, Suarez, Bleday, The first four were being counted on and haven’t done anything. The latter two have good stretches, and Hayes well.. Yet some how its all Francona’s fault!!
Steer hurt and out of action. Stepheson didn’t get hot until mid year. Bullpen failed in May and June and no help insight. Triple A mostly hasn’t been dependable.
Yet somehow this team is still close. Will they make the playoffs no.. Could they lose 90 games? Maybe.
Yet reading some of these comments and I ask myself. Why do they even follow the reds if all they do is complain. Sure they will say this or that but every day ever hour it is a complaint about the sad state of the Reds. It was the same when Baker here, Price, Bell and now Francona.
Marte even said himself it wasn’t going well. Francona says what is talked about and now Francona is some how at fault. Guys preach accountability and when some is taken they then complain about that.
Yet those same fans don’t come around much when the Reds are on winning streaks!! I dunno just my two thoughts on things that were said .
I watched Chatterbox Reds. I do not agree with their criticism of how Marte has been handled in regards to the comments made my Tito. For this manager to say things like that about any player is quite revealing. It’s a rarity. Reading between the lines the work ethic of Marte is not good at all. To me he needs an even bigger kick in the rear end than what he got. Marte has not handled himself well the past few years. My guess is that he’s his own worst enemy. “Building him up” as the guys on Chatterbox Reds suggested would only make things worse. They said he needs confidence basically and not criticism. No he needs discipline what will make him feel better about himself. That will/would give him the real confidence he needs.
We can all pile on Marte and say he is this and he is that but you can’t tell me he doesn’t look around the clubhouse and notice guys that are worse than him getting a pat on the back and a hang in there it will come. McLain has been given 3 years and how is it that guy keeps getting special treatment? Hayes couldn’t hit a little leaguer. Friedl shouldn’t even be in baseball. Only thing he has going for him is he can play center. Can’t hit. Can’t throw but a great guy. Benson hasn’t hit since 23 but dang he is always smiling and having fun. Who doesn’t need a guy like that? Apparently every other team ,but the Reds, because every team passed on him. Arroyo comes up and plays a new position and boots a few balls and his foot work is terrible but he was getting better with reps. So they send him down to AAA to get more experience at 2nd and he plays that and short. Marte comes up a shortstop. Then he goes to 3rd. Then he goes to right. Then center. Then back to right. Then the minors. Then the pros . Then the minors. It’s not just Marte. It’s the whole thinking of the organization. Marte is just the whipping boy for an organization that has failed miserably at how to run an organization. Sell the team cheapskates.
“It’s the whole thinking of the organization.”
I agree with that.
@JB, I think the issue with Marte is that which has surfaced more than once, he isn’t doing the work. Why? Who knows, but this isn’t the first time that the issue has come up. The others you mentioned are at least trying to perform. And McLain, like Hayes, perhaps gets too much of a pass to keep their gloves in the lineup.
Regarding Marte; this is complete conjecture, but possible. Maybe what we’re seeing with him is the fallout from the suspension for anabolic steroid use. His 2023 debut season was solid, after a quick rise through the Reds’ minors.. The 2024 season started without him and he missed 80 games. His return since then has been marked by poor hitting, sketchy defense and, what looks like, indifference. Maybe he has told himself that he can’t get it done without the boost from an illegal substance and the results since the suspension are only reinforcing that thinking. He should be able to draw confidence from his 2023 performance. It looks more like he may not ever realize that success again, and that would be a shame.
I understand the frustration either way you look at it. I watch nearly every game, and I love when the Reds win, and honestly I lose too much sleep through the summer staying up and waiting for some late game excitement.
But this team’s just been a dud, and that’s all there is to it. Half of them can’t hit, and that makes the other half easy to pitch to. Pitching has to be immaculate 6 nights out of 7 for the team to stay in it. Some of them look like they are losing the fire to compete; the season is going to be a wash and everyone knows it.
Let me know when a winning streak comes and ill be happy to comment on it. I understand your points but alot of us grew up with this team too. Its not a switch you can turn off. Give us a competitive team and youll see how positive we all can be. I agree theres nothing useful coming from complaining about every at bat that doesn’t go well. We all know what they are at this point.
Im just flabbergasted at the mess the front office has made. Bad years happen, but this is more than that. This appears to lack vision all together. They need a hard reset, which sucks. You have 3 solid players who you can build around but they lack the tact and resourcefulness to pull that off.
I do however agree about Francona. To have a run diff this bad and still only be 6 games out deserves alot of credit. The Giants are 23 games under .500 but have a run diff that is 14 runs better than the Reds.
Agree with everything you said. Its a continuation of everything over the last 16 years or more.. Take away 2010,2012,2013, *2020* and last season and what do we have?
Also look at your first sentence and then look at those player’s hitting slash lines from last year, even go micro and look at their second halves last year. They were depending on what exactly? They were HOPING.
Again I agree, and that is the part where I get annoyed, frustrated, or whatever with saying this is all on management et.. The GM didn’t bring in hitters or heck even a rf or cf..
I just read, on another reds website, the list of all the offensive stats that show just how bad this team is in basically all measurements of scoring production. It is horror show….as they rank last or next to last in so many offensive categories (hitting HR’s is about the only stat they is above water)….and it is not just this season, this is a organizational failure in so many ways. I don’t want to hear excuses about any injuries…every team deals with injuries. Again, when this season ends….there needs to be multipule firings & no one should feel their job is safe. I, for one, am sick of watching it….and sick of watching/listening to the post game as they heap praise on the opposing pitchers: newsflash…it’s not always the pitcher! It’s your teams horrible approach at the plate, night in and night out!
I am and will remain a big supporter of Tito because he doesn’t set the roster and its amazing this team has the record they have at this point.If I have a concern its that his hitting coach and they came together and will stay together isn’t making a difference.He just isn’t.Is he to blame entirely?Of course not but it can’t be all on the hitters cause if it is this team needs help in the majors and all the way down to the low minors.Only way a player gets to the big leagues is if he can hit.Nobody promotes a good field no hit player and expects them to learn to hit in the big leagues.However the Reds have guys that hit in the minors yet fall apart with the Reds.Pitching is better of course but ALL of them fall apart.All of a sudden Friedl can’t hit and it takes Tyler half a season to hit and Bleday has one good month etc etc.Its almost a matter of wills and who gets the last say in the matter.Replace the coach or all of the hitters.What is the answer?You know they dont’ spend money on hitters.Bottom line is Tito has one year left and so does his hitting coach,Probably no Tyler or Singer or Burke or Geno and others next year so well it is what it is.
I would keep Burke (really, a no brainer) but he may not want to stay after the year he has had. He may get big bucks from another team.
Singer, they promised a QO for him, and so we shall see. I think with Hunter out until 2028, they need another arm for 2027.
As Tyler Stephenson appears to be finishing strong, that increase the likelihood that he will test the free agent market, to see what he can get. Unless the Reds really knock his socks off with an offer. Who am I kidding here? 🙂
Lastly, I would actually try and keep Suarez, if he would sign. Not having a great year, and may sign for about what he signed for this year, or maybe a little more. I think he does have some more good years in him.
The poor overall offensive performance is really a puzzler. Is it the influence of Valaika, or just poor coaching overall, or do the Reds just really have a bunch of bad hitters?
Really strange. Last year was not a good offensive year either.
There are great players who make poor coaches. There are mediocre players that make great coaches. We know that. But…
Valaika played a total of 162 ML games over 4 seasons. Hit .238 with 5 hrs during what amounts to a full season. This is our hitting coach. It ain’t working.
The Reds may be in for a long layoff after this year with the collective bargaining agreement expiring. Great time for reflection, but more so a great time to put a new hitting approach in place. Votto just finished an interview talking about Ted Williams and his approach to hitting and how it’s still relevant today. Great article.
He’s arguably the best hitting first baseman this organization has ever had. Very cerebral. To not have a voice like his in the dugout or as an influence in hitters development is missing a great opportunity, if he would be willing. Would certainly make Reds baseball more interesting.
And if anybody think it’s going to get better well last night in the lower ranks
Louisville – 16ks
Chattanooga -13ks
Dayton- 16ks
Daytona- 9ks
Brito their shiny new toy they picked up at the deadline struck out 4 times. He is 8-39 .205BA. 10ks
Just waiting on that announcement in September of a Nick Krall extension. Yes I know Meador is the “GM” but I would like to sell you some ocean front property in Cincinnati if you think he makes the decisions.
There is ocean front property in Cincinnati?
I.DID.NOT. KNOW . THAT. 🙂
I didn’t know JB was in Real Estate. A vacation home in Cincy on the ocean. Wow. 🙂
Brito was a typical upper (AAA or AA) MiLB prospect acquired for a decent (not great) hitter who is a two-month rental.
Brito was not the only player involved in the deal coming back to the Reds in that deal, though. I’m not exactly high on Brito or anything, but when discussing the deal it is worth noting that Cincinnati got a second player in the deal.
On this team he is a great hitter. Since he was traded I didn’t think the offense could get any worse but it has. I will take a decent hitter over 5 lousy hitters in this lineup. Not a good trade at all.
Brito and Benson (both castoffs from the Guardians) is proof that other teams have problems with development of high draft choice players. Brito was pretty well regarded “prospect” until he got his chance in the Majors. And then, he was out with the Guardians.
I think Benson was a #1 draft choice by the Guardians.
Travis Bazzana, #1 draft choice for the Guardians, is not exactly burning things up with his hitting in the Majors. Though he may get a lot better.
Too soon!
Pete Crow-Armstrong was kind of lousy hitting his first year in the Majors, but then, surprisingly, he got a lot better after that. The Cubs did not give up on him after a lousy rookie season.
Obviously the hitting approach has been extended to all.Wonder how bad it has to get before somebody says it may not be working?Only with The Reds can this kind of systemic failure be tolerated.
Change is coming. Francona will finish his contract next year if there is a season.
First, Marte gets suspended for PEDS. Yeah maybe it was to recover from an injury, but it was still against the rules. Not every injured player takes PEDs. Then Krall and Francona meets with him after the 2024 season to set their expectations for him. It seemed to me at the time they were calling him out or were at least concerned about his work ethic. Now, Terry Francona seems to calling him out in the media about his work ethic. Reading between the lines It seems Marte is on very thin ice. I wouldn’t be surprised if he is traded or DFA’d this off season.
Hitting. The Red’s lead for batting average has been overtaken by a player who had amassed 0.1 WAR in his career up until this year. Yep, Dane Myers and his scorching .260 mark.
Pitching. I guess we will have to depend on the overachieving Chase Burns again to pick up a win. Some commenters think a pitcher’s W/L record is overrated but where would we be without his 14-2?
Defense. The 3rd baseman is outstanding (with the glove).
The leading Reds hitter among regulars in 2025 was Gavin Lux with .269 BA.
Didn’t know that. Also looks like Gavin has yet to make an MLB appearance this year.
Some sort of injury. Not sure what it is.
About the only mystery at this point is how many wins they have left in them. It doesn’t feel like they can even go 18-18 with how tough the schedule is coming up. I’m setting the over/under at 15. Seems with the callups of
Banfield/Mey/Maxwell they’ve waved the white flag and transitioned into evaluation mode. It’s illogical the front office/ownership didn’t sell off all these free agents because they wanted to ‘go for it’ only to punt on the season three weeks later. Personally, I watch regardless and don’t care if they only win 7 games the rest of the way IF we had acquired even one player who would contribute in 2027 or later.
That’s the spirit. A fan is a fan, regardless of win/loss record. With that said, there are plenty of reasons to keep tab this season. How many rbi and Hrs Sal will end up with, will Elli go the redo of the season without making throwing error, will Lodolo be able to get back to #2 starter, will Lowder continue to improve, will Mey finally conquer control problem, on and on. Fun stuff
Barring a record setting winning streak, which isn’t happening, we can start looking forward to the offseason, hope for no lockout, wish for new owners and front office. Realistically, I’m betting on simple more if the same and another disappointing year
Saw this morning that Marte chase rate was 42 %. Until these players learn not to chase bad pitches, this is the result. But it seems so many players on this team chase balls that aren’t even close.
Is it scouting or development or bith?
the only theory i can come up with on these horrible AB’S is that these guys are “guess” hitters….believing in their minds that they know what pitch is coming and if they are planning on swinging or not ever before the pitch is thrown….I don’t think that’s a great approach.
Heard Larkin comment on an answer Rose gave him as to whether he would look for a pitch (or something like that) and Rose’s reply was I think I’m going to swing on every pitch until I see not to ( or something like that).
Remember how Rose would follow a pitch all the way into the catcher’s mitt. don’t see that very much anywhere, and certainly not in the Red’s current batch.
Obviously it is hard with 2 strikes to lay off a pitch that starts in the zone and goes out (and apparently motion on pitches has increased), so it seems the batter has to be able to pick up the spin on the ball to know if its going to end up out of the zone. It certainly seems other teams are better at it than the Reds.
In Marte’s rookie season, he had a chase rate of 28.6%. Yes, a bit of a small sample size was present. But he certainly looked like he had control of the strike zone. No mas.
I am by my very nature optimistic, overly so, but this year is doing a number on me. I have the bleakest outlook on the Reds I can remember. We’ve had the most year-to-year poor performances that I think I can remember that weren’t injury related. We had every right to expect Friedl at .250/.365/.400 and even Marte at .250/.300/.400. While he did suffer injury those of us who didn’t like what we saw of Hayes still had the right to expect .230/.285/.300 when he did play. We had every right to believe that Greene and Lodolo were past being injury prone and giving us sub 3.00 ERA over 150 innings each. We had every right to believe that Phillips had ascended to reliable setup relief. Now here we are with all this under performance and no prospects on the horizon for next year at all.
I hope the new CBA will include a salary cap. If that doesn’t happen, I hope the Castellinis will be so disappointed with the new CBA that they put the team up for sale. Granted neither is very likely.
Has anyone been following the story about the Dodger’s owner? Apparently he is under investigation for some financial dealings. He just sold his stake in the Lakers. And Chelsea FC.
There is a suggestion that the dodgers could be next. Some are suggesting selling the Dodgers might not be easy with their future obligations.
A salary floor would be a possibility. A salary cap is not likely to work, unless there is a formula for figuring that out, based on League revenue, etc.
The Players in the NBA are guaranteed something like 66% of the overall league revenue, so the salary cap goes up every year, if the league does better and better.
I don’t know if the Lords of Baseball (ie, the owners) would go for something like that. It might work, but that would be a big cut into the money that they make. Or that’s how they would see it.
Another way would be to look at it, is they would get a smaller slice of a bigger pie, as the years went by, and the teams were more competitive, attendance and TV viewership went up.
And it also might mean that teams with very lucrative TV contracts might have to share more of that money. And that seems unlikely too.
Floor, but no ceiling (salary cap). That’s my guess.
Just seen the A’s fired their, do you think they will ask permission to interview Krall for the position?
If the As wait until the day after the season is over, they won’t need to ask permission?
These guys looked so promising in 2023. What in the world happened? Stephenson, Elly, and CES are the only ones that have better #s now. Of course small sample size with CES then and now
TJ .819 ops
Benson .863
CES .805
McLain .864
Marte .822
Just seen the A’s fired their GM, do you think they will ask permission to interview Krall for the position?
Bring him home, A’s! Bring him home!
Brandon Lowe is a FA next year. $11.5 mil this year. He has a .880 ops vs rhp. Move McLain to SS and put Elly in RF. Idk what you’d do to counter lefties beside Myers, but Lowe would def improve the offense. He’s on pace for 30+ and Gabp is a paradise compared to Pitt or Tampa
I’ve thought of Lowe too Indy at 2B next year, but I also fear his best years could be behind him, and he may be another Moustakas, Candelario type of signing where they give him 15-20 million a year for 4 years and he doesn’t pan out.
Well he’s been alot better then Candy during his career. Moose? Idk how old was he? Lowe just turned 32 so theres that. That means he’ll be 34 in July 2028 which isn’t young
Looks like the third catcher thing worked. T.S. at DH tonight. Three catchers not necessary but whatever works in their minds. 🙂 Batting 5th though.
Myers hitting 3rd. Toglia in RF. So much for HRod playing every day. lol
McLain only guy hitting under .200 not counting the newby Toglia.
We’re not out of it until the math says we are. 🙂
I want to reiterate the fact that a third catcher was not necessary.
Yep but I guess it makes them feel better. 😉
We had Kevin Gausman for a cup of coffee and used him in relief didn’t we? We don’t know what the heck we’re doing. He’s won a ton of games since. Ty France is another one. Granted he didn’t mash w the Reds, but the swing is there. .290/17/.856 plays anywhere. Instead we’re picking up KBH and paying Candyman not to play for us.
Grounds for termination….either Krall of the fans can fire the Reds
It’ll be interesting to see what the Reds do if they really fall out of it almost completely in the next week or so, say 10 games under. Do they keep playing McLain every day? Do they play Rodriguez more, bring up Arroyo?
I think if they fall out of it all the way, maybe send McLain down to Triple A the last month. I understand his value with defense and speed, but he doesn’t seem to be improving at all hitting wise. Maybe a month down in Triple A he can begin to change his approach for 2027.
The point the boys on Chatterbox Reds were making last night is that the Bell players have simply not improved under Francona and that can’t be disputed. As for Elly go back and watch his 2023 High lights and tell me that he is the player you thought he would be 3 years later. Whether it’s injuries, coaching or just an early peak who knows.
I think Elly is tired of losing and is not as motivated as he would be if on a winning team.
I think Elly is a very good young player and exciting to watch. Especially in the field.
If he ever get his approach at the plate right and cut down on his swing and miss he has a chance to be special.
As for Elly, don’t you complain about him every single day? I swear to heavens you are on here nearly every day talking about how he is not as good as you hoped he would be and that he isn’t going to get paid as much as he hopes and that other teams won’t pay him until he is more clutch and over and over and over.
Isn’t he one of the top 10 position players in the National League and has missed like three weeks of the season? He is not perfect and since he isn’t that will never be good enough for some of you. A Cincinnati tradition as old as time is to find the best player on the team and dog pile about how they aren’t good enough rather than talk about the players who are actually not good enough.
We you the same Mark who called Mo Egger the other day and talked crap about how Elly wasn’t good enough? I know Mark is a common name but he made arguments that you always make on here.
Well he is overhyped. First walkoff? He started playing in 2023. He’s had to have dozens of opportunities to walk off unless they walked him every time. He’s good, but they need dominant to have any chance. The loss of speed is really scary too. He came up and hit a chopper then he was on….end of story
Hey Brian: First of all I like Elly however I don’t think he has improved as much as we all had hoped and I blame a lot of that on Francona. I did not call Mo Egger and one more thing get your facts straight. Go look at MLB war rankings and you will find that right now Elly ranks tied for 74th in MLB. Good but nowhere near the top ten. FYI Chase Burns is tied for 12th with a 5 war.
Indy Reds Fan, overhyped in what way? “They”? Why is it his fault that “they” need him to dominate to have a chance. Your frustration seems to be that he’s not Babe Ruth and capable of being 5 times better at hitting than any other hitter in the game. The team stinks and no one can carry them and expecting one guy to is misplaced anger and poor understanding of how the game of baseball works. End of story.
Mark, I will get my facts straight. Elly De La Cruz is currently 13th in the NL in WAR among position players. Here’s the link: https://www.fangraphs.com/leaders/major-league?pos=all&stats=bat&lg=nl&qual=y&type=8&season=2026&month=0&season1=2026&ind=0
He has played in 107 games. Only one other player in the top 35 has played fewer games than he has.
Nailed it Brian…twice, on the same branch of this thread.
To note – When JJ Bleday was named the NL Player of the Month, he was the first Reds player to win the award since Joey Votto in July 2021!
Surprising that Elly has never won but its a fact.
A cursory look at the Reds stats, home and away, doesn’t show significant differences in such things as hits, runs, hrs. There is more of difference in SOs, they strike out more at home. And the pitchers give up more hits at home. Why more SOs at home?? Going for the fences?
This is totally disgusting and change must be made. Are our players really this bad and if so why? If they are not then what are our coaches doing to fix the problem? This has disgusted me all year. What is wrong with the owners, do they really like losing or do they just not care?