Happy Opening Day to all who celebrate!
Internally I think the team and fans have high expectations but not getting any love from the media.
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Just as the night belongs to Michelob, this one belongs to the Reds. Nice opening day win.
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Other than Ben Verlander, who has Reds 10th in his power rankings.
Fun start to the season. But, why do the Reds have tons of injuries every Spring??
I think the expectations were dampened a little bit based on that. McLain could very well be out for the season. Friedl will be back, but wrist injuries tend to negatively affect hitting even after returning. Marte is a cheater, and it’s hard to get as fully behind a player who has that on their resume. The infield depth is gone, and with it so are the sky high expectations Cincy fans had had. And yes, the question is, why does this happen every year. Only the Twins have it worse I feel like. (The yearly Buxton injury, with new Buxton, aka Royce Lewis, getting hurt on opening day).
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The Reds are portraying that Marte was not deliberately cheating. He was back home recovering from an operation (?). He just trusted the Dr’s in what they prescribed to help him recover. So he was naive or lazy, not trying to cheat. So make of that what you want.
Joey Votto wasn’t on the Blue Jays opening day roster because he stepped on a bat, in the dugout, and twisted his ankle. Should be reporting to Buffalo for rehab in the next few weeks
I don’t know that the Reds have a higher rate of spring training injuries than anyone else. The Reds currently have 7 players on the injured reserve. There are only 7 teams that have less than 5 players on IR coming out of spring training.
I have no issue as a fan of supporting Marte when he returns. He did something dumb and/or took some bad advice while rehabbing his injury. He wanted to make sure he got back quickly to help his team but ended up costing his team. It’s not like he’s Bonds or Clemens here. At least not until proven otherwise.
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Elly is likely gonna be more streaky than the typical MLB hitter, but wow is he a joy to watch when he’s going like this.
My slow starting Mariners get their first sweep - against the Reds. We never played the Reds while I was involved with them (1981-1996).
I’m going to say this as someone who truly loves the Reds and wants to see them do well: I think we might be fool’s gold. Enough hitting to keep things interesting and in a not that great division so mediocre pitching isn’t apparent but the truth is, we probably don’t win 85 games this year. I’m going all in at 75-80. I don’t know why I feel that way but I do. Also not sure our manager is great. I hope I end up wrong on all accounts. Early sample size seems to prove I might not be.
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Really hard to tell right now with guys like Friedl, McLain, Marte all out. Doesn’t help that Candelario has also gotten off to a slow start. At full strength, the bottom of our lineup is a lot more competent.
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I think we had a lot of depth last year and were able to find good matchups for our hitters. This year we have had so many injuries to the hitters that we have been forced into playing guys where they are not as comfortable and productive, lie Martini and Benson starting against lefties as an example. The pitching has been healthier though, so that is a major plus.
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