Fraley DFA’d today. Rough, after him having to leave the game with the possible injury last night. Benson brought up to replace him. Fraley wasn’t playing with the Marte move to the OF and I wouldn’t expect Benson to play much more than he was but he makes for a much better late inning defensive replacement.
1 Like
Yep. Benson cheaper and younger, with a little more upside. Similar players though. Reds said Fraley’s knee checked out okay, and he was pushing for more playing time.
For your viewing pleasure here’s Sal Stewart hitting a 110 EV single off Chris Sale:
https://x.com/louisvillebats/status/1957129102730661956?s=61
Like Martinez the night before, McClain was simply outstanding. His contributions at the plate were amazing.
I’m happy we won today. Was a very close series. We gotta play very sharp the next 8 weeks but maybe (maybe) we have the goods. Brewers are solid and we were right there in 3 games
From what I’ve read, it seems like Fraley was hoping to be released because he wants to play more and he wasn’t getting any time with the Reds. Marte has been the teams best hitter for more than a month, and Lux and Hayes have been platooning and DHing in the other spot. He will find a spot on a big league roster somewhere, but will probably have to play his way into regular at-bats wherever that is.
One thing I noticed watching the Brewers since we were talking about them. They have a great back-end of their bullpen, and so many of the names were recognizable (at least to baseball junkies) as former starting pitchers that must have flamed out and been turned into relievers. That is a dynamic the Reds have always been reluctant to do when their starters don’t perform in the bigs, although that has changed recently with Santillan and Ashcraft both being former starters leading the team’s pen. Without looking at the trade logs, the Brewers have lots of failed starters from other teams that they bring in and put them in the pen and reap the benefits.
Overall, it is my opinion that small market teams need to trade away their stars. A team is lucky if they can get two players from each draft onto the major league roster. Small market teams can’t afford impact free agents (nor do they want to go there usually), which means you need to get more players somehow. The trade of players with 1-1.5 years left can allow the team to have a lot more average players with more chances at impact players. It also allows more salary flexibility to fill holes with short-term contracts in the off-season. I hate rebuilds, and this tactic allows for a more steady competitive window, in my opinion. The three teams that really follow this strategy are the Brewers, Guardians and Rays. I’m not sure if the Reds minor league scouting would allow for the success those teams have had, as Marte is basically the only good player we got back in our trades of Gray, Castillo, Winker and Suarez.
As a final note, always trade elite bullpen arms when they are near the end of their contract. They are too volatile (ask the Yanks with Williams as an example), and become too expensive for small markets. They also get great returns.
1 Like
What is a shame is if Martinez hadn’t imploded, and if the Reds had any timely hitting at all, they could have swept this series. You can’t let an 8-1 lead in the second inning slip away. Pretty inexcusable.
I only got to watch Saturday’s game, but the Brewers were 1-13 with RISP at one point in that game. I think the defense was the weak link in this series, and yeah, Martinez and Pagan blew it as well.
Sunday was one of the biggest wins of the season and kept us only a game and a half behind the Mets for the final spot. Fraley would be a big upgrade for the Guardians over Nolan Jones for their 4th OF spot. The Guardians were the only team in contention who made no additions at the trade deadline and also traded away Shane Bieber who Wii be making his first MLB start in 16 months this week.
I have to say that might have been one of the hottest games I’ve seen in person. And question for anyone that goes to GABP regularly, is there a Reds history section anywhere in the stadium? We wandered around the whole place and didn’t see anything like A Big Red Machine room, plaques, statues or anything of that nature.
I will say I was sitting in a predominantly Brewers section (and boo to Cincinnatians because you were almost out-numbered in your home town) and when they brought in the closer that eventually blew the game, they all knew basically they were going to lose.
There are a couple of mosaics inside behind home plate near the main gates, for the 1869 first team and for the 1975 Big Red Machine:
Besides that, there’s a gigantic Reds Hall of Fame outside the ballpark on the 1st base side. I highly recommend, and haven’t seen anything nearly as well done at other franchise’s ballparks.
1 Like
Dang! I wish I would’ve done more research before heading down there. Oh well, maybe next year. Thanks for the info!
1 Like
Jake Fraley is now a member of the Braves after the Reds DFA on 8/17.
I don’t think any player has benefitted more from a trade deadline position change so far this year, than Noelvi Marte. Same to be said for Miquel Andujar and benefitting from a change of scenery. And Hayes isn’t far behind. But Marte at the plate is a whole different player since moving to RF.
1 Like
Angels series sweep would help.
2 Likes
Reds and Mets have both won 3 straight and we are still one game behind them for the final wildcard spot. Season high 7 games over .500.
As you wrote earlier, the move to RF allows him to concentrate more on hitting. I’ll say it this way (same concept)…it takes his mind off his defensive struggles at 3B and reduces stress when hitting.
This is the ranking of organizations with top OF prospects. In the top IF prospects all the NL Central teams were in the top 10 except STL. For OF, only the Cubs. So the Cubs are the only organization on both lists in the NL Central. https://www.mlb.com/milb/news/top-10-organizations-based-on-outfield-prospects-2025?t=mlb-pipeline-coverage&partnerId=it-20250822-14687576-mlb-1-B&utm_id=it-20250822-14687576-mlb-1-B&lctg=11579864
We probably ran out of gas. The last two series have been pretty dismal.
Any surprise? NO