I thought the hot pants were tastefully done, but I get your point.
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Agree on using Lux in the 2nd spot in the order. His % of chasing balls out of the zone and his walk rate are both excellent and his swing and miss % is average.
Mark Sheldon’s Reds Beat newsletter this morning detailed all the areas that the team is .500 in. Spoiler there’s a lot lol.
In today’s boom or bust offensive strategy, the trio of the Reds highest paid position player, and 2 other essentially full time regulars (Candy, Lux, Santiago) have combined for only 3 HR in almost 500 plate appearances. No wonder they get shutout so often. Obviously injuries continue to plague the Reds, who still don’t have quality depth. They’re carrying a 3rd catcher, who has received only 4 PA in the past 27 days because they have nobody better.
I wrote this last year and I still feel the same: if someone asked me to define who the reds are in terms of style, I’d be hard pressed to do so. Are they a team like the Braves of yore when I lived in the 404 who beats you with pitching? No. Are they a small ball team who singles and doubles runs out like the Beane style A’s from back in the day? No. Do they out hit you like a classic Yankees team might? No. Do they play errorless baseball and make you grind out wins like say the 2003 Mariners…or the 2013 Baltimore team who finished with the least errors ever yet still only 85 wins (which I would take!) No. Are they a youth led team of diamond in the rough All-Stars (I feel like Tampa had this going once) no. Are they lucky and win many games they shouldn’t? No. Are they abysmal? No. What are they?
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Wait, when were the Browns awesome at the same time the Bengals sucked. Not disputing the Bengals sucking for a long period, just don’t remember the Browns being “awesome” at any point post 1968.
Late 1980s. The Browns appeared in three AFC championship games.
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my bot minions did the research and what they found was fascinating:
In the 1970’s the Browns and Bengals were both very solid. But, there were some years, the yin/yang scenario I proposed held true: 1971 Browns 9/5 Bengals go 4/10, then 1979 Browns go 9/7 Bengals finish 4/12. Do two seasons make a trend? Maybe not. On to the 80’s where we find again both teams are actually pretty great. But…1980 Browns go 11/5 Bengals 6/10, then in 1983, Browns go 9/7 Bengals 7/9 then in 1987, Browns 10/5 Bengals 4/11 '88 both good then '89 Browns go 9/6 Bengals 8/8. To Bash’s point, the trend holds in the 80’s. Now the 90’s, a dark time as a Bengals fan. From 91 to 99, our best season was 8/8 and there were a bunch of 3, 4,5 win seasons. problem is, the Browns also sucked then. One time in 1994 the browns go 11/4 and the Bengals go 3/13. Decade is a wash of two terrible teams. My theory has cracks again…Ok 2000’s, the years that stands out for Cleveland is 2002 as they go 9/7 and bengals are 2/14. 2007 the Browns get hot again and go 10/6 and the Bengals are 7/9. Yin Yang holds true here and the rest of the 2000’s the Bengals are good under Red Rocket and the Browns suck. Trend holds. Ok, so far I’m right in the 80’s and 2000’s. Ok, 2010-2020: Bengals have 6 losing seasons in that time, Browns have 9. Oddly enough, I’m gonna call this decade a wash as both teams are feeble so one isn’t doing better than the other until 2020 when the Browns kick butt and the bengals stink.
Conclusions: I’m not a damn scientist and my bots tell my my theory has holes. Was fun to look at though.
I’m glad you brought this up. Seems like the Reds are young, but they’re not. Now, in 2023 they sure were, but today only 4 batters are 25 or younger (Elly, McLain, CES, and Marte). Pitching, only Greene (and Lowder) are 25 or younger among SP and Mey and Richardson for the relievers. This window is perilously close to beginning to shut, when it never really opened.
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The late 80s. Five straight playoff appearances, four division titles in five years, and three AFC title game appearances. (Did they get to a Super Bowl? No. But it’s not like it would have mattered if they did; that was the era of like 20,000 straight NFC wins.)
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Wade Miley situation kind of has “Reds” written all over it.
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Yup. Reminds me of when they allowed old, broken down, 84 mph fastball, guitar playing Bronson Arroyo to pitch like half a season when he should’ve been retired.
He’s actually playing right up the street from me Friday night.
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Aren’t they mis-handling Hunter Green ( on DL again)? 15 days and run him out there for 4-5 innings again?
After his first IL stint for the groin, he returned and threw 83, 88, and 85 (yesterday) pitches, so it’s not like he came back and immediately tossed 100+ pitches. No issues his first 2 starts after the IL, and it was 86 degrees yesterday so not like it was cold.
That he felt it again yesterday is a very bad sign. I think he’s out until after the All Star break. Of course I thought they would call up Chase Burns instead of Wade Miley, so what do I know?
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Not that it matters as your point still stands, but Wynns was supposed to be the 3rd catcher in the minors in case of injury. Stephenson started the year on the DL, so they had to call him up right away. Now, if they send him down he will 100% be claimed, leaving the Reds with 0 depth at the minor league level in case of another injury at the position. The Dodgers just claimed Chuckie Robinson from the White Sox because there are so few options available at C.
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They may be older but they haven’t gained any experience. McLain, CES and Marte have all played less than a full season of MLB games.
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Exactly. Thats why last year was so damaging. They were supposed to gain experience for all the 2023 rookies, and compile info on who was going to pan out and who was going to fail. All those injuries pushed everything back a year. This year hasn’t beeen much better as CES, McLain, and Marte all have missed time again.
Maybe his Eephus pitch could help us. 9-1 Brewers beat down last night was ugly.
Ps, when I say Eephus pitch, I should clarify. Every pitch he threw was an Eephus!
lol. Renewing an old disagreement from awhile back. You joined with other Cubs fans to blame someone for the Cubs loss of a playoff series. Dusty and that fan who tried to catch a foul ball served as Cub fans punching bags. When the Cubs and Reds threw blame on Dusty and fired him they did fix the situation of losing playoff series, they just stopped making it to the playoffs. Dumb Asses IMO.
Marte really responded after a tough spring, hopefully we see more of that when he returns.
I hope they don’t rush CES back, I’m sure his rehab will run out soon but I’d rather see him come back when his timing is good. We saw how much Stevenson struggled early due to lack of early season AB’s and if CES gets into that kind of funk early on I’m not sure he pulls out of it.
McLain is a bit of a mystery. A lot of his advanced numbers are very close to what they were in 2023 so he’s a guy who’s production should ulitimately be somewhere between what we saw then and what we are seing now.
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