What will the Reds do with September callups? We are still in playoff contention so I'm not sure how they fit in.

Well guess we now know why Votto has looked bad. Just put on the 10 day IL with left shoulder discomfort. Senzel called back up.

https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2023/08/reds-place-joey-votto-on-10-day-il-recall-nick-senzel.html

(08-24-2023, 09:45 AM)ochocincos Wrote: Reds are taking a gamble on Greene with a relatively cheap contract for a SP.

Under $9 mill APY is pretty good for a #1/2 SP, but Greene has to get the consistency to justify spending that much.

Identifying building pieces early and extending them is a good practice and one of the best ways for a team to stay competitive without spending a mountain of money. Just have to make sure you're actually investing the extensions in long term building pieces rather than doing it on the hope a guy will get better as you're pretty much locked into a guy for years then if he doesn't get better as you hoped.

I think the Reds need to extend McLain this offseason. Sets the price for the rest of his team control years and get another 2 years on top of that, perhaps in the form of options. More Ks than I would like, but everything else from him is very promising.

Steer (25), Benson (25), Friedl (27), and Fraley (28) are all already controlled at least through their age 30 seasons.
DLC (21), Marte (21), and Strand (23) need to show more/more consistency before I would want to tie my wagon to them for 6+ years.

Abbott (24) could be an option, but I want to see what he does next year before extension talks. It was an amazing 10 starts/61.2 innings, but that's a risky sample size to commit to. (Sure felt like he was good for us longer than that.)

- - - - - - - - -

Unrelated news: 

Votto went to the IL with shoulder soreness on his surgically repaired shoulder. Explains why he has looked so rough the last two weeks, even his swings weren't looking good. This might be it for him, which is a bummer of a way to go out. I was hoping he'd at least continue that power streak to finish his career.

(08-24-2023, 05:37 PM)cinci4life Wrote: Well guess we now know why Votto has looked bad. Just put on the 10 day IL with left shoulder discomfort. Senzel called back up.

https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2023/08/reds-place-joey-votto-on-10-day-il-recall-nick-senzel.html

Probably just giving him a rest. He hasn't looked good at the plate for some time now.

The lineup without Votto and it's Nick Martini starting at DH and batting 5th. I'm not 100% sure that's an improvement over a one-armed Votto....

Reds hanging in there tonight. Let's hope for a win. Williamson pitching well.

Unfortunately, another tough loss tonight. Reds had a chance. Hope we win the rest of the series.

(08-25-2023, 02:11 AM)guyofthetiger Wrote: Unfortunately, another tough loss tonight. Reds had a chance. Hope we win the rest of the series.

3 Hs and 16 Ks is problematic.

Three walks in the game scored two of their three runs
One by Williamson in the 6th inning on the second to last batter he faced
The first batter faced by Suck Farmer scored run number one
The first batter faced by Phalex Young scored the tying run on the go ahead two run home run

I'll just go ahead and say it. Will Benson is Jesse Winker level bad in the outfield. Bad angles and poor reads on flyballs should not be the norm for an outfielder but that's all that he has shown this year. And that ridiculously, embarrassing throw in Anaheim that the cutoff man had to come out to get because it didn't even roll halfway to the infield. I could see someone like Steer or Fairchild making these mistakes as they are converted infielders but Benson is strictly an outfielder and a shitty one at that.

You could tell right from the start the Reds were gonna struggle with Kelly on the mound. They've struggled a good bit with nearly every more finesse type pitchers this season. Greg Maddux would have a field day vs. these guys.

And it's not like the Reds are unique in this area. A whole lot of younger players struggle at the plate vs. good finesse pitchers. Hopefully we won't be facing many more of them this season.

(08-25-2023, 04:23 AM)Forever Spinning Vinyl Wrote: Three walks in the game scored two of their three runs
One by Williamson in the 6th inning on the second to last batter he faced
The first batter faced by Suck Farmer scored run number one
The first batter faced by Phalex Young scored the tying run on the go ahead two run home run

I'll just go ahead and say it. Will Benson is Jesse Winker level bad in the outfield. Bad angles and poor reads on flyballs should not be the norm for an outfielder but that's all that he has shown this year. And that ridiculously, embarrassing throw in Anaheim that the cutoff man had to come out to get because it didn't even roll halfway to the infield. I could see someone like Steer or Fairchild making these mistakes as they are converted infielders but Benson is strictly an outfielder and a shitty one at that.

Yep, I was pretty high on Benson the first month. But add in the fact he can't hit LHers very well and he's looking more and more like he's not an everyday player.

Need Fraley to get healthy. Outfield should be Steer, Friedl, and Fraley

Greene going tonight. Hopefully he's got his bad game out of the way since his return, lol.

(08-25-2023, 04:23 AM)Forever Spinning Vinyl Wrote: I'll just go ahead and say it. Will Benson is Jesse Winker level bad in the outfield.

Worth noting he's considered a -1 defensive runs saved above average LF and a +3 defensive runs saved above average RF this year.

Not everyone can just flip back and forth.

(08-25-2023, 10:30 AM)bengalfan74 Wrote: Yep, I was pretty high on Benson the first month. But add in the fact he can't hit LHers very well and he's looking more and more like he's not an everyday player.

Hasn't really gotten a chance to see if he does or not. Unless he has some dramatic minor-league-spanning splits, 35 career AB for a 25-year-old (only 30 AB this year) is hardly enough to make that kind of decision.

If you subscribe to WAR at all, he'll finish with over 2.0 WAR despite barely playing before June. Do I think he's going to be a superstar? No. I do think he is a solid above average everyday player from what we've seen this year.

Too bad Michael Siani can't hit worth his own weight in toenail clippings, but he'll be a good late inning defensive replacement down the stretch..I had high hopes a few years back that he'd figure out how to hit by now..

Cubs just lost. Brewers up 5-1 in the 4th.

Hey Martini with a homer!!!

(08-25-2023, 10:56 PM)cinci4life Wrote: Hey Martini with a homer!!!

33-year-old hitting his 3rd career homer. Wonder what kind of odds you could have gotten on that before the game started. Lol

Nick Martini first 115 career games: 2 HR
Nick Martini today: 2 HR

....what? Lol

This has been an exhausting game to watch.

Lots of 3 ball counts (and walks) by Greene and Kennedy.

Steer running into EDLC to cause an run scored was frustrating.