(04-20-2019, 04:14 PM)psychdoctor Wrote: Duke doesn't have it this year.  They should send him packing when Gennett comes back in May.  

Personally I'd rather send Kemp packing after seeing him allow a left field triple. I can excuse the lack of hitting as a mere slump, but lazily allowing a left field triple is just inexcusable. Shebler's not hitting either, but at least he gives effort in the OF as does Puig. Kemp just took the evening off chasing that triple down. If I were the manager he wouldn't have finished the inning.

On the bright side pitching has been OUTSTANDING with IGGY K'ing the last 8 or 9 in a row like a machine.. He's absolutely dialed in once again.. He got off to a rocky start, but San Diego cured him of all his ills.

Funny how everyone seems to have such short memories when it concerns Duke. Last year around this time he would have been about average. We've very quickly become spoiled rotten with pitching. I'm not excusing him, but he's also saved a game as well.

If even half this team can start producing runs like they can and the pitching remains where it's at we can catch Pittsburg and mow the rest of the teams down.. They HAVE GOT to start hitting.. 

Well, the Reds almost pulled it off today. Mahle pitched very well besides the third inning.

Kemp should have made that catch although it was difficult. Reds win if he does.

(04-21-2019, 08:08 PM)jmccracky Wrote: Well, the Reds almost pulled it off today. Mahle pitched very well besides the third inning.

Mahle has been outstanding in 20 of his 22 innings, something like that ? ERA like 1.0

Other 2 or 3 innings he's been touched up a bit but he still seems like a keeper. It's tough to sweep a four game series against anybody.

It struck me watching yesterdays game that Mahle is missing one special OUT pitch. His FB has really good high and away movement, but when it doesn't have great movement it becomes a t-ball pitch. Perhaps he needs to develop a good, solid changeup. Maybe it's his changeup that gets him in trouble.. IDK.. 
I'm willing to sell the remaining few games of my mlb.tv month to month April deal CHEAP if the Reds just sit Kemp the remainder of the deal if not longer.. 
On the bright side we get to watch Gray, Roark and Disco face Atlanta for 3 games.. If that's not enough incentive to make you want to go water the grass in the rain NOTHING is.. 

Off Day Thoughts.

Reds did clean up the road series going 3-4 on west coast. Pretty good considering they started 0-3.
Reds were playing good the week before they went on west coast trip.
So Reds have not been AS awful last couple weeks as they started out.
Reds 5 games below .500 coming home against Atlanta.
Reds have 8 wins. They have 8 games left in April.
The chances are better they will have 15 losses in April than 15 wins.
The question is, how many games can they win in April ? 10 ? 12 ? 15 ?
The Reds have nobody batting .300 They do have most of the team batting below .250, many batting below .200
I tried to look for Reds hot bats last 7 days, and that doesn't help.
I feel for Bell because nobody is hitting for Reds. Iglesias at SS is and Suarez is starting to get his homers. Dietrich has had clutch hits.

We are now past April 15th. It is getting warmer. Monday was warm in Ohio. It looks more like Summer than Winter outside finally. Hopefully Reds bats will wake up in the warmer weather. Some Reds hitters will get it together, they won't all bat under .200 because there are some good hitters on this team ready to tee off and get hot.

It would be nice if Reds win with Gray on mound. Braves can be a tough team, but I'm hoping Reds win series at home. That would give them 10 or 11 wins in April if they can get after the Braves. Climb closer to .500 as Reds were 1-8 at one point. Reds are trying to climb out of that early hole they dug. Glad to see less fans in winter coats, the bats could warm up. I agree with my late Dad that baseball season is too long. There should be no baseball in April or October. May to August is baseball weather, play World Series in September. It won't ever happen, but look for Reds bats to Warm Up May to August.

Can the Reds be around .500 around 4th of July and All Star Break ? Sure, if they can salvage some of April and put up a few more wins this month.

If current trends continue they'll be playing the first game of the season the day after the super bowl someday..
The Atlanta series concerns me more than the SD series. I peeked at the game preview with Atlanta's lineup vs Gray and it ain't pretty even if that can be very misleading. Atlanta has beaten up on the Reds a LOT of late and clobbered us in ST.. Granted that ST isn't the same as the regular season, but still, our record against them hasn't been anything like the 70s..  I just don't feel good about this one.

And we're underway.. Mr Gray on the mound, Votto, Suarez, Winker, Puig, Schebler, Barnhart, Iglesias, Gray and Peraza 1-9  2 stikeouts by Gray already..  3 straight strikeouts by Mr Gray.. Nice start by our ball tosser.. 

Boom! 2-0 on a 2 run HR by Mr P.. 

Sonny Gray and the Reds defense game unglued in the 6th. 3 run lead became a 4-3 deficit, that's the bad news. Good news is Robert Stephenson is quietly pitching well this season in relief. Has he finally found his groove ?

And Dietrich delivers again but this time laying a bunt down the 3rd baseline against the shift putting runners on 1st and 2nd. Honestly I don't know why this isn't done A LOT more ?

Then Peraza doubled scoring them both.

Iglesias on in the 9th. GO REDS.

Iglesias SAVE #5 on the season. and this one belongs to The Reds.
Reds win 1st game of home series with Braves.
Reds win 9th game of season. Now 4 games under .500 as they dig out of that early season hole
Reds now going after win # 10 and winning this Braves series in Cincy.

Talk about other Reds, but if the starters and relievers can finally hand the ball to Iglesias for saves in 2019, unlike past seasons, Reds have more than a chance.

Reds bullpen is looking good. 3 lefties for first time in forever. Duke, Hughes, Parra, Stephenson, Garrett, have the makings of a good solid bullpen across the board. That Brewers pitching coach we added helps. He seems to get the most out of pitchers wherever he goes.

Second game in a row Reds have hit 9 hits. It's slowly getting better except Schebler who struck out the entire game again.

Nice win with a lot of action. Some good, some bad, but it wasn't a dull game. 

The bats came to life a bit tonight, lets hope it's a start of better things to come. Reds really need to win this series, bunch of road games ahead.

Gray looked pretty damn solid all game until his defense gave him no help in the 6th.

Speaking of which, is Winker the ugliest moving athlete to roam the Reds outfield of all-time? Love his hitting but good god does he have a lot of awkward moments in the field. Too many moving parts going on when he runs all out. Future DH, it's that bad.

It was nice seeing Scooter in the dugout. They miss him a lot.

I wish they would allow us to see if we miss Schebler. Is that the correct spelling of Schebler? It seems like it's missing a silent K.

This year's Scooter, Derek Dietrich, laid down a crucial gimme bunt and propelled the rally by setting up Peraza for the heroics.

Puig with his huge first GABP HR and added in the clinching sac fly. I think he puts up big numbers this year.

Congrats to Bob Stephenson on the win(2-0). Keep pitching like you are pissed, son.

Bell seems convinced he has to empty his bench every game. Casali is the only one that didn't make it into the game today and that's mainly because Gray made it into the 6th inning and didn't require a pinch hitter. I think the National League might be too much for him as a rookie manager. Needs to try more double switches with the pinch hitters to keep pushing the next pitchers spot further down in the order. It's nice to be able to flip your lineup in extra innings and you can't do that when you almost always play everybody in 9 innings. That would also allow you to keep a regular lineup and still allow your bench players some game time.

Roark and Castillo. I like Reds chances of winning this Braves series in Cincy.

Nice key catch by Michael Lorenzen. So far, so good. Dude looks like he can actually play CF.

OK, Castillo on mound Game 3. Reds can still win this Braves series in Cincy and get win #10 on the month & season. Get to 4 under .500

GO REDS