REDS APRIL GAMES THREAD

[Forever Spinning Vinyl]

Trade Aquino or Naquin for a reliever.

[cinci4life]

Well the offense brought it back again. Now can the pen buckle down?

[cinci4life]

(04-22-2021, 04:47 PM)cinci4life Wrote: Well the offense brought it back again. Now can the pen buckle down?

And another extra inning meltdown. Unreal.

[Forever Spinning Vinyl]

Five of Arizona's nine wins are against the Reds
ERA of Reds bullpen used today
4.09 Fulmer
4.70 Doolittle
4.61 Romano
6.43 Sims
8.31 Perez
plus the relievers not used today
0.84 Antone
7.50 DeLeon
16.20 Garrett

Starters ERA
6.50 Castillo
4.15 Gray
2.66 Hoffman
2.25 Miley
1.74 Mahle

And Bell does all he can to limit them to four to six innings because of that "third time through the order" bullshit.

[kevin]

Reds Bullpen hands Arizona a 3 game SWEEP of the Reds. Arizona goes 5 Wins and 1 Loss against Reds in 2021.

Lou Piniella in 1990 wore out the carpet to front office demanding more pitching all season. It would seem if Reds play Winker, Senzel, Castellano, then Reds have on bench Naquin, Aquino, Akiyama, Payton and others. Too many outfielders to play, but not enough bullpen. Lou would demand a trade for pitching.

Todays score of 14 to 11 loss is like late 1960's Reds. Sparky came on in 1970 and said NO, we need better pitching and defense. He started by trading Alex Johnson who could flat out hit, but had an iron glove, and Sparky wanted to trade for PITCHING. Trading Naquin might seem crazy as hot as he is, but Bell has no intention of starting him unless Winker, Senzel or Castellano are injured. REDS NEED PITCHING.

For now with Reds, BOO, BOO, BOO....Reds SWEPT by Arizona. Reds have lost 3 of the last 4 series. Yes. like late 1960s Reds they score runs, but like late 1960's Reds their pitching and defense gives up even more runs. Bauer, Disco and Iglesias are long gone. Bell is a throw back to Dave Bristol, but Sparky and Lou would not approve. The Gus Bell era Reds of 1950's scored a ton of runs, but lacked pitching.

[cinci4life]

Pretty amazing they got the tying run to the plate.

[*TheLeonardLeap*]

(04-22-2021, 04:06 PM)Forever Spinning Vinyl Wrote: Trade Aquino or Naquin for a reliever.

Aquino is on the IR. Fractured a bone in his hand swinging the bat, had to get surgery. From what I saw, missing 4-6 weeks is the norm.


(Likely because he's one of those guys who have the knob in his bottom hand's palm when they swing, if I had to guess.)

[*bengalfan74*]

MLB has always been about pitching. And it always will be.

[kevin]

(04-22-2021, 09:17 PM)bengalfan74 Wrote: MLB has always been about pitching. And it always will be.

True....I want to add Arizona burned Reds shifts a lot.  Arizona can hit them where they ain't.  Teams leaving big gaps on defense against Arizona will get burned as Reds did.  ...I also question with Moose on IL, why is Suarez still at SS and Farmer at 3rd.  Reds gave up runs on that also being SWEPT by Arizona.  I'm not making excuses for Reds pitching, but they could use some help.  Reds gave up runs being in the wrong defense a lot this series. On Defense, it was no thing of beauty.  

So we could say MLB is about Pitching AND Defense.  If the Defense forces the pitcher to get 4 or 5 outs in an inning because they blew a few outs, that just kills you.  AWFUL D played into Arizona SWEEP of Reds also.   It was like watching Reds go into a shift on Ty Cobb or Pete Rose and they just keep hitting ball to where shift leaves no fielders.  I can see where good hitters could bat .400 against the shifts. Rod Carew would bat .700 against these shifts. He could put the ball anywhere he wanted.  Arizona killed the Reds shifts play after play.  Me thinks you can shift too much.  I saw many easy outs become Arizona hits because no Red was there to field the ball thanks to THE SHIFT. Maybe there is something to be said for fielding your position. Doesn't Arizona field many Gold Gloves, I think they do. I saw balls hit and thought, there is an out, except Reds Shift made them hits. Arizona lit up Reds Shift over the 6 games they played.

[grampahol]

I'm definitely no fan of these exaggerated shifts.. Arizona certainly has this team's number..

[fredtoast]

Reds starters are not that bad. 11th in MLB in ERA,

Relievers are 29th (of 30) with a 6.00 ERA

But our starters are 19th in innings pitched while our relievers are 12th. If our starters pitched more innings then their ERA might go up. It is hard to say, but right now I would stick with them as long as I could before going to the bullpen.

[fredtoast]

(04-23-2021, 10:26 AM)grampahol Wrote: I'm definitely no fan of these exaggerated shifts.. Arizona certainly has this team's number..

I hope the Reds are using all the advanced analytics on their decisions to shift.

Most MLB hitters should be able to get a single against a shift.  The point is to take away the power, and most MLB teams are built to hit lots of home runs and steal zero bases.  

I have no idea if these shifts are really effective at limiting runs scored, but there should be plenty of data to look at.  Lots of teams have been using lots of shifts over the past few years.

[Murdock2420]

Is there a more unlikable player in baseball then Molina. Bad enough to give up a home run but worse when it is too the Hines Ward of baseball.

[*TheLeonardLeap*]

4 batters walked in the inning, including an RBI walk.... and yet Castellanos and Suarez swung at absolute garbage pitches up there. If both of them had just stood completely still and not moved the bat off their shoulder their entire ABs, they both walk and tie the game with Votto up, the bases loaded, and 1 out.

[cinci4life]

Wow Suarez how can you be dumb enough to even swing at anything after going 3-0 and the pitcher being as wild as can be?

[kevin]

The Reds are close to losing 4 of their last 5 series if they don't win 2 in a row from St Louis. That would question if this team is as good as Reds Announcers say they are with the Jim Day Raw. Raw, Sis, Boom, Bah. As bad as Reds were against Arizona, Reds Announcers were EXCITED over how Gray was so fired up in the dugout. Maybe he should have saved some of the fire for his start against Cardinals. I know it's early, but this team isn't playing very well. Castillo, Gray and Garrett are struggling in April, 3 pitchers the Reds were counting on.

[Murdock2420]

(04-24-2021, 12:38 AM)TheLeonardLeap Wrote: 4 batters walked in the inning, including an RBI walk.... and yet Castellanos and Suarez swung at absolute garbage pitches up there. If both of them had just stood completely still and not moved the bat off their shoulder their entire ABs, they both walk and tie the game with Votto up, the bases loaded, and 1 out.

Suarez really looks all out of sorts.

I don't know if it is the lost weight or the position change or what that has him so out of whack, but he is really screwed up.

[*bengalfan74*]

Well that's six loses in a row and now they've dropped two games below .500

Everybody knew they weren't gonna stay white hot. But I was hoping they wouldn't go ice cold like this !

[grampahol]

I ALMOST bit the bullet to spend the money on MLB.TV to watch this clown show.. Glad I didn't now..

[kevin]

(04-24-2021, 10:32 PM)grampahol Wrote: I ALMOST bit the bullet to spend the money on MLB.TV to watch this clown show.. Glad I didn't now..

Save your money, but ice cream.  That is what old timers I worked with in 1970's use to say.  Plus, I get plenty of baseball with a MLB channel on cable package and games on other channels.  I get the Reds on Fox Ohio, but I watched Seattle at Boston as game MLB gave me.  I'm in Fantasy Leagues and I had Flexen pitching up points for Seattle.  Ty France hit for points also.  Then I went and bought chicken wings.   I see Reds lost and are facing another SWEEP with Flaherty on the mound. Reds could get hit with the broom in the rear end twice in one week. 

My biggest gripe with Bell is that if a player has a big game, he benches them.  Hot streaks come and go.  As Jerry Reed sang, When you're hot, you're hot. When you're not, you're not.  I would have never benched Naquin on his hot streak, but Bell did.  They are so into computer charts these days, they don't see playing the guys on a Hot Streak.  They cool off on the bench.  Bell thinks he has to play everybody on the team, even if it means benching Hot Players. 

Don't the Reds have a trip to Dodgers after St Louis.  Look for Dodgers to destroy the Reds.  

To me, these charts are like reading a horse racing form.  Just because a horse or player did well in a situation a year or two ago, doesn't mean that horse or player is HOT this year.  Sometimes you need to throw out the racing form before you go cross eyed over so many stats that you are missing the obvious of whos HOT and whos NOT.  I think benching Naquin when Bell did was a horrible move, and Reds have lost ever since. Now Naquin not as HOT.  Can a computer tell you why players get HOT ?   NO, they can't.  

Anyway, you saved money not buying Reds TV.   They are cold as ice now.  April is going to be an awful month.