Reds June 2023 thread

[*bengalfan74*]

(06-10-2023, 06:14 PM)cinci4life Wrote: Reds win 8-4! Abbott did great again!

It's way early. But Abbott has started out his career with 11.2 scoreless innings. I'm anxious to see him pitch again already.

[Forever Spinning Vinyl]

This is two series in a row where the Reds scored after Stu Fairchild beat out a two out infield ground ball. They got a key 7th inning run in one of the comebacks against the Dodgers and today they got the opening three runs in the 2nd inning after Stu hustled down the line.

De La Cruz is worth the price of admission. Man, can that guy fly around the bases.

This was a true team win. Every one but Friedl got a base hit and the only players with two hits were Stephenson and Maile. Looks like Casali will be catching for Greene tomorrow. It would be nice to see him pick up a couple of hits, also.

[cinci4life]

Reds win 4-3 and take the series!!!

[CJD]

I thought it would be impossible, but Elly De La Cruz has actually exceeded my expectations in his first week in the majors. I thought that McLain had placed the bar too high but, somehow, EDLC's speed has been even more impressive. He is truly incredible. I've never seen a combination of speed, power and plate discipline (yes, I know he's struck out a fair amount, but if you watch him, he takes a LOT of balls that a young player should probably be swinging at) like this in a Reds player before.

.364/.481/.636/1.118 with 5 walks, 4 RBI, 7 runs and 3 SB in 27 plate appearances over 6 games is quite the start to a major league career. I anticipate him cooling down over this coming week, but he is quickly turning into the engine that makes this offense go.

[SladeX]

(06-12-2023, 01:36 AM)Crazyjdawg Wrote: I thought it would be impossible, but Elly De La Cruz has actually exceeded my expectations in his first week in the majors. I thought that McLain had placed the bar too high but, somehow, EDLC's speed has been even more impressive. He is truly incredible. I've never seen a combination of speed, power and plate discipline (yes, I know he's struck out a fair amount, but if you watch him, he takes a LOT of balls that a young player should probably be swinging at) like this in a Reds player before.

.364/.481/.636/1.118 with 5 walks, 4 RBI, 7 runs and 3 SB in 27 plate appearances over 6 games is quite the start to a major league career. I anticipate him cooling down over this coming week, but he is quickly turning into the engine that makes this offense go.

I remember when ED was playing a commentator said the staff was trying to get ED to cut down on his Ks, and it was either Buck or Nuxhall that said “They need to leave him alone!”.

I hope no one is worried about the Ks with Elly. That would be a bit like Aesops dog that dropped the bone he had in the water trying to get the bone from the other dog in the water (actually his reflection)

[CJD]

(06-12-2023, 10:35 AM)SladeX Wrote: I remember when ED was playing a commentator said the staff was trying to get ED to cut down on his Ks, and it was either Buck or Nuxhall that said “They need to leave him alone!”.

I hope no one is worried about the Ks with Elly. That would be a bit like Aesops dog that dropped the bone he had in the water trying to get the bone from the other dog in the water (actually his reflection)

Yea, I agree. I'm not very concerned about his K rate. When I watch his at bats (and I've watched every single one since he was called up, it's become a bit of an event for me each day haha), he is not wildly hacking at the ball like Aristedes Aquino did. He is not being fooled by simple off speed pitches. He is not consistently whiffing on balls in his wheelhouse. He'll occasionally chase a ball out of the strike zone but you could say that about any player in the MLB. His chase rate is slightly above average (29.7% vs the league average of 28.4%) but that should improve as he gets used to MLB pitching. 

And, as the announcers have said several times over the weekend, speed doesn't slump. If he makes contact, he could get a hit out of it. I think we're in for a very fun 8 to 15 years watching this guy play.

[kevin]

So Reds just won series from Dodgers and Cardinals, the 2 NL teams that have been to World Series than any other National League Franchises.

That's pretty good, beating Dodgers and Cardinals.

No let down now. Reds stay in Missouri going from St Louis to Kansas City. Reds could take series from Royals IF they don't under estimate their opponent and IF they keep playing good ball

Reds are near .500 ball on June 12th. Something Reds never came close to in 2022.

Forget World Series and Play-Offs FOR NOW. The short range goal should be to be around .500 ball or better on that homestand before 4th of July. Reds are out of town the 4th, but I believe they are in Cincy the Friday, Saturday and Sunday before the 4th when many areas Celebrate and shoot off fireworks anymore. HAVE A GOOD TEAM PLAYING GOOD BALL GOING INTO THAT 4th of JULY WEEKEND IN CINCINNATI TO SELL PLENTY OF TICKETS. GIVE REDS FANS A TEAM AROUND .500 FOR 4th of JULY WEEKEND.....The heck with who will be playing in freezing cold on Halloween when everybody is watching NFL thinking baseball season too long.

Get after Royals to try to stay around .500 going into home series before The 4th of July in Cincinnati. THAT would be a great short range goal to pull off. The Fans would enjoy the summer Holiday, and Reds Owners would keep making much needed money after losing money in 2020, 2021 and 2022. Reds have a chance to make some money for first time since Covid 2020. Reds had a good team of players and could afford to bring in players before 2020 Covid. Reds are getting good again, and More Fans and More Money will get Reds back to Play-Offs type team in 2024 and 2025.

Short range goal : Get after Royals and stay near .500

May not mean much, but Cincinnati use to have a team called The Royals. Oscar Robertson, Jerry Lucas, Nate Archibald.

Again, nice series wins over Dodgers and Cardinals and not long ago winning in Fenway and Wrigley. GOOD BALL out of Reds. If the players on rehab are not hitting in the minors, do not bring them up and send down players Who Are Winning.

[cinci4life]

Don't know why in the hell you bring Karcher in for his MLB debut in that situation but thankfully it miraculously worked out.

[CJD]

(06-13-2023, 12:39 AM)cinci4life Wrote: Don't know why in the hell you bring Karcher in for his MLB debut in that situation but thankfully it miraculously worked out.

They interviewed Bell and asked, "so is it safe to say that you used everyone in that bullpen that you felt was available to pitch tonight?" and he simply laughed and said yes.

Sims and Diaz both pitched two days in a row. Gibaut went nearly 2 innings yesterday so I imagine all three of those guys were unavailable for today. They already sent out Young, Farmer, Legumina and Cruz because Weaver was getting knocked around all day today. They probably would have forced one of the three remaining relievers into pitching if Karcher blew the save and it went to the 11th, but with 2 more games before your first day off since May 29th, Bell was probably looking to preserve them for the next two games, if possible.

As it was going on, it felt like throwing Karcher out there was the equivalent of giving away the game in exchange for getting the bullpen some rest, but luckily it worked out.

[grampahol]

Cardinals in last place..The world rejoices! Been a long time since they were in last place. 
It almost feels like even Bell can't screw this up, but I'm not holding my breath on that..There's always a wet dream waiting for Bell to come along..

[Forever Spinning Vinyl]

What a crazy and fun game. Such a shame that the Reds ruined Chiefs night in Kansas City, but they will get used to disappointment when Cincinnati comes to town. As an Angels fan, I can honestly say that Perez is one of the most clutch hitters that I've ever seen in my life. I just laughed and shook my head when he tied the game with two outs in the bottom of the 9th because I've seen him do shit like that for years. Amazing player that did that after taking one hell of a beating behind the plate all night long.

I was kind of shocked when they knocked Grienke out in the 6th, he struck out India, DLC and Steer in the 4th with all three of them respectfully looking back at him like "Damn! He's good!". I think that the manager jumped the gun as Grienke was sitting at only 81 pitches. I would have trusted him to get out of that situation without more damage much more than trusting their bullpen.

Kind of a strange game, DLC and Steer go hitless(0-8) with no RBIs or no runs scored(DLC on base by FC and Steer by BB) and the Reds still won. I'm not sure that we're going to see that happen very much in the future. Another great team win.

Fairchild homers to bring his average back up to .230 and dropped an awesome sacrifice bunt in the 9th to set up Newman's sac fly for the 4-3 lead. That's how you stay in the lineup every day. And look at Benson now hitting .234. When the season started, Benson looked like he was trying out this new game that he had just heard about called baseball. Now, he's getting some seriously hard contact. Myers may wind up getting traded or DFA'd shortly after he's healthy. There was barely enough playing time for him when this team sucked and now that his replacements have improved on what he has to offer, I just don't see him contributing anything more than a bit player at most. Even his defense sucked.

And I'm guessing that the writing is also on the wall for Barerro. He's either going to be sent down or packaged in a trade. Hopkins is an easy choice to send back down when Senzel, Fraley, Votto and Myers all come back . . . Barerro is looking like he's running out of chances to get some playing time in Cincinnati. He'd look good in Kansas City with along with either Myers, Fraley or Senzel along with a minor league/MLB bullpen arm for Chapman. The bullpen has been pretty steady lately but this team still needs two legit set up men and Kansas City is going to be in sell mode pretty soon. Just a thought after Chapman just struck out the same three in the 8th that Grienke did in the 4th(India, DLC and Steer). I don't think that they planned on being this close to .500 along with the NL Central being so mediocre at the same time.

I don't know why but I still believe in Weaver. I see a lot of a young Tyler Mahle in him. Mahle would battle and battle all game but would have a couple of three to five pitch sequences in there that would backfire on him. Weaver makes a lot of great pitches every outing, but still shoots himself in the foot with the nibbling and the walks. Like Jeff Brantley pointed out in the broadcast, two of the three runs that Weaver gave up were bases on balls that came around to score. He only gave up five hits but had four walks. That can be fixed. If he can cut down on the free passes, he's a six or seven inning pitcher.

[*bengalfan74*]

(06-13-2023, 01:59 PM)Forever Spinning Vinyl Wrote: What a crazy and fun game. Such a shame that the Reds ruined Chiefs night in Kansas City, but they will get used to disappointment when Cincinnati comes to town. As an Angels fan, I can honestly say that Perez is one of the most clutch hitters that I've ever seen in my life. I just laughed and shook my head when he tied the game with two outs in the bottom of the 9th because I've seen him do shit like that for years. Amazing player that did that after taking one hell of a beating behind the plate all night long.

I was kind of shocked when they knocked Grienke out in the 6th, he struck out India, DLC and Steer in the 4th with all three of them respectfully looking back at him like "Damn! He's good!". I think that the manager jumped the gun as Grienke was sitting at only 81 pitches. I would have trusted him to get out of that situation without more damage much more than trusting their bullpen.

Kind of a strange game, DLC and Steer go hitless(0-8) with no RBIs or no runs scored(DLC on base by FC and Steer by BB) and the Reds still won. I'm not sure that we're going to see that happen very much in the future. Another great team win.

Fairchild homers to bring his average back up to .230 and dropped an awesome sacrifice bunt in the 9th to set up Newman's sac fly for the 4-3 lead. That's how you stay in the lineup every day. And look at Benson now hitting .234. When the season started, Benson looked like he was trying out this new game that he had just heard about called baseball. Now, he's getting some seriously hard contact. Myers may wind up getting traded or DFA'd shortly after he's healthy. There was barely enough playing time for him when this team sucked and now that his replacements have improved on what he has to offer, I just don't see him contributing anything more than a bit player at most. Even his defense sucked.

And I'm guessing that the writing is also on the wall for Barerro. He's either going to be sent down or packaged in a trade. Hopkins is an easy choice to send back down when Senzel, Fraley, Votto and Myers all come back . . . Barerro is looking like he's running out of chances to get some playing time in Cincinnati. He'd look good in Kansas City with along with either Myers, Fraley or Senzel along with a minor league/MLB bullpen arm for Chapman. The bullpen has been pretty steady lately but this team still needs two legit set up men and Kansas City is going to be in sell mode pretty soon. Just a thought after Chapman just struck out the same three in the 8th that Grienke did in the 4th(India, DLC and Steer). I don't think that they planned on being this close to .500 along with the NL Central being so mediocre at the same time.

I don't know why but I still believe in Weaver. I see a lot of a young Tyler Mahle in him. Mahle would battle and battle all game but would have a couple of three to five pitch sequences in there that would backfire on him. Weaver makes a lot of great pitches every outing, but still shoots himself in the foot with the nibbling and the walks. Like Jeff Brantley pointed out in the broadcast, two of the three runs that Weaver gave up were bases on balls that came around to score. He only gave up five hits but had four walks. That can be fixed. If he can cut down on the free passes, he's a six or seven inning pitcher.

I'm with you on Barrero, his days are numbered most likely. And I doubt Myers is around any kind of long term either. I'm really wondering if Benson can become a contributor long-term? If he could straighten out a few of those rips down the line foul we'd be talking about him in the same breath as McClain, Steer, DLC and so on.

[CJD]

Barrero was our top prospect per Baseball America in 2021, I believe, but I was always skeptical. His hit tool was always graded somewhere between 40 (below average) and 50 (average), with a power tool between 45 and 55 (slightly below average to slightly above average).

Fangraphs, in 2021, despite having Barrero as our top prospect, graded his hit tool as a 30/40 (currently 30, could improve to 40 in the future), with 40/50 game power, 60 speed and 60 fielding.

https://www.fangraphs.com/prospects/the-board/2021-prospect-list/scouting-position?org=cin

He was a defense first prospect from the very beginning. And, unfortunately for him, his defense did not pan out to be as elite as anticipated in the major leagues, especially with so many short stops with great bats coming up behind him.

All that leaves is a decent glove and a below average bat.

That won't play in the majors for very long.

[The D.O.Z.]

As much as I have dogged ownership, I will say this. THIS team is fun to watch / follow. Let these young guys play! I dread Votto coming back, taking up some youngster’s ABs while he takes his usual month-long figuring-it-out- slump. The season will be over by the time he starts hitting, LET THIS YOUNG CORE PLAY!
Wish we could score some runs for Greene, wish Ashcraft wasn’t turning into 2019 Tyler Mahle, and I wish we had a replacement for Weaver. Liking what I’m seeing out of recent call-up Abbott.

[kevin]

and Reds win series against Royals in KC.

This team is winning a lot. This team is near .500

Announcers say the are not far back in Wild Card race, and Reds are giving Fans a reason to follow Reds going into 4th of July. Summer and Baseball, but it's better with some Wins this year.

The Reds have some relief pitcher announcers, and they are raving about Reds Bullpen this year and getting Reds to Diaz. A good bullpen can win a team games.

[kevin]

There is a bump in the road coming. Reds have to play at Houston. Houston eats alive the best of pitching staffs every year.

I hope Reds can win at Houston, but Houston has been the hardest team in baseball for teams to play the last few years.

I'm glad Reds have been winning. Do not be too down on Reds if they have a hard time in Houston. Most teams are not as tough as Houston, so play them and get them off the schedule going forward this season.

[*bengalfan74*]

I'm starting to get mildly concerned about DLC. He was electric his first 3 or 4 games, to say the least. Since then he just doesn't look confident at the plate.

Don't get me wrong, I still believe he's a bolt of lightning as a prospect. But perhaps he needs a couple days off? Maybe he's feeling too much pressure?

[CJD]

(06-15-2023, 09:30 AM)bengalfan74 Wrote: I'm starting to get mildly concerned about DLC. He was electric his first 3 or 4 games, to say the least. Since then he just doesn't look confident at the plate.

Don't get me wrong, I still believe he's a bolt of lightning as a prospect. But perhaps he needs a couple days off? Maybe he's feeling too much pressure?

In his first series, he was 4 for 11, 2 BB, 1 2B, 1 3B, 1 HR, 2 RBI, 3 R, 1 SB and 6 SOs

In his second series, he was 4 for 11, 3 BB, 0 2B, 0 3B, 0 HR, 2 RBI, 4 R, 2 SB and 4 SOs

In his third and most recent series, he was 0 for 12, 1 BB, 0 2B/3B/HR, 0 RBI, 2 SB and 5 SOs.

Notably, at least 2 of his 8 hits in the first two series were infield grounders that he legged out.

To put it bluntly, he was never going to keep up the pace he was on through his first 2 series. It's not ideal that he went O-fer in 3 straight games, but it's still an incredibly small sample size and his strikeout numbers have not gone up through the series.

And, to be perfectly honest, several strikeouts on him are bullshit. 5 of his strikeouts were on 3-2 pitches and at least 3 of those were borderline calls that Elly intentionally took because he was anticipating the walk. I think his height is working against him because an unhittable ball for him (below the knees) would be a strike against someone like McLain, who is almost a foot shorter than him. 

He's going to have to adjust to those low strikes and start swinging at them. Of his 15 total strikeouts, 6 of them are looking, but 4 of his 5 SOs against KC were looking, all of which are in the bottom of the zone (or in some cases, just out of the zone). That tells me that pitchers have identified that low pitches are consistently being called strikes against him that he believes are balls. 

I think he'll adjust to this and start swinging at those low strikes.

The good news is he always seems to start slow whenever he joins a league, and then takes off. For example, in 2023, he hit .195/.233/.415 in 41 April at bats but then, in May, he hit .347/.460/.743 in 101 at bats. Then we called him up in June.

Last year, he hit .254/.288/.476 in April in Dayton (63 ABs)
Then he hit .311/.367/.600 in May (90 ABs)
Then he hit .313/.383/.625 in June (96 ABs)
Then he hit .344/.400/.844 in the first half of July (32 ABs)
He was promoted Chattanooga in mid July and hit .220/.238/.439 in the second half of July (41 ABs)
But then in August, he hit .355/.425/.688 (93 ABs)
He cooled down a little in September, only hitting .286/.322/.411 (56 ABs) but the trend seems clear to me.

He enters a league, hits ~.200 to .250 for about a month, then he starts hitting ~.310 to .350 from then on.

Given the leap from AAA to MLB is considered the largest jump by far (the only competition is the jump from A+ to AA), I think EDLC may take a little more time to adjust, but I think he will, based on his history in the minors. He will figure out how these MLB pitchers are pitching him and adjust. 

I think Cowboy was talking either last night or two nights ago where they seem to pitch him in reverse of what most other hitters get. The give him off speed and breaking balls early, see if he'll dig his own grave and then hit him with put out fast balls when he's expecting breaking balls (possibly why he watches so many fastballs at the knees for strikeouts). 

If he doesn't dig his own grave with the early off speed/breaking balls, the pitcher seems content to just walk him, hence his fairly high walk rate (6 walks in 40 plate appearances, 15%)

If he can adjust to that style of pitching and start looking for fastballs late in the count, his batting average could explode, which may force pitchers to start giving him fast balls earlier and then it'll all normalize.

At least that's my hope :)

I think EDLC is the victim of Matt McLain haha. McLain came up and was hot and has stayed hot, currently leading the team in batting average. Most rookies struggle and McLain just...hasn't. EDLC had a bad series. It'll be interesting to see how he handles the weekend in Houston.

[*bengalfan74*]

(06-15-2023, 11:16 AM)Crazyjdawg Wrote: In his first series, he was 4 for 11, 2 BB, 1 2B, 1 3B, 1 HR, 2 RBI, 3 R, 1 SB and 6 SOs

In his second series, he was 4 for 11, 3 BB, 0 2B, 0 3B, 0 HR, 2 RBI, 4 R, 2 SB and 4 SOs

In his third and most recent series, he was 0 for 12, 1 BB, 0 2B/3B/HR, 0 RBI, 2 SB and 5 SOs.

Notably, at least 2 of his 8 hits in the first two series were infield grounders that he legged out.

To put it bluntly, he was never going to keep up the pace he was on through his first 2 series. It's not ideal that he went O-fer in 3 straight games, but it's still an incredibly small sample size and his strikeout numbers have not gone up through the series.

Oh I get it. I fully believe he has Super Star written all over him, and most likely will be. Butt

How many rookies come into the league batting clean up? How many guys come into the league with the you're gonna hafta carry this team monkey on their back? Or however you want to put it?

I'm just saying I believe he might well be putting to much pressure on himself to be the hero at this young age and stage. Let him relax a minute and get rid of some of that pressure. Let him figure out he doesn't have to swing out of his shoes on every pitch.

[cinci4life]

Reds win 2-1!!!