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Probably time to start this. Somebody had a thread like this last year.
So, starting this, Reds have started season taking series from Phillies and series from Cardinals. That's a good start and very much a surprise. The Reds are hitting and scoring runs. The real surprise has been the pitching. Reds have wins by Finnegan, Reed, Garrett, Feldman. They go into Pittsburg set to use Finnegan, Davis and Garrett. Adding a series win over Pirates to start season 3-0 in series play would be a fantastic start. Wins in April count as much as wins in September. Being a Bengals site, football fans of only a 16 games season know the importance of good starts to a season. 162 games is hard to break into NFL terms so lets look at it in series play. The Reds only play the Phillies twice and so that series win huge. The Reds play the Cardinals 6 times and nice to start with a division win. They play the Pirates 6 times and now try to start with a division win over them.
So, as last year and the thread somebody started, have at it. The Spring, Summer and Fall ups and downs feedback of Reds Fans. ....PLAY BALL.....
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Beating Martinez was a good win. I wonder if the Cards are overrated.
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Wait till we face the Cubbies.. If we sweep them then we gotta feel pretty good about the future.
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(04-10-2017, 02:46 PM)grampahol Wrote: Wait till we face the Cubbies.. If we sweep them then we gotta feel pretty good about the future.
Did the Reds even win a single game against the Cubs last year?
EDIT: 4-15 ouch
"The measure of a man's intelligence can be seen in the length of his argument."
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It would be nice to see Finnegan do good tonight and Garrett do good Wednesday. A lot of MLB pitchers right now either have a bad first outing or a good first outing. It would be nice to see Finnegan and Garrett show it was no fluke. Not that I'm not rooting for our other pitchers. I want Davis to have a good start against Pirates also. Of course you can't win them all and in the first week great players in baseball had a bad week, anybody can have a bad game or week. IF Finnegan and Garrett are as dominate against Pirates, that means we could get after the Cubs this year also. We had hitting and just needed pitching. Already Finnegan is one of the most added players in Fantasy Baseball. I look for people to jump on the Garrett bandwagon with another strong outing. ........Plus, being a Bengals Fan....BEAT PITTSBURG !!!!! ....The Pirates Fans have became like the Steelers Fans. That Play-Off Game against Reds chanting Cueto all game. Too bad the game wasn't in Cincy. The heck with The Jolly Rodger and The Steelers....BEAT PITTSBURG !!!!
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Not a good night by Finnegan but what a night by the bullpen. Apparently, these guys don't know they're supposed to suck.
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Nice move bringing in one of the closers Lorenzen in the 3rd inning, bases loaded, no outs. He pitches 3 scoreless innings. Then Reed pitches 3 scoreless innings and Peralta pitches a scoreless 9th. In the end Finnegan only gives up one run in his 2 innings thanks to the manager getting him out of there and bringing in a closer in the 3rd inning. Casey Stengel said you can win a game early in the game, not just the 9th inning. Sparky Anderson after winning back to back World Series said he didn't know how Casey Stengel kept his Yankees motivated to win 5 straight World Series. So Price took one out of the Casey Stengel book and won this game in the 3rd inning instead of blowing the lead and making it come down to the 9th inning. Sure, you have a 5 to 1 lead early but bases loaded and no outs, maybe that's when the 9th inning closer has to come in, even if it's the 3rd inning. Nice manager move by Price to slam the door shut on a Pirates comeback. Managers may have seen Madden on Cubs bring Chapman in early and change the rule that closers are for the 9th inning only.
Reds also had at least 6 stolen bases last night. Like the 1970's Reds they aren't just hitting plus hitting for power, but they are the Running Reds again. Had Votto not fouled off a pitch Hamilton and Peraza would have had a double steal, which is a throw back to the days of Morgan and Tolan or Morgan and Griffey Sr. Duvall is ripping the ball, as is Suarez and even Scotter Gennett. Votto isn't even hitting yet, but in baseball neither is Trout, Betts, Altuve and a lot of players after one week. Besides hitting the defense was good also. Great plays by Peraza at shortstop and Hamilton in center.
They still need to win one more to win the Pirates series. Rookie Davis tonight and Amir Garrett Wednesday on the mound. It would be great to start season winning series from Philadelphia, St Louis and Pittsburg and a 3-0 start in series play.
Also, on the Reds pitchers the announcers said you have to give some credit to Ted Power the bullpen coach. I might add Lou Piniella was a special helper in the Reds majors and minors last season going around helping any way he could and Lou's help may be paying off. ...Now one player on the bubble is top pick pitcher Stephenson who announcers say it is time for him to start pitching better. Does Homer Bailey come back this year and pitch good. Does Devon Mesoraco come back and help. Are the Reds buyers instead of sellers at the trade deadline due to in the play-off hunt. Does Hamilton keep hitting. Does Votto start hitting. Stay tuned to that Bat Channel.......BEAT PITTSBURG !!!!!!!
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I am excited about baseball again. Yeah I know we're only a few games in, but this is fun. Like someone said above me, it's like we don't realize we're supposed to suck.
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Rock on, Reds. Scooter Gennett cracking homers. Davis much better this time around. Bullpen still mowing them down. All this with Votto hitting .161. When he starts hitting in June, things could get interesting.
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Reds win again!!!
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Through 8 games, our bullpen is 2nd in ERA (1.31 ERA), 2nd in saves (4), 2nd in innings pitched (34.1), 5th in earned runs allowed total (5 runs), 3rd in Strikeouts (37), 5th in WHIP (1.02) and 2nd in BAA (0.145)
Not bad at all.
http://www.espn.com/mlb/stats/team/_/stat/pitching/split/128/sort/opponentAvg/order/false
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(04-12-2017, 08:44 AM)Crazyjdawg Wrote: Through 8 games, our bullpen is 2nd in ERA (1.31 ERA), 2nd in saves (4), 2nd in innings pitched (34.1), 5th in earned runs allowed total (5 runs), 3rd in Strikeouts (37), 5th in WHIP (1.02) and 2nd in BAA (0.145)
Not bad at all.
http://www.espn.com/mlb/stats/team/_/stat/pitching/split/128/sort/opponentAvg/order/false
Nope! Not bad at all! I still wish our starting pitchers would get more innings in though!
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Anyone remember when Williams took over for Walt a lot of people thought it would be more of the same old Waltball? Apparently Williams knows a thing or two about a thing or two. As it stands now the starting pitchers aren't throwing much more than the bullpen guys which leads me to wonder if it even makes sense to have dedicated starters. If everyone is going to toss 2-3 innings 3-4 times a week who needs starters to go out every 5 days and go 3 innings ?
Who knows..maybe everything we ever thought about baseball all these years was wrong. Someone has to start in the game, but there's nothing that says they have to pitch a certain number of innings and only do it every 5th day.
Living in SC I haven't seen the Reds on TV for 3 years now.. I'm thinking that I might just have to pony up the cash to watch mlb.tv .. Heck, they don't play Atlanta till June and I don't have the kind of memory to remember to tune in then. I'll need one of you to come knock on my door to tell me they're on tv in June..
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Just wait and see..if the Reds beat up on the Cubbies all season and stay in first place Cubs fans will demand an investigation and swear it's a conspiracy. I'm almost expecting riots to break out in St Louis ..Cards in LAST place? It's conspiracy I tell you.. Russian meddling in the baseball standings! The Cards in last place is almost as good as sex.. Actually it can be better than sex depending on who you might be having sex with..
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(04-12-2017, 10:26 AM)rezolve11 Wrote: Nope! Not bad at all! I still wish our starting pitchers would get more innings in though!
A lot of top hitters and pitchers are struggling early. Great pitchers not going deep in innings yet and hitters such as Trout, Betts, Arenado, Donaldson, Altuve, Bryant, Encarnacion, Dozier, Votto not hitting yet. So it's very early yet and look for our starters to go deeper and Votto to hit this season. The GOOD NEWS is 3-0 in series play to start the season. Wins in April count as much as wins in September.
I'm now hoping for the SWEEP. That would make Reds 7-2. I'm now wondering how fast Reds can get 10 wins, since 90 is pretty much play-offs. I know, a long way off. Getting 10 fast wins would help. 15 wins in a month is great. Reds are at 6. Still, they are 3-0 in series play with Milwaukee up next. Milwaukee is a 4 game series and so 3 wins it and 2 ties it. It would be nice after Easter and April 17th to say Reds haven't lost a series yet.
How about Scooter Gennett. Announcers now wondering about him as a starter. I'm wondering how many positions he can play. If Votto or Suarez need a day off, can he play first or third. How about left or right giving a guy a day off. Players need days off during the long season. Every team needs a Super Sub. Ryan Freel use to be one. With Gennett hitting like this and he was a star player in the past, They may want to find ways to get his bat in line-up and give others a day off. Plus a Super Sub just makes a managers job so much easier. My guess is he could fill in at first, third, left, right and not do too bad as a sub. If he just stinks at some of these positions you scratch those positions off the list. However they do it, Scooter Gennett needs his at bats because he is ripping the ball like he use to. Tied with Duvall in homers but leads team in RBI's. Find ways to get him in line-up. Grew up in Cincy also. Reds aren't carrying many bench players so they can have extra pitchers. This kind of means bench players have to play more than one position. I sure would be finding ways to get that bat in line-up, even if it is done giving players at many positions a day off on a rotation basis. This Scooter Gennett is no fluke and has been a good player in baseball.
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Well, Garret went 6+ today.. So much for my theory..
Definitely waive his contract for that..
We have 5 starters hitting over .300.. It's been awhile since the last time that happened. If they keep this up when Votto finally cuts loose it's going to be MLM ..Major League Mayhem.. 6 starters hitting .300+ and the bullpen lights out that's championship stuff folks..
I've said it before..you just never know when a bunch of guys who never really gelled before suddenly catch on fire at the same time.. It's how championships happen..
Hey, suddenly the team EVERYONE wrote off before the season started has the best record in mlb.. I just knew I should have bet $10 that the Reds would be alone in first place this time of the season.
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(04-12-2017, 10:26 AM)rezolve11 Wrote: Nope! Not bad at all! I still wish our starting pitchers would get more innings in though!
Well I got what I asked for yesterday!
(04-13-2017, 04:20 AM)grampahol Wrote: Well, Garret went 6+ today.. So much for my theory..
Definitely waive his contract for that..
We have 5 starters hitting over .300.. It's been awhile since the last time that happened. If they keep this up when Votto finally cuts loose it's going to be MLM ..Major League Mayhem.. 6 starters hitting .300+ and the bullpen lights out that's championship stuff folks..
I've said it before..you just never know when a bunch of guys who never really gelled before suddenly catch on fire at the same time.. It's how championships happen..
Hey, suddenly the team EVERYONE wrote off before the season started has the best record in mlb.. I just knew I should have bet $10 that the Reds would be alone in first place this time of the season.
We can only hope that everyone keeps it together and gets even better. I'm happy
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SWEEP !!!!........As a Bengals and Reds Fan gotta' love a sweep of Pittsburg......Pirates fans last few years have been getting as bad as Steelers fans. Yelling Cueto that play-off game all game. The other night when Hamilton came up yelling Billy, Billy. Well Billy got em' and so did Reds and in your face Pittsburg....SWEEP, SWEEP, SWEEP !!!!!.......I hate the Steelers and Pirates and I hope Columbus beats your Penguins, and I don't even follow hockey.
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Can't wait for the game tonight at 7!
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