Can the Reds hang with the Dodgers?

[*psychdoctor*]

Dodgers obtained Betts and Price. If the Reds make it to the playoffs, Dodgers will be hard to beat. We shall see.

[SunsetBengal]

I'll be thrilled if the Reds win the division. Gotta cross one bridge at a time.

[grampahol]

It'll really depend on who's strongest down the stretch. The playoffs are not how teams get there. They get there by being strong during the season.
I'd be willing to bet that even last place teams could win a 7 game series at any given point. That doesn't mean they would, but it's just a short period they have to be good as we saw the last time the Reds made the post season. They, by all measure were the team to beat and went down really quick. The Dodgers have a similar record in post season.

[Yojimbo]

I’d still like another star bat added to make it closer, preferably Lindor. I don’t have a lot of faith in a Votto resurgence and Barnhardt is still pretty useless offensively and still have unknowns in Shogo and Senzel.

[guyofthetiger]

Well, you never know what will happen due to injuries. I like the Reds roster and any given day they can beat any team.

[grampahol]

(02-06-2020, 05:36 PM)Yojimbo Wrote: I’d still like another star bat added to make it closer, preferably Lindor. I don’t have a lot of faith in a Votto resurgence and Barnhardt is still pretty useless offensively and still have unknowns in Shogo and Senzel.

That "star" may or may not produce come playoff time. Recall back in 2010 Votto was the league MVP and seemed destined for greatness by just about every standard, but in post season he was 1 for 10, no walks and 2 strike outs. In the post season all bets are off because anyone can be the hero, even a guy who hits under .100 the entire season, but hits the game winner on one particular day. Even a relief pitcher with a 19.99 ERA can, in theory hit the series winning grand slam and go down as the world series hero. (not that anyone would expect such a pitcher come up to bat w/bases loaded in the WS..but stranger things have happened.)

[*bengalfan74*]

As it nearly always does it will come down to pitching. And not just the Dodgers, I mean getting to playoffs in general.

Castillo and Gray I have a lot of faith in. Castillo should get to 17/18 win area and Gray 14/15 perhaps even little better. But then it starts getting a bit shakier.

Disco I think can stay a solid #4 or 5 starter, 10 win area. And who knows perhaps he sneaks in a couple more with better run support ?

Bauer scares me little. I'm not quite sure what to make of him ? If he can get back to 2017/18 form. 15 wins area 3.5 ERA we could be a top end starting staff.

Miley I'm really not looking to get greatness from. If he can just be close to good.

The we've got Lodolo, Kuhnel, and Sims that may step up and get some starts ? Overall I think we have a chance to be in the mix still at the end. Is it enough to get to the postseason ?

[grampahol]

It really boils down to timing. The pitching can be great, but if the Dodgers pitching is as good or even better the whole thing may come down to one guy getting a key hit at the right time or even a player from other teams making a critical error at the right time. Remember Bill Buckner and his major blunder at 1st base?
https://youtu.be/7ujwjqIldwU
He'll never be forgiven that error by Redsox fans no matter how long he's dead.. By the way, this video seems to drag on and on..

[*bengalfan74*]

(02-18-2020, 09:11 PM)grampahol Wrote: It really boils down to timing. The pitching can be great, but if the Dodgers pitching is as good or even better the whole thing may come down to one guy getting a key hit at the right time or even a player from other teams making a critical error at the right time. Remember Bill Buckner and his major blunder at 1st base?
https://youtu.be/7ujwjqIldwU
He'll never be forgiven that error by Redsox fans no matter how long he's dead.. By the way, this video seems to drag on and on..

I remember a year or so ago them doing a special on the Buckner incident 35 years later or whatever ? Sad how an otherwise good career was so stained by that one bad play. A play that had it happened in June would have been long forgotten.

I can't help but recall my own FUBAR, on a much smaller stage. I played 2B in HS. pretty much routine pop up to shallow RF, or so it seemed. It was a HR in an elevator shaft pop up. Thing I didn't realize until it was to late, it had a ton of top spin on it and just kept drifting further out and towards 1B. I called everybody off but in the end just couldn't readjust enough. 

Would have been last out. Next guy up hit a two run double, we lost, and got knocked out of playoffs. 

[grampahol]

(02-18-2020, 09:34 PM)bengalfan74 Wrote: I remember a year or so ago them doing a special on the Buckner incident 35 years later or whatever ? Sad how an otherwise good career was so stained by that one bad play. A play that had it happened in June would have been long forgotten.

I can't help but recall my own FUBAR, on a much smaller stage. I played 2B in HS. pretty much routine pop up to shallow RF, or so it seemed. It was a HR in an elevator shaft pop up. Thing I didn't realize until it was to late, it had a ton of top spin on it and just kept drifting further out and towards 1B. I called everybody off but in the end just couldn't readjust enough. 

Would have been last out. Next guy up hit a two run double, we lost, and got knocked out of playoffs. 

I still remember being about 8 years old back when the entire neighborhood would get involved with big kids and little kids all playing in the same game, sometimes with 6 outfielders and so on. So I'm standing at SS with my glove just sort of hanging by my shoulder and me staring off into the distance watching a bird or something. Jerry Morgan, who was in HS at the time a a BIG kid comes up to bat. I figured he'd hit the ball a mile over everyone's head like he almost always did, but instead he hit a hard line drive directly into my glove. I caught it without even thinking about it. Of course there I was a cocky 8 year old kid acting like I do this every day and probably went on to make a prompt 9 errors right afterwards, but the moment will live in infamy for me and anyone who was there that day.. That was my 8 year old HOF moment never to be repeated in a million years. Good thing I wasn't standing an inch to my left or it would have probably killed me.

It was times like that that gave me such a love of the game of baseball. The biggest kids in the neighborhood played with little kids barely big enough to hold a bat and I got to hit homeruns and make great plays as just a little, fat kid. I'd give anything to be able to relive that moment in time..

[*bengalfan74*]

(02-18-2020, 10:21 PM)grampahol Wrote: I still remember being about 8 years old back when the entire neighborhood would get involved with big kids and little kids all playing in the same game, sometimes with 6 outfielders and so on. So I'm standing at SS with my glove just sort of hanging by my shoulder and me staring off into the distance watching a bird or something. Jerry Morgan, who was in HS at the time a a BIG kid comes up to bat. I figured he'd hit the ball a mile over everyone's head like he almost always did, but instead he hit a hard line drive directly into my glove. I caught it without even thinking about it. Of course there I was a cocky 8 year old kid acting like I do this every day and probably went on to make a prompt 9 errors right afterwards, but the moment will live in infamy for me and anyone who was there that day.. That was my 8 year old HOF moment never to be repeated in a million years. Good thing I wasn't standing an inch to my left or it would have probably killed me.

It was times like that that gave me such a love of the game of baseball. The biggest kids in the neighborhood played with little kids barely big enough to hold a bat and I got to hit homeruns and make great plays as just a little, fat kid. I'd give anything to be able to relive that moment in time..

Sweet ! I remember a few catches like that at 2b and especially 3b. More self defense than anything else lol. We had a giant yard/field we played in out in front of an apartment complex. It even had a bit of fence covering part of LF and all of CF. Those were the days. You never or very rarely see kids out playing like that now. 

[*psychdoctor*]

(02-18-2020, 09:11 PM)grampahol Wrote: It really boils down to timing. The pitching can be great, but if the Dodgers pitching is as good or even better the whole thing may come down to one guy getting a key hit at the right time or even a player from other teams making a critical error at the right time. Remember Bill Buckner and his major blunder at 1st base?
https://youtu.be/7ujwjqIldwU
He'll never be forgiven that error by Redsox fans no matter how long he's dead.. By the way, this video seems to drag on and on..

A couple things:

It is pleasantly strange to watch a game without the constant score inning game tracker on the TV.

What a hell of at bat by Mookie.  

I cannot wait for the Reds to be in the playoffs!

[grampahol]

(02-18-2020, 11:16 PM)bengalfan74 Wrote: Sweet ! I remember a few catches like that at 2b and especially 3b. More self defense than anything else lol. We had a giant yard/field we played in out in front of an apartment complex. It even had a bit of fence covering part of LF and all of CF. Those were the days. You never or very rarely see kids out playing like that now. 

Most kids never get a $500 weekly allowance to buy gloves and bats and balls ..forget being allowed to go outside without Mommy making sure they're not guarded 100% of the time and never allowed to just get in a fight over anything without the cops getting involved.. I don't think a cop was ever involved in a fight when we were kids and if they were they were there to watch the fun.. In todays world my mom would be an overnight internet pariah using her maple switch on my sister's behind.. LOL I was the fink who ratted my sister out after she all but poisoned me with a dish soap milkshake the day before.. Some things are worth being the snitch over..some things are not.
That was the proudest moment of my life, making sure my squeeky clean sister got spanked at least once in her entire life and it was a doozy! My mom, a maple switch and a mile to go to get home.. You just can't buy that kind of fun at any price.. Heck, that day was worth even interrupting our baseball game over.  That was worth every spanking I ever got in my entire life and I was never far away from moms switch..In fact the entire neighboods moms had switches with my name on them I think..

In the meantime I still secretly want the Dodgers plane to crash killing all on board, but we can't have everything I guess.. (That was my secret wish back when the Reds and Dodgers were both in the western division.)