Some encouraging signs so far, and bad

[*bengalfan74*]

(03-09-2025, 01:18 AM)Forever Spinning Vinyl Wrote: Today's lineup looked pretty official.

Friedl - CF
McLain - 2B
De La Cruz - SS - 0 for 2 with 2 Ks lefty . . . sweet balanced stroke on a ground ball up the middle batting righty. Still hitting .526 in this ST.
Hays - LF
Lux - 3B  2 for 2 today with two walks. Now hitting .278 in Spring
Stephenson - DH
Fraley - RF
Encarnacion-Strand - 1B - 2 for 3 today with an infield single and another bomb. Now hitting .300 this Spring.
Trevino - C

All that's really missing is Steer and Candelerio. I like this lineup. Spreads out the lefties pretty well. Add in Espinal and either Fairchild, Dunn or Herd of Bees, who is having a heck of a Spring(hitting .571) and had yet another great play on defense today.

First time that I've seen Lyon Richardson pitch since his brief call up a couple of seasons ago. He only threw one inning today but he looked far more like a pitcher than just a thrower. Another potential #5 starter . . . The Reds have a lot in their arsenal. There were seasons where we had no idea who was going to finish out the starting five.

I've liked a lot of what I've seen thus far. CES hitting, Elly blasting, McClain hitting well and so on. Hays has a team leading 9 RBI's!!

I believe they need to end the Ashcraft as a starter experiment. I hope Greene gets more on track as we go this spring. Marte is pretty much stinking, he may have already peaked? But overall I'm pretty happy.