Manager, Hitting, Pitching, Fielding

[grampahol]

(04-05-2019, 12:53 AM)Circleville Guy Wrote: It’s only been 6 games and the end results have not been good yet. It seems like Bell seems to overmanage and makes some head scratching moves. It’s like he’s worried that every position player has to play in every game, regardless of where he shoves them in at. His moves are under a microscope though because the hitting has been horrendous. The bats will come around but losing Scooter early was a big loss. As a whole, this pitching has looked so much better. They gave up 40 runs after 6 games last year. The 19 they’ve given up so far should be worth a couple of more wins. The fielding is as bad as I expected and it will eventually lead to many unearned runs this year. The hitters will eventually heat up and I do believe this is still a solid .500 team. If Senzel can stay healthy, he will help a lot. I tell you what, I know that Votto has been a good hitter but I really wish that he was a good leader. Every good team needs a true leader and I’m not sure who that is with the Reds. Scooter may be the closest thing on the team to a leader, with maybe Kemp being an enforcer. The bats will warm up, hopefully the fielding and fundamentals get a little better too. Bell really needs to lighten up a bit and not try to micromanage. What are you guys seeing so far?

I've never quite bought into the leader/enforcer thing much from press accounts. We really don't know enough to base this kind of talk on outside of what we might hear or read from the media. None of us are in the clubhouse, dugout day to day..
Plenty of fans we more than willing to see Scooter traded this past offseason for pitching and I'm not necessarily convinced he would have made that much of a difference. He's not known as a stellar defender, just a good hitter, but when the entire team is hitting anemically it's, well, anemic.. 
I tend to agree Bell has made a few odd moves I don't necessarily agree with, but they're not Price bad so far..I have a feeling he'll get a long leash though not as long as Price got..
One thing about manager moves is if they work he always looks like a genius. When they don't he always looks like an idiot.. It always works like that though..
The IF Senzel stays healthy might be a tad misleading because if everyone else starts hitting their weight the lineup's set and Senzel gets yet more time in Louisville. I'm actually OK with that because we still don't know how he'll fare with big league pitching nor as an everyday CFer ..as has been pointed out many times over many seasons spring training doesn't count.. The only thing that counts is the regular season and post season. Currently this team has some defensive liabilities. They really don't need more liabilities defensively and with precious actual CF experience you really have to count Senzel as a liability until proven otherwise. I'm also OK keeping financial control over him for an additional year. Who wants to see him become a big star only to leave the following season in free agency? (other than every fan of every other team)