Spring Training good bad and ugly

[*bengalfan74*]

(02-29-2020, 06:03 PM)samhain Wrote: I expect Garcia to start the year at AA.  There's no reason to rush his development over a great spring performance.  

The positive I'm taking from his terrific play is what the team has to look forward to in the coming years.  The team spent big this offseason and maintained almost all of their prospects, save Trammell.  They have a decent amount of top end talent that's young and controllable.  Unlike the last time they were good, the cupboard won't be bare if the current roster warrants a sell-off when players like Castillo are up for big contracts.

I agree

[grampahol]

(02-29-2020, 08:51 PM)bengalfan74 Wrote: Good: Tomorrow is another day

Bad: Well Castillo didn't look all that great, again. Gave up leadoff triple then wild pitched him home. Put two on base after two outs in 2nd. Aquino doesn't have a hit yet in 9 AB's with 3 K's and still seems to be swinging away at the low and outside pitch. Jankowski pulled up limping on double, looked like hammy ?

Ugly: Iglesias got rocked for 4 runs including a moon shot 2 run homer in 2/3 of an inning.

Todays game was an abortion of an attempt at winning baseball. It happens.. That 5th inning was rough.. Started out with that wild throw from Casali kind of stated it off followed by the dinger, the throw to 3rd that landed in LF then they brought in Rasial in the 5th...never a good idea.. It was as if every Reds player and Bell was drunk by the 4th or 5th inning.. I'm hopeful they all begin hitting well, but it feels like a repeat of the start of 2019 is about to happen. I hope I'm just being pessimistic..

[grampahol]

(02-29-2020, 06:03 PM)samhain Wrote: I expect Garcia to start the year at AA.  There's no reason to rush his development over a great spring performance.  

The positive I'm taking from his terrific play is what the team has to look forward to in the coming years.  The team spent big this offseason and maintained almost all of their prospects, save Trammell.  They have a decent amount of top end talent that's young and controllable.  Unlike the last time they were good, the cupboard won't be bare if the current roster warrants a sell-off when players like Castillo are up for big contracts.

AA or maybe eventually AAA. I can see him in the bigs by next year possibly, but yeah..No need to rush him too much. I hope he doesn't end up as a trade chip only to become a big star elsewhere..

[*bengalfan74*]

(02-29-2020, 11:10 PM)grampahol Wrote: Todays game was an abortion of an attempt at winning baseball. It happens.. That 5th inning was rough.. Started out with that wild throw from Casali kind of stated it off followed by the dinger, the throw to 3rd that landed in LF then they brought in Rasial in the 5th...never a good idea.. It was as if every Reds player and Bell was drunk by the 4th or 5th inning.. I'm hopeful they all begin hitting well, but it feels like a repeat of the start of 2019 is about to happen. I hope I'm just being pessimistic..

I've gotten that vibe a couple times myself. Let's hope it's just working the rust off.

[grampahol]

(03-01-2020, 08:24 AM)bengalfan74 Wrote: I've gotten that vibe a couple times myself. Let's hope it's just working the rust off.

Neil Young made it abundantly clear.. Rust never sleeps. Once you're gone you can never come back.. Of course he may have been wrong.. It wasn't however a baseball reference..

[grampahol]

Back to Garcia.. I hope getting excited about an up and coming SS for the Reds is a harbinger of good things to come. The last SS they had I felt any excitement over was Cozart and that didn't last long and didn't rise to the level of Larkin excitement. The Reds are overdue to land a superstar SS under team control for awhile. In an ideal world he takes AA or AAA by storm, comes up to the bigs sooner than later making everyone say, "Fransisco Who?". How cool would it be to have a great fielding SS who hits over .300 with plenty of power to boot under team control more than a single season?  I dunno..maybe I'm putting the cart before the horse, but the last thing I want to see is a budding superstar SS blocked by a middling SS and see his best years squandered in the minor leagues only to elect free agency before he gets to be OUR superstar.. That would suck with a capital S...and by the way..I'm kind of feeling the same towards Stephenson behind the plate. I can't help myself. I'm always going to hope for the greatest players of a generation or two with the Reds. I think I inherited the Reds homerism gene from my grandfather.

[*bengalfan74*]

I only got to watch like 1st inning and a half yesterday but Miley didn't look good. Votto and Aquino still don't have a hit.

[*bengalfan74*]

Good: Hey Joey Votto got at hit ! Yeeeeeee Haaaaaaaa Winker had 2 runs 2 hits 2 RBI Dietrich had a hit, sac fly 3 RBI's Both Gray and Bauer had pretty good pitch line.

Bad: Aquino still batting .000

[Yojimbo]

Any word on why Castellanos hasn’t played in a week?

[*bengalfan74*]

(03-03-2020, 01:46 PM)Yojimbo Wrote: Any word on why Castellanos hasn’t played in a week?

The announcers were saying Moustakas was on baby leave and Castellanos was sick if I recall correctly ? Think that was Sunday ? They didn't say what.

[*bengalfan74*]

Reds playing Brewers today at 3 on Fox Sports and Castillo is due to pitch. I'd really like to see him have a good outing, he's been beat around pretty hard thus far ! 13.50 ERA

Castillo did a lot better pitching 3 innings of 1 run ball, I believe giving up 2 hits and striking out 4 ?

[*bengalfan74*]

Good: Kuhnel has yet to give up a run in 4 two thirds innings. Akiyama is batting .300 in 20 at bats. Garcia despite going 0-3 is still hitting .333 and leads the team in RBI's 6


Bad: India has only 1 hit in 15 at bats thus far. Aquino in 17 at bats has only managed 1 hit .059 while striking out 7 times. Aquino, Dietrich, Schebler and Votto are in a 4-way tie for the strike out honors thus far.


Ugly: Miley got curb stomped, again ! Giving up 4 runs in 2 and a third on 2 hits including a tater and 4 walks. His ERA is now 17.8 I keep telling myself it's early but him and Iglesias are concerning me a good bit.

[*bengalfan74*]

Castillo and Mahle getting the starts today in SS action. Be nice to see both have strong outings.

Miley is worrying me a bit and it would be nice to have a plan B = Mahle

[*bengalfan74*]

Well lets go with it's just spring training and doesn't mean anything with Castillo. Lodolo made his spring debut and it wasn't good either.