Power Rankings - Reds 20th

[Wire22Wire]

After their once every 7 year 'Give it all we got' run:

Too Early power rankings have us in the bottom half of the league. Right where we belong.

20. Cincinnati Reds
2020 record: 31-29
Lost Wild Card Series to Braves
2021 title odds: 25-1

The Reds sneaked into the playoffs as a wild card with a late surge, but the team embarrassingly exited with two shutouts to the Braves, including a 13-inning defeat. The Reds have morphed into the most extreme example of a "three true outcomes" offense we've seen in this launch-angle era. They ranked fourth in the NL in home runs and first in walks, but hit a pathetic .212. The entire package added up to ranking just 13th in the NL in runs, then you dig deeper and realize they hit 55 home runs at home and 35 on the road, so much of their power was simply a result of their home park. It's a bad offense, and I'm not sure it improves much in 2021. Trevor Bauer is a sure bet to sign elsewhere as a free agent, and we still don't know if Nick Senzel is the solution in center field or an injury-prone role player.

Bad Offense
Starting Pitching will be worse
Avg Pen
Bad Manager

Pen down 2026 - That could be another barn burner run where we flirt w .500

[Wire22Wire]

Lol - Oops. Sorry, thought this was reds sub forum. Idiot alert

Plz move if possible or delete. Apologies!

[*ochocincos*]

(10-29-2020, 12:24 PM)Wire22Wire Wrote: After their once every 7 year 'Give it all we got' run:

Too Early power rankings have us in the bottom half of the league.  Right where we belong.

20. Cincinnati Reds
2020 record: 31-29
Lost Wild Card Series to Braves
2021 title odds: 25-1

The Reds sneaked into the playoffs as a wild card with a late surge, but the team embarrassingly exited with two shutouts to the Braves, including a 13-inning defeat. The Reds have morphed into the most extreme example of a "three true outcomes" offense we've seen in this launch-angle era. They ranked fourth in the NL in home runs and first in walks, but hit a pathetic .212. The entire package added up to ranking just 13th in the NL in runs, then you dig deeper and realize they hit 55 home runs at home and 35 on the road, so much of their power was simply a result of their home park. It's a bad offense, and I'm not sure it improves much in 2021. Trevor Bauer is a sure bet to sign elsewhere as a free agent, and we still don't know if Nick Senzel is the solution in center field or an injury-prone role player.

Bad Offense
Starting Pitching will be worse
Avg Pen
Bad Manager

Pen down 2026 - That could be another barn burner run where we flirt w .500

I'd like for the Reds to not have their entire offense be a bunch of Adam Dunns.
While the HRs are exciting, they don't knock in many runs with regular base hits.
Winker was the only player with 70+ AB to have over .250 average, and it was just .255.

They can still win with their pitching staff without Bauer but they need to get on base more and get that BA up.

[*TheLeonardLeap*]

(10-29-2020, 12:33 PM)ochocincos Wrote: I'd like for the Reds to not have their entire offense be a bunch of Adam Dunns.
While the HRs are exciting, they don't knock in many runs with regular base hits.
Winker was the only player with 70+ AB to have over .250 average, and it was just .255.

They can still win with their pitching staff without Bauer but they need to get on base more and get that BA up.

An entire offense of Adam Dunns would be outstanding. Provided they were Cincinnati Adam Dunns, not late career Adam Dunns.

As a Red, Dunn hit a career .247/.380/.520 (.900 OPS)... he was 30% above league average. 


You have an entire team that averages 29 doubles/40 homers/114 walks per 162 games and you'll win all of the games.... I mean that'd be 360 homers on a team when the top 3 seasons for team HRs were 307, 306, and 288 (all in the juiced ball 2019 season) all while having a team .380 on base percentage (I think it'd be a record as well).


Sign me up for 9 actual Cincinnati Reds Adam Dunns. The defense will be atrocious, but they'll destroy the crap out of all the offensive recordbooks.



- - - - - --
TLDR: Adam Dunn was way too good for you to be disparaging him by calling the 2020 Reds a team of Adam Dunns.

[*ochocincos*]

(10-29-2020, 01:26 PM)TheLeonardLeap Wrote: An entire offense of Adam Dunns would be outstanding. Provided they were Cincinnati Adam Dunns, not late career Adam Dunns.

As a Red, Dunn hit a career .247/.380/.520 (.900 OPS)... he was 30% above league average. 


You have an entire team that averages 29 doubles/40 homers/114 walks per 162 games and you'll win all of the games.... I mean that'd be 360 homers on a team when the top 3 seasons for team HRs were 307, 306, and 288 (all in the juiced ball 2019 season) all while having a team .380 on base percentage (I think it'd be a record as well).


Sign me up for 9 actual Cincinnati Reds Adam Dunns. The defense will be atrocious, but they'll destroy the crap out of all the offensive recordbooks.



- - - - - --
TLDR: Adam Dunn was way too good for you to be disparaging him by calling the 2020 Reds a team of Adam Dunns.

Ok you're being nitpicky. I'm referring to the fact Dunn didn't have a great BA.
With Dunn (at least in later years), it felt like it was a bomb or an out.
That's what it felt like this year with the Reds' hitters.

[Murdock2420]

What are the odds that Bauer returns?

He has said he only wants to sign a one year contract for the rest of his career.

Also said he has't had this much fun playing baseball since college, so any chance this guy picks fun over the mega millions?

[*TheLeonardLeap*]

(10-29-2020, 01:29 PM)ochocincos Wrote: Ok you're being nitpicky. I'm referring to the fact Dunn didn't have a great BA.
With Dunn (at least in later years), it felt like it was a bomb or an out.
That's what it felt like this year with the Reds' hitters.

Nah, just gotta defend Dunn from historical revisions.

.380 OBP with the Reds is VERY good. Not even touching his elite power.

Dunn's main problem was simply that the NL didn't have the DH. That's actually my biggest sports take hill that I will gladly die on: David Ortiz is just Adam Dunn if he had the DH the entire time.

You add the wear and tear of 11,300 defensive innings in the rain/sun/heat/cold and all the time dedicated to practicing defense and time spent thinking about defense (which would also take away energy and time to better perfect your offense) and I guarantee you Ortiz has a lesser and shorter career that looked a lot like Dunn's.

[*ochocincos*]

(10-29-2020, 01:39 PM)TheLeonardLeap Wrote: Nah, just gotta defend Dunn from historical revisions.

.380 OBP with the Reds is VERY good. Not even touching his elite power.

Dunn's main problem was simply that the NL didn't have the DH. That's actually my biggest sports take hill that I will gladly die on: David Ortiz is just Adam Dunn if he had the DH the entire time.

You add the wear and tear of 11,300 defensive innings in the rain/sun/heat/cold and all the time dedicated to practicing defense and time spent thinking about defense (which would also take away energy and time to better perfect your offense) and I guarantee you Ortiz has a lesser and shorter career that looked a lot like Dunn's.

I'm a fan of the DH. I hate seeing pitchers hit.
If the NL didn't have a DH this year, we probably wouldn't have seen Winker nearly as much, and as such may not have made the playoffs.

[Murdock2420]

(10-29-2020, 01:48 PM)ochocincos Wrote: I'm a fan of the DH. I hate seeing pitchers hit.
If the NL didn't have a DH this year, we probably wouldn't have seen Winker nearly as much, and as such may not have made the playoffs.

Was a lot of talk that the universal DH may stick around even after Covid, which would be a great thing in my opinion.

Need to move one of the OF guys to first and let Votto do some of the DH work as he gets older.

[RiverRat13]

The Reds were more Rob Deer (low BA, low OBP, decent SLG) than Adam Dunn (low BA, high OBP, high SLG).

[QueenCity]

Reds are just like the Bengals they hang onto their stars way too long... must be a Cincinnati thing.

We need an elite 1st baseman... Votto has been finished for the last few years if anything you move him full-time to DH.

For the love of God get someone who can hit 300 average. I went back about a month ago and looked at how many hitters hit 300 over the last 20 years. I think I counted 3 players... Votto, Scooter and Brandon Phillips.

[Forever Spinning Vinyl]

I'd like to see a full season from Akiyama. The Reds started rolling when he was moved back into the lead off spot. He started battling every at bat instead of just being overwhelmed like early in the season.

Think about it.

New culture
New language
No fellow Japanese players on the team
No family - I really feel this also had as much to do with Suarez' struggles as his recovery from his shoulder injury
Covid
Oh yeah . . . facing Major League pitchers for the first time.

All that and he's still a finalist for a gold glove.

They still need more hitters and less sluggers, but Akiyama really looked the part of a leadoff hitter as the season started winding down. It kind of makes me wonder what he could have done if they played 102 more games

[fredtoast]

Weird thing is that it is not like we had a bunch of really bad hitters. We just had several guys who had "off years". Look at the difference in OPS from '19 to this year for these key starters

Castellanos... (-.218) 1.002 to .784
Suarez......... (-.149) .930 to .781
Senzel.......... (-.138) .742 to .604
Moustakas..... (-.046) .845 to .799