Red Reposter - Reds Rarely Rack Runs vs ‘Rats
Some news and links and such about the Reds
Losing two of three to the Pirates is kinda like losing your fingernails. It’s never a good sign. But while dropping a series to them has been an undeniable mark of an ailing ballclub for a good while now, I’m not so irritated by it as I usually am. There’s some bits in there to feel okay about. Namely, the pitching.
Nicky LoDown and Red Greene were both down with the sickness, throwing 131⁄3 innings between them while striking out 17, giving up just one run, and walking zero. Zero walks is really, really cool. Carson Spiers threw five solid innings himself, but also one kinda bad one where it took a bit for him to straighten up. Alls that to say that the Reds’ young rotation is progressing unabated. That’s good news.
Also the Pirates’ young rotation, guys, jeez. Seeing Paul Skenes for real for the first time was something. He’s such a little baby kid still and he’s already that guy. I don’t ever wanna see that guy again but also I’m kinda rarin’ to see Elly and the Redboys have a go at him a few times a year. Bailey Falter and Mitch Keller each threw seven strong innings in their starts as well. So yeah it kinda sucks to lose two of three to the Pirates in much the same way discovering a living bug in your ear does, but at least the baseball was good. This could be a fun little rivalry over the next few years if the fates allow.
Unfortunately, the loss yesterday shook them down to last place in the Central Division, now nine games behind the Brewers. There’s 11⁄2 games between them and the second-place Cardinals and the Wild Card. It’s one of them years, I suppose. Teams that currently have 35 or 36 wins in the National League: Nationals, Mets, Cardinals, Pirates, Cubs, Reds, Diamondbacks, Giants. Throw in the Padres (38 wins) and that’s the Wild Card over the next few months. It’ll be interesting to keep an eye on what happens to all these teams over the next few months. These clubs might all be at the same spot in the standings as of now, but under extraordinarily different circumstances. The Nationals are rebuilding and got here much by accident. Jesse Winker and Nick Senzel are carrying much of the load in the lineup. Dylan Floro and Derek Law are anchoring the bullpen. It’s weird, you guys. It certainly won’t last. I’m not worried about them.
The Mets were a disaster until ALL OF THE SUDDEN they won 11 of 14 and here they are. Baseball-Reference gives em about a 50/50 shot at making the postseason at this point, which has me three or four different shades of skeptical. I’m not worried about them either.
The Cardinals drink toilet water, the Cubs have Shota Imanaga who is legitimately cool, and the Pirates seem like they might be a step behind the Reds in the development process (I sure hope so anyway). The Diamondbacks took their jam party all the way to the World Series last season and Zac Gallen should be back for them soon, so there’s no counting them out. The Giants have that west coast Cardinals toilet magic smell to ‘em so you always gotta keep your eye on them. The Padres though, I mean, who is ever worried about the Padres?
I guess my whole point here is that the Reds are in a decent position to make the next three months (and years) a lot more interesting. We got roughly six weeks to the trade deadline.
Injuries and Such
Charlie Scrabbles’ Favorite Baseball Player, TJ Friedl, was out of the lineup again with his hamstring barking a bit. It might be one of those things where they keep saying “we want to avoid the IL” and he ends up sitting out for nearly two weeks anyway and then finally goes on the IL and ends up missing over a month. Maybe I’m being dramatic. Also in there, they still don’t really know what’s up with CES’ hand and Matty McBangs is still on skedge to be back some time in August.
Draft Watch
The draft is coming up and because of the new weird draft lottery rules the Reds get the second pick again. They got both Nick Senzel and Hunter Greene with the #2 pick there a while back, so they aren’t unfamiliar with this territory. There seems to be two top prospects in this draft, with a pair of college hitters drawing the top grades. Travis Bazzana plays 2B at Oregon State and was the Cape Cod League MVP last summer. He has a cool name because he’s from Australia. His arm might restrict him to 2B/LF, but most folks think he’ll hit plenty. The other dude is a big ol’ galoot out of Georgia. Charlie Condon hit 37 home runs this season, more than anyone since the NCAA changed up all the bat rules. The word is that the Guardians aren’t sure which one they’ll take at #1, so the Reds will likely take the other. Either way, I’m excited.
Another interested draft bit - The draft combine is going on down at Chase Field in Arizona. Note the StatCast leaderboard here.
That’s an unknown high school catcher from Canada who can slug the tar outta the ball.