Loading ...In Sunday’s Grapefruit League action, the Tampa Bay Devil Rays defeated the Reds 7-5. The Rays used a 4 run 6th inning to take a 6-0 lead. The Reds made the game close by tacking on 4 runs in the bottom half of the 9th inning for the final margin.
The Reds struggled offensively, recording just 7 hits compared to 15 by Tampa Bay. Tuffy Rhodes and Quentin McCracken each went 1 for 1 with a run scored. Edwin Encarnacion continues his stellar play at 3b, going 1-3 with another rbi. Encarncion now has 7 runs batted in to lead the Reds thus far in Spring Training. In 4 spring games thus far, Edwin is batting .500/.571-/1.417 for a combined OPS of 1.988. I’ll take that! 
Phil Dumatrait took the loss for the Reds. He went 2 innings, allowing 1 run on 2 hits and 2 walks. This was Phil’s first action of the year. Other Red notables who may be fighting for a spot on the staff were Chris Hammond who threw 1 scoreless inning, Jason Standridge who threw an inning, allowing 2 hits and a run, as well as Todd Coffey who pitched a scoreless 9th.
Boy, we’ve seen some terrible pitching thus far. It’s not encouraging.
What is exciting, however, is seeing Encarnacion continue to play well. He has to, or Narron would start Aurilia or Womack or someone. Heck, Narron still might.
How come Dunn wasn’t at 1b? I would have thought they’d want him as many reps as possible at his (relatively) new position.
According to the Reds and Jerry Narron, they wanted to get Hatteberg some more PT at first base as well as getting Dunn in as well. If both of these guys are guaranteed roster spots, I don’t see why Dunn isn’t at 1b either! Let Hatteberg DH if he’s mainly going to be a PH with limited 1b duties.
This is shaping up to be another one of those years where Wily Mo or Kearns is going to get shafted out of some PT.
Lets face it…no matter who the owner is, for some reason the Reds are inept at finding or bringing out of their system, good pitching. And our managers are horrible at putting out the best lineup possible.
Every time I feel a little hope, whoever the Reds manager is brings me back to reality with a stupid decision.
I’m afraid we might be in for more of the same, when if we had a decent manager or leadership in general, we could actually contend.
I’m willing to give the new ownership group and the new GM at least another week before condemning them under the same breath with prior regimes.
Seriously, there is a little bit of optimism in some of the 2005 picks that O’Brien made (more so than past years) and I’m willing to see what Krivsky does in his first full year. Let’s see how the draft goes, the in-season moves, the off-season moves. Those moves and trades will give us an idea of how he manages the major league roster and in a couple of years we will hopefully see the fruits of recent draft picks. He will make his fair share of mistakes, and won’t be perfect on all fronts, but I think I’m definitely willing to give him the benefit of the doubt.
Just a reminder…we as Reds fans have given the benefit of the doubt to some of the biggest losers in the world because we love baseball and want to win. Just saying, we might be in for more of the same. Hope not.
So just because the previous 2 owners were cheap and made terrible organizational and hiring decisions, Castellini and company are just more of the same?
I’m not saying that, what I’m saying is don’t get all giddy too soon. I believe he’s better, & will do better, but how much better. Remember, Homer Simpson could have run the team better than our previous group of leaders, so of course the new regime is better. How much better remains to be seen. So far…our pitching still sucks!!!