Loading ...
Let’s recap today’s titanic struggle….
FINAL
San Diego 4
Cincinnati 9
W: J. Cueto (14-5)
L: R. Ohlendorf (3-2)
BOX SCORE
POSITIVES
–My goodness. They just keep winning, don’t they? 13 of 14. That was a nice comfortable win, too. I don’t know about you, but I needed one like that.
–Plenty of offense today, but let’s give a special nod to Scott Rolen and his 3 for 4 afternoon. His second half stat line including today’s game: .364/.463/.491 (h/t Greg Dafler).
–Even if Rolen keeps hitting, they’re going to have to find a way to play Todd Frazier. He just keeps getting it done.
–Johnny Cueto gave up 4 runs (though it easily could have been 2), but that was still a very good start. He’s 14-5 now.
–Zack Cozart made an absolutely fantastic play (Cairo wasn’t too shabby either) to get Cueto out of the sixth. If you haven’t seen it, go take a look.
–Dusty Baker used two relief pitchers today. Ondrusek and Arredondo. We disagree with the Duster a lot here, but I like that decision. Those two are so erratic they should be the last ones out of the pen against Pittsburgh. Everyone else will be fresh now.
–Joey Votto was spotted taking ground balls today! He won’t be back for Pittsburgh, but a return is coming soon. Good news for Reds fans everywhere.
NEGATIVES
–None.
NOT-SO-RANDOM THOUGHTS
–Three in a row. What say they make it six by the end of the weekend? Seriously, I can’t underscore the importance of this series. Right now, the Reds are 3.5 up (Pirates are off tonight, so it will stay that way) and here’s how the weekend could play out. Pirates sweep: Reds half a game up. Reds win 1: 2.5 up. Reds win 2: 4.5 up. Reds sweep: 6.5 up.
–I still can’t believe the Reds and Pirates are playing meaningful games in August. I think both cities deserve it.
–Xavier Paul had a rough game today, so I went to take a close look at his stats (I had been irritated by all the people agitating for him after 15 plate appearances) and you know what? He has fantastic minor league numbers and not even a full season of ML at-bats. I have no idea if he’ll be good, but I don’t know why he keeps getting cut loose. You’d think someone would want to give him a real shot. He’s 27, so he should be hitting his prime right now.
–One of the things I find myself doing daily is heading over to Cool Standings to check their playoff odds. Right now, the Reds are listed as having a 91.4% chance of making the playoffs and a 58.6% chance of winning the division. Those will both go up a bit once they process this latest win. Fun stuff.
–The Reds are 23 over .500. The last time that happened was Sept. 4, 2010. If they get to 24 over, it will be the farthest they’ve been over .500 since 1999. They still have the best record in baseball. They are now on pace for 99 wins. They haven’t won that many since 1976.
Source: FanGraphs
I fully expect the Reds to take 2 out of 3 games from the Bucs this weekend and go up 4.5 games. I’m headed to the ballpark on Saturday and Sunday and am hoping to see Phillips back in the lineup and I hope Leake and Bailey bounce back and have great starts.
I’m so freaking pumped for this weekend! It’s time to kick the Pirates in the gut.
The Pirates have 2 LH pitchers scheduled to go this weekend, so that goes in the Reds right-handed favor.
That’s why Joey Votto is out, to get all the righties they can in the games against Wandy Rodriguez and Erik Bedard.
This may sound a little crazy, but after the Pirates series will the sports world be at the point where analysts both amateur and professional can start comparing the overall quality of this team to the Big Red Machine? It was before my time and the position players on the whole aren’t anywhere close to the ones in the 70s, but the pitching is best I think this team has seen in the live ball era/ever and the hitting is lighting up right now without the two big contracts on the field. Whether or not it happens, the guys on the roster think they will win 100 games, so more power to them.
Senator, I watched the Big Red Machine, I knew the Big Red Machine, the Big Red Machine were friends of mine. Senator, these guys are no Big Red Machine. Seriously, let’s see them win a post-season game or two before we start comparing.
Don’t think it would be a contest if they played. The hitters on the BRM would wear the current pitchers out. While they’re probably better pitchers than the BRM staff, aside from Cueto, they’re a collection of 3rd and 4th starters.
I don’t know if we can go that far. The BRM had 3 HOFers (including two who are arguably the greatest ever at their position), plus Pete, plus Concepion (marginal HOF candidate), a very underrated all around player in Griffey Sr., a player who led the NL in RBIs multiple times, hit 50+ HRs, and won an MVP (Foster), and the best defensive CF in the NL (Geronimo).
I was especially impressed with Cairo’s barehand turn and throw and Frazier digging it out. For our non-gold glove guys who rarely work together, it was a fantastic play. Those were obviously Padre announcers calling the play…
I said it in the game thread but it bears repeating:
I don’t think we’re going to have to wait very long before Cozart gets his first Gold Glove.
Zack Cozart made only his second career start hitting below second in the lineup and the replacement leadoff hitter went 0/5 with 4 strikeouts. I expect Cozart will be leading off again on Friday by default.
Ludwick, I hope he enjoyed a relaxing day off. Who needs Votto, Phillips, or Ludwick to beat up on another team anyway?
Cairo had 2 hits, nice.
The Reds need to improve the leadoff spot because they can’t score runs without a leadoff hitter… yet they keep pounding out runs lately anyway. They have to have the big hitters in the lineup or they can’t score runs but they keep having high scoring games. How’s that work?
I honestly can’t tell where the sarcasm is. I hope you aren’t saying that today was proof Cozart shouldn’t be moved down in the order.
I’m just saying that nobody should expect Cozart’s appearance down in the order to be a continuing trend, or even something that continues into this Pirates series.
I never thought Cozart was a good option for a leadoff hitter but I’ve usually felt that he’s just as good a candidate as his competition. Brandon Phillips got moved out of the leadoff spot due to a leg injury and he’s not moving back there to celebrate recovering from an unrelated leg injury. It’s unlikely to see Xavier Paul in the lineup against Pittsburgh. Back to Cozart, or Stubbs, by default.
How good are we against Wandy?
My memory says that Wandy started off really well against the Reds but that we have done quite well against him the past few starts.
@per14: That was an old team, too, which means fans kind of already knew those players were great. While I wouldn’t personally make the comparison between the two teams, you could say that Votto is on the HOF path, Phillips will probably have as much of a case as Davey when he retires. Chapman.. I don’t know what he is, but he’s certainly someone we could be looking at as HOF quality in 10 years. Maybe Bruce or Cueto as well (big maybes).
I’m not trying to make the comparison, just pointing out that we don’t know who these players will be at the ends of their careers.
@josephneely25: Well we just beat Wandy a couple weeks ago. Traditionally he’s been tough on us but he’s not having a great year.
@redsfanman: A fair bit of luck. Streaky players on good runs (see Stubbs, Drew). Also, the lineup doesn’t matter nearly as much as people pretend it does.
@per14: I said it was crazy, but I’m not talking about just the bats. The overall quality of the team includes pitching and defense, and I believe the Reds are at a statistical push in leading fielding and defense in the NL and they are 7th in batting and quickly climbing without the stars at bat every day. Seeing if these numbers will sustain over multiple years will probably matter more, but right now the Reds have the chip on the shoulder attitude of the ’10 team, the dominant pen pitching of the ’90 team and the surprise of the 99 team, which is still pretty awesome.
When your 1-2 hitters go 0-9 combined you dont normally win, that is a flaw that will hurt them come october.
This. I don’t put the credence into lineups as much as many on here do, except that I expect a high OBP guy at the top of the order. Don’t much care how the rest stacks up(with reason, of course).
I liked how someone suggested that Votto hit leadoff and score on a couple of ground outs. That’s probably a truthful statement given the history of our top three hitters this season.
@Jason Linden: I don’t think MOST of the batting order matters as much as people make it out to, but I do think that batting leadoff can tend to make struggling hitters press more and batting cleanup can make otherwise good contact hitters overswing. I also think that there is legitimate value in batting ahead of Joey. Cozart looked much more relaxed today in the 7 hole and Paul was hackign at EEEEEEEEVERYTHING in the 1 spot.
I’m pretty sure we’ll see Votto pinch hit before we’re done with Pittsburgh.
“Cool Standings … 91.4% chance of making the playoffs”
I’ve been watching on Baseball Prospectus, but the unbelievable thing is, the odds are virtually the same as they were 2 or 3 weeks ago. Baseball Prospectus especially refuses to give Pittsburgh any credit. They’re just now finally projected to finish over .500. And, except for a couple brief flip flops, they’ve consistently shown St Louis as having a better chance than Pittsburgh. Looks like whatever algorithm Baseball Prospectus uses puts more emphasis on RS/RA.
@Jared: St. Louis is WAAAAY underperforming their mathematically predicted results. They have one of the best run differentials in baseball and they’re 7.5 games out in the division. They’ve been EXTREMELY unlucky, and at this point in the season it may be too late for that to even out since I don’t think they’re really going to get substantially healthier. Plus we’re just killing it.
@eric nyc: It’s easier to look relaxed when you’re getting hits. Chicken or the egg?
I agree, and would go so far as to say that I think the significance of the cleanup hitter is half way between 3rd and 5th in the order. I think Saving your “RBI guy” to bat there is nonsense. Pick your favorite metric (OBP, OPS, OPS+, whatever) and bat your guys in that order top to bottom, with conservative adjustment based on L/R matchups.
Bill James said this back in the 70′s. Put your best hitter first, etc. Makes sense to me. I think it’s still not accepted partly because of the RBI mystique. That is, RBIs are more important somehow than runs, which makes no sense.
I agree that the RBI statistic is waaaay over hyped but I still think you are simplifying things too much. Just as it is not ideal to have your best hitter come up with 2 outs and no one on base, it is also not ideal to have your best hitter on first (or second) with two poor hitters hitting behind him.
Moreover, it also changes the equation if your best hitter is also a slugger. It would not surprise me if, on net, we would lose runs with Votto hitting his doubles and HRs behind the catcher and pitcher.
@eric nyc: A year ago everyone was saying the Reds’ run differential was a mirage. Maybe the Cards’ diff is this year. That one stat that matters though, we all like that one.
@Jared: It’s not just run differential. It’s WAR of individual players. THey’re getting really good seasons out of a lot of guys but the balls just aren’t bouncing the right way at the right time for them. I’ll take it every time…that’s baseball. But I understand why the stats say they should have a better record.
@Jared: If the Reds take the first two and they are down one run late on Sunday, I can tell you who everyone who has ever seen the wishbone C will expect to take an at-bat. MvottoP.
I also might make a bad manager because my lineup would probably just be OPS top to bottom every night, with little wavering. Hank Aaron’s advice couldn’t even change it.
@eric nyc: One of the things about St. Louis is that most of that run differential is from the first few weeks of the season. They were +65 on May 2nd and on July 15th, they were still +65. They’ve come on a lot lately, but that is a team that played very poorly and had a lot of injuries for quite a long time.
I’d really like to see a study (maybe one’s been done?) that looks at some kind of modified run differential. Specifically, (1) I’d like to see a cutoff, so that when you win 16-0 like the A’s did a while back, you don’t get 16 runs of credit. In such games often the mop up guys comes in, or Wilson Valdez, or whoever, to pitch. Or someone is left in forever to take a pounding. Or, (2) maybe you don’t count runs scored when your chance of winning (say via Fangraphs) is over some limit, like 98%. I’m just wondering if that would better predict record than the traditional run differential/pythag estimates.
@Jason Linden: I really agree. Reds seem to have one weakness, leadoff hitters don’t get on base enough, but the bullpen, defense, starting pitching and overall offense are all strengths. I’ll take that.
If you look at the standings right now, the Reds have 3 more wins than any other team in baseball.
@RichmondRed: With all the advanced stats and analysis, I’ve never seen a bit of evidence that there’s anything different about batting 4th than 3rd. You’re going to be my manager when I own the Reds.
I really think leading off with the Votto makes this lineup better. He gets a double like 90% of the time. After 2 ground outs it’s 1-0.
Well, we actually have anecdotal evidence to suggest this is not the best solution, as Votto has probably lead off as many innings this year as our lead-off hitter has.
@RiverCity Redleg:
That is an excellent observation and sways the argument for me.
Thanks for the clarity.
Just for funsies: Tomorrow Cairo starts at 1b, hitting 3rd in the lineup. When it’s his turn to bat in the first, Dusty calls him back, and #19 comes out of the dugout to a standing ovation. He hits a HR (of course), and the Buccos lose all aspiration for competing for the rest of the season.
@CaptainTonyKW: And Dusty prefers to sit Bruce against Wandy. I kinda hope not this time around: How can one ever even out the odds if he never gets the chance?
Yeah, I tend to agree with our current record. It can be a learning experience.
When is Joey officially off the DL?
@eric nyc: He’d be good to go any time now from a minimum 15 day perspective.
I may get beaned for this, but depending how this weekend goes, say we take 2/3, I would hope that would convince the Reds NOT to rush Votto back, even if it means an additional week and dare I say maybe a game or two in either Dayton or Louisville to get his swing back…
According to the Reds…Ondrusek has stranded his last 16 inhereited runners…not bad…
Pirates move AJ up a day…now going Sunday vs. our Reds…
I fully expected that.
Reds released former No. 1 pick Brett tomko from AAA today.
According to Mark Sheldon:
“The Pirates changed their rotation for the upcoming series. A.J. Burnett, and not Erik Bedard, will start on Sunday for Pittsburgh.”
@dn4192: I’m not fast enough.
Sorry to see Brett released…great guy and was pitching pretty well for Louisville this year. If he is released I wonder who is getting promoted?
Burnett or not Burnett.. the Bacos will get their bags pack and be out 4.5 games. The Reds are playing smarter baseball and they should take care of this immediate business. They will find a way to squeak it out 2 out of three from Los Bucos. Leake will rise to the occasion!
The Padres came here Roaring in but they left as the Madres!
@dn4192: You are right. Votto needs to make sure that he is 100% . It will be better in the long run for the REds to get in October and years to come.
I’m just hoping for two wins against the Pirates, with one of them coming Saturday in front of the sellout crowd, and a competitive game in the loss.
A sweep is expecting too much.
I recall Baker’s pre-game radio bit from yesterday: “Pete Rose asked before a game how many hits I had in me today. I said, ‘Oh, I feel I could get a 2 for 4 today.’ Pete got all over me, asking why I would just give away two at-bats. Maybe that’s why he’s got over 4,000 hits and I ended up with less than 2,000.”
Cliff Lee has been put on waivers. Just sayin’
Obviously we are picking him up. We even made room at AAA for Leake by releasing Tomko.
I heard we’re signing Lee and have coaxed Roger “Rocket” Clemens out of retirement and he’ll be starting on Sunday.
@RedLeg75: If I had any influence on the games, I’d want to win every one of them.
But I don’t. So I won’t be greedy.
The Reds can’t win every game, that is sure. Pete’s attitude of expecting to get four hits every day is what I take. Somebody once told me attitude is 90% of life. They might be right.
Todd Frazier once threw Roger Clemens past Jeter for a swinging strike.
So someone explain the waiver thing with Lee to me. If he’s claimed, does the rest of his 5 years/$20 million?
Absolutely. You assume the contract. Randy Myers went to SD that one year when SD claimed him to prevent a trade to someone, and the Cubs I think said, “here he is”. It also happened with Alex Rios. In the old days, no one claimed anyone because of “gentlemen’s agreement” (and Sandy Alderson terminated that tradition), and today, many aren’t claimed because of contracts.
http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/index.php/the-dodgers-should-claim-cliff-lee/
This explains a hypothetical very well.
That’s very interesting, and convinces me that the Dodgers should claim him also.
@Jason Linden:
Maybe the guy at Third has a shot at a few votes for the HoF, too?
Is it me or are the pictures on the main page of our site here are geting more and more well…racy?
Ya, know, I was hoping that was just not me. It’s a little embarassing when my 10 year old wants to share the blog over my shoulder. Just sayin’.
I also have a wife and two little boys running around the house here. Sometimes I look at the blog at work too.
There was a very provocative picture in the rotation earlier in the year, but it went away after a few weeks. Hopefully these will be gone soon.
Yeah, that ad was just brought to my attention earlier today. I will see about getting it removed when I get home from work tonight.
We use a third party for the ads, and sometimes a racy one gets by me. I usually reject any that aren’t family-friendly.
Sorry about that.
AJ Burnett and James McDonald are each 2-0 against the Reds this season… but neither has faced the Reds since early June. Surely both are due for a pounding. I was hoping to see Erik Bedard rather than AJ Burnett but whathchagonnadoaboutit.
On the other hand Wandy Rodriguez has a 6.35 ERA (.305 BAA) against the Reds this season.
McDonald has been struggling. Burnett hasn’t. I agree, I’d like to see all three of these guys take a pounding, though.
This is just a gut feeling, but I thought Bedard was due to have a solid game. He’s not what his numbers indicate. Although I don’t want to face Burnett, this might not all be bad.
You know, the later hours of the night are a lot duller without a Reds game to settle into. Wonder how many weekday day games we have left.
@Mwv: Three more in August, and four in Sept. (one of them Labor Day).
Hey all -
Sorry about the ads. Chad’s on it. They should be down before too long.
Yeesh, so 7 more mid-week day games. Oh well I guess, at least the Labor Day game won’t be hard to catch.
At least it wasn’t a wet Cubs t-shirt ad. That would have been objectionable on too many fronts.
Way to stay classy, Chad.
@Chad Dotson: Thanks, Chad. This is a site my teen-age boys and I (one a CARDS fan! big time failure on my part) can look at together and go back and forth on.
You’ll have that now and then. Teenagers have minds of their own, sometimes. As you and I both know.
Just back to Cliff Lee for a moment…
My understanding is that Lee is expected to clear waivers, and the Phillies are probably hoping to trade him, with the expectation they’d pay some of his salary. I assume the Reds aren’t going to get involved, but the idea of a Cueto, Latos, Chapman, Lee, and Bailey/Leake rotation next season is too hard not to fantasize about. That’s getting into Maddux/Smoltz/Glavine/Avery territory.
This season is simply WAY too much fun. My vote for the Reds MVP this season goes hands down to Big Bob. Remember back to spring training when clear out of the blue, WJ signs Votto to a monster contract and follows that up with the big contract for Phillips? That moment was the start of everything good that has happened this year. The image of Votto standing behind the batting cage and asking Big Bob if he was sure will forever remain my most poignant memory of this season. What ever happens for the rest of this season, thanks Big Bob.
Agreed. Signing Votto and Phillips long term did a good deal of good for the organization.
I think my 2 favorite things about the year so far are the huge signings to kick things off and then the absolute pleasure it has been to watch Frazier and Cozart in their rookie years up till now. Mostly Frazier but Cozart out in the field has done some spectacular things too. That double play today that went Cozart > Miggy > Frasier with an excellent play by all 3 of them just made me smile.
I wish I could be as optimistic about this weekend as a lot of you guys. No Cueto, and, without looking it up, it seems to me Pittsburgh has had the Reds’ number lately. And of course the biggest factor is the injuries – there HAS to be a price to pay for that sooner or later.
Maybe I enjoy the games more with lowered expectations, but that’s the way I see it.
@vared: 5-4 Bucs and all games took place in the month of June or earlier. It’s payback time.
Cardinals down 5-2 in the bottom of the 7th in Colorado!!!!
Scott Podsednik was released by the Dbacks today. He hit well for the Red Sox in 64 PAs – .387/.409/.484. LH bench bat who can fill in at all three outfield positions, hit leadoff, is cheap and veterany. Over/under the number of days before the Reds claim him? I say 2 days.
pretty good pinch-runner too, I would imagine.
@per14: I thought of this also and came to the simple conclusion that this team needs time and wins before any comparison to the BRM. Way too young of a team right now.
PHOENIX (AP) — Scott Podsednik has declined to accept assignment to Triple-A Reno and has been released by the Arizona Diamondbacks.
The 36-year-old outfielder and right-handed reliever Matt Albers were acquired from Boston at the trade deadline for lefty reliever Craig Breslow.
Podsednik hit .387 with one homer and seven RBIs for Boston after being acquired from Philadelphia for cash on May 11.
add another 1/2 game to the lead over St. Louis.
Cards lose 8-2. Now 8 1/2 games out. Saw a stat that said they had won 9 of 12 and lost 2 1/2 games in the standings. ouch.
They had all of those games early in the season against the NL Central, and with the injuries and all, they couldn’t take enough advantage. Remind me to cry for them later. Much later.
Paul’s performance today makes it clear that the Reds’ lead off spot is hexed. I think Milton the goat has something to do with it.
I love the way Cueto battles. Gives up a HR to a single A catcher in his first ML AB, a single to a relief pitcher, a GIDP is botched, and suddenly a 6-0 lead has turned into Alonso as the tying run at the plate. Cueto strikes him out and is in control the rest of the way.
I like the pitching matchups against the Pirates. Latos vs. Wandy is good. Leake vs. McDonald might look bad on the surface, but McDonald has struggled over his past 5 starts and has a poor road record.
Then there’s Bailey vs. Burnett, not so good but who knows. My gut tells me that Leake and Bailey bounce back after bad outings against the Padres.
I’m a little jittery though if BP is still out. And the Reds have to cool off a little at some point, hopefully not this weekend.
I like the pitching matchups as well.
The Reds have done well against Wandy lately, McDonald is regressing back to his norm, and Homer historically has thrown the ball very well against the Pirates. I think last time out he was knocked around pretty well by the Bucs, but he has otherwise had very, very good results against this lineup. Of course, so has everyone else in the league, historically, until this season.
If the Reds can at least take 2 of 3, that would help tremendously going forward. They would then put themselves 4.5 up, which means even one bad series, coupled with a winning Pirates series, doesn’t completely turn everything on its head.
@pinson343:
The first manager I ever saw go against the traditional speed in the leadoff spot and put high on base guys instead was Billy Hunter when he took over the Rangers in 1977- he went primarily with Mike Hargrove- he was a low percentage basestealer; but he could draw those walks.
I’m not impressed by the Cardinals run differential. Their record is worse than their Pythag because their bullpen is crappy, not because of bad luck. The Cardinals have been overrated since before the season even started, which is understandable I suppose for the defending WS champs, but people forget the Brewers won the NL Central (easily) last year.
The Cardinals rash of injuries was predictable. Berkman has hurt his knee again. With Carpenter out and Wainwright not himself yet, their pitching staff is way overrated. I could go on.
The Cardinals have a lot of position player depth, otherwise ho hum. BTW I said this on RLN in early May, with the media already declaring the Cardinals the 2012 NL Central champions.
Three people responded (none of the current regulars), all of whom said I was dreaming if I thought the Reds could challenge the Cardinals.
One thing I meant to comment on earlier, regarding Phillips going back to leadoff, or NOT going back to leadoff: In Dusty’s world, the leadoff guys have to have blazing speed. But the first three or four months of this season, have the Reds been stealing bases very much, even with Cozart/Stubbs up there? No, of course not, and largely because they can’t get on base consistently.
I understand the idea that Dusty doesn’t want Phillips reinjuring his legs while trying to steal bases, but why not let Phillips bat higher in the order, as he apparently wants to do, but just flat-out tell him not to try to steal bases? At least if he’s on base and forced to take more of a station-to-station approach, there’s a chance he can score. Heck, you don’t have to run hard when Votto or Ludwick or Frazier really launch one!!!
@pinson343:
“Paul’s performance today makes it clear that the Reds’ lead off spot is hexed”
This is clearly the case. Reds players season OBP vs. OBP when batting 1st in the line-up:
Cozart 287/256
Phillips 336/240
Stubbs 307/226
Heisey 316/262
Paul 600/0
One last point on the BRM vs this team…the BRM’s pitching was vastly underrated and above league average nearly, if not, every season. It wasn’t a “weak spot” as many like to say in retrospect. And the hitting…well, it was just fun.
There is a a case to me made that Rolen should be moved up in the lineup, perhaps to the two hole. He is getting on base at a .463 clip in the second half and he can still move. I am sure his OBP will come back down, but he is having good at bats and taking walks.
A big part of the reason Ryan Hanigan doesn’t hit higher lineup is his speed, or lackthereof, and Scott Rolen has the same problem. Neither can score from first on a double or from second on a single. I think both hitters will remain where they have all season.
@redsfanman: They way Scotty is going I would place him second in the line-up. At least for the weekend and if BP can’t go. I’m so high on Drew right now, that I would love to see this line-up tonight:
Stubbs – cf
Rolen- 2B
Bruce – rf
Ludwick – lf
Frazier – 1B
Cozart – ss
Cairo/Valdez – 2b
Hanigan – c
Latos – p
A couple of points:
Rolen I believe has average speed but is a savvy base-runner.
Obviously, like to see Hanigan in the 7th spot and move the 2b to 8th but you know……….
Expect Cairo to have a decent game and series. Can’t imagine he comes back in 2013 and this is time to shine one more time.
To me this is a huge game for Mat Latos and I would would bet on him coming through big. Probably the biggest game of his lifetime. Good luck, Mat!
Is it just me: doesn’t this feel like a play-off game?
Hope the house is packed & loud.
Dusty has not maligned his speed – it was the fact Hannigan doesn’t play everydat which means no consistency for the top of the order.
As for Rolen, if only his shoulder were as healthy as his legs – he still looks great on the basepaths.
Dusty has always shown a preference for speedy runners at the top of the lineup. Dusty has rarely, if ever, criticized Rolen or Hanigan for anything but they’re still the slowest runners on the team. Guys who end the inning standing at third base because weren’t fast enough to score a run on a hit. Personally I think they’re both a double play waiting to happen when they’re on first. As I said, I expect them to return to their regular spots in the order rather than move up.
I find that case persuasive for multiple reasons. It allows Stubbs (or Phillips) to man the top spot and keeps Cozart as an above average 6 or 7 hole hitter. Rolen has not displayed the power necessary to flourish at his historical 4 or 5 spot and Lucwick/Frazier are looking like solid candidates to split the lefties.
The 64K question is where and how often does Todd Frazier play in a week?
@Chad Dotson: Not so fast Chad. I was still hoping to find out what the #1 food I should avoid is.
Dodger Dogs and Iron City Beer.
The Reds are streaking, the Cards are fading, and the main divisional competition are the Pirates.
Sit back and enjoy! Finally a good time to be a Reds fan!
After all the years of suffering, S W E E T !!!
@CaptainTonyKW:
I agree, though if he more power Id bat him third ’til JMVP returns.
“Greatness is not measured by what a man or woman accomplishes, but by the opposition he or she has overcome to reach his goals.”
The Pirates have been fantastic this year. Glad to see it. I think the two teams push each other to greatness.
A little perspective about the Cardinals, they may be 8.5 games back, but they would be thick in the battle for 1st place if they were in the West. Weak division?
Cards got the same problem they did last year until they strangely got good for a few weeks, their bullpen is pretty bad especially outside Boggs and Motte. If they have to go to the pen in the 6th or 7th, it’s just not good. Outside those two their bullpen guys, they got high ERAs and walk a ton of people. That is the real reason they don’t live up to their run differential.
OK I’m just going to go on a tiny little rant for a second. It really pisses me off to see Pittsburgh make the very smart move to shuffle their rotation and get AJ Burnett into this weekend’s series when it could have been so easy for us to do the same with Cueto. It’s smart managing and I’ve been saying all week that Dusty should push Cueto back a day ala Tony LaRussa. I’m firmly of the “every win counts” mentality and as it turned out we really did need Cueto to have a good game yesterday, but managing your rotation to get your ace into the big games is something that elite managers do and I think we all know Dusty Baker is not an elite manager. Pittsburgh is clearly taking this series seriously and Dusty is content to just see what happens.
Yep, every game counts, including those against the San Diego Padres. The Pirates know they have to win this series or fall further behind in the division while to the Reds this is just another game of a 162 game season. Pitching a guy on three days rest (AJ Burnett) because you don’t have faith in another starting pitcher to win games only looks smart if he wins, and that has yet to be determined. They got this far with the help of Erik Bedard but they don’t trust him to face a winning team. Maybe that’s elite managing on the Pirates part, maybe the Pirates manager is just scared of the Reds.
Pittsburgh is pursuing the Reds, playing well for weeks and continually losing ground in the division. I don’t blame the Pirates for taking this series more seriously than others.
Sorry Eric couldn’t disagree more on a number of counts.
First AJ is in fact going on what would be his normal day to pitch as the Pirates had yesterday off, so they are not “pushing” him or anything.
Second Pitchers don’t like to have their days switched, they like to keep on a regular schedule. had you switched Cueto, you are not screwing with his schedule but with whatever pitcher would have had to pitch in his spot on Thursday.
Third, what does that tell your other pitchers? I think this is a vote of confidence to them saying, hey these games are important and we trust you to go out and do the job.
Sorry but I think the Reds and Dusty did the right thing.
@eric nyc:
I respectfully disagree about changing the rotation for the Weekend Series, this time, at least. Cueto is our stopper. In this case he stopped the early use of the bullpen. I think that was important enough to keep to the regular rotation.
Anyway, we don’t disagree all that much, and we do agree on DBaker’s ahem, qualities as a manager.
I am going to the game w/my 7yo. I will be up by the Kroger K’s. You can’t miss me asI will be wearing a red shirt.
@seat101: Lucky Dog!
Called my 14 year old nephew after the big win yesterday and told him we be flying to Cincy in September to catch a weekend series. And if they make the playoffs, we will be back. WS, the same. We came up for the 3-game sweep of the Cards, in June last year, so hopefully we will get as lucky. I’m 51 and don’t know how many great Red teams I’m liable to see. Striking while the iron is hot!
Looking for strong outing from Mr. Latos tonight. Actually dominating.
Go Reds!
@seat101: Lucky Dog!
Called my 14 year old nephew after the big win yesterday and told him we be flying to Cincy in September to catch a weekend series.And if they make the playoffs, we will be back.WS, the same.We came up for the 3-game sweep of the Cards, in June last year, so hopefully we will get as lucky.I’m 51 and don’t know how many great Red teams I’m liable to see.Striking while the iron is hot!
Looking for strong outing from Mr. Latos tonight.Actually dominating.
Go Reds!
@CharlotteNCRedsFan:
I am 58 next Friday. I fell out of love w/baseball when it went to the three division format and had no real coaching talent in the minos and the front office was clueless.
My eldest, now 10, fell in love w/baseball and brought me along. Love it more than ever now.
Rolen at 3B!
@CharlotteNCRedsFan: I love that lineup. Literally, I want to propose to it.
Can anyone who knows Dusty convince him to post the lineup card early so we have something to talk about?
Just wondering..if you had to pick, which team has it been tougher on mentally since the ASB?
The Reds who have played all but 3 games without Votto, put up a 10 game winning streak and something like 13 our of 16 but have not been able to add to their lead in the division…
or
The Pirates who are for the most part healthy and have played pretty good baseball also since the ASB and in fact have lost about a game or so in teh standing?
Who NEEDS this weekend series more?
Anything outside of a sweep for either team and no real ground will be made up or lost…
Also..can anyone remember the last time an August matchup between the Pirates and Reds actually ment something?
@dn4192: Burnett wasn’t scheduled to pitch and then they changed it. Sounds like they made a move to me.
I don’t think any pitcher on this team has any doubts about who the ace is. If Mike Leake gets bumped for Johnny Cueto I think he’d understand perfectly. I just remember LaRussa doing this all the time. The big difference was he’d start planning it weeks out so that it wasn’t a matter of swapping starts a couple days before, the rotation was aligned to coincide the way he wanted with big series. i guess you could speculate that maybe Dusty did that and Johnny’s blister issue a couple weeks ago screwed up the plan, but I don’t think any of us are going to give Dusty that much credit.
You are correct at first listings AJ was not scheduled to pitch, but again you are not changing his scheduled to have him pitch on Sunday, that is his normal day to pitch after 4 off days.
If you moved Cueto to say tonight, who would have pitched on thursday vs. the Padres? Would you have forced Latos to go on 3 days rest and mess with him? Would you have gone with Lecure and hoped for the best? Who would you have pitched on Thursday?
Again, IF you don’t have the faith in your other pitchers to man up in big games you have HUGE issues.
The Pirates didn’t make a move to switch the rotation; after Thursday’s off day Burnett will still be going on a regular 4 days rest while Bedard is either skipped or moved back a day.
Skipping a guy’s rotation spot following an off day and running a guy out on 3 days rest just to avoid a certain pitcher are different things. The first option is messing with a guy’s schedule and possibly health, the second is just a matter of hurting somebody’s feelings.
The scheduling of Cueto starts was messed up with that blister problem and they’re not going to correct it by rushing him ahead.
Rolen can still go first to third on a single.
Dusty’s in-game moves and lineup construction skills leave me shaking my head more often than not. That said, it floors me how he isn’t given any credit for how this team has been playing. People in and around baseball seem to think he’s a pretty good manager and if the Reds make a deep playoff run, he’s back on a 3-year deal.