More inertia

[JohnU]

I guess Dusty's small-ball concept of 4 solo home runs is fine.

Can the rest of these guys actually hit?

 

[bengaldoug]

For a few innings there we made Charlie Morton look like Bob Gibson.......

 

[JohnU]

Getting 4 hits against anybody is a travesty. The longer this butthead Jacoby is the hitting coach, the longer we will wait to see the Reds succeed.

Blew another chance to gain on the Birdlegs tonight.

 

[Redsfan1507]

Morton is a bum. Maybe unworthy of a scouting report, or maybe the Reds are just too cool for school. Plate approach looked more like a hot dog eating contest that a team with a playoff plan, except they dropped a few in addition to trying to digest everything thrown at them. Pathetic performance.

 

[chico ruiz]

you disparaging hot dog eating contests? you ever seen one of those up-close and personal?
in the immortal words of dick enberg, "oh my!" simply does not seem humanly possible. i laughed so hard one year that i almost had to taken away in a ambulance. anyway, i'll play along. takeru 'choo' kobayashi and joey 'votto' chestnut. arguably our 2 best eaters.

 

[Redsfan1507]

Is like for Reds hitters to select something not on the pitchers menu against a good team. The Reds look better when the opposition makes 6 mistakes, and the Reds capitalize on half of them. Seems like against teams that win half the time, it's the Reds making the mistakes. Latos settled down well enough to get a bunch of K's- mostly on swings out of the zone, but the Reds did little to help themselves at the plate- put a lot of balls in play on pitchers pitches not deep in the count. Hopefully, the Reds will recover tonight with 3-4 HR and be able to score 3-4 runs.

 

[chico ruiz]

ah come on 1507. i thought you said you have a sense of humor. this is the middle of the season. for crying out loud, the marlins won a series against the cardinals. fernandez was throwing hooks that made card hitters look silly, and nolasco only allowed them 3 hits.

 

[Redsfan1507]

I do have a sense of humor...And It isn't that I think losing a series is the end of the season, but losing MOST of the series against .500 teams is a pretty good indicator the problem is chronic and systemic.

I only limp after walking 18 holes of golf, so i think i know what aggrivates it. I have limited ability fix the root cause (arthritis and age), and refuse to give up golf, so I RIDE instead of walk now...all better. You are correct about my allergy to Dusty. He just insists on limping..... I have a really optimistic and happy life when not exposed to him. He may be the root cause of 95% of my incredibly low frustration. He is older than me by about 10 years, so I am optimistic I'll see him go before I do. I try to look at it as a competition, in a mentally ill sort of way. I'm glad I make you laugh, and I wi try to get off the Dusty bitching spree. It's annoying, even to me.

 

[JohnU]

The number that Thom gave last night was that the Reds are last in the league in batting average on a first pitch swing. That's micromanaging the at-bat probably but compared to the Cardinals, it's .260 to .360 ... so it's a stat that carries a margin of value.

I did see that Cozart decided to take one last night and it was down the middle, a perfect pitch to hit. So the next question is: Are Reds hitters tipping their hand? Pitchers seem to know what to throw on the first pitch against a team that hacks at anything resembling a round object.

Getting 4 hits is an abomination.

 

[Redsfan1507]

It is a yelling stat. If I was creating a scouting report for my pitchers on both teams it would look like this:

Vs. Cardinals- try throwing 1st pitches like it was a 2-2 count- try to get a called strike, or get the hitter to swing at one that is almost a strike. Don't give them a get ahead groove ball on strike 1.

Vs. Reds- pretend your first pitch is an 0-2 count. They're willing to commit to hitting the first one because its "supposed" to be a get ahead fastball, and they are a team of guessers that couldn't recognize a breaking ball in the dirt in slo-mo video after the fact.

I think the NL is just slow to get the first part, but had known the latter part for a while now.

 

[redsfan03]

Morton seems to have made a career by pitching against the Reds. If all of his starts were against the Reds, he'd have the lowest ERA ever.

 

[JohnU]

Is this supposed to be some kind of joke?
2 on, none out and we can't get a run?
Ground ball double plays? Is this the fuckin' Dusty method of motel management?

 

[JohnU]

Down 1-0, I'd say this one is over.

 

[Redsfan1507]

Got Robinson on in front of Choo, drawing a pickoff throw or two, throwing fastballs to Choo.. All good, until they try to steal. He's tossed out and Choo hits one to the 1b, who wouldn't have been there if Robinson was still being held on. You start a runner on a righty hitter, but keep the runner being held with a lefty at the plate. Baseball 101 . They get a D only because they had the right guy at 1b, with the right guy at the plate...but utterly misplayed them into failure. My JV team executed better.

 

[JohnU]

So far, I'd say the Brook Jacoby philosophy of pitching is an excellent example of how to get hitters out.

 

[JohnU]

Cozart thrown out at home when the LF makes a perfect play on the carom ... hell, I could see that, but Speier evidently doesn't recognize a perfect play and a tailor made throw to the cutoff. Cozart was a dead duck and he knew it. Hoping for a bad throw is not how you win pennants.

 

[Redsfan1507]

Never make the first or last out at 3b or the plate...unless the pitcher is on deck. Then you may try to stretch the runner to the plate. It's what happened with Cozart being out by 8 feet last inning. Can't blame anyone for that, other than not getting the guy in position to score with less than 2 outs. Previous non- hitters to blame there.

The 3 straight breaking balls to Marte helped him square up the triple. Arroyos error gave up the run. Lots of sloppy play, and some early baserunning Bafoonery. Lower baseball IQ against team that might not need the charity to beat you. It's all bad science. Latos beat himself last night getting his shorts in a wad over the strike zone, and it looks like were going to keep chopping the rope holding us up tonight. The mental condition of this team is worth questioning.

 

[JohnU]

This might be the most uninteresting baseball team I've seen in years.

 

[JohnU]

Fuckin' brain-dead.

 

[JohnU]

I'd rather listen to the RailCats than watch this absurd offense.
So that is what I intend to do.
This comes as no surprise and it's going to happen 3 days a week for the rest of the season. Just getting a few runs here and there is not going to fix this problem.