The next 12 games ....

[JohnU]

This is not going to be pretty. Villarreal can't get anybody out either.

 

[JohnU]

I have had enough of this one.

 

[JohnU]

Reds proving once again they can't beat lefthanders, no matter how good they are. Lucky for the Reds, St. Louis isn't armed with a southie either at the moment. Milwaukee is also shy in that department.
The Reds bullpen, unfortunately, has not improved since Wednesday.

 

[Redsfan1507]

I'm clueless as to what makes good sense out of sending a pitcher up for 16 hours then sending him back, barring an injury or doubleheader. Whatever that determined that quickly that Smith didnt belong, must be invisible in Marquis, and the blowpen...they're all still with the big club.

 

[Redsfan1507]

Sorry, I'm not buying the Cubs overwhelmingly talented lineup or Travis Wood's vintage Cliff Lee impersonation, as cause for the Reds loss last night. I think most LH hitters struggle more against LHP, that's why most good teams try to have some LHP of their own, and the platoon is still a viable tactic against them. Being kind, Marquis isn't a top of the rotation guy with his best stuff, which giving him the benefit of the doubt, I'm hoping he did not have last night. Either way, our pitching made the Cubs hitters "better" than they are otherwise...and our hitters made Wood look better than his stats say usually happens. We got beat by pitching a worse pitcher than the opposition, in just about every inning. We must have tried harder to do that I guess.

The Reds have consistently somehow chosen to have neither LHSP or L/R platoons, unless you go back to the days of the Dusty old days of his all righty hitter LF buffoon platoon or 2 lefty 1b platoon of Hatteberg and Votto...and they have given a start or twelve to Cingrani, and a minor league abberition or two...but none for Chapman. Lord knows we need him for the 25% of the season where we have a lead in the 9th.

I'm not a fan of platoons, but if you have a large sample size of a guy hitting .200 against lefties, and another hitting .275, I'd have to act on it some, and I think more games are won or lost by the SP than the bullpen, so I'd been starting Chapman and have kept Broxton to close a couple of years ago. If that meant dealing Arroyo- he's gone anyway, or sending Cingrani or Simon to the pen- Also not in the Reds rotation anyway these days-so be it. My bullpen might still suck, but the rotation would have one more dreaded LHSP in it. Sadly, I'm just an unpaid bitcher, not an expensive decision maker there. I must be using different math than those guys, because we definately would have come up with different answers.

 

[JohnU]

The bullpens that work are guys who throw low fastballs for strikes, with the occasional offspeed. By fastball, it's not an 88 somewhere on the black ... it's 96 on the guy's knees. Wherever Price and Walt decided that "control specialists" in the bullpen would win ... give up.

 

[Redsfan1507]

Control is the biggest issue for all the stiffs. Guys missing in the zone at 95 have a better chance than at 88 though....a leadoff walk always sucks, but the homer after kills you. This starting rotation isn't going deep into games often, so unfortunately were going to see a lot of the bullpen.

 

[JohnU]

It's not like Byrd is being fooled. These are 4-seamers right down the middle and he can't catch up with anything. The man is useless.

 

[JohnU]

It's not they live in luck sometimes, is it?

 

[Hit-n-Run]

I see where the Dodgers claimed Corcino. They purchase the contracts of Smith and Skipworth and neither one play a inning.

 

[JohnU]

Corcino is better than Gregg.

 

[Hit-n-Run]

Gregg ranks as one of the worst signings I can remember. It's one thing for a guy to have a good year and get signed, but there was no indication he was going to help this bullpen.

 

[JohnU]

Something has to give this weekend unless they plan to send Barnhart back for no reason. He's there to back up Pena which was what I though Skipworth was supposed to do. Bailey comes back Saturday.

 

[Hit-n-Run]

Doesn't sound like Meso is doing that great. The TV guys made it sound like squatting was a problem. They're trying to keep Meso's status day to day, but a few more days and they may as well DL him.

Here's Byrd again, I can feel the breeze sitting in Cincinnati in my family room.

 

[JohnU]

BYRD FOULED ON OFF! I swear he did.

 

[JohnU]

Price said Meso could hit and run, not catch.

 

[JohnU]

The longer this game goes, the less likely the Reds will score ... and the bullpen is what it is.

 

[Hit-n-Run]

Being able to PH makes it a better roster situation. The only downside is once he enters a game they can't back date his DL time if it were to get worse. But if that were the case, he'd probably need the 15 additional days anyway.

Ever hear how he hurt it? The only thing I've seen was a awkward slide Saturday where he sort of jammed his knee. This is starting to remind me of last Saturday, same pitchers in a 2-1 Reds' loss.

 

[JohnU]

Marty B. was saying the Reds don't make any sense being secretive about injuries.

On a bright note, Marlon is coming around. That popup was crushed.

 

[Hit-n-Run]

Molina sticks it to the Reds again.

How long will they continue to run Byrd out there? He's not the only guy struggling, but he's doesn't even look close to squaring the ball up.