The third 19 or so

[JohnU]

I won't give up on Wojo just yet.
He was throwing fastballs to get outs, and a couple of them were on the tee.
Pretty sloppy ending for a great game otherwise.
Schebler is headed for at least a consideration for the AS team, even if it is early.

 

[Hit-n-Run]

Wojo's fastball was up in the zone and breaking ball was out of the zone. Bad combination.

Jake Buchanan or Wojo....., flip a coin. I don't think we know what we'll get if either start Tuesday, but I prefer the guy that had been pitching better lately.

I'm wondering......?
Just hoe far down the SP depth chart does Bryan Price have Robert Stephenson? For a team scraping the bottom of the barrel for a SP, Robert Stephenson appears to be somewhere below the bottom of the barrel in Price's mind.

 

[Hit-n-Run]

Schebler is headed for at least a consideration for the AS team, even if it is early.

Scott Schebler has been steadily hammering the long ball. Adam Duvall is having another great 1st half. Then there's Votto who is having an MVP type start to the year. Suarez and Cozart are having All Star caliber seasons too.

A case for all those guys can be made, but we know all of them ain't going.

 

[JohnU]

Just hoe far down the SP depth chart does Bryan Price have Robert Stephenson? For a team scraping the bottom of the barrel for a SP, Robert Stephenson appears to be somewhere below the bottom of the barrel in Price's mind.

He's apparently been assigned low-leverage innings but I can't see how that helps him.

 

[Ickey Shuffle]

A win tomorrow and the Reds are back to a .500 record.

In spite of the road blocks, only 2 games behind the Cubs and Brewers. Crazy.

 

[Ickey Shuffle]

Watching Mike Leake pitching good with the Cards irritates me btw.

 

[eburg5000]

The game last night. Would it have killed the Reds to have sent Adleman out there in the ninth? I know he had 100 pitches, but could he have done any worse than what happened?

I'd like to see the Reds give Robert Stephenson a shot at starting. Wasn't that the plan originally? Can't stick all your pitching prospects in the bullpen can you?

 

[JohnU]

The game last night. Would it have killed the Reds to have sent Adleman out there in the ninth? I know he had 100 pitches, but could he have done any worse than what happened?

I'd like to see the Reds give Robert Stephenson a shot at starting. Wasn't that the plan originally? Can't stick all your pitching prospects in the bullpen can you?

I think you take your wins and lumps along the way. Stephenson doesn't seem to be in great favor with the manager.

 

[eburg5000]

3 runs in 5 innings. I guess that's not to bad with the way this team can put up runs, I believe that if Arroyo makes it through the season, this will be his last year. Maybe if he could strengthen his arm a bit, but at age 40, that probably won't happened.
I think Arroyo will be in the Reds HOF, Do you all agree.

 

[Hit-n-Run]

I think Arroyo will be in the Reds HOF, Do you all agree.

With the Reds HOF being voted by the fans, I'd say Bronson will be elected when eligible.

Bronson's career stats aren't impressive, but he was durable and has longevity driven stats.

Doesn't rank in the top 10 of too many Reds career categories. His most glaring career stat is having given up the most career home runs and counting.

 

[JohnU]

My only problem with Bronson in the H of F is that he left the team via free agency. The fans may be forgiving of that and the players surely are, but if the H of F committee holds that against him, maybe. Personally I don't think he's a true H of F pitcher but he's borderline owing to his popularity.

 

[Ickey Shuffle]

Adam Duvall is good at baseball.

 

[JohnU]

Duvie looks like another candidate for the ASG, though for the moment it's a tough call for Maddon.
If they had to pick a Reds rep now:

Votto is always an automatic choice.
Cozart clearly has the lead.
Schebler could be a pick.
Iglesias maybe.

 

[Hit-n-Run]

With the fan vote often being a popularity contest, most of the Reds lack the National/International appeal to get voted in.

Votto should have the best chance, but he hasn't been to the All Star game since 2013. So he really hasn't been a fan favorite in recent years, but some of that can be attributed to posting mediocre 1st half stats. His numbers are much better this season, so I'm curious to see how that translates into ballot results.

Adam Duvall would have some name recognition after a good showing in last season's HR Derby. I think that and better overall play gives him the advantage over Schebler.

IMO, Zack Cozart's offensive numbers at a defensive premium position make him the most deserving.

Most of the Cubbies aren't having good seasons with maybe only Bryant being deserving of consideration. The fan vote may get some undeserving Cubbies into the game, otherwise I'd expect Maddon to pick a few and lessen the chances of more deserving National League players.

 

[eburg5000]

This probably could have been put on another thread but I was to lazy to do it... sorry

It's always question when managers from rival teams make the picks. I doubt any Reds player will be picked by the fans. I liked it much better when the players and coaches did the picking. Fan's normally pick popular names, if not players from their own team. Which means the All Star starters will be made up of big market teams mostly. This makes for some average to below average players in the AS game.

The AL fans seem to pick better than the NL fans. That's why they win more AS games, And the NL never ends up with home field advantage

Votto won't be there, because they are to many very good 1st basemen in the league. Cozart right now is most deserving, but Brandon Crawford will be picked by the fans IMO. He has a great WAR, what ever the hell that is. Duval and Schebler are both deserving. If Schebler keeps up the pace that he has now, I don't see how they can keep him off the team

My point is. I could care less about the All Star game. To me , Its just 3 or 4 days of no baseball.

I know most if not all, already know this, but I'm retired and haven't much of a life anymore and I like to post something. Actually I enjoy my retirement. I'm still healthy and like to do a lot.

 

[chico ruiz]

the reds had a couple of decisions to make near the end of jocketty's tenure. i don't know how they prioritized them, but they were important and vital to the near future of the club. the signing of one of the starting pitchers to a multi-year contract was critical. i thought then, before bailey's injuries, that leake was the one they should sign. it made too much sense. logic dictated signing him. in fact, i would wager that they could have signed leake to a contract, after his second year of arbitration, that everyone would have been happy with. that one baffled me too mr. klaw. known quantity: no arm problems, pencil in 200 innings for every year of the contract, hits and runs well for a pitcher, perfect for the transition, rebuild, or whatever you want to call it. i call it dragging your ass, in terms of development, from 2012 to 2015. also, what the reds received for bruce and chapman is a travesty. someone should have been fired or promoted for incompetence. why the reds didn't pull the trigger on the earlier wheeler & herrera offering from the mets is a mystery to me. the only thing any of these would-be transactions would have changed, in the ensuing years, is leake and wheeler would be starting for the reds in 2017. the only reason i bring these deals, or non-deals, up is they didn't seem to be particularly difficult decisions to make. straight forward no-brainers. 'sign here' and 'you got yourself a god damn deal.' but, that was then and this now. i only mention it in response to mr. klaws post. this reds team is a fun team to watch. they hustle and are seemingly in every game. in short, it appears to me like they are learning how to win. and, in management's defense, they do have their top 3 starters on the disabled list. i think it's safe to say the reds would be above .500 if bailey, desclafani, and finnegan were healthy and pitching at their average success rates.

i think johnu is correct about stephenson. i don't think price, or any manager, likes young players making excuses. it puts the manager in a untenable position. the excuse indirectly implies the manager made a bad decision in bringing him in. regardless, it's unseemly and indicates difficulty in mentoring, or a unteachable player. bob is also obliviously implying, based on performance, that because he comes out of the pen he struggles to throw fastballs over the plate. i don't want to dwell on past management mistakes. it's a waste of time and accomplishes nothing.
but, this is one of those things that sticks in my craw. a millionaire prospect opening his privileged yapper and spewing counter productive nonsense amidst his teammates who are learning to win and playing hard. i didn't hear any excuses from duvall, suarez, or peraza as they all went about the handwork of improving their defense. bob makes it sound like he's not responsible for poor performance. it undermines team concept. a young team can't afford to carry a dormant (passive / aggressive type) virus indiscriminately along. there are time constraints.


imo, stephenson symbolizes what was wrong, on the reds farms in the above mentioned years, bobby made it to mlb and (poof) can't command his fastball with any consistency. drafted in 2011. what was going on in the reds organization that 5 full years of milb instruction produced stephenson? the one and only top shelf pitching prospect the reds had for approximately 4 years. again, and this is important to keep in mind, we're really just talking about command of the fastball here. forget the possibility of any secondary pitches being delivered for now. this isn't 1955 brooklyn. he's not a boy named sandy who can't seem to find the back of the batting cage, let alone the plate. the reserve clause is long gone. we have arbitration clocks now and starting pitchers making 35 million bucks a year. the reds don't have a lot of time to putz around with this guy. the reds have too many good ones coming behind him. btw, i've heard nothing but good things about danny darwin at pensacola. apparently bobby got his feelings hurt last year when deshields called him out concerning his work ethic. bobby should have kept his mouth shut and taken the criticism for what it was worth. delino saw something he didn't like in methodology or body language. the kerfuffle didn't get much attention, but delino ended up making a awkward unnecessary apology. no apology should have been made. bobby got signed to a big fat bonus and it would seem that a lot of that fat went to his brain. bobby recently whined about not having pitched for 6 days and the problem of transitioning to the bullpen. price responded perfectly to his nonsense by saying, 'not having pitched in 6 days is not an excuse.' i say, shut up, suck it up, and throw a fastball for a strike son. let's just start there. on second thought, screw him. trade him. trade him now. take whatever a team will give you williams. anything. he's had 6 years to figure out these basic mlb tenets. stephenson may very well be a good kid, but his thought process is flawed. that kind of crap doesn't fit in with this reds team. they're out there busting their humps till the final out, without making excuses.

maybe he needs a session with arroyo, or to watch a garrett post game interview to learn how to comport himself. maybe they need to bring in pete rose. "yeah kid, i lied and bet on baseball, but i never made excuses about my play on the field. kid, in a lot of ways, that's worse than betting on baseball. good lord kid, you made a couple million bucks before you threw your first mlb pitch. just say, 'you're going to work your butt off to do better next time.' any of this getting through to you bobby? let me put it this way. john q. public is at the park or watching on tv. mr. public makes less than 50k a year and……stop laughing bobby or i swear to christ i'll beat the shit out of you myself right here and now. i still know people who do bad things to other people bobby."

i would also like to know why adleman didn't go back out for the 9th inning mr. burg. it ended up burning iglesias availability for the next game, which could be in the win column, if he pitches in the situation that he's specifically on the team for.

 

[eburg5000]

And Mr Ruiz said that, before last nights game!

A week or so ago I was thinking that Stepenson should get the start tonight.....scratch that idea. Does anyone believe that this guy is anymore than a bottom of the bullpen guy, that will be out of baseball in a few years

 

[JohnU]

Stevie just bought his bus ticket, i think. No reason to make that transaction as of this minute but I'd guess somebody in the Bat Cave just needs to get back into his slot for pitching. Then, the Reds will burn another bridge with Stephenson. Sad to see this. What bothers me most about all that is that there are so very few chances for a guy to make a big-league rotation.

You have to go back a lot of years to when the Cubs generally did the same thing. The Lary Sorensen era, to be exact (so look it up if you wish) and the Cubs sent pitcher after pitcher out there, got shelled and I kept thinking, man handing you a chance on a silver platter to make the majors and your piss on your shoes.

Stephenson and a few others can look back at 2017 and wonder, 'what if I'd just done better?"

 

[eburg5000]

Came in with bases loaded. allowed all three of those to score and gave up 7 himself. Jake Buchanan took one for the team, and stayed in even though he was out of gas.. I give him credit for that. Just for that he was worth signing. Sure hope Wojo can give the Reds 5 or 6 innings tonight or could be anther thumping

I never read any where that Stephenson was complaining and making excuses, that just makes it worse

 

[JohnU]

Buchanan will be useful, I think, for the time being.
Wojo won't win any Cy Young awards. I would think they will shove him for 5 innings if he's marginally effective.
Toronto will score a lot of runs.

Two guys who need to take stock are Nick Travieso and Cody Reed, who are now on the Isle of Lousyville because Lisalverto Bonilla is actually pitching better than they are.