Tag Archives: Cincinnati Reds

2018 MLB Season Preview: Cincinnati Reds

The Cincinnati Reds roughly two seasons into their rebuild and they now have some solid young players at the Major League level. It will be up to their coaches to keep them developing into a contender.

The starting rotation has been filled with rookies or second-year guys the last two seasons. Experience has been the tool the Reds have used to develop their arms. They have used a handful of guys and haven’t decided on a five-man rotation. The back-end is still up for grabs this Spring.

Which position players could the Reds call-up this season?

Here is the 2018 MLB season preview for the Cincinnati Reds.

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2017 MLB Season Preview: Cincinnati Reds

2017 MLB Season Team Preview Cincinnati Reds Scott Feldman funnyThe Cincinnati Reds finished up unloading all their tradable stars when they recently sent Brandon Phillips to Atlanta. They still have a couple stars on the team, but Homer Bailey is broken and there’s no chance they are trading Joey Votto.

The Reds have relied on rookie starting pitching since just after the 2015 trade deadline (yes, well over a season). Their young pitchers have shown promise, but you can’t expect the Reds to be very competitive during this stretch.

Homer Bailey will once again start the season on the DL after undergoing another elbow surgery. Which young starter will emerge as the ace of the staff?

Here is the 2017 MLB season preview for the Cincinnati Reds.

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2016 MLB Season Preview: Cincinnati Reds

Cincinnati Reds 2016 MLB season preview america's white boyThe Cincinnati Reds started unloading players at last year’s trade deadline and continued to clean house this offseason. They are now building toward the future and still have some pieces to move.

The Reds had rookies start nearly every game from the trade deadline until the end of last season. They gained experience and they overall pitched well above expectations. They won’t have a solid bullpen backing them up this year.

Will Jay Bruce and Brandon Phillips both find new homes this season?

Here is the 2016 MLB season preview for the Cincinnati Reds.

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2015 MLB Team Preview: Cincinnati Reds

Cincinnati Reds 2015 MLB team preview Rob Lowe funny weird shirtless vintageThe Cincinnati Reds have been NL Central contenders for the last few years, but Pittsburgh and St. Louis have taken control of the division. The destiny of the Reds rides on the health of Joey Votto, who missed a huge chunk of time in two of the last three seasons.

The Reds will rely heavily on their starting rotation. They do have a slight edge in that category over the top teams in the NL Central. They need their offense to come back (28th in Runs Scored in 2014) in order to take advantage of having aces Johnny Cueto and Homer Bailey.

Can Devin Mesoraco become an elite catcher?

Here is the 2015 MLB season preview for the Cincinnati Reds.

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2014 MLB Team Preview: Cincinnati Reds

The Cincinnati Reds have been NL Central contenders for the last few years, but Pittsburgh emerged and St. Louis doesn’t seem to have an off-year. They lost Shin-Soo Choo and Bronson Arroyo to free agency and didn’t do much in free agency.

Their biggest offseason move was firing Dusty Baker. They hired pitching coach Bryan Price as their new skipper. He’s an experienced and heralded pitching coach, but this will be his first season as a manager.

The Reds will rely heavily on Jay Bruce and Joey Votto to drive in runs this season. They also need Todd Frazier to bounce back from a forgettable 2013 season. It’s not much to ask since he looked like a future All-Star his rookie season.

Super prospect Billy Hamilton is expected to be on the Opening Day roster. He is one of the best base runners in all of baseball, but is expected to have issues getting on base. Will he succeed or end up in the minors at some point?

Here is the 2014 MLB season preview for the Cincinnati Reds.

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2013 MLB Team Preview: Cincinnati Reds

BAKERIn 2012, the Cincinnati Reds won the NL Central by nine games, but lost in the first round of the playoffs to the eventual World Series champion San Francisco Giants.

Walt Jocketty, the general manager of the Reds, doesn’t want to just make the playoffs, he wants to win. He made a trade in the offseason to acquire Shin-Soo Choo, a move shows the Reds are built to win now.

The biggest offseason news was the decision to move Aroldis Chapman into the starting rotation. He was such a dominant relief pitcher, but the transition has been successful with pitchers in the past. Will Chapman succeed as a starter?

Now that Joey Votto is healthy, will have another MVP caliber year?

Here is the 2013 MLB season preview for the Cincinnati Reds. Continue reading

Fire Dusty Baker

I am finally going to take part in the whole blog stereotype by calling for someone’s job. I have yet to do it in all of my time as a blogger, but it needs to be done. Dusty Baker, the manager of the Cincinnati Reds, needs to be fired. To make it even more clear, I’m not even a Reds fan, not at all. I live in Columbus, OH, so I get every Reds game on Fox Sports Ohio, but I usually just watch them if they are playing the Cubs or I see a guy on my fantasy baseball team up to bat.

Dusty Baker is like Godzilla destroying the Reds, one pitcher at a time. Last season, a lot of the experts expected the Reds to have a good season. Their pitching staff was rated as one of the best, since they had young arms like Edinson Volquez and Johnny Cueto. The mood was high and every Reds fan was excited about the young arms and guys like Jay Bruce waiting in the minors waiting to be called up. Baker had success with the Giants and Cubs as the manager, even making it deep in the playoffs with both teams. After Baker left, it looked like a 100-foot lizard destroyed the entire franchise.

Let’s start with Baker’s destruction of young pitching. I would like to coin a word and say the “Bakerification” of a pitcher, which would be the utter and total annihilation of a young pitcher’s career. In San Francisco, Baker the only elite pitching prospect that the Giants had while he was manager was Shawn Estes. He was teh 11th overall pick in the 1991 MLB amateur draft. He made his pro debut in ’95, and had a great year in ’97 (19-5 3.18 ERA). He had a good 2 1/2 year run as an elite pitcher, but he fell off the face of the earth. Except one decent year in Colorado, he has bounced around as a 5th or spot starter. Baker used him and pushed him over 200 innings and kept him in games in which they were behind by a large number of runs.

In Chicago he had a full plate of young pitching prospects. Kerry Wood and Mark Prior being the best two young pitchers the Cubs had seen since Greg Maddux. They had high expectations and were going to be a great #1 and #2 starters for a long time. After the 2003 season, both pitchers were never the same. They have missed complete seasons each and have had a laundry list of arm problems. Prior hasn’t really pitched in the big leagues since and Wood was converted to a closer, but not as dominant as he once was (he is a closer for Cleveland and has a 4.72 ERA this season). The lone young pitcher that seems to be standing after the Baker era in Chicago is Carlos Zambrano. I think there must be some truth to the rumors that he is actually a zombie.

This all circles back to the present-day Cincinnati Reds. It was announced last week that Edinson Volquez underwent Tommy John surgery and could miss the entire next season, as well as the rest of this season. To add more fuel to the fire, Johnny Cueto has had arm troubles this season and he’s now injured with a hip injury. Bronson Arroyo and Aaron Harang both had great season a few seasons before Baker became skipper, but the last two years they have been horrible. You can’t blame run support for their losses, since they have been sporting ERA around 5.00. So it’s not only the young pitchers who are prone to “Bakerification.”

You can’t blame GM Walk Jocketty for sticking with Dusty Baker. He was the man who hired Tony LaRussa in St. Louis, so he likes guys with winning experience. I think it’s time to let Baker go and find a man himself. The former GM Wayne Krivsky hired Baker as a last-ditch effort to save his job, kind of a desperate man’s final meal. He needed to make a splash, but he clearly had no plan for the future of the club. He was hoping that Baker could catch lightning in a bottle, but I think he more or less caught something else that needs some penicillin to clear up.

Once again, I would like to reiterate that I am not a Reds fan, I’m a Cubs fan, but I would like to see them competitive again. I have the same feeling about the Pirates too, but if both of those franchises ever get to a point where they are actually contending for the NL Central, I may not be too pleased. The Reds need to be blown up and get rid of guys like Harang and Arroya and build around some guys like Bruce, Joey Votto, Brandon Phillips, and future-star Yonder Alonso. The start this process, fire Dusty Baker!