Redeye fly
05-14-2011, 09:02 PM
I was maybe more impressed with Cueto than at any time I've seen him in the past. I know he had his incredible debut against Arizona and pitched that shutout against the Pirates last year. But this was a young pitcher who's done pretty well but had some rough spots too as he's traveled along his learning curve. He had some problems down at Triple A with command and pitch efficiency on his rehab. There were the same concerns with him that there always have been and that we have with Volquez. Is he going to be creeping up on 100 pitches by the 5th inning? Is he going to walk people and continually fall behind hitters? But that didn't happen at all. He walked Theriot to start the game, and after that he barred the door and was dominant. Even when he went 3-2 on a couple of those hitters, he didn't try to overthrow and he didn't lose his cool. He fired strike after strike, exactly where he wanted it to go, and didn't give in. He kept firing strikes until he either struck the guy out or retired him on a ground out or routine fly ball. He very much looked like a pitcher who said from start to finish the whole time he was out there, I'm going to throw this pitch to this spot, and those hitters aren't going to be able to do anything with it. He lost a bit in the eighth inning with the errors behind him, but other than that he was just nasty.
Against the Diamondbacks, he kind of snuck up on them. No one had seen Johnny Cueto before in a real game that counts at the major league level. Against the Pirates last year it was a bad team going nowhere.
But against this team???? Yeah the lower third isn't that scary, but when you go Colby Rasmus, Albert Pujols, Matt Holliday, and Lance Berkman all in a row and you give up one walk and one perfectly placed bleeder of a double to them and not one of those guys comes close to centering or squaring up on one or your pitches all game long, then you've pretty much done exactly what you want to do on that pitcher's mound.
Plus, the movement on his fastball was outstanding. When you're throwing 94 mph with little effort, and it's 94 mph and moving, and not 94 mph and straight, and you're locating it exactly where you want to.... yeah that's nasty.
If he and Homer Bailey really are starting to get things together and mature, if Wood has more good outings than bad ones and continues to grow, if Bronson is just Bronson, then you've got time to wait on Volquez to hopefully get things turned around, because you'll have maybe 4 other pitchers who are at least giving you a chance to compete and win almost every time they take the mound. Even with Volquez, the games haven't gotten away from or out of reach from the team when he's been out there. So in a sense even he's doing his job of keeping the team in the game. He's just not been as efficient as you want. Yes the offense has bailed him out at times too. But, if he does turn it around and turn it on, it can be a real fun summer again in Cincinnati if everybody stays relatively healthy.
Love what I'm seeing from Ramon Hernandez as well. He may just be riding a hot streak, but we've seen enough to know he's a pretty decent hitter. But the past two games he's come within inches of homering in 3 consecutive at bats and actually on 3 consecutive pitches. The thing about it too is he's done it all over the ball park. He had that double off the wall last night in RCF, then homered to LF or LCF and then to straight away CF today.
We've still got a long way to go and have to stay healthy, but I'm convinced this Reds team is once again the best team in the NL Central. I'm not saying we'll win the division. I'm just saying that in terms of overall talent when you talk about hitting, starting pitching, relief pitching, and fielding, this is the best team in the division again this year.
Against the Diamondbacks, he kind of snuck up on them. No one had seen Johnny Cueto before in a real game that counts at the major league level. Against the Pirates last year it was a bad team going nowhere.
But against this team???? Yeah the lower third isn't that scary, but when you go Colby Rasmus, Albert Pujols, Matt Holliday, and Lance Berkman all in a row and you give up one walk and one perfectly placed bleeder of a double to them and not one of those guys comes close to centering or squaring up on one or your pitches all game long, then you've pretty much done exactly what you want to do on that pitcher's mound.
Plus, the movement on his fastball was outstanding. When you're throwing 94 mph with little effort, and it's 94 mph and moving, and not 94 mph and straight, and you're locating it exactly where you want to.... yeah that's nasty.
If he and Homer Bailey really are starting to get things together and mature, if Wood has more good outings than bad ones and continues to grow, if Bronson is just Bronson, then you've got time to wait on Volquez to hopefully get things turned around, because you'll have maybe 4 other pitchers who are at least giving you a chance to compete and win almost every time they take the mound. Even with Volquez, the games haven't gotten away from or out of reach from the team when he's been out there. So in a sense even he's doing his job of keeping the team in the game. He's just not been as efficient as you want. Yes the offense has bailed him out at times too. But, if he does turn it around and turn it on, it can be a real fun summer again in Cincinnati if everybody stays relatively healthy.
Love what I'm seeing from Ramon Hernandez as well. He may just be riding a hot streak, but we've seen enough to know he's a pretty decent hitter. But the past two games he's come within inches of homering in 3 consecutive at bats and actually on 3 consecutive pitches. The thing about it too is he's done it all over the ball park. He had that double off the wall last night in RCF, then homered to LF or LCF and then to straight away CF today.
We've still got a long way to go and have to stay healthy, but I'm convinced this Reds team is once again the best team in the NL Central. I'm not saying we'll win the division. I'm just saying that in terms of overall talent when you talk about hitting, starting pitching, relief pitching, and fielding, this is the best team in the division again this year.