Is It OK To Acknowledge the Disappointment in This Season W/O Being Absurd?

[wheels]

If Ludwick didn't have the year he had last year, do they still win the division?

No matter my feelings on what Ludwick would have done, they lost an .800 plus OPS bat.

That's huge, and it's only one example.

The American Pscycho is %100 correct. This has been a rotten luck kind of year. I'm not super disappointed at all. I guess I'm in the middle too.

[mth123]

IMO, only main difference with last year is health and stength of Pirates and Cardinals. No other real differences with last season.

I'm overall reasonably satisfied with the quality of the team. A few performances could certainly be better, but others could certainly be worse. Dissapointed that we have a tough road ahead to win the division, but not sure that has a lot to do with the current players on the team.

Meh. Last year Votto was out or a shell of himself. This year it's Ludwick. Add Choo instead of Stubbs and those changes should lead to a break-even at worst for the offense. Cueto is out, but Cingrani has held his spot down and he hasn't really been missed that much. The big changes are probably Broxton and Marshall being out. There was a stretch where the pen blew a lot of games. could be the difference in winning above the pythag last year and below it this year.

As some one pointed out, losing all those games against the Astros might be the difference as well. Cozart, Frazier, Hanigan and Phillips are all well off last season. That is where it shows up the most IMO.

[cincrazy]

As long as it's still baseball season, I'm happy. I loved this team during the magical 1999 season, I loved this team through the 2001 disaster and the 2003 disaster that was the opening year of your stadium, I loved this team through the Schott and Bowden years, I loved this team through the Lindner years, I loved this team in 2010 and 2012, and I loved this team in 2011 when they couldn't catch a break.

I love baseball. And I love the Reds. And as long as it's baseball season and those boys are taking the field, I'll deal with whatever comes our way.

[FlightRick]

I think I'm in the "ask me later" camp. Then again, I'm a person who has only ever walked out of one movie before it was done (with similar philosophies when it comes to whole albums and books and so forth), on the grounds that unless something is utterly horrible, you ought to at least wait till its done before passing judgment.

I admit to certain feelings of annoyance as the story of the 2013 Reds' season has played out, but here's my thought process: when the season began, I did not take any time developing an expectation for the 111-game point of the season. I only developed an expectation for the end of the regular season... that expectation was to win around 95 games, and be the NL Central champs.

I guess you can do some easy math, and determine that my expectation for tonight, right now, would be to have 65 wins (95/162 = x/111, solve for x) and be in 1st place.

Obviously, this isn't the case. But we're only 4 games off the win pace, so I can't be too disappointed in the Reds themselves. We're taking pretty good care of our own business. Especially when you consider that NONE of my expectations included our clean-up hitter being injured the whole season and our ace being injured for half of it.

I am, I guess, deeply disappointed in the Pirates and Cardinals. How dare they?


Rick

[New York Red]

The Reds have played 133 MLB seasons, 13% of those they have played .600 or better baseball, 46% of those they have played .500% or better baseball.

The current winning % of the team is .545%, the lowest winning % of a Reds team to win the division was .559 in 1979, the 1977 Reds had a .545%, they were disappointing.

If the season ended today it would be in the top 36% of the Reds seasons, but yes... it's not the greatest,

Nor is it the end of the season.

Those stats don't mean a lot because they ignore the talent level and expectations of each Reds team, compared to the rest of the NL. The bottom line is, no one expected this to be a third place team, so the season thus far has been on the disappointing side. On the other hand, we play in the toughest NL division, so the third place thing hasn't hurt us yet.

As long as we reach the playoffs, the regular season doesn't mean much to me. My final judgement of this edition of the Reds will be based solely on how far they advance in the post-season. We have a more talented roster than either the Cards or Pirates, and hopefully we'll prove that in the second half, and beyond.

[New York Red]

As long as it's still baseball season, I'm happy. I loved this team during the magical 1999 season, I loved this team through the 2001 disaster and the 2003 disaster that was the opening year of your stadium, I loved this team through the Schott and Bowden years, I loved this team through the Lindner years, I loved this team in 2010 and 2012, and I loved this team in 2011 when they couldn't catch a break.

I love baseball. And I love the Reds. And as long as it's baseball season and those boys are taking the field, I'll deal with whatever comes our way.

I think that's pretty much a given for everyone on this site. Anyone who spends as much time reading and posting here as we all do, is a diehard in my book.

[cincrazy]

Those stats don't mean a lot because they ignore the talent level and expectations of each Reds team, compared to the rest of the NL. The bottom line is, no one expected this to be a third place team, so the season thus far has been on the disappointing side. On the other hand, we play in the toughest NL division, so the third place thing hasn't hurt us yet.

As long as we reach the playoffs, the regular season doesn't mean much to me. My final judgement of this edition of the Reds will be based solely on how far they advance in the post-season. We have a more talented roster than either the Cards or Pirates, and hopefully we'll prove that in the second half, and beyond.

I really don't think the Reds have a better roster than the Cardinals, even WHEN healthy. I do think we have a better roster than Pittsburgh when healthy, but unfortunately, we haven't been. Both of those teams are really, really good. It's not ALL our fault that we're in 3rd place. We're behind two really good teams.

[redsmetz]

The disappointment for me has been how uneven our play has been. And it's frustrating that we're going toe to toe with two other very good baseball teams. I can't take that away from St. Louis or Pittsburgh, but it makes this season nerve wracking, to say the least.

I don't see a complete collapse by this team and I'll hold out hope that some of the guys coming off the DL will do some good. I fully understand that's not a given. I'd love to see us rip off a good tear of games like today - fun game to be at.

[New York Red]

I really don't think the Reds have a better roster than the Cardinals, even WHEN healthy. I do think we have a better roster than Pittsburgh when healthy, but unfortunately, we haven't been. Both of those teams are really, really good. It's not ALL our fault that we're in 3rd place. We're behind two really good teams.

I started a thread here back in May or so, asking who has the more talented roster -- Reds or Cards -- and it was pretty one-sided, with probably 90% of the replies picking the Reds. Has something happened to cause anyone to change their vote at this point?

[New York Red]

I really don't think the Reds have a better roster than the Cardinals, even WHEN healthy. I do think we have a better roster than Pittsburgh when healthy, but unfortunately, we haven't been. Both of those teams are really, really good. It's not ALL our fault that we're in 3rd place. We're behind two really good teams.

The Cards and Pirates have had a bunch of injury issues also. It's arguable as to which of the three teams has been effected more. The Reds biggest injuries have been Cueto and Ludwick, but Cingrani and Phillips have made those injuries a lot less of an issue than they appeared at the time. And Manny Parra has made the injuries to Marshall and Broxton almost an afterthought.

[Cedric]

I clearly remember Joey Hamilton and Jimmy Haynes starting opening day for some of the mid 00 teams.

I'm perfectly fine with this year.

[EMAW]

Minus the two setup men and the ace I find this to be a good season that is not over yet. Masterful job of pen management and squeezing out some offense from a team that was not real well put together. The season has 51 games remaining and one never knows.

[BluegrassRedleg]

I clearly remember Joey Hamilton and Jimmy Haynes starting opening day for some of the mid 00 teams.

I'm perfectly fine with this year.

/shudder

[toledodan]

I clearly remember Joey Hamilton and Jimmy Haynes starting opening day for some of the mid 00 teams.

I'm perfectly fine with this year.

just when i was finally forgetting those lost years.

[SporkLover]

I started a thread here back in May or so, asking who has the more talented roster -- Reds or Cards -- and it was pretty one-sided, with probably 90% of the replies picking the Reds. Has something happened to cause anyone to change their vote at this point?

I'd say there were a few things.

The Emergence of Rookies as key contributors to the Cards success: Shelby Miller, Trevor Rosenthal, name the arm brought up in April/May to shore up the pitching staff

The transformation of Matt Carpenter from good Bench Bat/utility man to a monster 2nd baseman.... a position he learned over the winter.

The Amazing start the Cardinals starting rotation gave them. Outside of Wainwright, and even possibly Lynn... no one expected them to have the first half they did.

Allen Craig: Strange year for him.... he seemingly lost all of his long ball power, but he has re-invented himself as an RBI machine.

Consistent offensive performance from two pillers, Beltran and Yadier Molina.

Some surprises: Jon Jay seemed to whatever the batters equivalent to Steve Blass disease is. Matt Holliday offensive year can be described as slump. David Freese isn't living up to his role of a .280 hitter.

Overall I'd say that there were some unknowns about the Cards roster that made it impossible to make any prediction with a high level of confidence.... given what we knew then I'd say those in the Reds camp were right.... those unknowns just had an opportunity to prove folks wrong in some cases.