Five Most Frustrating Players on the Team

[Superdude]

It is because all he does as a hitter is hit for power.
He doesn't hit for average and isn't good at getting on base.

Exactly. The only reason to expect anything else is because a few scouts predicted Bruce was bound for glory six years ago.

[Roy Tucker]

Baseball is a game of failures. Hard not to get frustrated with most players at one time or another. It's part of the game.

[PedroBourbon]

I was floored Cozart was not on the list, he was my number one frustration last year. It was compounded by Duhsty's batting order, often putting him second.

[RedTeamGo!]

We all know that he was one of the undeserving Silver Slugger Award winners last year.

wrc+ is not just power, correct? which is what I was referring to. Thanks for the redundant graph, though.

[RedFanAlways1966]

We all know that he was one of the undeserving Silver Slugger Award winners last year.

You'd rather Jay Bruce be more like Babe Ruth. Sounds fair.

[Rojo]

Seems like in the minors he was always hinting at a variety of offensive skills, and the question was whether or not he could bring them all together at once.

Well put. Putting them all together would be fantastic. But I'd settle for any one of the three.

[westofyou]

I like how Baseball American decided everything Jay Bruce will ever do needs to be perceived as a relative failure. Poor guy could've saved himself a lot of grief by sandbagging a bit.

I like "monster numbers" I also like them to be defined before someone makes them a benchmark.

[texasdave]

Currently on the roster: Mesoraco.
In the recent past: Drew Stubbs.

EDIT: Aroldis Chapman for his reluctance to being a starting pitcher.

[GAC]

Weird article to say the least.

I've come to the realization that a majority of Yahoo staff writers really are Yahoos!

[REDREAD]

He didn't exceed my expectations in any way. He doesn't K a lot of guys, puts a lot of runners on and was fortunate to have excellent defense behind him.

In 2014 I expect 30 starts a 1.25ish WHIP and something like 5.75 K/9. I won't predict his ERA because frankly, I don't think you really can with him. 2011 was a better season for him by every measurement except ERA. It's flukish.
.

Ok, but doesn't that mean that Leake didn't frustrate you?
He got his 1.25 WHIP last year. He's a great #5 starter. Unless you are frustrated with the Reds for keeping him on the team, I don't see why anyone would be frustrated with Leake.
Seems like he met your expectations at least, based on the metrics you provided.

Me, I'm happy with his run prevention last year.

[Superdude]

Ok, but doesn't that mean that Leake didn't frustrate you?
He got his 1.25 WHIP last year. He's a great #5 starter. Unless you are frustrated with the Reds for keeping him on the team, I don't see why anyone would be frustrated with Leake.
Seems like he met your expectations at least, based on the metrics you provided.

Me, I'm happy with his run prevention last year.

I find using FIP as a standard for frustration odd anyway. Leake had an incredibly productive season that exceeded my wildest expectations. Just because FIP says it may not continue doesn't mean it didn't happen.

[tomnuetten]

guys who fail to make a hit 70% of the time are considered great hitters

=> of course there is a lot of failure


bruce is "frustrating" because he is so streaky... a month he is the best there is and a month later he´s playing like donald lutz ( ) but if you look at his season he´s been great! if we had multiple guys like votto or bruce...

bruce got better year after year and is for his money one of the best you can get...


leake played better than most of us expected, hard to be frustrated when you´re #5 produces the way he did


frazier had a rough time offensively and I was a little bit frustrated because he had multiple really bad at bats and swings... on the other side he was great defensively (better than expected) I can understand the frustration but I thought he overperformed in his rookie season => I expected a decline..

homer is a great pitcher who sometimes struggles, but the numbers he produces are good and he helps the team win games! he hit 2 no hitters and was an ace a year ago... he was not bad at all last season => not frustrated at all (but some people like to overestimate the players we have, the last few weeks they did the opposite which should be good when the season starts and the reds win lots of games )

heisey is a bench player, not bad for a benchplayer but in no way a starting lf for a contender => of course some get frustrated when they believe heisey will hit .300 and 30hr, but that´s not heisey´s mistake..

a little bit surprised that votto (lots of fans are frustrated and if you read articles on the official homepage it is really bad) and phillips (fan favourit by a lot but had bad 1.5 years) were not on the list

[UPRedsFan]

Junkhead, please explain how wRC is calculated?

[Ohayou]

- Jay Bruce flailing at a low breaking pitch multiple times in the same PA

This x1000.

[REDREAD]

I find using FIP as a standard for frustration odd anyway. Leake had an incredibly productive season that exceeded my wildest expectations. Just because FIP says it may not continue doesn't mean it didn't happen.

I'm not a huge fan of FIP either. I can see it as a useful tool.
Want to compare Leake and Latos? Ok, FIP is one thing you can use.

But when I look at the year Leake had.. ERA under 4.00, 14-7 record. That's pretty darn good for a guy that most people didn't even want in the rotation in spring training. I recall people wanting to demote him for Cingrani too.
Either course of action would've been an incredible waste of a useful asset and killed Leake's trade value.

Leake will always be unappreciated by some, just as Arroyo was because of FIP. If Leake or Arroyo is smart enough to leverage the Reds' defense, that's a good thing, isn't it? (That seems to be the criticism against them).
Honestly, if Leake was not in the rotation in 2003, and Chapman was there instead, we might've missed the playoffs. Washington was only 4 games behind us. Sure, wins are not a true indicator of pitching talent, but Leake had a +7 win differential in his record. Leake gave us 192 IP (Chapman wouldn't have). Reds were 18-13 in games he started. Not too shabby at all.