Far too early to be throwing in the towel

[BoilerBC11]

It had been a few days since I checked this site, and man was I suprised at the change in attiude of my fellow reds fans. Yes, I am an eternal optimist, but its rediculus to already be writing off this season. If you wernt following the season, you would assume we were a last place team already, but thats definitly not the case! Heck even after todays loss were in the lead for the wild card,and just two games back from the cards. Yea, we may not win the central, but its far to early to be throwing in the towel, let alone calling for the trades of all our star players.

[flyer85]

Rats always are the first to abandon a sinking ship

[macro]

The 1990 Cincinnati Reds lost eight consecutive games between July 24 and July 30. Less than a month later, they lost five consective games between August 17 and August 20. I'm not saying that the 2006 Cincinnati Reds are comparable to the 1990 team in terms of talent or potential, but those losing streaks didn't destroy the 1990 season. It turned out okay. Like Boiler said, it's a bit early to be discussing a housecleaning for this team.

[kbrake]

I dont think March was too early to talk about cleaning house. I am not saying I want to shake things up right this very second, but I think it will be much better for the long term of this franchise if they are sellers at this years deadline as opposed to buyers.

[remdog]

More likely it was far too early to consider this team to be pennant contenders. Most people thought they would be lucky to be a .500 team.

Rem

[Hollcat]

The 1990 Cincinnati Reds lost eight consecutive games between July 24 and July 30. Less than a month later, they lost five consective games between August 17 and August 20. I'm not saying that the 2006 Cincinnati Reds are comparable to the 1990 team in terms of talent or potential, but those losing streaks didn't destroy the 1990 season. It turned out okay. Like Boiler said, it's a bit early to be discussing a housecleaning for this team.

The 1990 team played only two games over .500 from the first of June through the end of the regular season.

[Jr's Boy]

And don't think for a minute that if the drought continues that Krivsky won't shake things up.His first move should be DFA'ing Rick White.

[OnBaseMachine]

Luckily for the Reds the NL stinks this year. I think only the Phillies/Mets, possibly the Astros, maybe the Brewers, and the Reds (if we can add a starting pitcher and a couple BP arms) will be the teams competing the for the NL wildcard. 85-88 wins could win the NL Wildcard. There doesn't appear to be one great team in the NL this year, so while I would be surprised if the Reds were to win the WC, it's not completely out of the question.

[scounts22]

His first move should be DFA'ing Rick White.

Amen, thank you!

[Ltlabner]

Didn't the 1975 team start out pretty slow till mid/late May when they moved Rose to 3B? I'm not comparing this team to the BRM at all, but the point it, if people would have freaked out then, as they are doing now, 1975 and 1976 would have never happened.

Also, we are one year removed from the reign of DanO and all the luncy that it entailed. BC and KRIV took over the team with no offseason to make any moves and scarcely any time before spring training. That didn't give them hardly any time for player moves to start to undue the myrid of problems facing the team. They made a flury of moves, but still, to undue DanO's mess takes a while.

Most of us said we'd be a .500 team +/- a few games, maybe in the hunt for 3rd or something. So to think we are heading to the WS after a strong start is pretty silly and then to be freaking out because we might not make the WS (after a slump) is even sillier.

[PuffyPig]

If the season ended today, we would be in the playoffs.

I'd suggest that would be reason enough not to throw in the towel.

Anyway, my enjoyment of the Reds is not just dependent on them making the playoffs.

[redsmetz]

Didn't the 1975 team start out pretty slow till mid/late May when they moved Rose to 3B? I'm not comparing this team to the BRM at all, but the point it, if people would have freaked out then, as they are doing now, 1975 and 1976 would have never happened.

I just checked Retrosheet.org and we were in 3rd place on May 15, 1975 5.5 games behind L.A.. with Atlanta in 2nd place.

In April we went 12-11, in May we were 16-10. By month's end we were in
2nd place, a game and a half behind the Dodgers. For the rest of the season, the Reds were a lights out 80-33, winning the division by 20 games!

It looks like Rose moved to 3rd base early in the month of May, beginning the game at 3rd, then moving into Left late in the game. I even saw a game where Dan Driessen started in LF with Foster in Right.

By the way, we owned both Atlanta and Chicago that year going 15-3 against the Braves and 11-1 against the Cubbies. The only team we had a losing record with was the Dodgers - we were 8-10against them.

[cumberlandreds]

Didn't the 1975 team start out pretty slow till mid/late May when they moved Rose to 3B? I'm not comparing this team to the BRM at all, but the point it, if people would have freaked out then, as they are doing now, 1975 and 1976 would have never happened.

Also, we are one year removed from the reign of DanO and all the luncy that it entailed. BC and KRIV took over the team with no offseason to make any moves and scarcely any time before spring training. That didn't give them hardly any time for player moves to start to undue the myrid of problems facing the team. They made a flury of moves, but still, to undue DanO's mess takes a while.

Most of us said we'd be a .500 team +/- a few games, maybe in the hunt for 3rd or something. So to think we are heading to the WS after a strong start is pretty silly and then to be freaking out because we might not make the WS (after a slump) is even sillier.

Yes they did start more slowly than this team. Below is the start of the streak that got that team going. The Reds were 21-20 heading into that game against Tom Seaver and the Mets. The Reds knocked Seaver out early and took off on some type of streak like winning 40 out of 50 games. It is too early to throw in the towel but this team is at early season crossroads. Losing five in a row and staring a sweep by the lowly Pirates right in the face is not where you want to be. I think a few key hits and this team will be back on track. Whether they are a playoff team is very questionable but they can be a decent 85 win team.
Game Played on Wednesday, May 21, 1975 (N) at Riverfront Stadium
NY N 1 2 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 - 4 11 1
CIN N 0 0 0 3 4 0 1 3 x - 11 13 2
BATTINGNew York Mets AB R H RBI BB SO PO A
Unser cf 5 1 2 2 0 0 3 0
Millan 2b 4 0 2 0 0 1 0 3
Kranepool 1b 3 0 2 1 0 0 10 0
Staub rf 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Torre 3b 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 1
Milner lf 4 1 1 0 0 0 2 0
Grote c 3 1 1 1 0 0 5 0
Stearns c 1 0 0 0 0 0 3 0
Harrelson ss 3 0 0 0 0 0 1 2
Clines ph 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Seaver p 2 0 1 0 0 0 0 1
Baldwin p 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Gallagher ph 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0
Hall p 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Alou ph 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0
Totals 36 4 11 4 0 1 24 7
FIELDING -
E: Millan (9).
BATTING -
2B: Milner (5,off Billingham); Millan (10,off Billingham); Gallagher (1,off
Billingham); Kranepool (4,off Billingham).
SF: Kranepool (1,off Billingham).
Team LOB: 6.
Cincinnati Reds AB R H RBI BB SO PO A
Rose 3b 4 2 1 0 1 0 2 4
Griffey rf 3 1 0 0 1 1 3 0
Rettenmund ph,rf 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 0
Morgan 2b 4 1 2 0 0 0 2 4
Flynn 2b 1 1 1 3 0 0 1 0
Bench c 4 1 2 1 0 0 1 0
Plummer ph,c 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 0
Perez 1b 5 2 2 4 0 2 15 1
Geronimo cf 5 1 1 0 0 2 1 0
Concepcion ss 4 1 2 3 0 1 1 7
Foster lf 4 0 2 0 0 0 1 0
Billingham p 3 0 0 0 1 1 0 2
McEnaney p 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Totals 38 11 13 11 4 8 27 18
FIELDING -
DP: 3. Concepcion-Morgan-Perez, Perez-Concepcion-Perez, Concepcion-Morgan-Perez.
E: Rose (2), Concepcion (6).
BATTING -
2B: Bench (12,off Seaver).
HR: Perez (6,4th inning off Seaver 1 on 0 out); Concepcion (3,7th inning off
Hall 0 on 1 out); Flynn (1,8th inning off Hall 2 on 0 out).
Team LOB: 7.
PITCHINGNew York Mets IP H R ER BB SO HR
Seaver L(5-4) 4.2 7 7 3 3 5 1
Baldwin 1.1 3 0 0 0 0 0
Hall 2 3 4 4 1 3 2
Totals 8 13 11 7 4 8 3
Cincinnati Reds IP H R ER BB SO HR
Billingham W(4-3) 7 10 4 3 0 1 0
McEnaney 2 1 0 0 0 0 0
Totals 9 11 4 3 0 1 0
Billingham faced 1 batter in the 8th

[Falls City Beer]

Luckily for the Reds the NL stinks this year. I think only the Phillies/Mets, possibly the Astros, maybe the Brewers, and the Reds (if we can add a starting pitcher and a couple BP arms) will be the teams competing the for the NL wildcard. 85-88 wins could win the NL Wildcard. There doesn't appear to be one great team in the NL this year, so while I would be surprised if the Reds were to win the WC, it's not completely out of the question.

Cardinals are starting to take their typical all-world shape again. That bullpen is outstanding.

Cards are a very good team who will be a great team by the end of the season.

The Reds will be 10 back of the Cards by the middle of June and 3 or 4 back of Milwaukee.

[Benny-Distefano]

Anyway, my enjoyment of the Reds is not just dependent on them making the playoffs.

Mine is. That is to say... if the Reds are in the basement, I quit watching them and just read about them in the paper. But if they are winning, they are fun to watch.

I mean, baseball is baseball. 9 innings of basement ball is NO FUN. I used to listen to every game, from the 80's on through the mid-90's. I was on the edge of my seat for that Reds-Mets 1 game playoff. But this is a new age of baseball. Its the Davids vs the Goliaths. Usually, the Davids arent very much fun to watch. Until they put some kind of salary cap in, I will always be half-yawning.

But, the Reds have been fun to watch this year for the most part. But if they find themselves in the basement by the all-star break, I have a feeling I will go back to just reading the paper.