The Reds have a good offense, 2 good starters, and that's it. A good team, they are not.Originally Posted by MattyMo4Life
The Reds have a good offense, 2 good starters, and that's it. A good team, they are not.
"My mission is to be the ray of hope, the guy who stands out there on that beautiful field and owns up to his mistakes and lets people know it's never completely hopeless, no matter how bad it seems at the time. I have a platform and a message, and now I go to bed at night, sober and happy, praying I can be a good messenger." -Josh Hamilton
The bullpen is awful and anyone with a modicum of baseball knowledge (sorry Marty) could see the train wreck that was coming. The problem is the front office doesn't seem inclined to actually attempt to solve the situation. Bringing in guys like Yan and Mays is not an attempt to solve anything.
A bullpen isn't difficult to fix. Look at what the Cardinals have done over the years. Year after year they have a good bullpen, even though they don't ever add any big named relievers like the Cubs do. They go after guys like Randy Flores and Josh Hancock. The Reds need to stop bringing in washed up vets like Yan and White, and give some younger guys a chance. The Reds have made some bad moves in that department, but a bullpen is a lot easier to fix than the rotation is. In the past the Reds have had a horrible rotation with zero good starting pitchers. Having Arroyo and Harang in the starting rotation makes a huge difference.
exactly, and pay attention to HR rates because that is the main key to having a solid pen, you can't have relievers that love to give up HRs
the mystifying part is that the FO has been so unwilling to make any substantial changes. They have an extrememly hot reliever in AA (relief performance tends to be highly variable from year to year) yet they don't even put him in AAA much less the majors.but a bullpen is a lot easier to fix than the rotation is.
If it was me I would get rid of Burns, Yan and Hammonds immediately and turn over the jobs to Shafer, Belisle and Shack.
I've been saying this all year...even when the Astros had their hot start. They are not a very good team. Here are a couple of reasons the Astros fans should be worried.
* They just lost 2 of 3 games to the Royals.
* Their offense is Berkman, Ensberg, and pray for rain.
* Andy Pettitte has a 5.44 ERA
* Taylor Bucholz has a worse ERA than Andy Pettitte
* The Astros starting rotation ranks 12 out of the 16 NL teams in ERA
* The Reds starting rotation ranks 5th and the Cards rank 6th in the NL
I don't see much for the Astros fans to get excited about. I don't think Clemens will be much of a factor. To be honest, he may be a huge disapointment. Clemens had a great year last year... no question. He is a year older though, and that will catch up with him sooner or later. I think he will have a rough season.
However, the Reds will have a difficult time overcoming the stench arising from their bullpen, while the Astros pen will find ways to keep them in games or finish off games they're already winning. Ditto with the Cards.
When all is said and done more is said than done.
The Astros have a horrible pen this year too. Brad "Lit Up" Lidge isn't what he used to be.
You can't consider a reliever good just because he he had a good season 5 years ago. That seems to be the Reds thinking. Thise reliever once had a good season in the Majors, so he must be a good pitcher. A minor league pitcher can't be as a good as a guy with Major League experience...right? The Reds pen would probably b much better of they used those kids in the minors instead of scraping the bottom of the barrell with these vets. There is a reason why nobody else seems to want them.
1-4 so far. So I guess we should shoot for 4-6, right? Finishing up 4-2 is about as good as I can imagine this teaming doing.
“Every level he goes to, he is going to compete. They will know who he is at every level he goes to.” -- ED on EDLC
This team, now that we have the benefit of several months of history, is nothing but medicore to slightly above medicore. We still are plagued with the problems DanO has saddled us with (allthough they are being cleaned out), along with new ones such as the amazingly horrific bullpen.
Thus, I don't we'll see a serries from which everything falls into place or falls apart. We'll grind out the season with some hot streaks and some dreadfull streaks and end up around .500 +/- some games.
All that gibberish being said, I don't think there will be a "defining serries" this year.
I think if we keep losing (or start winning) on this 10-game stretch against contenders, it very well could be moment we remember as "when it all fell apart" or "when it came together".
Of course, any writing of history of any sort involves positing subjective 'ruptures' when there really is continuity to be seen all around. You could also say that the 1999 Reds 'always had' the problems that ended up plaguing them in the season-ending series in Milwaukee or the final game against the Mets.
All I'm saying is that as a amateur Reds historians, this may be that moment. And, if the Reds emerge from this stretch as a 44-33 or a 38-39 club, this very well could be that moment.
That is all.
Last edited by RedEye; 06-21-2006 at 04:47 PM.
“Every level he goes to, he is going to compete. They will know who he is at every level he goes to.” -- ED on EDLC
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