This team is pathetic against lefites.

[captainmorgan07]

THis club has had a very bad history against lefties. Phillips is our only consistent right hander who hitties lefties well. Edwin could be in that group but he's way to up and down right now. Keppinger will help the cause by playing first against lefties when gonzo comes back from the DL. The whole 2 lefties at 1b thing is not helping us out. Against lefties until gonzo comes back it's pretty much a toss up who to play. We could stick castro at short move kepp to 1b but that would cause an uproar around here.

[DTCromer]

The worst part was that Maholm was awful tonight. His command was (in Bill Walton's words) horrrrrible. . . .especially early on.

I'm not sure if it's just left-handers, but I'd be interested in seeing this team's BA against LH w/RISP.

[jmac]

Similar this year to the year we had Jr-Dunn-Casey-Walker.
Teams like the cubs can go into Pitt and sweep because they have big rh pop with Ramirez/Lee to name a couple.
Yes 6-5 is still okay but now that we are getting good pitching , to lose is very fustrating.
Cueto's last game 6+ip 2 er = nd
Volquez tonight 5 ip= 0 er= nd
It isnt just the nd but the reds lost both those games.

[Fullboat]

It tough losing a game that the other team is handing you on a silver platter.:(

[realreds1]

Which is why you still can't invest a ton of hope in this team.

[Jefferson24]

Which is why you still can't invest a ton of hope in this team.

word.

[TheBigLebowski]

Last game was a failure on many levels - no clutch hitting, mental mistakes, a general lack of any type of proficiency in hitting against lefties and Dusty giving outs away again.

The fact that we simply CANNOT hit LH pitching may be this team's undoing.

[tommycash]

There is one thing that has to be said about this team and that is under no circumstances should we ever lose 1-0 to the Pirates. It just should not happen.

[improbus]

Votto had some of the worst swings I've ever seen against Marte. It was obvious that he had no clue how to hit a tough lefty. This is not a good sign...

[_Sir_Charles_]

As a team overall we're simply not hitting. The two most frustrating parts to that are the fact that we're getting quality pitching (starting AND relief work) AND we're getting on base via walks. But it seems that Dusty's "clogging the bases" comment is coming to fruition. We're getting guys on base...but not moving them over via hits. Our team left on base totals are simply an abomination right now. Leaving over 10 men on base is a really bad showing...and we've done it 4 times already. We've won 2 of those and lost 2 of those, but with that many men on base we should've won all 4 of them. But it's not just those 4 games either. We're consistantly having around 7 or 8 men left on per game....that's simply NOT acceptable. We've got too many duplicate bats on our roster and too many soft hitters on the bench.

LH Hatteberg at 1b AND LH Votto at 1b is simply stupid. One must go somewhere else.

RH Freel on bench AND RH Hopper on bench is also a wasted roster space. Both are nearly identicle players in regards to their hitting results. One need to go as well.

Light hitting Castro is not helping our cause at all. Yes he's a right handed bat off the bench...but you want a WORTHY right handed bat off the bench. He needs to be gone from the organization.

3 catchers is also not going to work. Not when none of the 3 are really solid hitters. Javy is the best hitter of the 3, but I think everyone would agree that he's not an above average hitter. Certainly not good enough to validate his mediocre work behind the plate. If you're going to keep 3 catchers then one of them MUST be a supurb hitter...and Javy's not. Dump one.

This gives you at least 4 roster spots we could fill. And I'm not even suggesting we demote Edwin or anything drastic like that. I'm just suggesting we get rid of redundant players. We've got plenty of capable bats down at Louisville. Not to mention capable RIGHT-HANDED bats too.

Some viable options for big league promotions....Andy Green (RH), Andy Phillips (RH), Jolbert Cabrera (RH), Jerry Hairston (RH), Jerry Gil (RH), Ryan Hanigan (RH). And that's not even suggesting bringing up "the next big thing" either....not that he's not worthy of being up here. Mr. Bruce's numbers are growing more and more impressive with each game in Louisville. 8 games, .324 avg, 2 dingers, 6 ribbies, 21 total bases, 2 swipes. He does still have that rather large elephant in the room though...10 k's. But I'd certainly take that over some of the impotent bats sitting on our bench currently. It's still probably best to keep him in Louisville though. But at some point, he'll have to come up here and that means Patterson going to the bench. And to be honest, I'm perfectly fine with his bat coming off the bench and as a solid defensive replacement late in the game for Dunner or Junior.

So, whatcha think? What moves would YOU make to correct our anemic "O"?

[Degenerate39]

So, whatcha think? What moves would YOU make to correct our anemic "O"?

Trade Hatteberg for a prospect once Gonzales is back. If they could trade Conine for a couple of decent prospects then they could do the same for Hatteberg. Dump Castro and Valetine. Use Keppinger as a platoon at 1st base against lefties while Gonzo is at shortstop. Bring up Andy Phillips.

[durl]

The Reds got plenty of men on base (12, I believe) so the problem wasn't getting baserunners, it was getting them IN.

Even the best of teams will have nights when they don't get the hits at the right time. You never want to see your team lose a game 1-0 when they strand 12. I seriously doubt the Reds will be shutout and strand that many runners again this season.

[CWRed]

THis club has had a very bad history against lefties. Phillips is our only consistent right hander who hitties lefties well. Edwin could be in that group but he's way to up and down right now. Keppinger will help the cause by playing first against lefties when gonzo comes back from the DL. The whole 2 lefties at 1b thing is not helping us out. Against lefties until gonzo comes back it's pretty much a toss up who to play. We could stick castro at short move kepp to 1b but that would cause an uproar around here.

Yeah Juan Castro is the answer to this clubs' hitting woes against lefties. Oh dear. :rolleyes:

[CWRed]

As a team overall we're simply not hitting. The two most frustrating parts to that are the fact that we're getting quality pitching (starting AND relief work) AND we're getting on base via walks. But it seems that Dusty's "clogging the bases" comment is coming to fruition. We're getting guys on base...but not moving them over via hits. Our team left on base totals are simply an abomination right now. Leaving over 10 men on base is a really bad showing...and we've done it 4 times already. We've won 2 of those and lost 2 of those, but with that many men on base we should've won all 4 of them. But it's not just those 4 games either. We're consistantly having around 7 or 8 men left on per game....that's simply NOT acceptable. We've got too many duplicate bats on our roster and too many soft hitters on the bench.

LH Hatteberg at 1b AND LH Votto at 1b is simply stupid. One must go somewhere else.

RH Freel on bench AND RH Hopper on bench is also a wasted roster space. Both are nearly identicle players in regards to their hitting results. One need to go as well.

Light hitting Castro is not helping our cause at all. Yes he's a right handed bat off the bench...but you want a WORTHY right handed bat off the bench. He needs to be gone from the organization.

3 catchers is also not going to work. Not when none of the 3 are really solid hitters. Javy is the best hitter of the 3, but I think everyone would agree that he's not an above average hitter. Certainly not good enough to validate his mediocre work behind the plate. If you're going to keep 3 catchers then one of them MUST be a supurb hitter...and Javy's not. Dump one.

This gives you at least 4 roster spots we could fill. And I'm not even suggesting we demote Edwin or anything drastic like that. I'm just suggesting we get rid of redundant players. We've got plenty of capable bats down at Louisville. Not to mention capable RIGHT-HANDED bats too.

Some viable options for big league promotions....Andy Green (RH), Andy Phillips (RH), Jolbert Cabrera (RH), Jerry Hairston (RH), Jerry Gil (RH), Ryan Hanigan (RH). And that's not even suggesting bringing up "the next big thing" either....not that he's not worthy of being up here. Mr. Bruce's numbers are growing more and more impressive with each game in Louisville. 8 games, .324 avg, 2 dingers, 6 ribbies, 21 total bases, 2 swipes. He does still have that rather large elephant in the room though...10 k's. But I'd certainly take that over some of the impotent bats sitting on our bench currently. It's still probably best to keep him in Louisville though. But at some point, he'll have to come up here and that means Patterson going to the bench. And to be honest, I'm perfectly fine with his bat coming off the bench and as a solid defensive replacement late in the game for Dunner or Junior.

So, whatcha think? What moves would YOU make to correct our anemic "O"?

Good post and mostly right on the money. Also a big problem I think right now is lineup construction. Dunn batting 5th is ludicrous as his OBP is always going to be high. Patterson leadoff is also an abomination. Move him to 5th or 6th and let him drive in runs. I know that's not gonna happen because it's a law that CF bats leadoff in Dusty's world so here's the lineup:

Patterson
Kepp (Kepp and Dunn could flip flop here)
Dunn
Jr.
Phillips
EE
Votto
Bako

What I would like to see once Votto comes around is...

Votto/Hatte (Kepp and Votto could flip flop too)
Keppinger
Dunn
Jr.
Phillips
Patterson
EE
Bako

That's a potentially explosive lineup. And notice neither of these have Freel, Hopper, or Castro. :beerme:

[jmac]

The Reds got plenty of men on base (12, I believe) so the problem wasn't getting baserunners, it was getting them IN.

Even the best of teams will have nights when they don't get the hits at the right time. You never want to see your team lose a game 1-0 when they strand 12. I seriously doubt the Reds will be shutout and strand that many runners again this season.
Last night, we did have enough runners on. But as a whole, the "facing lefty" thing has been a problem for awhile now going back several years.