Professional

Professional

Friday, April 23, 2010

State of the Cincinnati Reds in Month #1

I've been asked by friends, Why haven't I wrote any thing about my Reds? It because I've been too busy watching them and most of the time finding myself pissed of once i get done watching them night in and night out. One of the best thing about baseball to me, that many people say is actually a bad thing, is that there are so many games and that it is such a long season. Being a Reds fan i'm so used to saying that it's still early, so i'll say it again it still early. What's wrong with them? Well it hard to really put a finger on the main problem, because there are so many. Pitching has look good at times, but horrible most of the time! Hitting, we have had a few good games but other than that they have been non-existence. All around pitching has got off really to an unexpected slow start. As of april 23 in the MLB we rank 29th in runs and earned runs as a pitching staff,28th in ERA with a 6.03 mark, and 25th in walks. The starting pitching hasn't got off to a good start, kind of expected being that guys are not yet at mid-season form but it should be better than it is. The Starters alone has started 16 games with a 1-5 record with a 5.94 ERA. The Starter has not been able to hold leads, they have not been able to pitch deep into games. I'm not sure of the exact rank as far as innings pitched but we are defintely towards the top for inning pitch from the bullpen. The bullpen has been ok for us i guess. They have 49 inning pitched with a 6-4 record, ERA is at 5.78. Not bad at all considering how much slack they have to make up behind starting pitching. The back end has been pretty strong with Coco Cordero caring a 1-1 record with a 3.12 ERA. The one black spot the big blown save he had a week ago on the 16th of April. The hope is that as the season go on and we get deeper in the starting pitching will get better, the only one that really concerns me is Aaron Harang. Man has that guy been struggling. I can only imagine what he's going through, he just can't seem to turn things around. I was excited for him on opening day cause he actually pitched a good game. Albert Pujols was able to beat the reds by himself because the lack of hitting the reds did, but it got worst Harang's second start, and even worst his third start. In 4 starts he is 0-3 with 8.31 ERA. It not look too good for Harang if he keeps up on this pace, I was expecting a turn around this year that's why i pick him up on my fantasy baseball team, but I had no choice but to cut him loose this week. Let's just hope it gets better for him in the month of May.
As for offensively, as a team offense has also started slow. The Reds are rank 19th in the majors in average batting .242 as a team, has the 8th most strikeouts as an offense, and ranks 24th and on base percentage(.327). We only have one everyday starter hitting .300 or better and four everyday starters hitting well under .250 not going to win a lot baseball games with that. It amazing, out of 16 games, starting pitchers have a total of 10 no decision. I'm not blaming all that on hitting but they play just as big a part as the pitcher.
The good thing about where we sit right now is that it still only the first month of the season we still have over 140 games to play. Most people expected the Reds to be doing better right now but thats not been the case. Reds fans don't panic it still early, give it time, personally i don't pay the season a lot of mine until the summer get here. I watch every game, and get mad but not as mad as i do around all-star break and post all-star break. I think we will pull it together and I also believe will be in contention throughout the year. It not pretty right now but I don't see it getting much uglier.

No comments:

Post a Comment