One of 30,000 dissappointed fans.

The Reds let it happen again.  They get a good crowd and lose.  The great weather and the winning road trip had tweaked my interest enough to make the trip to the ball park.  The fan turnout was very good for the Friday game against the Braves, as 30,000 watched a very strange performance by Volquez.

The good news: He was dominating early, striking out 2 per inning.  I noticed he was throwing his change up a lot more which is good to see.  I can’t even recall a batter getting a ball out of the infield.

The bad news: He walked 5 hitters in the 4th inning allowing 2 runs.  All that without anyone getting a ball out of the infield.  Yep.  Two runs with no hits.  Walking the pitcher……..with the bases loaded.

I went for $1 hot dogs in the 5th when he finally gave up a hit  (a wall scraping homerun) so I can still say I’ve never seen Volquez give up a hit in person.  The Reds had their opportunity to tie the game in the 8th, and nearly did after Alex Gonzolez smoked a ball just foul down the 3rd base line.  He then hit a sac fly to make it a one run game where it stayed.

Reds complete the road trip on high note.

Breath it in Reds fans.  Take your time and enjoy it.  It has been a long time since the Reds have had a road trip as successful as this one.  Two out of three against the cubbies capped the 7-3 all central roadtrip, leaving the Reds 3 games above .500.

Looking at the standings today I noticed a couple of suprises.

1. The Cardinals stand on top of the division at 11-5 after sweeping the Mets.  Ex-Red and underappriated Kyle Loshe is having a very very good start to the season.  I’m still bitter they got him at a very cheap price.
2. The Pirates are 9-6, same as the Reds.  AND….they have a run diff of +20!  The Reds run diff is -6!
3. The so called weak NL Central has four teams over .500, while the East and West have only 3 teams over .500 combined.

Question of the Day.  How will attendance be for the Reds homestand after the successful road trip?   My guess is in the mid 20 thousand range for the weekend series against the Braves, and high teens for the Astro series, unless the Reds completely destroy the Braves.

No Problems in Houston!

The Reds looked like a good baseball team taking 3 out of 4 in Houston. Timely hitting and good pitching were the story and amplified by the series finale. A first inning hit by Edwin plated two and Bronson was very efficient until giving up back to back jacks to Reds killer Lance Berkman and Carlos Lee. The Reds found themselves down by a run, but the hitting machine Joey Votto came to the plate with the bases loaded and one down. He took a healthy cut on a 0-1 count and missed. But watching Votto hit with 2 strikes is wonderful. He seems to be able to foul and ball off any time he wants. He hammered a ball to deep left that just missed a grand slam by a couple feet. A close play at the plate got Hairston Jr., but the damage was done. I loved the reaction of Votto after the play, smiling at his teammates in the dougout squeezing his fingers together to show them how close it was to going out. These guys seem to be having some fun out there. I like it.

Dusty Baker had some interesting decisions as well. Bronson seemed to be getting hit hard in the 6th but he was left in the game with a low pitch count. He managed to get big double play balls in both the 6th and 7th inning. His pitch count was still under 90 when he was taken out in the 8th. Rhodes came in the 8th and quickly got in trouble. With runners on the corners and 1 out, Rhodes got Berkman to fly out to shallow right. Then the right handed Lee came to the plate. Rhodes was left in to face Lee and was being squeezed by the home plate umpire to find himself in a 3-0 count. Again I started to second guess Dusty as Rhodes kept going right at Lee instead of just putting him on. Challenging him with fast balls seemed like a very dangerous thing. After going full Rhodes ended up walking Lee. That loaded the bases and set up one of the most gut wrenching at bats you will ever see. Hunter Pence battled the hard throwing veteran tooth and nail. Fouling pitch after pitch off, the count went full. Then Rhodes threw a low fastball on the outside corner that was called for strike 3. That same location (probably even a little worse) was called balls against Lee. Cordero managed to get the save without too much drama.

A very entertaining game. A well played game. I have to say I was a bit skeptical of this team to start the season, but they are changing my expectations. The team seems loose and seems to enjoy what they are doing. First time in a while I can say that about a Reds team. I look forward to the Chicago series. In the last few years, the Reds never seemed to put together a good road trip and everytime the team started to gain momentum they would quickly lose it. Let’s see if this team is different.

The central division road trip……so far so good.

I know its early to say any game is a big game, but the Reds are in the mist of battling many of their NL central foes in the current roadtrip.  They can’t afford to get behind early in the division.  After a rainout and a thrashing from the Pirates, the Reds got a great pitching performance from Harang to split the shortened series.   The Reds then went into Milwakee and pulled out 2 out of 3 behind some heroics by Edwin Encarcion to win a wild first game, and a well pitched second game.  Now off to Houston for a 4 game series, the Reds are looking to seek some revenge from the Stro’s who beat them 12 times in 15 games last year!  Not to mention they had to face Roy Oswalt who is like 87-1 career against the Reds.  A 9th inning homer off the bat of Ramon Hernandez was enough for the Reds to come from behind and sneak out a victory in game one.  Now it’s back to the top of the rotation and its looking like it could be a nice roadtrip!  How sweet would a four game sweep against the Asstros be.

Harang who lost 20+ pounds in the offseason has looked wonderful in his starts so far.   Reds fans can breath a sigh of relief that Harang is back to his old self after his struggles last year.  Unfortunalty, the teams best pitcher last year hasn’t performed as well.  Volquez was hit hard in his start against the Brewers but was bailed out by a MONSTOROUS GRAND SLAM by Edwin Encarncion.  It seems the movement on Volkies fastball isn’t darting as much as it was last year.  Plus he hasn’t seemed to throw his cartoon change-up as much.  I wonder how much of his struggles are due to the new catcher.  Perhaps Hannigan should get a shot at catching Volquez.

Opening Series and thoughts.

The Reds missed out on the great weather the day before their opening game only to lose to Johan Santana and the Mets on a cold a dreary day.  The Reds couldn’t muster much offense, and the newly touted speed and defense looked terrible at times.  Old McDonald started in center and he looked lost at times.  Negativity seems to follow the Reds these days after nearly a decade of consecutive losing seasons.  But I will stay a bit optimistic as Harang looked sharp and the approach at the plate seems to be and improvement over last years team.  As for the rest of the series against the Mets, it was entertaining.  A one run loss in a great pitchers duel, a just missed walkoff grandslam, and a nice offensive day to get the first win of the season is not a bad way to start of the season.  Especially since the Mets are a quality team.  They usually play very well until September.

What I like…

The team has shown it can possibly score more runs than expected, and they have been driving up pitch counts so far.  More walks than K’s is a good sign.

Gonzo shown he still has some range and is really a good shortstop.

Votto.  And 3 run homers.

What I don’t like….

Volquez didn’t look to great in his first start.  He didn’t seem to have that great cutting fastball to the lefties he had all last year.

Jay Bruce looks way late on fastballs from what I seen.   I hope he turns it up a notch.  He has played decent defense and nearly poked a ball out of the park opposite field too.

What the hell…….

Griffey Jr. and Dunn both homered on Opening day, while the Reds lose 2-1.  Ironic.  Even more so is that Griffey has 8 opening day homers, but that was his first since his last year with the Mariners.  Figures.

Looking foward..

The Pirates will enter Great American Ball Park after dropping 2 out 3 to the Cardinals.  The Reds need (and should) win at least 2 out of 3 before a NL central filled road trip.

The World Baseball Classic…..Who Cares?

The players do.  International fans do.  I do.

I am getting sick of people on radio shows and internet forums bashing the World Baseball Classic (WBC).  They also say the same lame excuses, “What if our players get hurt?”  “They should be training with their teams, gelling.”  “No one cares.” “The games don’t matter.”

Give me a break.  Players get hurt in spring training too.  Of course you don’t want your good pitchers (Volquez, Cueto, and Cordero in the Reds case) going out and throwing too many innings under stress, but that shouldn’t happen since these teams are well managed.

As for teams “gelling”, its a bunch of crap.  Baseball may be a called team sport, but its much more based on individuals.  It’s not often you have to work together in baseball.  Other than the pitchers and catchers working together for a little while, I could care less if any of the other players ever spoke to one another.  These guys are pros.  They know how to play baseball, they have been doing for a while.  Spring trainging is about kicking off the dust, and playing in the sand.

An of course “No one cares.” and “The games don’t mean anything.”  Please, please, don’t mistake your opinion for the everyone else’s.  As a baseball fan, I really don’t see what there is not to like.  It’s baseball.  It’s quality baseball with some of the best players in the world.    And its games DO mean something to the players and fans.  The games are lively, the fans are passionate, and the players care.  That is unlike 90% of the regular season of MLB.  I would even go as far to say, I would rather watch the WBC finals more than the World Series (unless the Reds somehow mananged to get there).

Griffey Goes to Seattle!

In a turn of events, the former Kid , will play again in where he is most loved. Thank goodness, because I just don’t think he could’ve handled running around in the outfield much in Atlanta. Seattle will allow him to DH, which in turn should keep his legs fresh so hopefully he may regain some power. I just hope the Seattle fans keep some realistic perspective of what junior can do and don’t expect too much.

“If he didn’t take that” is taking the place of “if he played there” or “if played then”.

I hated Barry Bonds. He was a first class jerk with immense talent. I remember watching Barry from the left field stands in Cincy during a double-header all the way back in 97. The crowd was parse and a friend and I yelled for Barry to get Barrys attention so maybe he would acknowledge us. Not heckling him, just getting his attention…Barry looked at us, and in his own jerk ways…he just scratched his balls. Of course that was probably before the roids. As Barry went on to become a freak of nature, and smashing the homerun record….I always knew it didn’t matter because A-Rod would catch him. A-Rod. He would do it. And now the problem is……well A-Rod will do it.

A-Rod is not as hateable as Bonds, but he’s not that hard to dislike either. I guess its easy to be hated, when you play for the damn Yankees, make more money than the Florida Marlins COMBINED! As far as the steroids go, its a huge disappointment as a baseball fan. Do I understand why he did it? Yes. Do I hate him for it? Unfortunatly I can’t say I do. All these guys want one thing. To be the best. I’m not going to take my A-Rod article down that same beaten road as all the others. It sucks he used, it sucks that all the baseball world will be focused on this for years and years (possible decades) to come.

People are upset about the numbers being tainted and that is the bottom line. The talk about erasing the records books is silly. Let the numbers be. Records will get broken. And they will be broken much sooner than people think as the parks are getting smaller and smaller. Those old records by those “clean” players are only numbers. The thing is though, if all those old “clean” players played today, they would been just as likely to do something similar. And as much as I admire Hank Aarons’ accomplishment, I consider Babe Ruth the Best Homerun hitter of all-time, and if your talking strictly about the numbers Bonds is the king. People are going to have to stop looking at the final numbers and look deeper. Ruth hit more homeruns that entire teams did in a year! If A-Rod could do that, you could justify him making more than the Marlins. Different times, different parks, different players, everything changes. Its part of what makes baseball great. It’s the arguments of who is and was the best. Unfortunately, “if he didn’t take that” is taking the place of “if he played there” or “if played then”.

Griffey to announce new team today.

Rumor has it that he will be going to the Braves over the Mariners. I wouldn’t be surprised if that is true, but the man needs to be in American League so he can DH.

Welcome to TheRedsBlog.com!

Ever since I was a little boy I have been a loyal Reds fan.  I can vaguely remember watching Pete Rose break the hit record all the back in 1985.  I remember bits and pieces of that 1990 World Series.  Bip Roberts was my favorite player for a year or two.  I can’t seem to forget how Reggie Sanders went 2 for 16 with 10 strikeouts in the 95 playoffs against an Atlanta team I despised.  And when he didn’t strikeout he bounced into double plays.  I nervously sat in the “top 6″ many times in Riverfront/Cinergy Staduim, including a cold fall night against the Mets during a one-game playoff.  I recall the excitement and expectations that came with the trade that brought Ken Griffey Jr. home.   I counted down the days to the new staduim.  And I have suffured through the firesales, the horrible management,  and way too many losing seasons. But for some reason, I can’t stop myself from caring….watching….and most of all….hoping.   With that said, I give you TheRedsBlog.com!