Cincinnati Reds Claw Their Way Past Milwaukee Brewers into 2nd Place

The Cincinnati Reds have been one of the National League's top run-producing teams the past couple years. This year they started off like they were poured out of a molasses jar.

Scott Rolen cracked his first home run last night as the Reds extended their win streak to three games and clinched their third series win of the young campaign. The win also pulled the Reds 2.5 games back in the NL Central Division.

Some significant highlights have taken place recently that should serve notice to the rest of the league.

Mat Latos is actually as good as advertised. As his harshest critic, I believe I see the light.

In his last performance in the series opener against the San Francisco Giants, he went seven strong innings of shutout baseball allowing only four hits and two walks.

As I mentioned in an earlier article, "He will be working the rest of the month to get his ERA down below five." That is a true statement but he is well on his way as his ERA dropped about 2.5 runs in the one game.

Ryan Ludwick is turning out to be a good acquisition. He leads the team with three HR and 10 RBI. His upper-deck blast on Tuesday chased starter Matt Cain and opened the door for the Reds' winning rally.

Bronson Arroyo is not over the hill as many had irreverently proclaimed. In his last three starts, his ERA is an eye-popping 1.71 and his WHIP is 0.936.

Aroldis Chapman has developed into a feared pitcher. You can almost see the dread on the batter's faces when he takes the mound. The burning question in all fan's minds is whether he will remain a setup man or become a starter.

If the latter were true he would have to knock Mike Leake out as he has become the least effective member of the starting rotation.

Drew Stubbs actually looks as though he has become a MLB player. His strikeouts are down and he has started to prove his worth.

Sean Marshall showed that the loss of Ryan Madson is not a season killer. He has saved four games in four attempts.

The three-game win streak is second in the National League only to the astounding Washington Nationals, who have won four straight and stand alone atop the NL East Division.

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Cincinnati Reds' Anorexic Bats Have Now Become a Cause For Concern

The Cincinnati Reds are off to one of the poorest starts in the National League. Only the Pittsburgh Pirates and San Diego Padres have a lower batting average after the Reds first nine games.

The team has already had a pair of two-hitters thrown at them  thus far with a three-hitter thrown in for good measure.

Their anemic .191 batting average and failure to provide run support has made it very hard for the pitching staff to work. It is plenty of pressure for a starter to go out and know his team isn't going to give him three runs to work with.

Their OBP of .255 is only better than the Pirates in the NL.

Is it time for concern? I would say so. They are already three games behind the division-leading St. Louis Cardinals with a 3-6 record and currently on the crest of a three-game skid.

Either the Reds batters have lost their touch or they have faced the best pitchers in baseball. I know the latter is not true. Of the beatings they have taken so far, only Gio Gonzalez is a top-of-the-line starter.

Of course when you have an OBP of only .255 you are not getting on base. The long ball has suddenly disappeared.

With a team total of five round-trippers, Jay Bruce has delivered 60 percent of them. He also hit the last one the team has in the third game of the season.

A six-game home run drought may not seam so bad, but the longest the Reds went in the 2011 season without a homer was eight games.

Take a look at in individually for a moment. Only four of the 'starting' players have an average over .200. Zack Cozart is leading the way with a .313 average as the lone .300 hitter on the squad.

Joey Votto is hitting .290, followed by Brandon Phillips at .250 and Bruce at .235.

The only two players who have a decent OBP are Votto (.410) and Cozart (.371).

If the total average isn't depressing enough, look at what happens when you only analyze the losses. The average descends to a miserably .126. That boils down to only 25 hits in the six games (25-199).

Cliff, why don't you say something good about the team? Everybody knows the bright spots on the squad are a very few pitchers who have really stepped up. This article is only touching on the offensive woes we are, as fans, forced to agonize through.

The first few games could be urinated away as cold weather follies, but the trip to DC hasn't been anywhere close to freezing.

The current three game losing streak is second only to the Pirates (Pirates fans I promise you I am not trying to beat up on you).

Mike Leake (0-1) will take the ball for the Reds today against southpaw Ross Detwiler (1-0) who will attempt to extend the Washington Nationals winning streak to six games.

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Joey Votto Gets Four Hits As Cincinnati Reds' Bats Come Alive

First baseman Joey Votto went 4-5 and Wilson Valdez added three hits as the Cincinnati Reds beat the St. Louis Cardinals 4-3 in walk-off fashion on Wednesday. Pinch-hitter Chris Heisey singled in the winning run with one out in the ninth inning.

This marked the second time in six games that the Reds have had walk-off wins.

In near freezing temperature at Great American Ball Park, the Reds jumped on Jaime Garcia for 11 hits and chased the southpaw in the fifth inning.

Votto who got out of the gate slowly thus far, scorched two doubles and two singles to raise his average to .333. In the first four games he had stuck out six times in 13 at bats.

Valdez, filling in for the injured Brandon Phillips, hit three singles in four at bats with an RBI as he and Votto collected half of the Reds' 14 hits.

Drew Stubbs and rookie Zach Cozart both added two hits as the Reds leveled their record to 3-3.

The hit explosion was a welcome sight as the Reds had managed only two runs and seven hits in the first two games of the series. It pulled the team average up to .201 which places them 11th out of 16 NL squads. They are averaging a mere 2.5 runs per game which puts entirely too much pressure on the starting pitchers.

Cozart continued his hot hitting as his .455 average puts him behind only Carlos Ruiz' .462 in the NL. He has hit safely in all six of the Reds' games and has at least two hits in half of them.

Stubbs has shown more plate discipline as his strikeout rate is down to around 25 percent.

Jay Bruce has brought his average up to .304 and is still leading the league with 3 HR.

Heisey has demonstrated once again why he is the premier pinch-hitter in the league. He is now 2-2 with 2 RBI when coming off the bench. By contrast, he is batting just .091 when starting in the outfield.

The team will begin a four-game set against the NL East leading, Washington Nationals (4-2) on Thursday. Mat Latos (0-1) will be looking to atone for his bad performance in his debut with the Reds. He will face southpaw Gio Gonzalez (0-0) in the series opener.

The Nats will be hosting the season home opener as Gonzalez will be looking to make amends for his first outing as well.

Cincinnati Reds' Zack Cozart Is Only Star in Dreadful Offensive Start in 2012

Zack Cozart is the only position player on the Cincinnati Reds to be batting over .300. Allow me to qualify that statement; the only one with more than one game played.

The rookie shortstop is hitting .500/.563/1.000 in the first four games and has hit safely in all of them.

The big average he is carrying is not unusual or extraordinary for this juncture of the season. The rest of the team, however is far below what anybody would have expected.

In being thumped by division-rival and defending World Series champion St.Louis Cardinals 6-1 Monday night, the Reds managed only three singles against the Cards' five-hole starter, Jake Westbrook.

They are currently 23rd out of 30 MLB teams with a collective batting average of .218. By contrast, the NL leading Cardinals are batting at a torrid .317 pace. Everyone was concerned about how they would do with three top people gone from the squad. Albert who?

Cozart, 26, has already enjoyed two multi-hit games this season and has played flawlessly on defense.

Former MVP Joey Votto has been especially disappointing. After becoming richer than Montgomery Burns on "The Simpsons" much is expected of the Canadian born first-baseman. He is batting only .154 with 1 HR, but his team high six strikeouts are more distressing. He is presently being fanned at a 46 percent clip.

Jay Bruce has hit with power when he has hit, but is only flashing a .267 average at the moment. He continues to lead MLB with 3 HR.

Other than opening day starter, Johnny Cueto, the Reds starting pitching has been less than stellar. It is not the pitching that is keeping them from winning however, it is the paltry batting deficiencies.

Left-field tandem Chris Heisey and Ryan Ludwick are batting just .200 in the young season.

Rookie catcher Devin Mesoraco it hitting .333 but has appeared in only one game thus far.

Since Juan Francisco's departure on that midnight train to Georgia, the Reds have no decent bench bat from the left side. Oh sure there is Willie Harris, but there certainly isn't 'game changer' written on the back of his jersey.

The highly-touted pitching staff has come up short as a unit, with only six teams in MLB having a higher ERA than their 4.75

This leads to a deep question. Have the opposing pitchers been that tough, or have the Reds' bats just been that quiet?

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Cincinnati Reds' Aroldis Chapman Is Off to a Terrific Start in 2012

Aroldis Chapman enjoyed one of the best Cactus League seasons on any team. He should have been placed in the starting rotation as the team talked about all spring.

Pitching coach Bryan Price has worked with him and have his delivery more compact and less hectic. Still a little herky-jerky up in there, but it is working fine.

Instead, he got bumped to the bullpen in lieu of Homer (American Psycho) Bailey. If anyone was watching, Bailey had a spring that would usually send someone to Louisville if they were fighting for their job.

Chapman has come out firing. In his first assignment on opening day against the Miami Marlins, he came in as a setup man in the eighth inning with the Reds up 2-0. He faced three batters, threw 10 pitches and recorded two strikeouts, while recording his first hold of the season. You could see him smiling as he walked near Jose Reyes as he made him look silly on a fast ball for the last out.

Newly acquired setup man-turned closer, Sean Marshall nailed it down in the ninth with an almost mirrored performance.

In Sunday's spectacular come from behind win against the Marlins, Chapman came into the game in the eighth inning with the Reds trailing 5-4. He had a perfect inning with a strikeout. In the ninth inning, still trailing 5-4 he got the first two batters out before Reyes tripled and was stranded as Chapman struck out Emelio Bonfacio with 100 mph fastballs.

Of course the Reds came back and gave Chapman the win on a Jay Bruce homer and a walkoff RBI by Scott Rolen.

His line for the two games thus far is 2G, 3IP, 1H, 0W, 5K, o.ooERA, 1-0 with one hold. His WHIP is 0.333 and is strikeout ratio is 15/9.

I must admit it is fun to watch him and easy to become excited with the chance you will see him four or five times a week in the eighth inning as opposed to every fifth game as a starter.

The control problems that haunted him in 2011 are apparently a thing of the past. He walked 41 batters in the 50 innings he worked last year, averaging nearly eight per nine innings pitched.

I realize the season is young and there is much baseball to be played. I wonder now that if he shines too glossy in the pen, will Dusty Baker keep him in there?

I imagine that will all depend on how the rotation pitchers work out. My hunch tells me that Bailey will be the first to falter.

He looks to be enjoying himself and that is important. That is a good thing, because it is time he begins to earn that $30M the Reds shelled out to land him.

MLB: Reds' Mat Latos Not Worth the Return for Yonder Alonso, Yasmani Grandal?

[caption id="attachment_199" align="aligncenter" width="252" caption="AP Photo/Tony Tribble"][/caption]

First things first. This is a question not a statement.

After all the hype and expectations thrown at us by the media, I have to say, I am just a little bit disappointed. I didn't expect seven shutout innings like Johnny Cueto gave us.

I did however, expect a better start than what he had.

His line in his Cincinnati debut: 4.2 IP, 7 H, 4 ER, 2 W, 4 K. He will be working the rest of the month to get his ERA down below five.

I would like to have a count of how many pitches bounced in the dirt. He didn't look like a semblance of the man who pitched twice before at GABP (while with San Diego) with an ERA of 1.93. That guy was unhittable.

Maybe everyone put too much pressure on the young man. He is only 24, remember? Perhaps he was thinking he needed to provide instant justification that the Reds did not overpay for his service.

Anyway it may be sliced, it was a dreary night for fans of the Queen City. Sam (Yosemite?) LeCure looked terrible giving up 3 H and 2 ER in only a pair of innings. The crushing homer he surrendered to Hanley Ramirez was especially annoying.

We now see the immediate rewards for sending Todd Frazier down in lieu of reliever Alfredo Simon. If it wasn't for the three strikeouts he posted in his only inning I would have nothing good to say about the newcomer.

John Buck took him deep and made me wonder what anybody saw in him to warrant a spot on the 25-man, let alone the 40-man roster.

Zack Cozart was one of the few bright spots on the night for the Reds who were outhit 12-6. A home run and a triple highlighted his 3 for 4 night bringing his average up to .626.

Drew Stubbs bunt single was a very exciting event for me. Chris Heisey legged out a beautifully laid bunt as well.

Bronson Arroyo will take the hill Sunday against the temperamental Carlos Zambrano.

Todd Frazier Demoted in Favor of Alfredo Simon (AKA Waiver Waste)

Everyone was wondering who would be sent down to the minor leagues when RHP Alfredo Simon was plucked off the waiver wire at the 11th hour.

Is it a matter of Todd Frazier still having options remaining, or Dusty Baker still taking the veterans over the young guys?

When Juan Francisco was shipped off to Georgia the other day, most of us assumed that Frazier was the heir apparent to Scott Rolen's job at third base.

What we hadn't counted on however, was the Reds taking a pitcher who had been thrown on the landfill to help fortify their broken pitching staff.

You may begin to wonder how Frazier was beaten out by the likes of Willie Harris, Wilson Valdez, and Miguel Cairo. Does it just fall back to options?

Harris had a minor league contract (like Jeff Francis), so he could have been sent down. Cairo is very dependable, experienced, and versatile. The same holds true for Valdez.

Frazier is as versatile as any of them, having the ability to play 3B, SS, 2B, 1B, and in the outfield. He now has some top level experience and arguably outplayed all  three others mentioned in camp.

As for Harris, he batted .264/.316  with no homers and eight runs knocked in. Frazier batted .291/339 with a team best five homers and 15 knocked in.

What was the need for Simon in the first instance? Jeff Francis, Andrew Brackman, Carlos Fisher, at al, are all warming in the microwave we call Louisville.

Couldn't one of them been called up instead of snatching Simon? I realize someone would still have to be sent down, but two wrongs do not make a right. Yes?

Frazier was told Wednesday morning he had made the squad. Relieved and joyous he went about his business, only to be told of the heartbreaking news that afternoon.

About the turn of events, Baker said, “That’s a very tough move, It happened to me. I know how it feels from morning to afternoon..."

But seriously, does it all redound to the fact that Frazier has options?

At least he wasn't traded at game time without being able to tell anyone goodbye, as Jonny Gomes was.

Paul Janish kind of got the bum's rush as well after having his best spring ever.

Okay, time to clear our heads and get ready for the start of the season today.

Reds Send Jeff Francis to Triple-A, Solidifying Aroldis Chapman in Rotation

MLB writer Mark Sheldon reported that southpaw pitcher Jeff Francis would start the year at Triple-A Louisville.

GM Walt Jocketty said, “There’s still a possibility he could pitch in the bullpen but we decided to send him there because we need to have a starter available in case something happens."

He is therefore eliminated from any chance of breaking camp as a rotation starter, if anyone had fostered that possibility.

That would mean to me that Homer Bailey is the man the Reds will start the year with as their long reliever. Sam LeCure is still hanging around with his bloated stats as well.

Injuries have forced the Reds to revamp their plans concerning the bullpen pecking order. Ryan Madson is gone for the year, and Nick Masset is starting the year on the 15-day DL.

That would leave the door open for Aroldis Chapman to start the year in the rotation as the No. 5 starter. He has enjoyed an excellent camp and his control issues seem to be taken care of.

Bailey has been treated unkindly by batters except for the few innings he threw against a minor league squad. If he would falter as a long reliever, I see him as a pork chop dangling in front of the other GMs.

Coming into the training camp, Bailey had to know it was between him and Chapman for the fifth spot. I realize spring training isn't to be taken hyper-seriously, but when a man is at war he needs to cinch up the old apple sack and fight.

He has been given numerous opportunities to prove himself the right man at the right place at the right time. He has either been the wrong guy, was visiting elsewhere or his clock has not been calibrated.

Bailey, who turns 26 in May, is still young enough to be valuable in another city. I have said before, and I stand by it, he will never flourish in Cincinnati.

With the beginning of the season just days away, the final cut has not been made. The Reds cleared up a space on their 40-man roster by trading slugger Juan (Willy Mo) Francisco to the Atlanta Braves for pitcher J.J. Hoover.