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Redlegs 3-0!

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Bestbuck36

Bestbuck36

Kyle Young/Cade Stover/Jack Sawyer m crush. Stomp!
    • How bout them Reds!? Completing the sweep of the Mets today for the first time since 1990 makes them 3-0. Aaron Harang may be the best pitcher they have on the roster. If Milton keeps the ball in the park better and Wilson shows his last season form the Reds could be in the driver seat for the NL Central. I know its early, thats what everyone is saying but the offense is as good as anyone in baseball so just some good pitching will take them a long way. If some guys step up and the pitching becomes timely then this good be a very special season.
     
    The Reds started 24-12 last year. But I'm with you, Bestbuck....always can hope for a nice season....I think 1999 was almost as enjoyable as 1990 just for the fact that they came out of nowhere to win 96 games. They didn't have any real stoppers on the staff then, either (nice bullpen of Graves and Williamson). I think we've all just about given up on Junior, but his attitude and aptitude can make a huge difference for this team (broken record). A lot of it hinges on him.
     
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    Paul Wilson was as solid as could be last year. VERY reliable...rarely had a bad outing, and rarely was VERY dominate. He was just completely solid thoughout the season. I don't think he should be a team's ace though. But he'd be a very valuable #2 guy.

    Harang being our best pitcher seems a little overzealous to me, it could happen, but he hasn't proven he can be an Ace on a staff yet. Sure he had a very good outing today, but last year he was very up and down, looking somtimes like he did today, and sometimes he looked like he belonged in the minors. That evened out to an almost average season for him. I think this year he will be a little bit more mature. Will he be a lot like he was today? Or will he still have those bad outing that cause us to go to the bullpen in the 2nd and 3rd innings? I think he's going to have a decent season. He's the Reds #2, but I think he would fit more as a #3 starter right now.

    I like Ramon Ortiz. He had a great 2003 for the Angels, and then had a horrible April with them in 2004, but bounced back to have only a 3.44 ERA through the rest of the season. I think he has the ability to emerge as the best pitcher on the staff, but I'm not so sure that's actually going to happen. He's the biggest gamble the Reds have on their staff. If he has an average season for his standards, he'd still make a great #4, but, if he exceeds those standards and pitches like he did in 2003, and did after April last year, then he is the go to guy.

    Eric Milton is not going to keep the ball in the park unfortunately. He showed us that yesterday. GABP is not a great park for pitchers that give up a lot of fly balls. He pitches strikes though, and he won't walk guys. That's a good thing. He's never going to be able to blow people away and be a dominate pitcher. As long as he keeps guys off the bases and gives up solo-home runs, he'll be okay. I think he makes for a great #5 guy.

    I think if these 4 guys just pitch average and don't exceed expectation, they still would make a very solid 2-5 for any team. The Reds still need an ace!!! They are a dominate pitcher away from being a great team. Will an ace emerge from one of these guys? I think the best possibility of that happening is out of Ortiz, although there is still an outside chance of it being Harang. How will Claussen do? Or will the Reds find another 5th starter? An easy solution would be to get another pitcher. We have 5 decent outfielders in Freel, Pena, Griffey, Dunn, and Kearns. We don't need all 5. A young guy like Pena, Dunn, or Kearns, plus a guy like Claussen or a minor leaguer could be exactly what another team that's not in contention may want for a big time starting pitcher. If we went out and got an ace, all of a sudden out starting 5 would be just about as good as anybody in the Central. Plus adding a starter always makes the bullpen stronger.

    Offensively there really is nothing to worry about as long as we stay healthy. And even if Griffey goes down, which you have to just kind of expect is going to happen the way things have gone, we still will have a solid outfield. Joe Randa has always been a .290 hitter and he's beefed up now and is going to add power, so I think our troubles at 3rd base are over.

    The fact is that the Reds beat 3 decent starting pitchers, 2 of which are amoung the best in the game. It is very promising. I thought the team would win 85 games this year after seeing the offseason moves they made. 85 wins won't win the central...but if you add an ace to the starting rotation that could get 5 or 10 extra wins. Then watch out!!!

    In 1999, all the players that were question marks paid out and had career seasons...there are quite a few guys this year, especially pitchers, that could do the same thing. 1990 3-0 and wire to wire...3-0 this year...could it happen again?

    Plus the Reds seem to love to win it all around all the wars.

    1919 WWI
    1940 WWII
    1975-1976 Vietnam
    1990 Persian Gulf
    2005 Iraq???
     
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    I too am very encouraged about the start. I also like the attitude of this team. As a long time Reds fan I think the future is bright. We'll all know a lot more after the next 6 games, 3 in Houston, 3 in St. Louis. Let's go Reds!!!!!!!
     
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    I'm a huge Reds fan myself and am happy about the start but am waiting until about mid July when the pitching staff starts to fall apart. Their about 1-2 good pitchers away from being a really good team.

    I just pray that Griffey, Kearns, and Dunn can stay healthy.
     
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    Thump said:
    I'm a huge Reds fan myself and am happy about the start but am waiting until about mid July when the pitching staff starts to fall apart.
    Click to expand...
    Unlike last year, the Reds won't play the Cardinals 74 times in 16 days before and after the all star break, which was when Cinci got hammered and St. Louis took over 1st place in the NL Central for good. Graves should be in far better shape for the break this year, since last year having 30 saves at the end of May was more of a bizarre fluke than an indication of Graves' or the Reds' early season dominance.

    The biggest benefit to the Reds though is the interleague schedule. The NL Central could very well be determined by the luck of the draw. The NL Central plays the AL East this year: The Cardinals and Cub have to play both the Red Sox and the Yankees, the Reds avoid the Yankees and play Baltimore instead. The Cubs have their natural cross town match-up, six games against the ChiSox, while the Cards instead play at Toronto instead of padding their win total by whipping the KC Royals (MLB reduced that barn-burner of a rivalry from 6 games to 3 this year to help everyone else in the NL Central). The Reds, of course, will have 6 games against Cleveland, and if the series sweep of the Mets is any indication, the Reds should feast on the Indians bullpen too.

    That said ... I agree with Thump.

    All my optimism, and the favorable Reds schedule aside, I still can't see anything other than a mid-season flameout for these Reds. Randamonium will not continue ... this guy cannot keep up the early season heroics, Griffey/Willie Mo, Kearns, and Dunn will whiff a collective 500 times, and Miley will abuse the one thing he has going for him, the bullpen. The starters cannot eat enough innings, and Miley is a disaster at managing a pitching staff. Last I read, we're 3 games into the season and he already has Milton pitching on 3 days rest.
     
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    Back to reality it appears. There have been some very good points made in this thread already but no one has mentioned the fact that we have no speed. Miley is a fool for not starting Freel and second. He is the only one we can consistently get SB's from. I would make Jimenez my utility infielder and would think about starting Felipe Lopez everyday at SS also. The heart of the order is as good as you are going to get in baseball when they aren't striking out 12 times a game.:roll2:
    They need runners on base with speed to take that extra base on singles or score from first on doubles.

    The pitching still looks manageable but like Dryden said Miley's not the one to manage that! If he takes Wilson out Saturday in the 6th the Reds win that game. If they don't run themselves out of the game on Friday we win that game. The only game the Reds should've lost thus far is Sunday against Oswalt and we had a shot there.

    I just don't see that killer instinct in these guys, except Randa. I know its early but now is the time when these guys should attack. They need to catch the Astro's and Card's sleeping on them early and build a lead. You guys are right they don't have the pitching horses to go deep enough right now. If the bullpen can consistently give up 1 run or less each night they can contend but thats being a bit unrealistic. Still, it should be an exciting baseball year while I'm waiting for football to start nonetheless.
     
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    Despite losing 3 in Houston, I still feel most of the ingredients of a good team are there. Yes, managing the pitching is a problem, but, give Miley and the staff some time, Gullet is one of the best in the business.
     
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    This team is at .500 after 10 games. Thats the number I fel they will keep flirting with all year and in that should keep them at least a fringe player in the Wild Card picture.

    The nice thing is that they will have a lot of tradeable parts for a legit contender to come asking for and hopefully Dan O can continue to get some prospects to stock a pretty anemic farm system. There is just no other way for a small market team to compete.
     
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    Its great to know that I can find at least some people that are Cinci fans. Seems like everyone is a Cleveland fan and gives Cinci to the Kentuckians. Personally, I root for all in state teams (college, MLB, NFL, etc.) - but the Reds look really good this year starting out. Havent been able to watch many games, is Griffey doing well this year - he said he would be back to normal this season and is expected to have a great return?
     
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    <TABLE class=tablehead cellSpacing=1 cellPadding=3><TBODY><TR class=colhead align=right><TD align=left width=168>NAME </TD><TD width=27>G</TD><TD width=27>AB</TD><TD width=27>R</TD><TD width=27>H</TD><TD width=27>2B</TD><TD width=27>3B</TD><TD width=27>HR</TD><TD width=27>TB</TD><TD width=27>RBI</TD><TD width=27>BB</TD><TD width=27>SO</TD><TD width=27>SB</TD><TD width=27>CS</TD><TD width=27>BA</TD><TD width=27>OBP</TD><TD width=27>SLG</TD><TD width=27>OPS</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>

    <TABLE class=tablehead cellSpacing=1 cellPadding=3><TBODY><TR class=evenrow align=right><TD align=left><NOBR>K. Griffey Jr.</FONT></NOBR></TD><TD>8</FONT></TD><TD bgColor=#c1c1c1>28</FONT></TD><TD>2</FONT></TD><TD>9</FONT></TD><TD>4</FONT></TD><TD>0</FONT></TD><TD>0</FONT></TD><TD>13</FONT></TD><TD>2</FONT></TD><TD>3</FONT></TD><TD>8</FONT></TD><TD>0</FONT></TD><TD>0</FONT></TD><TD>.321</FONT></TD><TD>.387</FONT></TD><TD>.464</FONT></TD><TD>.851</FONT></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>

    The RBI number isn't too surprising since most of his ab's are out of the two slot. However, I don't think he's completely healthy, regardless of what anyone says. He's not running very hard on any plays (at least none that I have seen). He could probably have a couple more doubles by running all out, but it seems that he doesn't want to take any chances with his legs. As far as his power numbers, who knows. It seems like he just doesn't have the power anymore, but it's still early and it may just be a bit of a slump. Maybe he will find a rhythm and start launching 'em out of the park. I hope so, but I'm not going to count on anything huge out of him. That's not intended as a knock against him, just how I feel. I hope he catches fire and has a huge season so people will get off of his back for a year or two.

    (Sorry the stats are hard to read. Still pretty comprehensible, I think.)
     
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    Well -- as of this writing, the Reds are 1/2 game back of the St Louis Cardinals. They have sole possession of second place and a game in hand over the Cubs. Division leading Cardinals next visit PNC park -- likeliest outcome a full one game lead over the Reds.
    I'll keep believing the Reds can do good things this season till they prove me wrong.
    STANDINGS :::::: <table id="leagues" align="center" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"> <tbody><tr align="center"> <td id="al" align="right">AL</td> <td class="pipe"> | </td> <td id="nl" class="selected" align="left">NL</td> <td>
    </td> <td id="w">West</td> <td class="pipe"> | </td> <td id="c" class="selected">Central</td> <td class="pipe"> | </td> <td id="e">East</td> </tr> </tbody> </table> <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"> <thead><tr> <td class="team">Team</td> <td class="w">W</td><td class="l">L</td> <td class="p">PCT.</td> <td class="gb endrow">GB</td> </tr></thead> <tbody> <tr><td colspan="5" class="rowspacer">
    </td></tr> <tr> <td class="team">Cardinals</td> <td class="w">6</td> <td class="l">4</td> <td class="p">.600</td> <td class="gb endrow">-</td> </tr> <tr><td colspan="5" class="rowspacer">
    </td></tr> <tr> <td class="team">Reds</td> <td class="w">6</td> <td class="l">5</td> <td class="p">.545</td> <td class="gb endrow">0.5</td> </tr> <tr><td colspan="5" class="rowspacer">
    </td></tr> <tr> <td class="team">Cubs</td> <td class="w">6</td> <td class="l">6</td> <td class="p">.500</td> <td class="gb endrow">1.0</td> </tr> <tr><td colspan="5" class="rowspacer">
    </td></tr> <tr> <td class="team">Astros</td> <td class="w">5</td> <td class="l">6</td> <td class="p">.455</td> <td class="gb endrow">1.5</td> </tr> <tr><td colspan="5" class="rowspacer">
    </td></tr> <tr> <td class="team">Brewers</td> <td class="w">5</td> <td class="l">6</td> <td class="p">.455</td> <td class="gb endrow">1.5</td> </tr> <tr><td colspan="5" class="rowspacer">
    </td></tr> <tr> <td class="team">Pirates</td> <td class="w">4</td> <td class="l">8</td> <td class="p">.333</td> <td class="gb endrow">3.0</td></tr></tbody> </table>
     
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