The Official 2019 Cincinnati Reds Thread

Something else we would not have imagined at opening day. The Reds SP rotation for this 4 game stacks up well with the Cubs, who really spent big on their rotation:

- Wood vs. Hamels (advantage Cubs here, Hamels historically owns the Reds)
- Bauer vs. Darvish (advantage Reds)
- Gray vs. Hendricks (very close, but Gray has recently been really good)
- Castillo vs. Lester (advantage Reds)

Looking forward to it.
 
wolves82 said:
Something else we would not have imagined at opening day. The Reds SP rotation for this 4 game stacks up well with the Cubs, who really spent big on their rotation:

- Wood vs. Hamels (advantage Cubs here, Hamels historically owns the Reds)
- Bauer vs. Darvish (advantage Reds)
- Gray vs. Hendricks (very close, but Gray has recently been really good)
- Castillo vs. Lester (advantage Reds)

Looking forward to it.
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Is the line up out yet? I'd imagine Aquino, Ervin, Casali and Peraza will be starting with a lefty on the mound.
 
Not a great start to the series. The Cubs have a battle tested, veteran club and we simply don't. We still have our best 3 starters going the rest of this series. Wood made his 3rd start of the season last night. The Cubs had 4 walks and 19 hits last night, we're probably fortunate they didn't hang 15-17 runs on us. Credit this team after going down 1-0 and 5-1, tied the game twice.
This is a great opportunity for our guys to get some experience is games that maybe matter a little more.
Win today.
 
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Red14 said:
Not a great start to the series. The Cubs have a battle tested, veteran club and we simply don't. We still have our best 3 starters going the rest of this series. Wood made his 3rd start of the season last night. The Cubs had 4 walks and 19 hits last night, we're probably fortunate they didn't hang 15-17 runs on us. Credit this team after going down 1-0 and 5-1, tied the game twice.
This is a great opportunity for our guys to get some experience is games that maybe matter a little more.
Win today.
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Your best post of the year, 14Red.
I fully expected more "blame game", but you show that you realize where this team is as far as development is concerned. Yeah, we all root for them but we have to stay realistic and try to avoid the blame game out of needless frustration.
You pretty much said it all. Nice job. (y)(y)

(See, I'm not ALWAYS an a-h***ole, right?)
 
On the bright side, maybe we found a great reliever.....you know, the one who doesn't even register on the radar gun lol.
Bauer vs. Darvish tonight. As wolves82 pointed out -- Lookin' good.
 
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Your best post of the year, 14Red.
I fully expected more "blame game", but you show that you realize where this team is as far as development is concerned. Yeah, we all root for them but we have to stay realistic and try to avoid the blame game out of needless frustration.
You pretty much said it all. Nice job. (y)(y)

(See, I'm not ALWAYS an a-h***ole, right?)
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I'll take what I can get, not sure what you could ever glean from the blame game concept. I pretty much tell it like it is. We've got a young team no doubt, the experience of the next 6 weeks for this bunch will be great. We just need to go day by day, and see where we sit on Sept. 1 and go from there. Really fun ride with the Aquino kid so far. I'm sure the league will find a way to attack his weaknesses, but he's taking the team by storm the past week. Phil Ervin also with a good offensive night last night.
 
Interesting hearing Chris Welsh talk about how Aquino's approach and swing had improved drastically since he last saw him in spring training.

Not just with hm, but in general we seem to be seeing the effects of coaching throughout the organization. That's a nice change to see.
 
Monclova Steve said:
Interesting hearing Chris Welsh talk about how Aquino's approach and swing had improved drastically since he last saw him in spring training.

Not just with hm, but in general we seem to be seeing the effects of coaching throughout the organization. That's a nice change to see.
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In some cases yes, in some cases not so much. I think it's pretty easy pickings to say Aquino's position has changed. So what do we say about David Hernandez's pitching? I think Aquino's changed something, he was left off the Reds 40 man last winter and no one picked him up. We never know how much coaching these guys are getting and maybe it's just the execution is better?
 
Monclova Steve said:
Interesting hearing Chris Welsh talk about how Aquino's approach and swing had improved drastically since he last saw him in spring training.

Not just with hm, but in general we seem to be seeing the effects of coaching throughout the organization. That's a nice change to see.
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Aquino credited time in the cage with Barry Larkin to his improvement. Specifically he changed his stance to a more open stance followed with a step or "dive" into the pitch. This allows him to cover more of the plate with authority. At some point pitchers will come inside on him (obvious weakness to a "dive" approach). Will he be able to turn on it? He has incredible power potential no doubt.
 
Monclova Steve said:
I'll just leave that response alone :).

To be clear, I was addressing 14Red's response.
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Thanks, Indiandad, for expanding upon what I tried to point out.
In general, I was trying to make the point that perhaps some of the Reds' success was due to the fact that the coaching was resulting in players who are coming up to the big club have been able to contribute right away (Ervin, VanMeter, Aquino) not to mention the fact that Farmer (yes, I know he caught some in college) has been able to more than fill the catching "hole" pretty much to everyone's surprise.
We haven't seen much of this in the past several years.
As far as players like Hernandez go.....well, sometimes guys in the mid-30s just kinda lose it. It's not like they don't know the fine arts of pitching. Coaching isn't much of an issue here.
Of course, I might be giving the coaching too much credit. That's why I used the words "seem" and "perhaps".
Thanks for giving Mr. 14Red some specifics that he didn't seem to know about.
 
Monclova Steve said:
Thanks, Indiandad, for expanding upon what I tried to point out.
In general, I was trying to make the point that perhaps some of the Reds' success was due to the fact that the coaching was resulting in players who are coming up to the big club have been able to contribute right away (Ervin, VanMeter, Aquino) not to mention the fact that Farmer (yes, I know he caught some in college) has been able to more than fill the catching "hole" pretty much to everyone's surprise.
We haven't seen much of this in the past several years.
As far as players like Hernandez go.....well, sometimes guys in the mid-30s just kinda lose it. It's not like they don't know the fine arts of pitching. Coaching isn't much of an issue here.
Of course, I might be giving the coaching too much credit. That's why I used the words "seem" and "perhaps".
Thanks for giving Mr. 14Red some specifics that he didn't seem to know about.
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I think the overall talent coming thru the farm system is generally better than it has been in past years. Talent always makes coaching look good!:cool:
 
Perhaps the talent is better AND the coaching is better.
The front office is certainly making better decisions.
All in all, the credit belongs to everyone. That's what team sports is all about.
What we do know for certain is the results keep getting better -- at least for now.
 
Monclova Steve said:
Perhaps the talent is better AND the coaching is better.
The front office is certainly making better decisions.
All in all, the credit belongs to everyone. That's what team sports is all about.
What we do know for certain is the results keep getting better -- at least for now.
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Absolutely agree.
 
Funny, I saw Aquino play in Columbus in July. I told my wife, "Not sure he will be able to hit with that approach in the big leagues, they will pitch him inside." WRONG! At least so far. Hope he keeps pounding, fun to watch.

With him wearing 44, I'm also having Eric Davis flashbacks, remember how he exploded onto the scene? Like 25 HR and 80 SB first full season.
 
Just me, or does Thom sound like he's drunk or something? Trying to call homers like South American announcers call soccer goals.
 
I have to admit that, after sleepwalking through the first half of the season with no end in sight, I am now excited to watch this team. Do I think they'll make the playoffs? No; but the moves at the trading deadline (I admit that I hated to see both Puig and Gennett go just because I liked both of them -- sort of like Bob C.?) have made me believe that this front office will -- and has the freedom to -- make the baseball decisions that must be made to jolt this organization forward.
These young players are fun to watch; and along with the addition of Trevor Bauer -- have infused this team with both energy but also a belief that they can compete with anyone.
I still don't think they'll make the postseason, but just seeing the Reds play meaningful games in August & September is a nice change.
Next season could be a lot more fun!
 
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