Pocket Aces!!

                             

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The Reds were scheduled to go at it twice today against the visiting San Diego Padres. Cueto has entered today as one of the hottest pitchers going in the MLB. After throwing a complete game this afternoon only giving up 3 hits over 9 innings, Cueto now has six straight starts going at least eight innings. He just earned his fourth win and has his ERA to a league low 1.25. Along with leading the league in ERA, Cueto also tops the league in K's with 76, innings pitched with 72, WHIP with a 0.71 and batters average, .135.

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This is old news for Reds fans, but it seems that Cueto is starting to finally get the national attention he deserves as a Cy Young contender. Then there is the starting pitcher we have yet to see this year, the Reds ace last year when Cueto was out, Matt Latos. We can only hope he comes back as the same pitcher he was last year, finishing with a 3.19 ERA, 14 wins opposed to 7 losses, and 187 K's through 210 innings pitched. Latos could be a solid ace in a rotation, put him as the second starter and one could argue that he is the best 2nd starting pitcher in the MLB. 

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It is extremely nice to be in the predicament the Reds will be when Latos returns, but the question that presents itself is who will we bump down to the bullpen. Now the quick response would be to send Alfredo Simon back to the bullpen but look what numbers Simon has put up this year in a starting pitching role. He is 4-2 with a 2.89 ERA, 1.076 WHIP and has allowed only 35 in 43 innings pithed. These are all solid numbers but the Reds just have to much power in their starting rotation. With Homer Bailey a solid 3rd starter and Mike Leake who seems to just be improving each and every year since he was drafted. Like I stated, it is awesome to have this problem but it will definitely cost us later on come free agency but for right now let's take a gamble on our Pocket Ace's and pitch our way to a world series. 

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Statistics

Where's the Runs?

It has been a while since we have posted, why not come back with an exciting post about why our Cincinnati Reds are not scoring any runs....

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Taking a look at the Reds team stats can be brutal, they currently rank a horrendous 28th out of 30th in Runs scored. As a team they are batting .244 which puts them 22nd in that category amongst all MLB teams. Combine those stats with the fact that out of 1227 plate appearances the Reds have had this year, they have struck out 270 times (for those not great at Math that would equal 22% of at bats).

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Through these struggling times, us Reds faithful need to look at the positives that are presented to us. Since Billy Hamilton's rough start he has come on of late raising his batting average to a solid .260, stolen 12 bases and has 3 triples one of the more exciting hits in baseball. He is very young and hopefully with time will be able to improve his avg. and reduce his strikeout ratio. 

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Another feel good story about the Reds this year is the progression of 3B Todd Fraizer. Mr. Big Band Fraizer has been keeping the Reds alive and currently has a 12 game hitting streak going into tonights matchup against the Padres. Todd is batting .265, leads the team with 7 home runs and has 21 RBI's this year. Projections are just... well projections, but Todd is on pace to finish the year batting .265 hitting 30 HR's and knocking in 90. Pretty solid numbers and definitely an improvement from last year.

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With every positive though comes the negatives and boy do the Reds seem to have a lot of those on offense. Lets start with our 1B Votto, now we assume he is going to finish with strong numbers as he has done every year but to be making 12 million this year and putting up .262 avg. not horrible but 6 HR's and a measly 12 RBI's, you have got to start being the Clutch Votto we are used too. Then there is the SS problem, and boy is that a major problem. If only our lineup was good enough to where this could just be a defensive position and not needed to hit well in the lineup. Cozart is having a horrible start to the 2014 season and he just looks terrible when he is at the plate. He is currently batting a horrible .190, he has 1 HR and has batted in just 9 runs. I would say his time is limited but we have no quick solution to SS. No prospects, the only way to solve this is through trades. 

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Then you have the Left Field conundrum, who to start? Is Heisey an everyday starter? Why is Bernadina still on the MLB roster? Who is Ryan Ludwick, is that same Ludwick that was good during the early 2000's? I am not trying to put the team down, but there definitely needs to be some moves soon or the Reds are looking at a sub par season. How great our pitching has been it's time for the Bats to do some backing up. Lets go Redlegs pull it together and lets start our first Hot streak of 2014!

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