2013 Cincinnati Reds Thread

[Woy]

Neck Tats and Nincompoops: The 2012 St. Louis Cardinals

Well, the time has come to preview, as Bobby Knight might say, "that team from the NL Central." Since this is a preview written for an audience that does not, on balance, care much for the WLBs, and since I am currently sitting on the beach getting drunk. this preview is going to be a bit short on "baseball facts" and more concerned with "random hyperbolic insults." (I apologize to alcory11 in advance). So, without any further ado, away we go!

For those of you who are not familiar with them, the St. Louis Cardinals are professional baseball team. They mostly look like this (after the jump)...

 

click title to continue reading.... lol

As Warner said in a thread two years ago, "we might be arrogant, our manager might be kind of a prick (although I don't believe Matheny is ), but fuck you, we win."

 

[Rudi]

It was reported on WLW today that Masset will start the season on the DL.

[Warner2BruceTD]

Starting Pitching:

Chris Carpenter. Imagine you die (in a slow and painful manner), and are sent to the lowest bowels of hell. Once there, you meet Satan, who informs you that your job is to crawl up into his putrid, stinking asshole and remove a polyp. On your way up, Satan contracts a severe case of Montezuma's Revenge, and begins spewing copious amounts of diarrhea. You crawl upstream through this torrent of malodorous, demonic dysentery, choking and coughing as it fills your eyes, ears, nose and tongue. After many long hours, you finally reach the offending polyp. Straddling it you find an imp, grimacing and grunting as he rapes the sore with all his might. Upon seeing you, the imp reaches out, grabs the back of your head, and pushes your face into his crotch. There, clinging to the imp's genitals, is a small gremlin with razor sharp teeth, chewing the imp's right testicle off.

That gremlin find Chris Carpenter to be a rather uncouth and unpleasant fellow.

The rest of the starting pitchers: Who gives a rat's ass about them, or the bullpen, I have wasted nearly 900 words on these whiny bitches, and I'm not wasting any more. I've got drinkin to do.

[Warner2BruceTD]

Only five teams in baseball history with more than 15 saves had one reliever record all of them; Baker managed three: Rod Beck with the 1996 Giants, Robb Nen with the 2002 Giants, and Francisco Cordero with the 2008 Reds.

Baker does not want to use a closer committee.

If he's right about Marshall's inability to throw three or four days in a row, he may have to.

We already know Chapman is extremely ineffective on his third day, and noticeably less effective on his second day. I think closer is the absolute last place you will see Chapman.

Masset is headed to the DL and Bray might be, too.

Here's what is going to happen.

-The bullpen is in disarray at this point, so Chapman is headed there.

-Bailey is your fifth starter.

-Marshall is the closer, but Baker will reluctantly use Arredondo, until Masset comes back, when Marshall has already pitched twice.

-Jeff Francis makes the team if Bray starts the year on the DL. Dusty will not enter the season with on LHRP (Marshall doesn't count).

-Oddly, I agree with all of this. Chapman does the team no good in AAA. I want to win. He can help win. The biggest need is in the bullpen. So be it. He can start later when that's the pressing need.

[Warner2BruceTD]

Here is my question to all of the bloggers and fans and writers and everybody else who is screaming START CHAPMAN!!

Who are you removing from the rotation? Nobody ever answers this, they just scream START CHAPMAN!

If your answer is Arroyo, you don't understand the economics of the situation and I can't take you seriously, unless some mystery trade suitor magically emerges to take him away like the Pirates did for the Yankees.

Chapman in the bullpen just makes the most sense, unless the Reds get bold, trade Bailey, and roll the dice on a very weak LHP situation in the bullpen. That's really the only scenario I can buy into.

[Rudi]

Homer Bailey has had a plethora of chances to prove himself in Cincinnati. It's time to move on from his sorry ass and give Chapman his rotation spot. Every year we hear the same old shit from Bailey, then every year he gets hurt or struggles with various other things. It's time to take our loss on that draft pick and move on.

Did we really pay Chapman upwards of 30 mil to be a reliever every year? :joeybats:

[Warner2BruceTD]

Homer Bailey has had a plethora of chances to prove himself in Cincinnati. It's time to move on from his sorry ass and give Chapman his rotation spot. Every year we hear the same old shit from Bailey, then every year he gets hurt or struggles with various other things. It's time to take our loss on that draft pick and move on.

Did we really pay Chapman upwards of 30 mil to be a reliever every year? :joeybats:

I'm fine with that.

Now, what the hell do you suggest we do with Bailey? Trade him for scraps? Again, I can live with that. But...

Here's the other thing nobody wants to hear.

We've seen Bailey fail, so it's easy to throw in the towel and kick him out of town. But he's cheap, young, and still loaded with potential (look at that stretch of starts before he got hurt last year). The problem, is he cant stay healthy.

Because Chapman hasn't started yet, we haven't seen him fail. And he will at some point. But its a clean slate, and it's exciting. There is no guarantee he's better than Bailey. Or I should say, there is no guarantee he will end up as the better pitcher than Bailey.

I'm playing a little devil's advocate here, but I still feel like the pressing need of this team is bullpen. If Madson, Masset, and Bray were healthy, i'd be firmly planted in the START CHAPMAN camp, because at that point his arm in the pen would be a luxury. At this point, it's a need. I can live with Bailey.

[KnightNoles]

I like that post and agree, good points and argument.

[Warner2BruceTD]

Josh Judy cleared waivers and has been outrighted to Louisville.

This leaves the 40-man at 39, opening up a spot for presumably Willie Harris (no! We want Frazier!), or Jeff Francis.

[Rudi]

Ondrusek continues to deal this spring. 2 perfect innings today. I think he could be a real gem in the bullpen.

Ludwick also hit a walkoff 2-R home run

[Rudi]

Despite the obvious need for Chapman in the pen....the Reds continue to let him start Spring Training games. If they had plans of moving him to the pen like we all think will happen, why would they keep having him start and stretch out his arm? Seems weird to me. If the move to the pen were happening, I would think they would start getting him into the routine of coming into mid game situations.

[Warner2BruceTD]

Sign Arthur Rhodes. Boom, second lefty out of the pen.

[Rudi]

Also another interesting tidbit....Mike Leake will be pitching today, but he will be coming out of the pen...

[Warner2BruceTD]

Aroldis Chapman today: 5 ip, 2 er, 6 k....ZERO WALKS

Chapman spring numbers: 16 ip, 2-0, 2.12 ERA, 18 K, 2 BB

He's topping out at 99mph and has added a splitter to his fastball/slider.

Mike Leake pitched in relief, but it was 3 innings of work so it looks like there is nothing to read into with that.

Bill Bray pitched another scoreless inning today (0 ER this spring), so it looks like he will probably be good to go for opening day.

Has anybody seen Homer Bailey's numbers from the minor league game today? Interesting that Dusty now has Bailey, Chapman, and now Leake throwing on the same day.

EDIT: Bailey was very good today, 6ip, 4h, 0er, 1 bb, 5k

ANOTHER EDIT: Chapman's slider was topping out at 96mph. ffs, that's unhittable if he's locating it.

EDIT #3!: The two runs Chapman gave up today were on a two out single following a misplayed ball at 3B by Francisco that was not ruled an error.

EDIT #4!: Baker said today that Leake is in the rotation, 100%

[Rudi]

You failed to mention Chapmans ROCKET HIT to center that resulted in an RBI double