I have looked over a lot of things the last few days while being disgusted over how this team has played this year. I wanted to get to the problem and suggest options to fix it. Has this team just run into an immense case of bad luck coupled with some bad managerial decisions?
Lets look at the numbers real quick:
There are 16 teams in the NL and this is where the Reds are at:
Offense:
AVG .255 (10th place)
SLG .427 (7th place)
OBP .326 (10th place)
OPS .753 (7th place)
SO 255 (11th place)
BB 124 (11th place)
HR 47 (1st place)
RBI 164 (6th place)
R 171 (6th place)
intangibles:
SB% 84.4% (1st place)
SH 17 (2nd place)
SB 27 (4th place)
Our offensive production has been about average. Pretty much in the middle of the pack for every category. 9 categories in the upper half and only four in the lower half. But the four lower half happen to be matters of getting runners on base (AVG, OBP, BB, SO). Looks like our HRs have given us a better push for putting up runs. Also, the intangibles look real good. We are stealing bases at a higher percentage than anyone and we are getting the sacrifices needed to move runners over. Our only concern is not being able to get on base as much as we need to.
Note: EdE should come back up soon and start hitting even sooner. This could give our numbers a much better look.
Starting Pitching:
ERA 4.02 (8th place)
BAA .271 (13th place)
BB 59 (2nd place)
SO 171 (4th place)
Bullpen:
ERA 4.22 (14th place)
BAA .252 (10th place)
BB 46 (8th place)
SO 75 (14th place)
So our bullpen surprisingly has a better BAA than the SPs. I am shocked by that really. But what hurts the pen is the walks. The SPs have been awesome this year on not allowing the free pass. The bullpen just cannot get that down like they have. But even still, the Reds relievers are right in the middle of the pack compared to all other NL teams. Allowing less hits but more walks and striking out batters at a far lower clip has illuminated this bullpen into the mess they are in and created the higher ERA.
Note: Majewski and Bray should make things a bit better. And possibly Guardado when he gets healthy.
So we still have a team that can contend with the best of them. We can defeat and lose to anybody. It is all a matter of putting this all together over the course of nine innings. And then getting the right players to come in to replace the ones who are not adhering to the standard.
With seeing these numbers, I feel like we have run into bad luck at bad times. Just in a bad funk right now. Do you guys believe we can build our way out of this and get back into contention?