And this one belongs to the reds! (2012 season)

[zodious]

1-0. Pitching was filthy today. Cueto, Chapman, and Marshall combined to shut down the marlins. And win 4-0

Things I noticed today:
Hitting: you won't see it in the stats for each batter, but the reds had quality at bats all around. Burhle only went 6 innings and threw 108 pitches. His line looked good as the reds couldn't get the runs across till late but they still made him work. Hopefully this continues.

Pitching: Cueto never really got in trouble, but the few innings he did he got out without a scratch. 7IP, 0ER, 3H 2BB, 4Ks. He's stopped worrying about striking people out and just focused on getting outs.

Finally the quicker Chapman gets into the rotation the better this team will be. He was filthy in spring as a starter, his inning today was electric. He needs in the rotation and Bailey needs traded.

[Witlon]

With Masset out, you almost have to keep Chapman in the bullpen now, don't you? I mean, what else do you have for the 8th inning; Ondrusek-Arredondo and Bray? And I doubt Bray would get significant time against righties with how dominant he is/was against lefties last year.

[zodious]

Funny you say that but if I recall he was more dominate vs RHH than LHH even though he was a lefty specialist. Bray "isn't quite ready for the season" according to Dusty. And I don't care for Masset so much. He's a very very good pitcher when there's no pressure, but once the pressure goes up he's terrible. The reason Bailey isn't in the pen is he can't warm up fast enough... Which is such a shitty excuse. Chapman would help this team so much more by pitching 5-7 innings every 5 days than 3-4 a week.

The worst part about it is Chapman is being paid starter money. He came in as a starter and needed to have his skills honed. He was told last off season that he's goingto be a starter again and to train for it. He came into spring with the Starter mind set had one of the best springs of any starter in the MLB and when the season starts he's told to go to the bullpen because of Bray's groin... It messes with his head.

[zodious]

I was incorrect, his stats got worse the last 2 months of the season:


Right / Left AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB HBP SO SB CS AVG OBP SLG OPS
vs. Left 89 5 16 2 1 2 13 10 1 29 4 1 .180 .265 .292 .557
vs. Right 84 11 19 9 0 1 5 7 1 15 0 1 .226 .290 .369 .659

[Witlon]

So ideally, what do you go with right now if you trade Bailey and move Chapman to the rotation?

I would expect it to be something like:
CL: Marshall
8IP: Bray/Arredono/Ondrusek
7IP: Simon/Bray/Arredondo/Ondrusek

I'm not saying you're going to, or even that it's likely, but when you make a move like that, you have to have a counter move in mind, right?

EDIT: Plus, your two pen lefties would be 8-9, so who's your situational guy? I'm assuming you have a lefty or two in AAA, but I'm not as well versed with Cincy as other teams.

[zodious]

Well obviously it depends on what we get for Bailey, but I'd do
CL: Marshall
SU: Ondrusek
7th: Arredondo/Masset
With bray being the specialist and then promote JJ (the guy they got from ATL for Francisco.

[Prez WilCo]

2 runs off of Heath Bell in Bottom if 9th to take the 1st series.

[zodious]

Bruce on pace to shatter the season HR record with 162....