| 30 April 2010
How's that for a quick turn of fortunes?
The Reds were recently 7-11 and some fans were already willing to give up on the season. However, Cincinnati has won four straight games - including a sweep on the road over the Houston Astros - to get back to a .500 mark.
And making it that much sweeter is that the Reds capped the sweep by beating long-time nemesis Roy Oswalt. He entered Thursday's game with an unbelievable 23-1 lifetime record against the Reds. Well, now you can make that 23-2.
There are still a lot of problems with this team. The offense is going to be inconsistent all year - although it's great to see Jay Bruce come on. That is going to be the biggest key for the offense: it needs production out of Bruce.
Also, the starting pitching rotation hasn't been nearly as good as I thought it would be, but it's still very early in the season. And Aroldis Chapman will be up by early June at the latest. If Aaron Harang and Bronson Arroyo can hold the fort down until then, I think the Reds will be fine because I have high hopes for Homer Bailey and Mike Leake. What a story Leake has been thus far. Not only is he the first pitcher in 16 years to go straight from college to the Major Leagues (Darren Dreifort with the Dodgers in 1994) but he's pitching very well. Leake, 22, is 2-0 with a 3.25 ERA through his first four starts. Now that is getting it done and Reds fans have to be extremely excited about this guy. His fastball has a little more pop that I expected (tops off at 93-94 MPH) but it's his wide-repertoire of pitches and his ability to spot them which really makes him special. He mixes up his pitches so well and just has a feel for how to pitch. He keeps hitters off balance, while still being aggressive and going right at them. What a find he was with the No. 8 overall pick of the 2009 draft.
And then that brings us to the wildcard of the starting staff - Johnny Cueto. I thought this would be his breakout year, but the truth of the matter is that Cueto hasn't shown any improvement from his rookie season of 2008. Hopefully that will change soon because the Reds need a solid year out of Cueto if they hope to stay in contention. Cueto is 0-1 with a 5.73 ERA in four starts this season. He gets the start tonight against the Cardinals in St. Louis and will face the hot Brad Penny who is 3-0 with a 0.94 ERA. Yes, Dave Duncan could even make you into a decent pitcher. Every season, he takes an average MLB pitcher and turns him into a Cy Young candidate. Well, Cy Young candidate is a bit much, but Duncan is clearly the best pitching coach in baseball. And it doesn't hurt that Tony LaRussa has an HGH lab in his basement and requires all Cardinal players to load up on HGH each week. We're only kidding of course. LaRussa only makes them do it every other week.
Anyway, just when you were ready to jump off the ledge and start looking ahead to football season, the Redlegs come storming back to .500 at 11-11. Now we'll see what they're made of when they take on the first-place Cardinals on the road in a three-game series. Winning this series could prove to be huge for the Reds. Not only would they keep their momentum going, they would knock off clearly the favorite to win the NL Central. In fact, right now, it's looks like the Cards are going to run away with the division if something doesn't change soon. They are 15-7, a full four games up on the second-place Reds. But even if St. Louis does have a great year, there is always the Wildcard out there as well.
However, the Reds just need to worry about trying to keep their heads above water and I think they'll be able to do that. This team is going to stay in the race this summer - I firmly believe that. I don't think they'll make the playoffs, but they'll keep things interesting for a while.
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