Two days without a Reds game make Chad something something
The Reds are interesting all of a sudden. They should play more games!
Two straight days without a Reds game make Chad something something.
Seriously, how are we supposed to cope with two straight days with no Reds baseball? We waited six months for the Reds to return to the field, and now we have to wait to watch them play again?
And what’s happening in Philly? They canceled Thursday’s game 24 hours before it was scheduled to start, because forecasts were bad. Then it didn’t even rain in Philadelphia during the time when the game was supposed to be played. What is happening here?
There’s only one logical answer. Clearly, Philadelphia is scared of the ol’ Redlegs. That’s why they canceled the game. Of course, you can’t really blame them for trying to avoid playing this juggernaut. After all, the Cincinnati Reds are 3-2. A game and a half out of first place. They’re pretty much unstoppable. What a time to be alive, right?
Hey, the last three decades have been difficult. This team lost 100 games just one season ago. They’re 3-2 now…last year, they started 3-22. Forgive me if I am enjoying this, umm, success.
Being a Reds fan these days is an interesting way to live your life.
I mean, you can’t truly be expecting this club to have any measure of success, if you’re being honest with yourself. The Reds have endured losing seasons in 18 of the last 26 years. Ownership has quit on the team, as I’ve chronicled on far too many occasions. Yet still, we’re here, exulting over some pretty okay results in the first week of the 2023 season.
Some of us have no choice. Maybe one or both of your parents were Reds fans, so you were born into it. Perhaps you were born in “Reds Country,” a region that has included parts of Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana, West Virginia, Tennessee, and Virginia over the years. If so, it’s a birthright. You literally didn’t have a choice.
I get it. I grew up in southwest Virginia hearing tales of the Big Red Machine, of Johnny Bench and Joe Morgan and Pete Rose and Sparky Anderson. Tony Perez was clutch, I was told! Don Gullett and Gary Nolan were amazing, if you got to see them before the injuries diminished their abilities. Ken Griffey, Cesar Geronimo, and Davey Concepcion were underrated, to hear the old guys tell the tales.
However you got here, you’re a Reds fan. And if you’re a Reds fan in the year 2023, you’re hopeless. You’re in the grasp of this team forever. You’re my type of person. Like me, you aren’t going to give up on this dumb club ever.* We’re Cincinnati Reds lifers.
*Please don’t tell Bob and/or Phil Castellini that we’re not going anywhere. They might use that to their advantage. After all: Where ya gonna go?
At any rate, the first week of the 2023 season has mostly been pretty fun. The Redlegs have played two series and have not lost either of them. There have been some enjoyable individual performances:
Jason Vosler: .333/.333/1.133 with a double, a triple, and three home runs
Jonathan India: .389/.500/.667 with two doubles and a homer, and even better hair
TJ Friedl: .353/.389/.824 with some excellent defense and even better hair
Tyler Stephenson: .368/.400/.421
Jake Fraley: .385/.467/.692
Did I mention JASON VOSLER?
Despite the bullpen shenanigans there have been some intriguing performances from the pitchers too. Hunter Greene struck out eight batters on Opening Day. Nick Lodolo and Graham Ashcraft combined for 15 strikeouts over 14 innings, allowing just three runs combined in their first outings. Ashcraft, in particular, was dazzling, throwing seven innings while allowing just one run on four hits in the third game of the season. It took 32 games last year for Cincinnati to have a pitcher complete six innings in a start. We’re ahead of schedule!
Listen, there’s no reason for you to believe that the 2023 Cincinnati Reds are going to be particularly good. But I’m telling you that they will definitely be interesting. Will Benson and Jose Barrero and Spencer Steer are far more interesting than guys like Matt Reynolds and Albert Almora and Donovan Solano that we’ve been forced to watch in recent years. Greene/Lodolo/Ashcraft have so much upside that we can cringe and endure the days when other pitchers are on the mound. (Please, Connor Overton and Luis Cessa, just be okay.)
Here’s what I said a couple of weeks ago at the mothership:
Let’s be clear: The Reds aren’t a great baseball team at the moment. There will be some ugly days. The fourth and fifth spots in the starting rotation are suspect at best, and the bullpen, despite a fun young closer in Alexis Diaz, looks to be a disaster waiting to happen. There are question marks up and down the lineup.
But perhaps the team is on the verge of turning a corner from uncertainty and mismanagement to something that is, at the very least, interesting. “I’m excited about changing the narrative of our team,” Votto said before the team’s first workout at GABP this week. “It has to happen quickly. People have to start saying the Reds are a real handful of a team.”
Have we reached the inflection point? Only time will tell. In the meantime, buckle up. Another baseball season has arrived, and we have six months of the Reds ahead of us. I’ll let you decide whether that’s a good thing or not.
I don’t know where this team will end up. Maybe they’ll lose 100 games again (though I doubt it). But I’m all in. This happens every single April. I get sucked in. Every year, I find myself hoping and wishing and watching every inning with the expectation that the Reds will figure it out and hang in the division race long enough to make things -- here’s that word again -- interesting.
“Where you gonna go?”
<Sigh…> I’m not going anywhere. I’m hopeless. And so are you
Go Reds.