After last night’s beat down, the Cincinnati Reds will look to turn things around on Wednesday evening. Donovan Solano will make his 2022 debut after missing the first 2-and-a-half months of the season. Cincinnati will hand the ball to Luis Castillo to try and tame the powerful Dodgers offense. Los Angeles will look to Tyler Anderson and his 8-0 record to fend of the scuffling Reds offense.
Here are the lineups for today’s contest:
The Reds ace has pitched well since returning from the injured list on May 9th. He has only had one dominant outing on the season, but he hasn’t had an outing where he really struggled, either. In no start has he allowed more than three runs.
While left-handed hitters have found a modicum amount of success against Castillo this season, right-handed hitters have not been able to do a whole lot of anything. Righties haven’t hit for average or power, and they aren’t drawing many walks, either. Lefties aren’t hitting for much average, but they have drawn some walks and hit for a little bit of power.
Ricky F as he is affectionately nicknamed after a baserunning mishap a few years ago (Like Rickey, but Fail – Ricky F), is having a very strong start to his 2022 campaign. The lefty has only allowed more than two earned runs in two of his 12 starts. On May 12th the Phillies dropped seven runs on him in 6.0 innings and then on June 9th the White Sox roughed him up for four runs in 3.0 innings. In every other outing he’s allowed fewer than three runs.
Left-handed hitters don’t get much playing time against him, but the ones who do have hit him better than right-handed hitters this season. Neither is finding much success, though, with a sub .275 on-base percentage and a sub .380 slugging percentage.
The lefty is scheduled for another start tomorrow night in Louisville. Lodolo is expected to throw 4 innings and 65-70 pitches. It’s possible that he could return after that, though the team could also give him another outing in the minors.
The History Channel had a documentary this week called After Jackie that, their words, “celebrates the 75th anniversary of Jackie Robinson’s integration into Major League Baseball. Robinson opened the door for other African Americans to join the league and this documentary taps into key people and events in the aftermath.” Here is the trailer:
They have made it available to stream through their website. Depending on how the game is going this evening, it could be a better investment of your time.
Doug Gray is the owner of RedsMinorLeagues.com, Redleg Nation, and as you guessed it, passionate about the great sport of baseball. He's been writing about baseball since 2006 (contributions formerly at The Athletic and currently at Baseball America). You can keep tabs with him on twitter @dougdirt24.
Maybe this is an audition for a trade of Castillo to the Dodgers.
Oh yeah, trades with the Dodgers have worked out really well haven’t they?
Kyle Farmer has done well. At least I think so.
Adequate though below MLB average. The rest are gone. The bottom line is the Dodgers ate Bailey’s contract and that was the goal. Feeding them Castillo & Moose’s contract, the Reds would be lucky to get someone comparable to Farmer. Trading with the Dodgers is very expensive.
Actually, they have gone quite well. Farmer was solid, and part of that trade got us Bauer, who won a Cy Young as a Red. So we gave up Downs who doesn’t appear to be a MLB player of any caliber, and Gray who is actually having a decent year thus far in 2022, so he may turn out to be a #4 or #5 starter. Overall, I’ll take that deal again if offered.
Senzel and Moustakas out but Schrock and Okey still collecting splinters. Well, baby steps I guess.
Shrock is a lefty so I knew he wasn’t playing tonight. I would have liked a lineup of all right handed hitters but Votto tells Bell if he is playing or not. Could of stuck Drury or Farmer at first.
Yep, Bell’s back to handedness tonight, except Votto of course. Didn’t apply to Moose last night though, did it? I see it as Bell’s “justification” for playing whoever he wants. And Solano is the right age to start.
Wow again no max schrock again
Primarily a lineup of cheap pickups from other teams castoffs. Besides India how many would you expect to be on the Reds roster in two years?
Besides our young pitchers India Tyler Stephenson and max and almora Jr none even the players I listed they would Doon cash them in for younger players for cheaper when they come expensive so others could easily be whole new players all over again. Our reds organization a joke and owner cheap even he can’t afford the team he just holds higher percentage of operations
Castillo needs to pitch great to up his stock. Front office needs to trade trade trade. They better be busy this next month.
This is Senzels year they should run him out every game I don’t see why they are giving him breaks his biggest question is durability run him out every day and let him figure out how to play with aches and pains
I’d say the bigger question is why hasn’t he hit in 3 years? Its time to move on for both parties.
He hit his rookie year. 2nd year was covid year, and last year hurt his knee diving for a ball I think. Dude is only in 4th year of baseball. Could be a late bloomer.
I’m all for benching Senzel & Moustakas. Neither are hitting and Moose is out of shape, slow, and playing less than stellar defense. I’ll give Bell credit for this (or whoever told him to do it). Playing Garcia again who has proven he can’t hit instead of Okey is a bit disappointing. But then Garcia is older so that counts.
LOL, your cracking me up.. I do wish Okey would play need to see what he can do. Myself I don’t mind a light hitting catcher as well as he calls a good game and plays defense, oh wait that was barnhart. (sarcasm)
I wouldn’t mind if they had kept Barnhart and played Stephenson at 1st. But, the Reds would never take Votto’s position regardless of how poorly he hits. Barnhart vs. Garcia or Okey makes Barnhart look like a “Silver Slugger” award winner.
Votto has continually outhit Barnhardt even in his “down” years, so you would just be making the team weaker. Everyone wants to move Votto forgetting that he is still one of the highest on the team in OBP and putting Stephenson at first just makes an even weaker hitter be the catcher.
My comment relates to starting Stephenson. Votto should be DH’ing. The Reds need to develop JV’s replacement at 1st. JV isn’t what he was and seems to be declining. Tucker instead of Okey or Garcia? Absolutely.
I’m wondering if Senzel even starts after Naquin returns. Almora has definitely played better and an OF of Pham, Almora and Naquin would seem more productive. Senzel will probably start, but like Moose, would not be the most deserving. My guess Naquin starts his rehab assignment on Friday with Louisville and plays there until returning to the Reds for the home stand that begins against the Braves.
Senzel getting either a rest day or a rest you cause you are underproducing day. Good to see they are trying different things
Can anyone explain what “War” means. I follow batting average, on base percentage, slugging percent. Look at the stats as far as rbi, hits, runs, homerun, walks. Etc isn’t that how we look at ball players. At least I thought
WAR is a stat that attempts to give you “one number” for “Wins above replacement”, which is a general concept of a level of production of a “freely available Triple-A player”. A team full of “replacement players” would win roughly 40 games in a Major League season.
A 2-WAR player is considered to be about league average. A 4-WAR player is roughly All-Star level. 6 or more WAR is generally a guy in the MVP conversation.
WAR has it’s flaws. And different websites use different formulas to get their “WAR” number.
That said, WAR attempts to look at all production from a player – hitting, defense, baserunning. For pitchers, things get a bit more complicated because the two biggest baseball sites on the planet use very different things to determine pitcher WAR. It’s how you can get Wade Miley having a 5.5 WAR season on one website and 3 WAR on another for the exact same year.
Just like with all other stats, you can start with the number it tells you, but then you need to look deeper to see what it’s actually saying and if it’s useful information for the question you are trying to answer.
Thank you Doug. Makes sense reading this information.
Was typing my response while you posted yours. Pretty consistent I guess.
Wins Above Replacement, an attempt to synthesize all of the stats and try to figure out how good a player is compared to a standardized value for the kind of guy any team can bring up at any time from AAA (“replacement player”). It is far from perfect, and there are different ways of calculating it (most prominently baseball-reference.com versus fangraphs.com); it if very difficult, for example, to quantify fielding and baserunning. Also, quantifying the “replacement player” isn’t exactly the easier thing in the world.
However, it is a useful indicator of how productive a player is relative to the rest of the league. If you’re zero or negative, you have very little value since you could be cut and (in theory) replaced with a comparable player at very little additional cost. A “2 WAR” player means that the player himself is worth two more wins over the course of a season than the “replacement player”; that’s about an average major leaguer, and is worth a lot of money (roughly $million per year). It goes up from there of course, with 4-6 WAR players being All Stars and anything above that probably an MVP candidate. Votto was a 3.5 WAR player last year, India 3.9, Castellanos 3.2 (in part that low because of his terrible defense).
This year, Stephenson, Pham, Farmer and Drury are 1.2-1.4 WAR guys, meaning they’d be worth 2-3 WAR over the course of the full season if they maintained present levels. The Reds of course have a lot of negative WAR guys (Senzel -1.2, Moose -0.5), and don’t even get me started on the pitchers (for whom WAR is even more tenuous). One indication of the usefulness of WAR (at least as I see it) is that it will match up with both statistics and your general sense of who is a useful player and who is not. Bottom line, just an effort to distill all of the player’s statistics and skills into one number that is easy to compart across the team and league.
Thank you for your information as well.
Well if the Reds can’t get this one then they may never beat any of the big boys.
For one Tyler Anderson threw 120+ pitches last start chasing a no-hitter and its been a week since he pitched. Not to mention our bandbox is a little different then pitching in Dodger Stadium. Reynolds .306 vs lefties and even Garcia is 6-18 vs lefties.
Reds Over 3.5 Reynolds Rbi Castillo 4+ Ks
Castillo seems like a gimme.
Mariners hit back to back to back hr lastnight. Winker and Suarez back to back after Julio.
Reds could use Winker and Suarez
Dumping Suarez and Winker was a good move. I would have liked to see a much better return, but as we know it was another contract dump. As for Castellanos, yes, they should have made something other than a QO though I don’t think he would have signed with the Reds regardless.
+1000 I agree with every point LDS. And Suarez was one of my favorite players.
Will the Red’s losing skid against good teams (minus the Cubbies) continue until the all star game? Castillo needs a good audition tonight for next months trade period.
Maybe we could paint Castillo and Pham to dodgers. I believe Their number one prospect is a hit first catcher.
Senzel’s rookie season OPS was .742, OPS+ and wRC+ both 87. A decent foundation but hardly Kris Bryant class (OPS .858; OKPS+ 135; wRC+136).
Both were the #2 overall pick in their respective draft class.
Do you think its because he changed his hitting style in the box? I find it hard to believe he just stops hitting.. Unless his shoulder and knee injury has messed up his stance? That is me reaching I know but makes no sense to me… I am not yet ready to say he is washed up or not good. Right now though he is for sure struggling!!
Senzel and McClain remind me a lot of each other. Both seemed like safe, low ceiling, high floor picks. I didn’t like either. I think you have to go for the big upside player with star potential in the 1st round, especially a franchise like the Reds who can’t attract those players in free agency.
I still think Ward & Zinter are behind, at least, part of Senzel’s hitting decline. He was a decent hitter until they started changing his approach. Were they chasing power? I don’t know. I can imagine them trying to “fix” Morgan’s arm flap.
I think so as well. I remember reading about it.
He and Farmer back to back against lefties is a pretty strong tandem.
A career 280 hitter. He may help Cincy this season win a few games.
Almora is safe. No doubt there.
That worked out … in a weird way
Garcia 7 for 19 vs lefties. He found his niche)))))
Same game parlay I couldn’t decide between Solano or Reynolds to get an rbi and juice it up, but I guessed wrong so far
AAJ no speedster but beating out that grounder helped score 2 runs so far
Castillo cant stand success or pitch with a lead.
Up 3-0 and BB. And HBP
Same old same old. Doesn’t have his good heater, but hoping he’d pound the zone and try to stay away from barrels. Not exactly great showcase for Mahle or Luis
He got out of it.
Good comeback for Luis but at 20 pitches per inning that means 4 innings of bullpen and another loss. Only answer is to keep scoring!
More scoring for your sake. 1 more run would be good start.
For a brief moment, I thought he got enough of that.
What is this lead we thing we have in the 2nd inning? Gotta be the pink shoes … 😮
Votto changed his Walkup music
What’s he using now? I was out cleaning off the flat-top griddle from the burgers I cooked for dinner.
Hopefully not “Glory Days” by Springsteen 🙂
How about “I’m Walking on Sunshine”
Certainly isn’t I’m on fire by Springsteen
How bout Van Halen’s:
Where have all the good times gone?
Joey is old and its hotter then hades. He’s not a guy you can throw out there 155 times a year. Other teams yield to reality but not the Reds. They could rest him vs most of the lefties and it would be a win/win for everyone, but they live in bizarro world unfortunately.
Well I do not know who else is watching the MLB feed. But why are the Ghostbusters blowing up a gigantic Mr. Red? Maybe that is the source of our losing streak
I love that commercial but next time it should be the Phillie Phanatic.
Reds have to trade Castillo and get a haul of prospects. Waiting till the off-season brings in all the FA SP competition market. Castillo and Montas A’s are top guys and its a small list.
Castillo looking to get his wins elsewhere.
And the wheels come off for another Castillo start! I say get what you can for LC and give the young pitchers a chance!
Luis Castillo’s song needs to be:
3 walks, one HPB and 95+ pitches and LC is still not out of the 4th inning! Same old same old! Wash, rinse and repeat!
Castillo has been pitching like he’s behind on the scoreboard. Even back when he had the 3-0 lead. It all started with that one out walk to Turner that led to the Dodgers first run. Of course, in his defense, it’s not like Castillo is used to pitching with a lead for the Reds.
There goes the lead. It was fun while it lasted. But once again Reds can’t hit. What do they have 3 hits?
3-0 lead and you can’t get out of the 5th with the lead? Thats not a #1. Thats not a #2. He might smoke the Pirates and Cubs to keep his era down, but he doesn’t hate to lose. He’s not a winner. Good enough to get you fired
I didn’t want to lose him, but I didn’t want to lose Castellanos either and thats looking like another Moose contract. If Luis can’t win with 98 then whats going to happen as he ages?
As a Central Florida Reds fan I am now switching over to the Stanley Cup finals and watch the Tampa Bay Lightning! I’ll check in after the hockey game to see what additional damage, i.e. runs, are given up by the record setting Reds bullpen!
Back from the evening walk just in time to see the lead evaporate. And we’re approaching that critical juncture known as “bullpen land” …
Then Almora Jr. mashes yet another one. And after making a pretty solid defensive play as well.
Ughhhhhh. I could’ve made $300 on a Solano or AAJ rbi, but I chose Reynolds for some strange reason. Atleast I hit Over 3.5 and not dead yet on Reynolds
Almora hits some nice picturesque homers.
Drury, Almora and Renyolds good solid pick ups. Pham has his days too.
Terrible call by House to send him. It was way too shallow. Even with a marginally weak throw and awkward catch they still clearly nailed him.
You’re scrapping for runs – don’t compound that with bad choices.
Joey on deck who hits lefties about like I would? Nah….that was a good throw. A little offline and he scores.
True enough about Joey, but I didn’t see a “good throw”. I saw a shallow fly and a throw that drifted.
Doesn’t matter now anyway.
Check again? That throw was perfect pretty much
With Votto of 2022 up I think you had to send him and hope for a bad throw. Note, not with the Votto of almost any other year.
I’ve made a life out of bad choices.
I’m retired with the MLB package so I watch alot of baseball and its amazing to me how accurate these OFers are when you consider how they can’t count on throwing on platform with the variety of balls that are hit to them. Almora from LF last week…that was amazingly accurate!
Practice it until you can’t get it wrong.
He’s had some stellar throws.
It’s a good thing Reynolds caught that ball or Turner with his speed might have had an inside-the-park HR.
My wife died from breast cancer. 22 months after having them removed and diagnosed cancer free. God bless her soul.
My deepest condolences, JB. You never get over that kind of loss. You may get through it, but the void always lingers.
Always the presence of the absence …
God bless you JB. We all lift you up.
Condolences JB…as Mark said, nothing replaces the void.
Sorry for your loss JB.
God bless you & your family JB! I lost my best friend (my wife of 44 years) in November of 2019! She was a huge Reds fan and was pregnant with our youngest son when the Reds last won the World Series in 1990.
Drury and Almora great pickups but FA in 2023 and cheap now. Reds need to actually field 8 position players so I see the Reds playing and keeping Farmer, Drury, and Almora in 2022 to get them to the finish line. Unless Drury gets them a good AA pitcher.
You have to pick up the phone and listen to an offer. But I tend to agree with your position. Either way, Drury knows he’s playing for a better contract the next time around. He’s showing that every day.
I think Farmer goes. He kills lefties and somebody is going to grab him. Let’s hope we get something decent.
Wow, Indy, David Bell doing you dirty.
Right down the can and Freeman mashes the living krapp out of it.
Anybody else see that Hembree got DFA’d?
Yep. And Matt Davidson. You think Bell wants to get the Band back together?
No matter the uniform, Freeman kills the Reds.
Another Lefty tomorrow. Lineup should be all right handed hitters again but somehow Votto and probably Moose will be in the lineup.
Yes. Pirates DFA’d Heath Hembree. Reds used him alot last year, even for closing games. He was there for the Reds for most of the year. Just goes to show you how cheap the Reds are…anybody can pitch in their bullpen, as long as they come cheap. Also, not sure why Reds have R Sanmartin pitching for them, when he was sent back to AAA earlier this year, from what I can see in his stats, he did not pitch well and had a very high ERA for the Louisville Bats.
Feels like this game has slipped away once again.
It’s amazing how Kuhnel can look so razor-sharp one inning and not hit the broad side of the strike zone the next. Same can be said for a lot of this staff, including Castillo earlier in the game.
Castillo just got sloppier and sloppier as he progressed.
Ben Lively has a 4.80 era in mlb. Might make him best reliever Bell has, but in Louisville he sits
I’m done again tonight. I’ll try and catch most of the game tomorrow.
As Radar O’Reilly was heard to say, I guess this is the bear we’ve got to cross.
Well…reds succeeding at tanking finally.
Let’s do this right!!!!
Reds arent winning in 2023 either so lets look at roster construction and trades and playing time through the 2024 lens. Votto gets a cataract opt out through that lens but no one else does.
Maybe Castillo to Dodgers for OF Andy Pages? His ETA is next year.
Old School, I love your optimism. But, I don’t see this team turning it around in two years. It’s hard to determine if they are even on the right track. Yes, they are losing, but they are not taking advantage of it to play young players.
I just don’t see any position players in their system who are likely to be ready in a year and a half from now.
Del Ray Cruz looks like an exciting player but he is still playing A ball. McClain, Hinds etc. haven’t be all that impressive. The Reds may trade Castillo for a couple of players, who may be ready by 2024, but that is no guarantee, especially with Nick Krall making the trade. Even if Krall pulls off a nice trade, it will weaken the Red’s starting pitching, which is an injury away from being pretty average.
In all seriousness, I do wish you were the Red’s general manager. I admire your zeal.
You can see a juicy Big Mac, when all we currently have is a stale bun and some mayonnaise.
I proposed this the other night but will do so again;
Trade or DFA Pham, Drury, Castillo, Moose, Solano, Almora and yes Votto.
Play India, Farmer, Stephenson, Barerro, Senzel, Lopez, Fairchild (AAA), and Santana (AAA), Aquino and Friedl.
Ride with these guys for 80 games and let the chips fall where they may. At least we could forgive the defensive lapses and pathetic at bats from rookies and not-yet arbitration eligible players.
The Reds are looking at their 6th straight loss. If the current Dodgers lead prevails, the Reds will be 22 games under .500 and well on their way at being 35 games under by the All-Star.
Personally, I don’t recall a team having such a dismal forest half and retaining the field manager. I may be wrong about that,, but I don’t recall a manager from any team surviving such a first half. Maybe there are examples, but none come to mind.
I am not sure the purpose of sending David Bell out to meet with the press after each game. He clearly doesn’t have any answers. To me it is almost cruel to send him out there.
I frankly have no idea how this team will become competitive anytime soon. Most of the current top position players on the team will either be traded or play out their contracts. This front office has not been proficient at trading veterans for prospects, so I don’t have a lot of hope that that strategy is going to produce anything worth waiting for. There are no position player prospects to speak of above Class AA. I believe the Votto ship has sailed. We’ll have to see how Stephenson is after a broken thumb on the throwing hand.
2022 is the low point. admit it and blow it up.
Trade all assets and draft like crazy the next 2 years.
I agree with you Tom. Other than Del Rey Cruz the cover looks pretty bare and he is in A ball.
I would send him out there until the FO makes the necessary moves at the trade deadline aug2 and then relieve him of his duty. Hes not the biggest problem…but hes not the solution and has had 4 years. On to 2024.
Do you think Buddy Bell will advise the Castellinis to fire David Bell? I doubt it.
No…but 100 losses and 40 under .500 will make all agree a new approach is needed. No one changes because they want to…….Failure does it.
David bell is still young. His Reds managerial career is a deep dark stain. Hes going to want to let that go and start over and he needs to get out of this dungeon.
You keep digging deeper under .470 winning percentage and who is going to hire you?
It’s cruel & unusual punishment for Reds fans to have to Bell’s post-game pressers!
I’ve never been affected by Bell’s post game pressers since I’ve never listened to him. I also wouldn’t be concerned about David Bell’s future since he comes from a well regarded longstanding Cincinnati baseball family. He’s a front office type guy and was V.P. of Personnel for the S.F. Giants before becoming Red’s manager. He’ll do just fine; it’s our favorite team I’m worried about.
Bell’s problem is that he has no reliable relievers. Every one of them seems equally likely to pitch a shutdown inning as they are to get blasted. You can pencil in two or three shutout innings and one or two blowup innings, but you can’t match them up to names ahead of time for any given night. It’s a guessing game for DB as much as it is for any of us.
Heath Hembree is available – related by the Pirates today! I actually think many of our current relievers are worse. But, no I wouldn’t sign him.
Hopefully, Hunter Greene will throw a no-hitter tomorrow, it’s about our only chance to win.
Greene and Warren combined for a no-hitter earlier this year against the Pirates, remember? Reds still lost 1-0. It’s been that kind of year.
When it’s that close Senzel you have to swing and protect.
Only picked up the last few innings but got the 6-7-8 rhyme to ponder… 6 losses, 7 losses at home, 8 losses to the Dodgers in a row. Something different will happen, it has to, but it may not happen before the All Star Game, which means we will need “Bull in a China Shop” to change the dynamic. Anyone have a better idea?
I went out tonight with the Reds leading 3-1. I thought maybe they’d win it this time. I guess not.
It’s real tough for Red’s pitchers, even good ones, to get beyond the dangerous 4th. or 5th. inning almost every game.
Well, there you have it, another loss. I wonder if Phil Castellini even watches this wreck anymore?
The Castellini family has taken a team that has been the pride and joy of the city and turned it into an absolute disgrace.
The Castellini’s should be ran out of the city in a rail.
I would also like to add, Phil Castellini looks like he wears cheap cologne.
Lol bathes in it too.
Kudos to whoever hired Annie Sabo, though 🙂
Unless other members of the ownership consortium set in, it appears Phil Castellini is the Red’s future principal owner. If so, it does not bode well for having a competitive Reds team.
No longer watching rest of the season Castillo didn’t look that good, the pen sucks, and bell and owner need to be gone so we can finally win again this team laughing stock now votto will retire without a title
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