As the weather turns warmer and the calendar flips to July soon Major League baseball is at the half way mark of the regular season. Tonight the Reds will play game 81 of 162. The Reds opened the year 3-18 in the month of April, worst start in the 137 year history of the franchise, ending April 7-20 falling out of contention early and losing some of the fan base. Fans knew that this season was another rebuilding season but the start even had the most die hard fans wondering if this team would win 50 games. The last two season the Reds have won 68 games each year, the last winning season was 2013 when the Reds won 90 games under Dusty Baker. They played better in May going 13-15 and look to have made a turn for the better in June.
This month the Reds are 14-9, winners of 9 of the last 10. In the past 7 games the Reds are 6-1 with wins over the first place team in the NL East Atlanta Braves and four game sweep of divisional rival Chicago Cubs. The Reds pitching has provided quality starts during the stretch with a team ERA of 3.38 and four saves. Matt Harvey, a risky acquisition from the NY Mets, has gone 2-0 with a 2.13 ERA during the week. Jesse Winker, a forgotten man in the outfield rotation, has a pair of home runs and ten RBI while batting .389.
Scooter Gennent has turned into an All Star for Cincinnati leading the team in average at .336 with 13 homers and 53 RBI. Along with Scooter Euginio Suarez has played at an All Star level. Suarez leads the team in Home runs and runs drove in with 16 and 58 while hitting .308. Joey Votto is having another solid but quiet season with 8 homers and 42 RBI while hitting .301. Jose Peraza has turned into the player the team had hoped he would become when they let Brandon Phillips leave. Peraza has 3 homers and 22 RBI but he also has 14 stolen bases. Catcher Tucker Barnhart isn’t hitting the stuffing out of the ball but he does provide good offense with 5 home runs and 25 RBI while hitting .263 but his work behind the plate is what makes him so valuable. He is coming off a gold glove season. Now for the bad news on the offensive side. Billy Hamilton continues to struggle no matter where he hits in the lineup. He is batting .210 and only has 15 stolen bases. Adam Duvall has a lot of power but he is becoming this teams version of Adam Dunn. He has 12 homers and 46 RBI but only hitting .205.
Pitching is the one aspect that every team must have and for the Reds that has been the sore point of the team for the past couple seasons. Homer Bailey, whom the Reds are heavily invested in owing him 69 million over the next three seasons, has been injury prone and not effective when healthy. Bailey is 1-7 with a 6.68 ERA. Tyler Mahle, a rookie, is leading the staff with 6 wins and a 3.98 ERA. Luis Castillo, 5-8 on the year, and Sal Ramano, 4-7, are the other anchors of the staff. Anthony Descalfani coming off an injury of his own is 3-1 on the year. Raisel Iglesias leads the team with 15 saves and could also be an All Star this season.
As of today the Reds sit at 34-46 and 12.5 games out of 1st place in the Central division. They are 9.5 games out of the final wild card spot. If the Reds play at the pace they have in the first half of the season they will end with 68 wins once again. If you would have asked Reds fans after the awful start if 68 wins would be acceptable it would have been an unanimous yes!
It will be interesting to see what the Reds do at the trade deadline at the end of July. Do the Reds move Scooter while he is playing at a high level or do they trade Iglesias to a contender who needs help in the bullpen? Whatever the season holds for the Redlegs you can listen to the team with the best play by play man in the league Marty Brennaman on the stations of Wallingford Broadcasting. Listen on Y92.5 FM, WEKY 1340 AM, and WKXO 103.5 Berea.
