Archive for May, 2011

Ask a few questions, get a few answers! Pretty simple, huh?

Laying in bed last night I was thinking of this evenings game and Jay Bruce‘s 3 run HR and a thought began to germinate in my mind.  I wonder how Jay and Joey compare to Red’s greats of the past?  I knew that at 24, Jay hit his 84th HR last night and should easily make it to 100 before this season winds to a close.  So the next question was, how could I possibly compare them.  I decided on an imperfect yet equal measuring stick.  The first 500 games of each players career. 

Notes and thoughts on Jay Bruce;s hot month of May, Travis Wood’s 5th quality start in May, and Joey Votto’s patience at the plate

{Cue whistle in background} The road trip is over, the Reds suffered 8 defeats in 10 games dropping from 1st to 3rd place 5 games behind the St. Louis Cardinals.  Not a fortnight we will remember fondly I should guess.  So why don’t we all step back, take a deep breath, shake off our worries and look at the trip that was to discover the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.

Brewers and Reds pitching matchups and a quick look a the awesome numbers (and socks) of Bill Bray.

To complain about umpires has become taboo. Any criticism of officiating in baseball is immediately dismissed as “sour-grapes,” from “homers” who aren’t viewing the game objectively. And 99% of the the time, that’s absolutely true. Still, we shouldn’t overlook the impact of poor officiating. With no real replay to speak of, MLB umpires often determine the outcome of a game, with no accountability. Recently, our Redlegs have played poorly. By no means is this an attempt to blame all of the Reds’ recent woes on umpires. Instead, a closer look might provide some insight on how the umpires have negatively [...]

Bronson Arroyo’s six outing since his last win have been not what we’re used to seeing. Here’s a look.

There’s been a lot of talk about Yonder Alonso lately. Can he play LF? How good is his bat? Will he be able to play LF for the Reds anytime soon? I thought, what better way to find out than to ask him? So, I did. Blog Red Machine: Yonder, your thoughts on how your season is going so far?

The Reds suffered another tough loss in extra innings this evening coming only 3 days after the marathon 19 inning loss to the Philadelphia Phillies.  Looking over the QRO data, this was to be expected.  Tomorrow the final task on this Herculean road trip will be the most daunting task of all.  The Reds face Jair Jurrjens who leads the National League with a 1.56 ERA.  The challenge the Braves present is not just formidable starting pitching led by Jurrjens, Tim Hudson, and Derek Lowe it is a relief corps that the QRO analysis shows to be tougher than any [...]

7 games through this long dreadful 10 game road trip and the Reds have taken some hits to the mouth, are staggered and need a little regrouping to salvage at least some good news going into the final leg of the series in Atlanta. Thus far the trip has netted a 1-6 record with a little sprinkling of bad breaks, a dusting of lackluster performance, one really long game, and a bad taste in the mouth of Reds’ fans. Starting the road trip only 1.5 games behind the Cardinals in the standings, the Redlegs now sit in third behind both [...]

Here at the Blog Red Machine we not only want to explore the Cincinnati Reds we also want to look ahead to the future.  Over the course of the season I will periodically go down on the farm and highlight players on the Dayton Dragons A affiliate just up I-75.  One of the recurring themes will be to name a “Star of the Week” for the Dragons and highlight anything interesting or at least out of the ordinary.  On the Dragons website they issued a press release after the brief appearance of Todd Frazier, trumpeting the fact that he is [...]

In my recent update I discussed some guys playing great right now for the Louisville Bats. Somehow, I overlooked Zack Cozart. Cozy, as he is affectionately known by his teammates, has been tearing the cover off the ball lately for the Bats. He’s hitting .337/.374/.533 with 3 HR, 9 RBI and 9 doubles in the month of May. That’s brought his .225 average from April up to .282 for the season. For the season, Cozart’s line reads .282/.327/.436 with 4 HR, 16 RBI, and 16 doubles. But what makes Zack such a good ball player is his defensive prowess. Last [...]