Cincinnati Reds’ offense falls on hard times as season progresses

After opening the season off hot, the Cincinnati Reds’ offense cools down as the season wears on.

The Cincinnati Reds had one of the best offenses in MLB the first month of the season.  In May the offense stayed strong, but began to slow down.  Since the beginning of June, the offense has been sub par.

At the end of April the Reds had scored the 8th most runs in MLB.  During the month of May, the Reds barely ranked in the top ten of runs scored.  In June the Reds ranked all the way down at 20th in runs scored.

There is a similar trend in hits per month.  The Reds ranked 13th and 3rd in hits over the first two months of the season.  In June they ranked 23rd in MLB.

They ranked 8th, 6th, and 10th for each of the first three months of the season in home runs.  They actually hit more home runs in June than in any other months so far this season.  The rest of baseball has just been hitting more home runs lately.

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The Reds’ record has been more in line with the home runs than runs scored.  They had 11, 13, and 10 wins in each of the first three seasons.  That matches their home runs rankings nearly perfectly.

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The Cincinnati Reds’ offense in June will resemble that for the rest of the season with Zack Cozart on the block.

Zack Cozart probably bought himself another week in Cincinnati by making the All-Star Game as a starter.  The Reds don’t like to trade away All-Stars until after the player plays in the game.  Before making the team, Cozart looked to be leaving any day now.

With Cozart out for half of the games in June, it is easy to see how the Reds’  offense will look once he gets traded.

Jose Peraza and Scooter Gennett played well enough with Cozart out to maintain their starting roles.  Peraza, however, doesn’t have anywhere close to the power of Cozart at shortstop.

One of the reasons we see this fluctuation is that the Reds have had trouble all year drawing walks.  They ranks 21st on the season and they haven’t ranked higher than 14th in MLB in any month this season.  Ranking that low in walks makes it difficult to get on base consistently.

Next: Who will be in the rotation at the end of the season?

The Reds need to do something to turn around their offensive woes.  It may include batting Tucker Barnhart lead-off or Joey Votto down in the fifth spot.  Whatever they do, they need to avoid another month like June if they want to move forward towards 2018.