Cincinnati Reds’ Adam Duvall leads an under performing outfield

While the rest of the outfield has been under performing for the Cincinnati Reds, Adam Duvall has been keeping the pace.

The Cincinnati Reds expected their outfield to be a strength this season.  Instead, it has been wildly inconsistent and disappointing.  Adam Duvall is the exception to that.

Right fielder Scott Schebler has delivered more power than expected.  He has also delivered more strikeouts that expected.  Somehow, he has been able to keep his OBP in the respectable range.

The same cannot be said for starting center fielder Billy Hamilton.  His OBP has fallen below .300 and stayed there for a while.  Even though he is the best defensive center fielder in the history of the Reds’ franchise, he is not strong enough offensively to play everyday at this point.

The back-up outfielders have hit rough patches too.  Both Patrick Kivlehan and Arismendy Alcantara are batting below .220 after playing well enough early in the season to earn more playing time.  Now it is difficult to find a third outfielder to go with Schebler and Duvall.

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At the core of this is strikeouts.  Three of the top most frequent batters to strikeout on the Reds are the three starting outfielders.  Only third baseman Eugenio Suarez keeps it from being all outfielders in the top three.

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Adam Duvall has done a nice job for the Cincinnati Reds, keeping the production of the outfield respectable overall.

Duvall has the most strikeouts on the Reds, but his OBP is a solid .323.  That’s decent for someone who has historically had OBP issues and is third on the team in slugging.  He is also fourth in OPS.

The bad news is that Joey Votto and second baseman Scooter Gennett are the two people ahead of Duvall in slugging.

When talking about OPS, it is those two and then All-Star shortstop Zack Cozart.  The outfield is not offensively competitive.

Duvall, though, is on pace for 36 home runs and 110 RBIs.  Those are both better than his numbers from a year ago.  Votto is on pace to lead the team in both, but ending up third in home runs and second in RBIs is not too shabby for a second year player.

Next: Votto and Cozart are scoring all of the runs!

Duvall needs to keep this up.  Jesse Winker may be the future in Cincinnati, but the offense has been struggling for the past six weeks.  Maybe Duvall and Votto can carry the Reds to a strong second half after all.