LOVELAND MAGAZINE

News and Events from the Loveland, Ohio Area

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Since 2004

Tag: mlb

All new episode: The Queen City Sports Podcast by Chris Ball & Mark Raines – Reds Smash the Cardinals, Cleveland Cavaliers Have a Big Week, and Bronny James is Drafted

by Chris Ball & Mark Raines

Loveland, Ohio – In this week’s podcast episode, we talk more about the Reds and what factors are preventing them from consistently playing as well as they did on Thursday night, beating the rival St. Louis Cardinals 11-4. We also discuss the Cavaliers’ signing of head coach Kenny Atkinson and the challenges he faces in getting the team ready for the 2024-2025 season. We also break down the impact of the Cavaliers’ first round draft pick Jaylon Tyson and discuss what the Lakers’ will do now that they’ve drafted Bronny James, LeBron James’ son.

All this and more on The Queen City Sports Podcast, take a listen and don’t forget to leave your comments and feedback!

For further reference, the article discussed in the podcast regarding the evolution of pitching in major league baseball can be accessed by clicking here. You can see the post laying out all of the injuries that the Atlanta Braves have suffered, and overcome, by clicking here.

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Hey readers… have an opinion about sports? How about a topic you’d like to see written about in Loveland Magazine or a thought about one of our articles?

Just need to vent and get out your frustration about the Reds, Bengals, or any other sports issues?

Feel free to share with an email to lovelandmagazinesports@gmail.com!

We would love to hear from our readers, and we thank you for your support and engagement.

Also, don’t forget to follow us at The Loveland Sports Desk at the below links:

For Facebook, click here.

For X, click here.

For Instagram, click here.

Christopher Ball is a longtime Loveland resident and an attorney. He graduated from Loveland High School in 2003 and was a member of the football team before going on to become a coach’s assistant at DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana. He has been following and rooting for the Reds and Bengals since the early 1990s and has been through the many ups and downs that fandom has wrought over the years.

Jun 30, 2024
Special Announcement: The Loveland Magazine Sports Desk!

by Chris Ball

Loveland, Ohio – Loveland Magazine is very excited to announce that we are expanding our sports social media experience to encompass Facebook, X, and even Instagram.

After you are done browsing our hard-hitting sports articles at Loveland Magazine, head on over to The Loveland Magazine Sports Desk. There, across all three platforms, we will be bringing you some more concise and up-to-the-minute updates on all of the sports teams you follow every day. Whether you’re watching a Reds or Bengals game in real-time and want to weigh in, or if you drop by the day after the game to check in on what happened and give your thoughts, you now have three more ways to get into the game and get the discussion going! We also look forward to bringing you local Loveland sports stories about all your hometown teams, including Loveland football and more.

We appreciate your ongoing support and comments, so look forward to seeing you across the social media universe!

To follow The Loveland Magazine Sports Desk on Facebook, click here.

To get into the game on X, give us a follow by clicking here.

Instagram is also a great way to post pictures of local Loveland sports, and we hope to have more content there very soon, but for now feel free to check in on our progress and give us a follow at this link.

However you get in contact with us, we are happy to have you and look forward to a lot of fun together this summer and onward.

Hey readers… have an opinion about sports? How about a topic you’d like to see written about in Loveland Magazine or a thought about one of our articles?

Just need to vent and get out your frustration about the Reds, Bengals, or any other sports issues?

Feel free to share with an email to lovelandmagazinesports@gmail.com!

Christopher Ball is a longtime Loveland resident and an attorney. He graduated from Loveland High School in 2003 and was a member of the football team before going on to become a coach’s assistant at DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana. He has been following and rooting for the Reds and Bengals since the early 1990s and has been through the many ups and downs that fandom has wrought over the years.

Jun 26, 2024
The Reds Drop Another Series but are Still In Contention

by Chris Ball

Loveland, Ohio – The Reds have had a difficult time closing out the month of June. Since their 7 game winning streak they are just 4-8. They have lost winnable games against the Brewers, Pirates, and most recently the Boston Red Sox for a variety of reasons. Whether it was a cold offense or base running mistakes Cincinnati has once again found several different ways to lose a baseball game.

Even with the tough losses there have been bright spots. Elly De La Cruz was 2-5 against Boston on Sunday and is now hitting .320 with a 196 wRC+ over his last 30 plate appearances. Jeimer Candelario had another RBI against the Red Sox and and he’s also playing well, in his last 46 plate appearances he is hitting .333 with a 202 wRC+ over that span.

Though Nick Lodolo took the loss on Sunday the Reds have had so much production from the top 3 spots in their rotation, including Hunter Greene and Andrew Abbott that there is so much to be exited about. Against the Red Sox, Abbott looked very good, pitching 5.2 innings while allowing only 4 hits and amassing a career high 10 strikeouts. Over his last 7 starts, Hunter Greene is 4-0 with a 3.32 ERA and 45 strikeouts in just 43 innings.

Reds fans should undoubtedly have patience with this young team. It is peppered with young players who have the potential to lead Cincinnati to the playoffs or beyond, given the right amount of time and experience. It will take time to get them the right amount of innings and at bats to mold them into a consistent contender. And so the failures in June of 2024 are not necessarily the portents of doom that many would make them out to be. This team, for all their struggles, remain just 2.5 games out of contention for the wild card spot with more than half the season left to play.

Tonight, the reds begin a crucial 3 game series against the Pirates. It is a perfect opportunity for this team to reverse course and get back on the right track heading into the July 4th holiday, especially since it would appear that they will not have to face the Pirates’ fireball-throwing ace, Paul Skenes. The first pitch tonight is at 7:10 PM, and the pitching matchup is below:

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Hey readers… have an opinion about sports? How about a topic you’d like to see written about in Loveland Magazine or a thought about one of our articles?

Just need to vent and get out your frustration about the Reds, Bengals, or any other sports issues?

Feel free to share with an email to lovelandmagazinesports@gmail.com!

Christopher Ball is a longtime Loveland resident and an attorney. He graduated from Loveland High School in 2003 and was a member of the football team before going on to become a coach’s assistant at DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana. He has been following and rooting for the Reds and Bengals since the early 1990s and has been through the many ups and downs that fandom has wrought over the years.

Jun 24, 2024
Was The Reds’ Sweep of the Dodgers a Sign of a Season Turnaround?
Jonathan India had a great series against Los Angeles which included a grand slam that seemed like the defining moment for the entire series.

by Chris Ball

Loveland, Ohio – The Reds Have Won A Series For the First Time Since Late April and 4 Straight For The First Time Since July of 2023

A brutal west coast road trip. Loss after loss. Injuries, slumps, implosions. And then the Dodgers came in town. It was a recipe for disaster and a season-ending coffin nail.

Until it wasn’t.

The Reds’ improbable three game sweep of the Los Angeles Dodgers maybe won’t turn out to be enough to save the season, but dang if it doesn’t feel like the start of something special. Yes the Dodgers have some of their own offensive issues to speak of but their star power and talent can’t be denied. The Reds’ pitchers neutralized some of the league’s best hitters in Shohei Ohtani and Freddie Freeman and they hit around big money pitchers like Yoshinobu Yamamoto. Three straight wins over a team like that should be enough to quiet the doubters and doomsayers for a little while more.

What’s so impressive is the way the Reds are winning. Their bats have come alive again. They are getting contributions from guys like Jonathan India, who looked so overmatched at the plate at times that it was almost sad to watch. He had a great series against Los Angeles which included a grand slam that seemed like the defining moment for the entire series.

Spencer Steer is swinging the bat like he did earlier this year. Jeimer Candelario was improving, got hurt, but returned Monday night and promptly hit a game tying home run. For most of May the Reds got next to nothing from anyone who wasn’t Tyler Stevenson or Elly De La Cruz. But now, they are getting contributions from several different guys on any given night.

No conversation about the Reds’ recent success would be complete without the acknowledgment that none of it would have been possible without how impressive their pitching (both the starters and bullpen) has been. Whether it’s Greene, Abbott, or Ashcraft they’ve turned in solid innings that have put their club in a position to win. The major difference now is that the Reds’ bats have shown up to take advantage of those opportunities. And when that’s happened, the bullpen has been able to step in and lock down their leads and convert them into wins. Alexis Diaz had a very impressive save against the Dodgers, as did Lucas Sims in a victory against the Cardinals on Memorial Day. After having such a difficult and frustrating early season, Lucas Sims has a 1.46 ERA over his last 15 appearances.

Many Reds fans have nightmares about the dreaded “bullpen days” last year that were made necessary by the numerous injuries to the pitching staff. But this year the story has been much different with the major additions the team has made to their bullpen. Nick Martinez proved that when he carried the Reds to a win in one of those bullpen days against the Dodgers this past weekend. He threw 4 1/3 scoreless innings and in the last series facing them he tossed 5 innings while giving up only 1 run.

And on top of that, Nick Lodolo returned to the rotation. He pitched very well against the Cardinals, allowing only 1 run in a little over 5 innings and only walked 1 batter. Having him back makes the rotation compete again, and it could be one of the top units in the league if they all remain healthy.

The Reds are playing as complete a game of baseball as they have in weeks. Though you may not be able to quantify it, you have to wonder how much relief this group of players has gotten from winning their first back to back games, and their first series, in more than a month. We’ve talked before about how they’ve shown flashes of playing great baseball for a game, only to have it all fall apart for the next few games.

Not so much anymore.

This version of the Reds is one that is playing looser, with more energy, and clearly more confidence. And the city is responding as there were plenty of loud and rowdy fans to watch those wins over the Dodgers and Cardinals. If not for the multi-game losing streak earlier on they might not be in such a hard place as Cincinnati actually did not play all that terribly in their recent road trip out west. But this winning streak is surely helping to propel the Reds out of the hole they dug for themselves, and we can only hope that the best is yet to come.

“The team is coming together. It seems like things are clicking.”
- Nick Martini
Baseball is made up of a very long season that can’t be defined by a game, a series, even a month. While it’s impossible to say that this stretch of beautiful baseball will propel this team into contention, if they do make the playoffs or turn it around, it’s going to be very easy to look back on these wins as the moment when it all began.

Hey readers… have an opinion about sports? How about a topic you’d like to see written about in Loveland Magazine or a thought about one of our articles?

Just need to vent and get out your frustration about the Reds, Bengals, or any other sports issues?

Feel free to share with an email to LovelandSportsGuy@gmail.com!

We would love to hear from our readers, and we thank you for your support and engagement.

Christopher Ball is a longtime Loveland resident and an attorney. He graduated from Loveland High School in 2003 and was a member of the football team before going on to become a coach’s assistant at DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana. He has been following and rooting for the Reds and Bengals since the early 1990s and has been through the many ups and downs that fandom has wrought over the years.
May 29, 2024
The Reds Continue To Struggle To Find Their Identity and Consistency
by Chris Ball

In a season like this one, there is a point in time where all of the platitudes and rationalizations ring hollow because they’ve been trotted out more times than an Uncle Remus’ catfish story.

That point is drawing perilously close; losing 15 out of 18 games tends to make any explanations fall on deaf ears.

There is no shame in setting aside the catch phrases and being honest and fair about what this Reds team is: young, inexperienced, decimated by injuries, and facing spending constraints that make it extremely difficult to compete against the cash-rich legacy franchises in this league. In even the best of times when all of a teams’ players are healthy, when you play in a market like the Reds do, you need a lot of luck for a deep playoff run to happen. The margins are always razor thin, and this year you couldn’t see them with the Hubble telescope.

Could the Reds have weathered Matt McLain’s injury? Could they have found a way to compensate for Noelvi Marte’s suspension? Is there any chance they could have prepared better for losing CES and TJ Friedl for large chunks of the season? Perhaps if any of those problems had occurred individually, Cincinnati could have found a way to stay afloat through their brutal May schedule. But the cascade of injuries combined with a precipitous drop in production from nearly everyone apart from Elly De La Cruz and Tyler Stephenson was simply too much for this team to bear and they are currently buckling under the weight of it all.

No one should be more frustrated by that than the players who make up the Reds’ rotation. Hunter Greene has faced his share of negativity after signing what (by league standards) was a very modest contract. But this year he has performed very well. He, Graham Ashcraft, Nick Lodolo, and Andrew Abbott have put this team in position to win game after game, only to have the bottom erode from under the offense.
- Hunter Greene ERA: 3.22
- Andrew Abbott ERA: 3.06
- Nick Lodolo ERA: 3.34
They are 15^th in team ERA and yet are currently languishing in last place in the National League Central division, mostly due to the fact that they are the second worse team in terms of batting average, at .217. This has been a consistent and well known problem that has not improved since this losing trend began weeks ago. David Bell has shuffled lineups, promoted players, and shifted them around, but nothing has worked. There have been times that we’ve seen the potential to break out of this prolonged slump, and they have been brilliant to watch.

They went into Dodger Stadium on Shohei Ohtani bobble head night in front of 50,000 hostile fans and dominated one of the best teams in baseball, winning 7-2. They piled up 13 hits against the Diamondbacks that was almost like a tease of what this offense is capable of. But after both games the spark was extinguished and the well was once again bone dry. The missed opportunities began to pile up and runs became as rare as a prime steak at Jeff Ruby’s. A perfect example is Elly De La Cruz going 0 for 13 with eight strikeouts after his four-hit, four-stolen-base game Thursday against those Dodgers that so electrified Reds fans and primed them to believe this offense could finally snap out of its funk. The team as a whole failed to respond after a positive win and were unable to score for 16 consecutive innings at one stretch in the Dodgers series.

At this point the Reds are like a boxer that spends one round landing haymakers, getting the crowd into it, but then languishes for the rest of the fight taking blow after blow until the good times are but a blurry and faded memory. And watching a team lose seven consecutive series is enough to make even the best fans punch drunk.

Having realistic expectations of a team is one of the hardest things to do for a fanbase. Hope tends to spring eternal, especially when the Reds played as well as they did last year with such a promising crop of young, exciting players. What those young teams need to take the best steps forward is continuity, support, and reliability. The 2024 Reds have none of those factors, mostly through no fault of their own. Their youngest players are either hurt, suspended, or being asked to carry a major league team on their own when they are barely into their second years. Longer tenured players like Jonathan India and Alexis Diaz are regressing to the point that they are almost unplayable when they should be the ones a team count on to shepherd the team through its toughest stretches. Will Benson has taken giant steps backwards, and it has all seemed to happen at once. Spencer Steer started red hot but has seen his average crater in recent weeks. In his last 25 games he is hitting a paltry .144 and his OPS dropped from .999 to .706. As the Reds’ closer, the man sent in to shut down the best batters in must-win situations, Diaz has a 7.47 ERA, has walked 12 and hit 3 batters in just a little over 15 innings. It’s a good example of just how this team could struggle so mightily in one run games, where they are now 1-11 with 10 straight losses.

These players have had nearly 50 games to show what they can do and how they can help this team. Batting below or near .200 over that stretch, as several of our batters are (India and Benson among them) make it legitimate to question whether we have seen the true colors of what this Reds team will be? That being a baseball club that simply cannot hit with any consistency because it has such poor depth due to injuries, and who cannot compete with the playoff teams in this league on a nightly basis. The flashes of ability and the sparks of a potential run of good hitting have shown themselves, but they’ve failed to catch on for any length of time for this team to build any sort of momentum. The Reds don’t have stars at multiple positions, they have solid players who are young, and who need to work together as a unit to produce on offense and who grind out every game as they learn and improve. But it’s impossible to grow and to learn when you’re on the disabled list or you have no help from the veteran players on your team.

As frustrating as it might be to admit, it does not mean that the season is over. The Reds’ pitching and most of its bullpen can keep them in games. Hitting sometimes runs in streaks and players can get hot for stretches of time. That being said, praying that that players buck the statistical trends they’ve established over a quarter of the season isn’t necessarily a recipe for success, and it’s an excruciating way to root for a franchise. It’s hard to imagine what magical tactic David Bell could unveil that could make seasoned players and talented hitters stop taking pitches right down broadway or grounding into double plays, but fairytale turnarounds are what Major League Baseball seasons are designed for. There is no coach to fire that will magically fix the injuries that have plagued this team and bring back the players they need to supercharge the bats that have gone inexplicably silent. The 2023 and 2024 Reds have the exact same record through 46 games. The main difference being that there is no crop of young talent ready to step up and save this team. For better or worse this team is what it is going to be for the next several months.

Until they show us otherwise, we have seen what this Reds team is, and if it continues along the same lines we have been watching so far it will be a very long summer of begging for runs and lamenting as solid starting pitching (en extreme rarity for teams like the Reds) is flushed down the tubes.

The Reds can start a new chapter this week and start to chip away at the standings, though. They return home to face the Padres for three games, and those are absolutely critical because they are winnable and a chance to build at least some positivity. And they’ll need it because those same Dodgers will then come in for a series, proceeding the Reds’ first season series against division foe St. Louis.

Hey readers… have an opinion about sports? How about a topic you’d like to see written about in Loveland Magazine or a thought about one of our articles?

Just need to vent and get out your frustration about the Reds, Bengals, or any other sports issues?

Feel free to share with an email to LovelandSportsGuy@gmail.com!

We would love to hear from our readers, and we thank you for your support and engagement.

Christopher Ball is a longtime Loveland resident and an attorney. He graduated from Loveland High School in 2003 and was a member of the football team before going on to become a coach’s assistant at DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana. He has been following and rooting for the Reds and Bengals since the early 1990s and has been through the many ups and downs that fandom has wrought over the years.
May 20, 2024
Reds Take Fans To The Brink of Madness
by Chris Ball

Loveland, Ohio – The Roller Coaster Season Is In Danger Of Coming Off The Rails

How many different ways can one team lose a baseball game? Well, in losing 12 of their last 14 and 15 of their last 19 the Reds have certainly found many of them. And most have been in excruciating fashion.

On Monday night against the Diamondbacks it was a walk off two run single by former Red Kevin Newman and a blown save by Alexis Diaz. The Reds were in a position to walk away with a win after scoring two runs in the top of the eighth which featured a Mike Ford triple, to lead 5-4. In a stretch where their offense has struggled so mightily, scoring 5 runs off of 10 hits seemed at the time to be as refreshing as a pool of water to a man lost in a baking desert.

Time was, seeing Alexis Díaz walk out of the bullpen in such a situation was enough to give Reds fans goosebumps at the anticipation of some electric stuff and the sound of the door slamming shut on the opposition.

But not this night.

Diaz proceeded to hit the first man he faced and walked the next two to load the bases with one out in the bottom of the ninth inning, before eventually surrendering the game winning hit to Newman. It was a troubling sign of the inconsistency and unreliability that has plagued this roster all season. The numbers simply look bleak, there is no way around it.

Starting with Díaz, he converted his first 22 save chances last season and 37 overall. While his blown save on Monday was only his second in nine opportunities, the more conceding issue is that he has a 6.75 ERA in 16 appearances. In 14 2/3 innings this season, Díaz has allowed 12 walks and has hit three batters. This means that since August 1, 2023 Alexis Diaz has more walks + hit batters than he has strikeouts or innings pitched. Though plenty of Reds are struggling this year the issues with their closer is magnified due to the fact that they are likely going to play in a significant number of close games this year. With an offense that scores so infrequently, they cannot afford to have their go-to closer have games like Monday’s slip through his fingers.

Losing such games is yet another disturbing trend for the 2024 Reds. They have both the most 1-run losses (9) and also the fewest 1-run wins (1). This only got worse after Wednesday’s 2-1 loss, unfortunately. Last season it was a much different story for the “Rally Reds” where they had 34 one-run wins which was the most in all of baseball. While injuries have ravaged this team (especially with the crippling announcement that TJ Friedl will miss 4-5 weeks with a fractured thumb, after just coming off the IL from a wrist injury) the magic just seems to be missing from this version of the team, at times.

And then, you get a result like we saw on Tuesday night, a 6-2 victory over those same (very hot) Diamondbacks, where the Reds remind you what they can do in a more complete way. Will Benson hit a 2 run home run, Tyler Stephenson had 3 hits, Candalario and Fraley chipped in with two apiece. 9 different Reds collected hits on Tuesday night and the team scored their most runs in their last 15 games. When combined with a very efficient outing from Hunter Greene (2 runs, 5 hits, 5 strikeouts and only one walk) and a lockdown bullpen effort, it’s just about enough to give us you hope, especially as the Reds are 13-1 this season when scoring at least six runs.

Then, just as fast as the hope manifested, it evaporated Wednesday afternoon. The Reds wasted a beautiful outing from Andrew Abbott in which he gave up just 1 run on 4 hits with 2 walks and 4 strikeouts in 7 innings. The offense again managed only one run off of three hits against a pitcher whose ERA was over 4 coming into the game.

The loss was charged to Fernando Cruz who, like Alexis Díaz, has had some frustrating moments this year, but on balance has been one of the Reds’ most reliable bullpen arms. Cruz was able to get two outs on Wednesday but allowed a double to Pavin Smith who was immediately driven in by Lourdes Gurriel Jr. for the eventual game winning run. It was yet another hair pulling close loss that makes you wonder when the pain of this brutal stretch of play will end.

Reds fans, myself included, have previously fallen back on the phrase “it’s early” when trying to hold out hope that the struggles and poor play was simply a phase and not a sign of a deeper, creeping malignancy within the team this year. There was always a belief that at some point the Reds might reach a turnaround, whether it be a key player catching fire, someone like Friedl returning from injury, or a promotion like Mike Ford helping light a much-needed spark, and that it would happen before the season slipped away.

The hour grows late, unfortunately.

The team sits 7 games under .500 and 8 games back of the division-leading Brewers, 43 games into the season, with a record of 18-25. By comparison, the Reds’ last five 41-game starts (and finishes):
- 2023: 18-23 (82-80)
- 2022: 12-29 (62-100)
- 2021: 19-22 (83-79)
- 2020: 18-23 (31-29)
- 2019: 18-23 (75-87)
Though the Bell era has never been known for stellar starts, the 18 wins the Reds have this year seem as though they are a bit of a letdown from the talent and ability level the players possess, injuries or not. Fans are understandably angry about the lack of signs of progress and they’ve had plenty of mediocrity to deal with over the years. Since Castellini took over the “majority share” holder in 2006, 17 years:
- 1354-1501 (Win % .474)
- 2 NL Central Titles
- 4 playoff appearances (2-7, collapse to Giants, swept by Phillies)
- They have averaged 4th place in the NL Central under his tenure.
Keeping faith isn’t easy and it’s understandable that Reds fans are angry with the product on the field. But there are signs of life.

As of Tuesday, May 14^th, the Reds batting average is second worst in the league at .217 but their barrel percentage is 18^th, they are 21^st in hard hit percentage, and 4^th in exit velocity. Thus, for as bad as their results behind the dish have been, it’s not all due to the fact that the swings and contact that they’ve made is “bad”. The foundation for a more serviceable offense is there and all it could take is a little more luck to break it open. So I personally believe it’s “still early” to stick a fork in the year, but that clock might strike midnight soon if the Reds can’t start winning games like they lost on Monday. Like much about baseball, getting back on the right track can’t be done overnight. If it happens it will be a painful and piecemeal incremental process that will depend on the rotation staying solid and getting a significant output from Spencer Steer and Elly De La Cruz. It certainly helps that Jeimer Candelario is playing better, hitting .297 with 11 hits, a homer, 7 RBIs and 3 runs in his last 10 games (not counting Tuesday’s very good outing). If he can elevate his play, with how off he appeared to be early on, there is no doubt that other Reds can follow suit and weather the current storm of a brutal schedule and stop the bleeding.

If not, it could be a long summer in Cincinnati without meaningful Reds baseball on the docket at Great American Ballpark.

Christopher Ball is a longtime Loveland resident and an attorney. He graduated from Loveland High School in 2003 and was a member of the football team before going on to become a coach’s assistant at DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana. He has been following and rooting for the Reds and Bengals since the early 1990s and has been through the many ups and downs that fandom has wrought over the years.
May 16, 2024
TJ Friedl Returns to Action for the Louisville Bats

by Chris Ball

The Reds Outfielder Is A Step Closer to Rejoining the Reds And Giving Them Much Needed Help in the Lineup

It’s no secret that the Reds are not playing with a full deck. Their offense has been frustratingly inconsistent this year. They are 28th in batting average at .218, 26th in on base percentage at .299, and 28th in hits per game. Luckily for them, they are in the top 13 in the league in doubles, triples, and home runs, all of which has lead them to the 7th best offense in terms of runs per game, posting 4.8 per contest. Each of their current impact players have struggled at various times this year, though the likes of Elly De La Cruz and Spencer Steer have done their parts to carry the team on offense. There’s also signs of life from Jeimer Candelario who looked almost unplayable at times early this season, but banged out 5 hits in the Padres series including a home run and two RBIs.

But the rest of the Reds offense has come up largely empty so far this year. Only a handful of Reds are hitting above .230 and many are below the Mendoza Line. Although it is still early in the season, this pace is clearly unsustainable long term and won’t bring this team any closer to a playoff birth or even a winning season. What’s made it all the more frustrating is that the offensive woes have only worsened as the Reds pitching has blossomed, with Nick Lodolo dominating and Hunter Greene throwing much better.

The hope is that with Friedl’s return, should all go well, the Reds will get a much needed increase in their offensive firepower that they’ve otherwise been missing. Friedl suffered a fractured wrist during spring training. Nick Martini, Stuart Fairchild, and Bubba Thompson simply are not getting it done in the outfield. And in Thompson and Martini’s cases, it looks unlikely that they ever will be able to have long term success at this level.

Friedl hit .279 last year with 18 homers and 66 runs batted in, and those are numbers that the Reds would absolutely take in a heartbeat over what most of their outfielders have given so far this season. Most importantly, he hits left handed pitching at a .354 clip, which is exactly what this team needs as they have looked baffled against southpaws so far in 2024.

In his first rehab start for the Louisville Bats on Thursday night, Friedl went 1-3 with a double and a walk, and looked good at the dish with several hard hits. Though it is just the beginning of TJ’s rehabilitation stint, Reds fans are ready to see one of their favorite players return and perhaps give some more pop to the bats at Great American ballpark.

Watch the video of Friedl’s double by clicking here.

Christopher Ball is a longtime Loveland resident and an attorney. He graduated from Loveland High School in 2003 and was a member of the football team before going on to become a coach’s assistant at DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana. He has been following and rooting for the Reds and Bengals since the early 1990s and has been through the many ups and downs that fandom has wrought over the years.

May 4, 2024
Elly De La Cruz Makes History For The Reds

Elly De La Cruz with a young fan at this year’s Reds Fest

by Chris Ball

Loveland, Ohio – Baseball is America’s pastime, and its records stretch back more than a century. And so when such records are broken, it means just a little bit more as compared to any of the other major American sports. This is why when fans read what Elly De La Cruz has accomplished these past few weeks, it makes it all the more impressive.

With his monster April, Elly is now the only player since at least 1901 with at least 8 home runs and 17 steals in a calendar month. Oh by the way he also uncorked a throw to first at a jaw dropping 106.9 miles per hour. When he struggled at the beginning of the season Reds fans questioned whether De La Cruz had the focus and discipline necessary to make it at the major league level. Those criticisms are much quieter now given all that he has accomplished and how it seems that he has carried this team given the struggles or absence of other very important Reds players.

The other important point to consider for De La Cruz is how his game has improved just over the course of the early part of the season. He’s cut his strikeout rate from 50 percent to 30 percent and increased his walk rate up to around 15 percent when it had been as low as 5 percent. Though Elly’s other hitting numbers may pop off the page a bit more, the evolution of his plate discipline is what makes those numbers possible.

His offense isn’t the only thing getting better. It was difficult to watch Elly muff routine ground balls or sail easy throws during the first few games of the season. But that all seems like a distant memory, far in the rear view, as we watch him play now. His defense has greatly improved and, while still raw at times, is something he’s clearly refining at one of the most physically demanding positions in defensive baseball.

Though it is only his first full season at this level, Elly has clearly shown that he has all the tools necessary to be a star in Major League Baseball not just years firm the road, but right this very moment. The future is now for Elly and the Reds and we are all privileged to watch.

On another important note for the Reds, perhaps Jeimer Candelario is beginning to slowly turn things around. Against the Padres on Tuesday night he had two more hits including a solo homer, albeit in a losing effort. After posting some of the worst metrics of his career, Candelario has two multi hit games in a row and broke an 0-19 slump. If he starts to produce at even average levels it will be a big boost to a ball club fighting and scraping for every win it can get in the ultra competitive National League Central.

Christopher Ball is a longtime Loveland resident and an attorney. He graduated from Loveland High School in 2003 and was a member of the football team before going on to become a coach’s assistant at DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana. He has been following and rooting for the Reds and Bengals since the early 1990s and has been through the many ups and downs that fandom has wrought over the years.

May 1, 2024
How Are the Reds’ Most Important Players Performing So Far?

Spencer Steer photo by Major League Photo Day

by Chris Ball

There Are Plenty of Interesting Players To Watch As the Reds’ Season Gets Going

Loveland, Ohio – There was no question that this year, the Reds’ success would hinge upon the progress made by some of its youngest members. Although the average age of the Reds players is 28 years, good for 17^th in Major League Baseball, perhaps no other team has asked so much of its newest major-leaguers. With so much pressure and the highest of expectations on their shoulders, it’s going to be important to be patient with the likes of Elly De La Cruz, Andrew Abbott, Hunter Greene, and Christian Encarnacion-Strand. The hope was that additions of veteran players like Jeimer Candelario and Frankie Montas, and the retention of Jonathan India would provide a stable core that might lead this team while its young players fought to adjust.

While the results have been wildly varying across the board, the sample sizes are exceedingly small in terms of the entire big-league season. It’s therefore impossible to draw any lasting conclusion about how various players will perform based on the statistics as they stand now, but it is very interesting to see just who is starting off the season strong and who might be falling behind.

Elly De La Cruz, for example, is one of the most polarizing players on the Reds’ roster and will likely remain so for quite some time. Early on, many fans noted his inability to hit any sort of breaking ball, and his reluctance to swing the bat at all. His inexplicable errors in the field at shortstop didn’t make his critics any quieter. However, it almost seemed to go unnoticed that during the course of this perceived struggles he consistently got on base (albeit not with flashy homeruns) and continued to create chaos on the basepaths. As of the writing of this article he’s been on base in 18 straight games and has a .318 average with 3 home runs and 7 runs batted in. In recent games he’s started hitting for power once again with several home runs and even one inside-the-park that showcased his exceptional speed. Many of De La Cruz’s loudest critics on Twitter and Facebook have suddenly gone very quiet as he’s improved with each week of the season. Elly’s talent and the hype surrounding hm will unquestionably lead to overreaction (both positive and negative) to every play he makes (or doesn’t make), but the most important factor to remember is that he is a young player with immense potential, and who deserves fans’ patience as he works to unlock his full potential.

Hunter Green photo by Major League Photo Day

In much the vein, Hunter Greene is a pitcher who faces tremendous expectations after being drafted second overall in 2017. He was awarded a 6 year 53-million-dollar contract in 2023 and while that deal is but a drop in the bucket compared to other marquee pitchers in the league, for a team like the Reds it is still a significant investment that shows how the Reds value Greene as a key part of their rotation going forward. Over his last 33 starts, Greene has pitched 175 innings with a 4.01 ERA and 240 strikeouts. While that is not necessarily “ace” material it is the mark of a solid starter at the major-league level and shows tremendous improvement over the prior seasons Greene has had. Even though he has been pitching for a few years, he is only 24 years old and has much to learn and plenty of time to develop. The pitcher Hunter Greene is now is not necessarily the player he will be in years to come. If he continues to improve as he’s shown so far, he could be a key piece to the Reds’ rotation in the future, despite the occasional rough outing.

On the flip side, Jeimer Candelario has struggled mightily to start the year. He’s batting only .152 through 12 games and has not looked comfortable at any point since signing a 3 year 45 million dollar contract this offseason. While Christian Encarnacion-Strand has also had his difficulties at the plate, he has at least shown some signs of life. Candelario has shown no such flash thus far, and Reds fans are understandably worried. The team will need much more from Jeimer if they are going to contend this year.

Spencer Steer photo by Major League Photo Day

No early season discussion about the Reds would be complete without lauding the play of Spencer Steer. Of all the Reds’ young players, Steer seems to get less consideration than others, but this year he has outperformed them all. He was named the National League Player of the Week recently and is currently batting .372 with 3 home runs and 15 runs batted in. He’s been a consistent MLB leader in WAR and has also proven that he can play left field very well given that it is not necessarily the position where he’s most used to handling. He’s a threat to get a big hit any time he steps up to the plate, and he’s carried the Reds in games where others were underperforming at the dish. There is simply no question that without Steer, the team would be nowhere close to where they are in the standings.

The first few weeks of the Reds’ season has provided plenty of highs, highlights, and frustrating moments. This team is going to have to fight and scrap for every win while the likes of McLain, Friedl, and Marte are unable to play, and that is exactly what the Reds are doing. If players like Candelario can get hot, this team can become even more of a threat to make a big push before they get some of their best players back on the diamond.

Christopher Ball is a longtime Loveland resident and an attorney. He graduated from Loveland High School in 2003 and was a member of the football team before going on to become a coach’s assistant at DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana. He has been following and rooting for the Reds and Bengals since the early 1990s and has been through the many ups and downs that fandom has wrought over the years.

Apr 13, 2024