Cincinnati Reds Links 4/23/15

In today's loss against the Brewers, Billy Hamilton got caught stealing, which is his first of the year, compared to his MLB-leading 9 successful stolen bases. The Reds team stolen base total of 17 also leads the majors, though the Red Sox, Mets and Athletics still remain with no times caught stealing. Although I can think of a couple baserunning gaffes, overall the baserunning game has looked good for the Reds, especially considering last year's issues, and Bryan Price's focus on the running game this spring. In case you were wondering, here is a random graph (Red Reposter Random Regrapher?) of Reds last twenty seasons of BsR, which is defined by fangraphs as: "Number of runs above or below average a [team] has been worth on the bases, based on stolen bases, caught stealing, extra bases taken, outs on the bases, and avoiding double plays. It is the combination of wSB, UBR, and wGDP."

*This actually reflects the BsR as of before today's game, which will probably have changed with today's game, but it hardly matters, because the "projection" was me multiplying that number by 10. Transparency!

In recent years, better baserunning has correlated with better results - the Reds ranked 1st in BsR in 2010, and 2nd in 2012. But before that, we've run well and also kind of sucked.

Despite Jason Marquis's bad night against the Brewers, and his previous bad night against the Cubs, he has an outstanding K/9 - second only to Clayton Kershaw among qualifying pitchers. This seems like a clear candidate for not-happening-anymore, but Craig Edwards at fangraphs takes a closer look, with historical peripherals and gifs. Hitters are swinging more out of the zone, swinging less in the zone, and making less contact, but a new splitter could explain his success. If you can call Jason Marquis's 2015 season a sucess.

Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred has stated that Pete Rose will be allowed to participate in All-Star Game festivities. He was also allowed to participate in 1999, though. Manfred also stated his distinction between gambling and steroids.

Todd Frazier was featured in an article about the longest home runs ever at the Jersey Shore. I wonder a teensy bit if the memory of his home run stands out more because of his subsequent success, but in any case, it's a pretty neat little article about local high school baseball lore. Also, adorable pics of high school Todd Frazier.

The Reds were came up as bystanders to some historical events that have come back to mind recently. Willie Mays hit his 660th home run against the Reds in Shea in 1973, and Hank Aaron got his 3000th hit in Cincinnati in 1970. And, actually Hank Aaron also hit his 660th home run off the Reds in Cincinnati. And his 714th Home run. Well, in any case, at least we're not playing the Yankees anytime soon.

The Ohio Senate passed the open-container bill, yesterday.

I think most people don't want to hear about F******gate anymore, but it's all that comes up anymore when you google the Reds, so here's a collection of  random links that are at least vaguely related: Puppet(?) version, Wall street journal mildly funny version, german translation version, and Bryan Price's pro se litigant soulmate.