MLB has released another update in All-Star Game voting and the Reds are doing worse than the last time we looked. Votto and Phillips are both out of the top 5, and Cozart has dropped down. Todd Frazier maintains position in the 3B voting, but has 1/3 as many votes as leader Matt Carpenter. Right now, Royals and Cardinals fans are dominating the voting - you could call it ballot stuffing, but to the extent that has a "cheating" connotation, the MLB vote set up is almost begging you to vote as many times as possible. We know that Reds fans have a strong online presence - which helped earn Joey Votto the #FaceofMLB designation in 2013. I know that it's hard to get very excited about All-Star Game voting with the team performing the way it is - and honestly, I'm guessing Todd Frazier is a manager pick/HR derby contestant anyway, but it would be nice in a small way to see him win the vote outright. He certainly deserves it. I don't think Matt Carpenter is particular undeserving, but in my totally unbiased opinion, Frazier's power hitting this year sets him firmly in front of Carpenter, Kris Bryant and the field.
Mini Injury Report: Everyone. Everyone is injured. :(
On Saturday, Jumbo Diaz was released optioned to AAA, and replaced in the bullpen by Nate Adcock, a 27 year old righty who has previously pitched for the Royals and Rangers. The hilariously named Adcock is from Radcliffe, KY, and says playing for the Reds is a "dream come true." So that's kind of nice. So far his one game performance has resulted in 0 runs, so I'll call that adequate. Obviously, Adcock isn't going to solve our bullpen problems, but he probably can't make them worse. Here's hoping he stays on Bryan Price's good side.
Our series starting in Wrigley tonight will be games 6-9 against the Cubs this year, but we'll mostly be facing new pitchers - including Tsuyoshi Wada, Kyle Hendricks, and Jason Hammel. That's probably good, because we lost most of those games. Wada is a recent replacement for former-Red Travis Wood in the Chicago rotation, while Wood is having better luck in the Cubs bullpen. Hammel is having a really excellent year - he's only allowed 9 walks all season, and his 8.44 K/BB rate would lead the NL if not for Bartolo Colon's mysterious shenanigans for the Mets. We'll also see Jon Lester, and the last time Billy Hamilton played in a game against Jon Lester, he stole three bases, so that could be a good time.
After being ejected on Tuesday, Jay Bruce said he was surprised, but not that surprised:
It's obviously their discretion as to when they see fit to throw people out of the game and he obviously felt it was necessary.
In character for Jay, this seems pretty low key and level-headed. But now what am I going to scream about? Also, I can't find records for player ejections anywhere and this makes me incredibly sad.
This adorable opinion piece in the Montreal Gazette posits that Montreal could bring baseball back to the city by raising $600 million for a new stadium via crowdfunding: 600 60,000 investors contributing $10,000 each. (Is this Canadian $ or American $). Well, what are you jokers waiting for?