This Week in JPEGs

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Joey the Heel was your winner last week. He followed that up this week by dissing a Reds fan who deigned to interfere with him as he attempted to catch a foul ball coming down into the front row. The guy robbed Joey of an out so Joey German suplexed him into some folding chairs in the bullpen.

But on to this week’s JPEGs.

Finnegan’s Awake

Brandon Finnegan has had kind of a rough go of it in the Reds’ rotation this season. He has given up more than his share of home runs and he hasn’t been able to put hitters away with the strikeout. He’s still really young so some growing pains are to be expected, but he got straight woke against the Cardinals on Thursday afternoon. He cruised through six innings only throwing 79 pitches. He struck out four and allowed only two hits and was in total control. He tore up the Cardinals like a box of tissues at an Irish funeral.

Over the Hump

In the month of June 2014, the Reds went 18-10 and looked prepared to make a second-half push. Of course, then everyone got injured and the team ended up finishing the season 10 games under .500. The Retooling began that winter and the Reds didn’t post a winning record in a month until this past July. It took two full calendar years, but I think we can take this as a sign that we are officially on the other side of this thing.

The Reds have an impressive collection of players all in their early-mid 20s who are just coming up together right now. The goal is that this core will serve as the backbone of the next great Reds team. I’m optimistic about that. I think they have made it over the hump.

Schebler’s walk off

Scott Schebler made his way back to the big-league club for reasons I don’t wanna talk about. But Tuesday he got the start in LF and had himself one hell of a game. He knocked three hits, including the game-winning walk-off three-run homer. He’ll never replace Jay Bruce in my heart, but I really like his chances to replace him in the OF. Play on, Schorty.