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Good Thing this Morning - A good thing this morning is that both Shogo Akiyama and Sonny Gray appear to be progressing through their respective rehabilitation processes quite nicely and should be back with the Reds before too long. Sonny might just be ready to throw rocks come Friday night against the baseball club from Cleveland. So that’s a good thing.
Some Crummy Shit - Joey Votto has been crushing the baseball so far this season, with ten well-struck barrels through the first nine games. His BABIP on those laserballs in play is Mendoza crummy, though.
Another Good Thing -
Anthony DeSclafani gets the win. Wandy Peralta nails it down. Curt Casali caught it all. The former Reds beat the Rockies 4-0 to complete a sweep. They will not celebrate with Skyline Chili.
— Andrew Baggarly (@extrabaggs) April 11, 2021
Here’s a Weird Thing - The Reds’ starting eight has been hammering opposing pitching unmerciful so far on the young season. Seven of eight, anyway:
| Rk | Pos | Name | PA | AB | R | HR | RBI | BB | SO | BA | OBP | SLG | OPS | OPS+ | TB | GDP | HBP | SH | SF | IBB |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | C | Tucker Barnhart* | 23 | 22 | 5 | 1 | 7 | 0 | 9 | .409 | .435 | .727 | 1.162 | 201 | 16 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2 | 1B | Joey Votto* | 39 | 37 | 3 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 4 | .162 | .205 | .162 | .367 | 0 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 3 | 2B | Jonathan India | 33 | 29 | 4 | 0 | 11 | 0 | 7 | .379 | .394 | .483 | .877 | 132 | 14 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| 4 | SS | Eugenio Suarez | 37 | 29 | 7 | 2 | 4 | 7 | 12 | .207 | .351 | .448 | .800 | 111 | 13 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| 5 | 3B | Mike Moustakas* | 36 | 27 | 9 | 1 | 3 | 7 | 3 | .333 | .472 | .556 | 1.028 | 172 | 15 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| 6 | LF | Tyler Naquin* | 36 | 31 | 7 | 5 | 14 | 4 | 8 | .290 | .389 | .806 | 1.195 | 206 | 25 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 7 | CF | Nick Senzel | 28 | 23 | 9 | 0 | 2 | 5 | 4 | .348 | .464 | .435 | .899 | 142 | 10 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 8 | RF | Nicholas Castellanos | 39 | 37 | 9 | 4 | 7 | 1 | 5 | .324 | .359 | .757 | 1.116 | 186 | 28 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Other Things - You’d think that with us all struggling through a pandemic and folks losing their jobs and food banks unable to keep pace with demand that the state government could be bothered to do a damn thing, but you idiots shoulda stopped thinking a long time ago.
Jack Palance was a goddamned son of a bitch I’ll tell you that right now. And sure I must credit him with some timeless wisdom regarding cattin’ ass.
CTrent spoke with the new guy about all the new things. I’ve been able to catch a decent number of innings so far this season (no thanks to MLB.tv and Bally Sports and your Cincinnati Reds and all them dingoes who can’t figure out how to share all of the money I want to give them in exchange for their product and so they decide they just won’t take my money at all and give me nothing for it the jerks) and I’ve liked what I’ve seen from him.
I think what I’ve noticed the most is how refreshing it is to watch my favorite baseball team and the TV guy sounds like he actually wants to be here at this baseball game with me. George Grande always had that, despite his whole church greeter vibe. It’s absence wasn’t what I hated most about the Brennamen, but it was up there.
We have plenty of time to develop antipathies great and small, real and imagined for this fella, but as first impressions go he’s doing a hell of a job.