Cincinnati Reds links - 2024 schedule released, MLB Draft grades

I could say that I hope you’ve been enjoying the down time while the Cincinnati Reds rest up during the All Star break, but I won’t. I’ve been hating every minute of it, wandering around town like an idiot lost in a desert in desperate search for the best-tasting water on the planet, knowing that it’s gotta be around here somewhere.

The Cincinnati Reds were the freshest thing around for the last five-six weeks, and despite that they didn’t land a single position player in the ASG. So, we’ve been devoid of them completely for far too long, especially with Sunday’s clunker the lasting image. They will finally get right back to it on Friday in a major, major series against the Milwaukee Brewers at home in GABP, but for now, we’re stuck with reading only indirect things about the team.

That brings us to the schedule - the 2024 schedule, that is. It was officially released today, and the Reds will begin play next year at home again, this time against the Washington Nationals on March 28th.

Is that a sexy matchup? No, not at all. It could be perhaps the single most boring matchup imaginable barring the Nats diving deep into free agency this winter, but it’s still a home game on Opening Day in the best setting for it on the planet. May looks to be a brutal month with a giant West Coast Swing™ followed by the entire West Coast filtering back through GABP, but they also head up to Fenway, Yankee Stadium, and an August trip to Toronto that will feel very, very odd if the Reds don’t do the right thing and pick up the 2024 team option on #19.

Speaking of the future, Jim Callis of MLB Pipeline is quite high on the Rhett Lowder-driven draft class assembled by the Reds earlier this week. In fact, he ranked the Reds overall haul the single best among the 30 MLB clubs, noting that Ty Floyd was just as heady of a pickup, too. That’s cool.

Jay Jaffe of FanGraphs has an update to his Cooperstown Notebook that features #19, and let’s just say he’s once again adding the icing to his Hall of Fame cake with his homer-prowess so far since returning to action.

Speaking of ol’ #19, he spoke to Gordon Wittenmeyer of The Enquirer about being ‘on a mission’ for the season’s second half. Holy crap am I ever excited to see him come out and sock the living hell out of homers (from the 6-spot in the lineup against RHP only, as it is).

(Also speaking of ol’ #19, his name is Joey Votto. Joey Votto. For SEO purposes, I should add ‘Joey Votto’ to this article instead of just ‘#19,’ so I’m catching up that. It’s been a long few days off and I’m rusty, I apologize.)

Finally, read Ray Ratto on the Reds from Defector. Always read Ray Ratto on anything, especially on the Reds.