Reds Pitching Staff 2010
So far the smartest thing Dusty Baker has said in spring training is not to think too highly of the $30 million dollar man, Aroldis Chapman. It’s been said that Chapman won’t make the 25 man roster if he isn’t ready, but judging from the past pitchers the Reds have drafted or stumbled across, none of them are ready yet either.
During his last outing against the Dodgers, which the Reds won 3-2, Chapman allowed two infield hits over two innings and struck out two. He threw 35 pitches, 20 for strikes, and demonstrated less command than he showed in Monday’s first outing against the Royals. In his post game interview, Chapman said “Personally, I felt good, I just missed a couple of pitches out of the zone. I was trying to put them in a place, but they went the other way.” Uhhh news flash slick, up where the big boys play, those pitches that “just missed” or “went the other way” usually end up as souvenirs for the fans in the outfield seats because MLB hitters rarely miss a mistake pitch. Just ask the so-called #1 starter Aaron Harang who went 6-14 last year with an ERA of 4.21 in 162.1 innings of work. Not to mention that he gave up 82 runs, 76 of them were EARNED . Or maybe you should ask the previous golden child Homer Bailey what happens when you just miss your spots. The word was he wouldn’t pitch in the bigs until was ready as well, but the front office in its infinite stupidity rushed him anyway and in three seasons Bailey is 12-13 with an ERA of 5.45.
As for the rest of the staff, there’s the wanna be rocker Bronson Arroyo who went 15-13 and an ERA of 3.84. Johnny Cueto 11-11 with a 4.41 ERA, Micha Owings 7-12 and a an ERA of 5.34. Homer Bailey went 8-5 with a 4.53 ERA and Justin Lehr who was 5-3 and ERA of 5.37. That kids come up to a mind numbing record of 52-58 by the starting pitchers with a staff ERA of 4.61. The NL ERA average for 2009 was 4.19. Want to guess why the Reds starters were 52-58?Forget about a World Series Championship this year, the Reds need to be concerned with trying to post a record above .500. But for that to happen the pitching staff needs to find mental toughness, physical toughness and heart. In those categories, the Reds staff is 0-3.
Remember the old belief that pitching wins championships and the Reds don’t have it and that’s the sad, cold, hard truth.
Nice. Maybe if we all manage to keep our expectations low they’ll pleasantly surprise us.