Hold On To Your Hats, The Reds Are Decent. Better Yet, Put Your Hat On Straight.

The big news in the land of WKRP was the signing of right fielder Nicolas Castellanos. Cincinnati Red management went for offense in the off-season. Castellanos should know the division. He played for the Chicago Cubs in the last half of 2019 after starting the year in Detroit. He hit .289 with 27 home runs for both clubs combined. The Reds could use the upgrade after scoring the sixth-fewest runs of all teams last year. 

I’m afraid first baseman Joey Votto is about done. The future hall-of-famer turns 37 in a month and he’s now an average hitter (.261 batting average, 15 home runs last year, .306 for his career). He’s one of those guys I’ll be happy to say I saw play in person. The Reds wish they could see him play now like he used to but that’s not in the cards. 

To add some pop to the lineup, Cincinnati got second baseman Mike Moustakas and his 35 homers in 2019 and shortstop Freddie Galvis and his 23 homers. They also picked up outfielder Shogo Akiyama but who knows what he’ll bring. 

The Reds starting rotation is no joke with Sonny Gray and Trevor Bauer. Luis Castillo went 15-8 with a 3.40 ERA last year. Tyler Mahle got knocked around some and allows 1.43 walks and hits per inning in his career which is way too high. He’s not gonna strike out a lot of guys. Tejay Antone didn’t miss a lot of bats in the minors but his numbers were still respectable. It’ll be interesting to see how he does at the big league level.  

I’m not afraid to say it, and I don’t care if it makes me sound old and out of touch. Pedro Strop looks like an idiot with the way he wears his hat. There you go. Straight fire. You heard it here first. The bill is suppose to go over the face. It isn’t supposed to go over one ear. Max Patkin wore his hat like that. People called him the “Clown Prince of Baseball.” And no “sagging” where you can see a player’s undershorts is also not OK. Pants cover your body starting at your waist, not your hamstrings. Strop should be a really nice piece in the bullpen, assuming his 4.97 ERA last year was an aberration. From 2013 to 2018 he had six straight seasons in which his final ERA was never above 2.91.

Sagging and sideways hats… good grief.

All told the pitching is solid, the offense is better but not great and the defense is suspect.  This is a .500 club and as such our season projection is 81 wins. 

Coronavirus 60-game prediction: 31-29.

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