Apparently, due to his injury, he only pitched on consecutive days 6 times this year and got lit up several times on those occasions, despite his overall level of success otherwise.
I went 3/4 on the WC picks (missed KC/BAL)...bummed for my Brewers friend...that is a hell of a long stretch of not getting it done in the playoffs, and that was just a brutal way to go down. Baltimore might be on the cusp of joining them in that group.
Agree. Hard to think it moves the needle a ton for us without better players, but it would still be nice to have management who could shift their plans based on the availability of a managerial talent like Francona.
Cincinnati shows if you make good trades, draft well and have a good international pipeline you don’t need to tank. I’ve never thought of them as a particularly forward looking organization, they certainly haven’t been pioneers in analytics or player development or anything like that, but their scouting bails them out again and again. They always seem to be able to find Luis Castillo’s, Eugenio Suarez’s and Jake Fraley’s of the world in trades.
It’s easy to forget their blowup started well after ours. When they sold all those guys after 2021, Castillo, Mahle, Suarez, Gray Winker, etc, and then lost Castellanos, I thought they were going to be awful for years. They did so good on their trades, that added to what they had on hand, that they were awful for 1 year (2022) and went out and won 82 games in 2023.
Compare that to the 2020-2022 horror show here, and it’s a bitter pill to swallow to see them arguably equal or ahead of us.
Yeah although to my initial point, I believe they hired Boddy because they were concerned that they had gotten antiquated. The guy running their baseball operations at the time, Dick Williams, was one of the more old school guys.
Abbott, Lodolo, Greene on the pitching side is a pretty good base. And I know they were hitting pretty far over their head in 2023 (h/t to you there as you called it). But Elly is a franchise player and they were destroyed by injuries this season.
I dunno, if we’re comparing the young players/prospects between both Cincy and Pgh, I’d probably take the former.
Cincinnati is the team that is loaded with talent, more than any other in the division. If they can ever figure out how to sign an FA who actually contributes…
Absolutely brutal for the Brewers! How many relievers in the world would you rather have in that spot than Williams?
There's so much parity in the game right now, most in what, 30 years?
Come on, you’re telling me you didn’t see “converted position player, Lucas Erceg as a lockdown closer” coming? What a great sport.
Amen!!
Apparently, due to his injury, he only pitched on consecutive days 6 times this year and got lit up several times on those occasions, despite his overall level of success otherwise.
Hard to find fault. Looked to me like a great job of hitting.
ouch.
That was a great AB by Alonzo.
to go oppo on the airbender in a fastball count was insane.
Especially when the lights were brightest, that kind of swing can fuel a whole playoff run
I went 3/4 on the WC picks (missed KC/BAL)...bummed for my Brewers friend...that is a hell of a long stretch of not getting it done in the playoffs, and that was just a brutal way to go down. Baltimore might be on the cusp of joining them in that group.
Cantina is the man
Nice move by Cincinnati.
Agree. Hard to think it moves the needle a ton for us without better players, but it would still be nice to have management who could shift their plans based on the availability of a managerial talent like Francona.
Yeah Cincinnati has a better baseline of talent, especially if a lot of their injured players come back healthy in 2025.
Cincinnati shows if you make good trades, draft well and have a good international pipeline you don’t need to tank. I’ve never thought of them as a particularly forward looking organization, they certainly haven’t been pioneers in analytics or player development or anything like that, but their scouting bails them out again and again. They always seem to be able to find Luis Castillo’s, Eugenio Suarez’s and Jake Fraley’s of the world in trades.
Oh I don't know if I'd give 'em that much credit.
They stripped that core down to Votto, made very little effort to win through the last half of the 2010s, and it pretty much got them nowhere.
To you point, though, they pivoted around 2020 to just trying to make it work and have modestly improved from there.
It’s easy to forget their blowup started well after ours. When they sold all those guys after 2021, Castillo, Mahle, Suarez, Gray Winker, etc, and then lost Castellanos, I thought they were going to be awful for years. They did so good on their trades, that added to what they had on hand, that they were awful for 1 year (2022) and went out and won 82 games in 2023.
Compare that to the 2020-2022 horror show here, and it’s a bitter pill to swallow to see them arguably equal or ahead of us.
They had more to sell in their rebuild and made a greater effort to turn it around quicker, although the moves didn’t always work.
True, although I think they do some pretty good things on the pitching development side. Didn’t they have the Driveline guy on staff for a little bit?
Yeah although to my initial point, I believe they hired Boddy because they were concerned that they had gotten antiquated. The guy running their baseball operations at the time, Dick Williams, was one of the more old school guys.
Are we still talking about the team with two losing seasons in the last three including a 100-loss club?
Abbott, Lodolo, Greene on the pitching side is a pretty good base. And I know they were hitting pretty far over their head in 2023 (h/t to you there as you called it). But Elly is a franchise player and they were destroyed by injuries this season.
I dunno, if we’re comparing the young players/prospects between both Cincy and Pgh, I’d probably take the former.
So the Cards and Reds are making big moves to try to win. Fools. Don’t they know all you have to do is announce that 76 wins is more than 76 wins?
Cincinnati is the team that is loaded with talent, more than any other in the division. If they can ever figure out how to sign an FA who actually contributes…
I'm really surprised Francona is coming back. I figured he retired for good.
So did I. Dude has been through the wringer health wise.