Live Blog: All Star game part 2

Ok original post it getting pretty long, middle of the 5th inning is the perfect time to make a new post. As it stands right now its a tie game 3-3.

• “@injuryexpert: Every time I see Adam Jones, my first thought is *always* “Damn, he looks like Eric Davis.” ” I’ll be damned, they do look pretty simlar.

• Taco Bell is parodying “All About The Benjamins” about 10 years too late. Plus Weird Al did a much better job.

• Hudson flies out to right field, Phillips wouldve went deep.

• This Albert Pujols guy sucks, 0-3. Get him out of here and get Ryan Howard in there

• We got our Coco Cordero appearance. Tie game. Will he give the AL the lead?

• Cordero has a quick 1-2-3 inning, but Fox was too busy interviewing Pujols to notice.

• Sure this might seem Anti-American, but I’m not a big fan of God Bless America during the 7th inning stretch.

• Crawford robs Hawpe of a HR, still a 3-3 game after 7.

• I hope that guy they showed video taping the game got expressed written consent from Major League Baseball to do so.

• Adam “not pac man” Jones sac fly gives the AL the lead.

• Orlando Hudson gets an inning extending hit and a SB just so I can’t complain about Phillips not getting in over him.

• Ryan Howard comes up with 2 runners on and 2 out, but strikes out. NL still down 4-3 going to the 9th.

• Werth with a nice grab. AL 4-3 going to the bottom of the ninth. Likely to face Rivera.

• NL goes quietly in the 9th and once again the AL wins, 4-3. Will we ever see the NL win again? Decent All Star game but not very memorable. Pitching dominated this very fast paced (by all star standards) game.

Live Blog: All Star Game

Tonight is the MLB All Star Game. Instead of just yelling at the television I figured I would blog and twitter (@triplesxpress) throughout the game. Things you can expect from: me bitching about Fox’s coverage, me bitching about how dumb making the game “count” is, me bitching about Brandon Phillips not getting in when Hudson or Sanchez make an error, me predicting Coco Cordero blowing the game for the NL. Ok time for the Pre-Game show.

• I know Chone is pronounced like Shawn, but I refuse to pronounce it correctly. But I like Chone as a player.

• I wonder how many times it will be brought up how great of a baseball town St. Louis is.

• I loathe Tony LaRussa.

• Wait the Pirates have two all stars??? Sanchez is tiny and doesn’t deserve to be in over Phillips! grrrrr…

• The NL would have a great lineup if they could play all of their 1st basemen at the same time.

• Josh Hamilton has no business being in the All Star game and I believe he wouldn’t be if it weren’t for that HR Derby last year.

• I still can’t believe Charlie Manuel has a World Series ring.

• Let the Albert Pujols suckfest begin! (but even I have to agree he is the best in baseball right now).

• I don’t like Yadier Molina. I have no real reason to dislike him, just do.

• I think every Sheryl Crow song has annoyed me. Don’t get me wrong, shes talented, just never dug her music. Decent job at the Anthem.

• Sweet the Ice Cream stain came out of my shorts! (get your mind out of the gutter perverts, i really dropped ice cream on my pants during the weekend).

• If George Grande were announcing this game he would remind everyone that Joe Nuxhall pitched his first game vs. Stan Musial and that Musial and Griffey are both from Denora, PA.

• I’m happy that the President supports the Sox and not the Cubs. Right now watching the game in standard def and Fox took a funny camera angle so I couldn’t tell if it was a good pitch or not. But one thing is for certain is Republicans will say it was an awful pitch that went way left and Democrats will declare its the greatest pitch ever thrown. Ahhhh baseball and partisanship. USA! USA! USA!

• UGH I LOATHE MCCARVER!

• Judging by the response on twitter, noone knows how that pitch turned out by Obama. So there is FOX screw up #1.

• The Ken Rosenthal updates always seem odd. His delivery is just strange to me.

• When its time for Ichiro to end his career he will have an interesting Hall of Fame case. I don’t know if he will make it, but I want to say he should.

• Jeter hit by pitch. Even if it gives the AL another base runner, it doesn’t bother me too much.

• nice defense by Prince Albert. E1 and AL takes a 1-0 lead.

• NL not playing good defense, potential double play blown by Lincecum not covering first. This is familar to Reds fans. AL up 2-0 middle of first

• 1-2-3 go the NL. Pretty uneventful other than a nice play by Michael Young.

• Didn’t pay too much attention to the Top of the 2nd, was finishing folding laundry, but seemed pretty uneventful. But sounded like the President agrees that Ichiro is a Hall of Famer and that thought seems unanimous on twitter.

• President Obama is in the booth. Says he doesn’t “hate” the Cubs. Come on B, don’t play politics for one second and admit that Cubs suck!

• We got ourselves a tie ball game thanks to a base hit by my “favorite” catcher Molina and an error on a throw the third.

• Groundrule double by Fielder brings in another run. All this is happening with the President in the booth. I want to make some sort of pun involving “change” but I got nothing.

• Buck: “Can you stick around a little longer” Obama: “Let me see what my situation is…nope”. Cant blame ya B, I wouldn’t want to spend more than a half inning with Buck & McCarver either.

• Ryan Franklin has a 1-2-3 inning. He wasn’t bad in his short period in Cincy, but at no point did I think that kid is gonna be an all star!

• Pujols now 0-2. Greatest hitter my ass! </sarcasm>

• Zach Greinke is really good (capt. obvious: duh hes in the all star game of course he is), too bad he doesn’t get the attention he should since he plays for the Royals.

• I remember about 3 seasons ago when I did Yahoo fantasy baseball their rankings had Carl Crawford in the Top 10 and my reaction was “who the f-ck is Carl Crawford?!?!”. But he has become a nice player.

• Professional hittin Joe Mauer ties the game up. 3-3

• ok, this post is getting long, time to make a new one

Hunt for a Red October: Midseason

We are at the All-Star Break which for all intensive purposes is mid-season for baseball, so lets take a look at how the Reds look at this point.

The Reds come into the All Star break limping. They find themselves in 5th place in the Central, 5 games behind the leading Cardinals, with a record of 42-45. Luckily for the Reds they are in the NL Central, so despite their sub .500 record they are still in the race. One of the big problems the Reds have had is fighting the injury bug. Right before the break Jay Bruce was sent to the DL with a broken wrist and is expected to miss 6-8 weeks. So far this year Joey Votto, Edinson Volquez, Edwin Encarnacion and Alex Gonzalez have all seen time on the DL.

Question of the Week

Can the Reds make a playoff run in the second half of the season?

Can they? Yes. Will they? No. I don’t want to be doom and gloom and I wish I could optimistically say the Reds will make a great run in the 2nd half, but I just don’t see it happening. Barring some major moves, the Reds simply don’t have the offense to make it happen. Sure the pitching has been solid, but unfortunately they have absolutely no breathing room. Too often we will see a tremendous pitching performance be for not because the offense can’t score any runs. The one thing that can give fans a glimmer of hope is this team doesn’t give up. They have shown that they can take a big punch one night and get back up the next and get a W. But how much longer can that last until they are knocked out for good?

Good

Joey Votto – Votto has had a tremendous 1st half of the year despite his stay on the DL. While he is not a big bopper like Adam Dunn, Votto is the key to the offense. Joey comes into the break with a .351 avg, 11 HR and 42 RBI’s. He is showing why he’s considered the part of the future of the franchise.

Brandon Phillips – In my opinion, once again Phillips was robbed of an All-Star spot. Phillips started the season with a horrendous month of April, but has turned it on in the months since. He enters the break with an avg of .269, 14 HR, 60 RBI and 46 R. He leads the team in HR’s, RBI’s and Runs. His defense has been solid as well.

Pitching – As I predicted in the season preview, the Reds pitching is good. It has slipped in the last couple of weeks, but overall it has been a very solid unit. Overall from #1-#5 the Reds have one of the best starting staffs in baseball. The staff took a blow when Edinson Volquez went to the DL, but Homer Bailey is starting to show the promise that Reds fans have been eagerly anticipating. Johnny Cueto has built off a good rookie season and put up All-Star Caliber numbers. Aaron Harang is having his typical season of pitching well but getting no run support. Bronson Arroyo and Micah Owings have been inconsistent but have shown flashes of brilliance. The bullpen has been even more impressive. If the Reds enter the 7th inning with a lead they should come away with a victory. Closer Francisco Cordero is the Reds lone All Star representative. Arthur Rhodes has been one of the best additions to the club.

Bad

Corey Patt…errr I mean Willy Taveras – Unfortunately my concerns about Taveras look to be valid. Taveras comes into the break with an avg of .245 and an obp of .288. These numbers are flat out unacceptable from your leadoff man. His defense also leaves a lot to be desired. So all around Taveras is a disaster.

The Reds Offense – Really it isn’t fair to just only point out Taveras, as overall the Reds offense leaves a lot to be desired. If the Reds want to have any chance of competing in the 2nd half they need to score more runs. If the Reds offense continues to falter, and if the pitching from the past 2 weeks bleeds into 2nd half of the year, the Reds won’t finish higher than 4th in the division.

The Week Ahead

We can find out real soon if the Reds are contenders or pretenders. The Reds face a rough stretch in the schedule when the break ends. The 2nd place Brew Crew comes to town for a 4 game series then the Reds go out west to face the Dodgers and finish the road trip in Chicago. The series’ vs. the Brewers and Cubs are huge as both teams are ahead in the standings. The LA series will be tough as the Dodgers might be the best team in baseball and the Reds have their problems out west. If the Reds can take the MIL and CHC series’ and at least win a game in LA I will regain some optimism, but lose all three series’ any optimism I have left will be crushed.

Reds bounce back

After another soul crushing defeat the Reds have fought back and defeated the Phillies 4-3 in Game 2 of their series in Philly. The Phillies jumped out to a 3-0 lead and it looked like it would be more of the same, but luckily Aaron Harang calmed down and Brandon Phillips came on with a vengeance. Phillips hit two home runs to lift the Reds to victory. At this point I honestly have no idea what to expect from this team, but thus far they don’t give up and go into a complete tailspin after tough losses like previous Reds teams have this decade.

New Worst Loss Ever

Remember how I said last Friday’s loss vs. St. Louis was the worst loss ever? Ok, technically speaking that statement was false, but you can apply it to tonight’s game and it would be accurate. The Phillies defeated the Reds 22-1 tonight which is the largest margin of defeat in Reds history. Yeah…I have nothing else to add, how embarrassing.

Cordero lone Red all star

Today the All Star teams were announced for this years Mid Summer Classic and the National League team features only one Red, closer Francisco Cordero. Cordero is having a fine year, 1.80 ERA and 20 saves, and is deserving of an All Star spot, but if only one Red is going to be an All Star, how is it not Johnny Cueto??? Take a look at these numbers from 3 pitchers (two made the team while one didn’t) and select which pitcher you think should be an All Star:

#1: 10-5, 3.87 ERA, 1.31 WHIP
#2: 7-6, 3.35 ERA, 1.13 WHIP
#3: 8-4, 2.69 ERA, 1.12 WHIP

In case you can’t tell, pitcher #3 is Johnny Cueto. How does he not get in over the other two (Marquis and Lilly)? Absolute snub. The NL pitching staff is horribly put together as they decided carrying 5 closers was a good idea. Another potential Red snub is Brandon Phillips. BP might not have made it because the Pirates needed a representative and that went to their 2b Freddy Sanchez. However you can make a case that Phillips should be in over Dodger 2b Orlando Hudson. Lets take a look at their numbers:

O. Hudson: .288/.356/.417 for an OPS of .772 with 5 HRs and 41 RBIs.
B. Phillips: .271/.338/.465 for an OPS of .803 with 11 HRs and 53 RBIs. (plus BP is the reigning gold glove winner)

A case could also be made for Joey Votto, but I understand that due to being on the DL and the amount of talent at 1b in the NL why Votto didn’t make it. In my opinion Cordero, Cueto and Phillips should all be in the All Star Game, but if they only wanted one Reds player I have no idea how it wasn’t Cueto.

Worst. Loss. Ever.

Okay that might be a bit overdramatic, but I’ve been stuck in bed all week with the flu so I am not in the most pleasant mood right now. The Reds had a 3-0 lead vs. the Cards, going into the 8th with Homer Bailey pitching the best game of his career. Bailey gets pulled after a walk and the bullpen completely blows it by giving up 7 runs in the next 2 innings. This featured the most predictable play ever. Albert Pujols facing David Weathers with bases loaded. Wanna take a wild guess how that ended? Hint: they are also served at Denny’s. Ok if you still dont know, Albert went deep for a Grand Slam. The Reds did battle back to tie it at 4 in the bottom of the inning, but in the 9th the bullpen and an error by Paul Janish gave St. Louis 3 more runs. So yet again, another devastating loss to the St. Louis Cardinals. The Reds desperately need to win on Saturday to get tonight’s loss behind them.

Lance Stephenson to UC

It was announced yesterday that prep phenom Lance Stephenson will be attending UC to play in what will likely be his one year of college ball. Stephenson is the all time leading scorer in NY state prep history.
 
Stephenson is extremely talented, but comes with a lot of baggage which is why he is winding up in Clifton. He has a court case coming up for allegededly groping a female, starred in his own reality show, and has been reported to have an attitude problem. Because of these issues, plus the addition of Xavier Henry, Kansas and Lance went their separate ways.
 
This addition could be the key moment in Mick Cronin’s career at UC. Best case scenario is Stephenson is well behaved, causes no problems and leads UC back to the tournament. Worst case, Stephenson is nothing but a headache, Cronin loses control of the team and once again fails to make the tournament. The latter would likely cost Cronin his job. Most coaches felt Stephenson was not worth the potential trouble. If Nancy Zimpher were still around I am not so sure Stephenson is a Bearcat, this move shows that Mick is pushing his chips to the center of the table and is going all in. Time will tell if it was a smart move.