Marketing idea for the Reds: "Anybody Can Pitch" Night. One lucky fan is chosen to pitch in the inning of his choice. If he gets an opposing batter out, he wins 2017 season tickets.
Go ahead, laugh... but you didn't think of it.
Anything said about the Reds bullpen from here on out, I deem piling on. It's beyond horrid. But we've known that since Opening Day. And the Reds smart guys had to know it was parched earth long before that.
Maybe they thought Jumbo Diaz, J.J. Hoover and the rest of their compadres would miraculously get better over the winter. Or maybe the rash of injuries to starting pitchers made piecing together a bullpen on the fly this spring simply impossible.
Or maybe Gino Minutelli turned them down at the last minute.
But piecing together a bullpen is the easiest part of assembling a baseball team. Most relievers are starters who couldn't develop a third pitch. Why that was so hard for the Reds to do this offseason is beyond amazing.
And this isn't any recent phenomenon. Take a look at the WHIP numbers for the pen from 2015. Extract Aroldis Chapman's WHIP. It's frightening.
Meantime, Cody Reed had the roughest start to his season today in Toledo: four innings pitched, four runs, two of them earned. But it was a Reed throwing error that led to the two unearned runs. Still, his ERA is 1.88, Robert Stephenson's is 2.70
Random thoughts for a random Thursday...
I think the Reds and Pirates don't care for each other. Since 2012, they have hit each other with 84 pitches...
You only had to watch the last two games between the Warriors and Trailblazers to know the value of Steph Curry. Deservedly, Curry won another NBA Most Valuable Player Award Tuesday night. And LeBron James shouldn't be proud at all of what he said about the MVP...
OK, so I admit I'm not that up to speed on soccer uniforms (called "kits" for some reason). But I do know that this get-up that a Spanish league team will wear is not exactly in good taste...
FC Cincinnati is looking for a crowd of 25,000 this Saturday afternoon. As of now, 15,000 tickets have been sold. I think they've got a shot at 25K...
Former Red Aroldis Chapman is back from his MLB imposed 30-day suspension for domestic violence. But one of New York's top columnists isn't letting Chapman run from his past just yet...
Fun read here by Kenneth Arthur on sportsonearth.com. I'd take Garcon, not sure at the expense of Dennard...
Happy 66th birthday today to American rocker Billy Squier, who gave us this hit back in 1981.
From the album "Don't Say No," Squier wrote it and let his bass guitarist Mike Clarke lay down a killer line. And as always, Squier's late drummer Bobby Chouinard stars on this song. He got Reinhold Mac, a German producer who worked with the Electric Light Orchestra, to produce that album and this song. It was a very good decision on Squier's part to do so.
Squier spends most of his time living in his apartment on Central Park West in New York City. He's very active in the upkeep and preservation of Central Park.
And 66 years ago today, in Wellesley, Massachusetts, one William Haislip Squier came upon this earth.
We'll see you this weekend on 9 On Your Side and Sunday night at 11:35 on Meijer Sports of All Sorts...
Keep it real.
