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MILWAUKEE – The Cincinnati Reds have gotten some of the best pitching in the majors through the first three series of the season, producing a 3.41 staff ERA.
The starters have been even better those first two full turns through the rotation, producing a 3.18 ERA even after Sunday’s 8-2 loss to the Milwaukee Brewers.
But some of the worst hitting in the majors has wasted most of it during a 3-7 start for a team that expects to still be playing in October.
Talk about a missed opportunity.
“We’re all working our butts off here, and we’re going to find an answer,” said Spencer Steer, whose first home run of the season was close to all the firepower the lineup could muster on the way to its 11th consecutive series loss to the Brewers.
That was one of only two earned runs the Reds scored combined in the three losses to the Brewers during the four-game series.
The point isn’t that the Reds are somehow buried. It’s a long season, with nearly six months and 152 games to play by the time their charter left Milwaukee for San Francisco and a three-game set with the Giants beginning Monday.
But the opportunity missed extends beyond simply the chance to bank three or four more early wins and the impact in the early standings (which, for those scoring at home, had the Reds tied for last place with the Pirates, three games behind the first-place Cubs).
Because Reds ownership leaves the door open to flex the budget when in-season revenue (read: attendance) rises, strong starts – or poor ones – have the potential for disproportionate impact on competitive resources over the course of the season.
In other words, if the Reds are in the market for reinforcements at the July 31 trade deadline, how they arrive in that position could impact how flexible they are in being able to add salary to the payroll at that point.
A big April and early May that drives excitement and ticket sales into the summer might have more impact, for instance, than a disappointing first month or two followed by a June surge into the fringes of the race.
Team president Nick Krall addressed that reality on the eve of spring training when asked about his anticipated resources once the season starts and he begins planning for the deadline.
“It always changes. If revenues are up, you have more money, and I think that’s what you’re looking at,” Krall said. “Hopefully, we get off to a good start like we did in ’23 and add some dry powder in the middle of the season.”
In 2023, coming off a 100-loss season, interest was low entering the season, and the club drew three sub-10,000 crowds the first 14 home dates, including a 7,375 crowd that was the smallest for a Reds home game since 1985 at Riverfront Stadium (excluding the 2020 pandemic season when no fans were allowed).
But by the end of May, the team was playing better, Matt McLain had debuted, and Elly De La Cruz joined him the first week of June.
Attendance almost immediately surged with results that included a 12-game winning streak, the Reds leading the majors with a 44-percent overall increase from the previous year, drawing more than 2 million for the season for the first time in eight years, with 23 home crowds of 30,000 or more after De La Cruz debuted — seven them of those topping 40,000.
“At this point it’s just, ‘Let’s figure out how to win today’s game and go from there,’ “ Krall said of the disappointing start exacerbated by Matt McLain’s day-to-day hamstring tightness that kept him out of the lineup the last three games.
He’s expected back for Monday’s opener in San Francisco.
But Jeimer Candelario, Christian Encarnacion-Strand, Jake Fraley and Steer all are hitting under .200 in the early going, while catcher Tyler Stephenson and outfielder Austin Hays remain on the injured list instead of in the middle of the order.
“We’re just trying to push through (the injuries) these first few weeks and start banking some wins,” Krall said.
Banking might be the operative word of that sentence for a front office that squeezed what it could from ownership’s limited payroll budget in the offseason, including late-winter, one-year free agent deals for Hays ($5 million) and reliever Scott Barlow ($2.5 million) on the heels of acquiring Jose Trevino, Gavin Lux and Taylor Rogers in trades.
Krall said he doesn’t know how the slow start might impact finances if it were to continue much longer and is concentrating more on the baseball at hand and getting guys back from the injured list.
Until then, another stat from the small sample size of the Reds’ opening homestand last week: After back-to-back 40,000 crowds the first two games with Hall of Fame manager Terry Francona headlining a new level of expectations, they didn’t draw 40,000 in the next three games combined.
Some of that certainly was related to worse weather in Cincinnati.
But almost as certain is the fact that the longer this slow start lasts, the less eager large numbers of fans will be to pay to watch it in any weather.
“You want to win, you want to build some momentum,” Krall said. “You want to get off to a good start for a variety of reasons.
“The winning reasons are the most important.”
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: The Cincinnati Reds' other rea$on for concern over slow start
Continue reading...
The starters have been even better those first two full turns through the rotation, producing a 3.18 ERA even after Sunday’s 8-2 loss to the Milwaukee Brewers.
But some of the worst hitting in the majors has wasted most of it during a 3-7 start for a team that expects to still be playing in October.
You must be registered for see images
Talk about a missed opportunity.
“We’re all working our butts off here, and we’re going to find an answer,” said Spencer Steer, whose first home run of the season was close to all the firepower the lineup could muster on the way to its 11th consecutive series loss to the Brewers.
That was one of only two earned runs the Reds scored combined in the three losses to the Brewers during the four-game series.
The point isn’t that the Reds are somehow buried. It’s a long season, with nearly six months and 152 games to play by the time their charter left Milwaukee for San Francisco and a three-game set with the Giants beginning Monday.
But the opportunity missed extends beyond simply the chance to bank three or four more early wins and the impact in the early standings (which, for those scoring at home, had the Reds tied for last place with the Pirates, three games behind the first-place Cubs).
You must be registered for see images
Because Reds ownership leaves the door open to flex the budget when in-season revenue (read: attendance) rises, strong starts – or poor ones – have the potential for disproportionate impact on competitive resources over the course of the season.
In other words, if the Reds are in the market for reinforcements at the July 31 trade deadline, how they arrive in that position could impact how flexible they are in being able to add salary to the payroll at that point.
A big April and early May that drives excitement and ticket sales into the summer might have more impact, for instance, than a disappointing first month or two followed by a June surge into the fringes of the race.
Team president Nick Krall addressed that reality on the eve of spring training when asked about his anticipated resources once the season starts and he begins planning for the deadline.
“It always changes. If revenues are up, you have more money, and I think that’s what you’re looking at,” Krall said. “Hopefully, we get off to a good start like we did in ’23 and add some dry powder in the middle of the season.”
In 2023, coming off a 100-loss season, interest was low entering the season, and the club drew three sub-10,000 crowds the first 14 home dates, including a 7,375 crowd that was the smallest for a Reds home game since 1985 at Riverfront Stadium (excluding the 2020 pandemic season when no fans were allowed).
But by the end of May, the team was playing better, Matt McLain had debuted, and Elly De La Cruz joined him the first week of June.
Attendance almost immediately surged with results that included a 12-game winning streak, the Reds leading the majors with a 44-percent overall increase from the previous year, drawing more than 2 million for the season for the first time in eight years, with 23 home crowds of 30,000 or more after De La Cruz debuted — seven them of those topping 40,000.
“At this point it’s just, ‘Let’s figure out how to win today’s game and go from there,’ “ Krall said of the disappointing start exacerbated by Matt McLain’s day-to-day hamstring tightness that kept him out of the lineup the last three games.
He’s expected back for Monday’s opener in San Francisco.
But Jeimer Candelario, Christian Encarnacion-Strand, Jake Fraley and Steer all are hitting under .200 in the early going, while catcher Tyler Stephenson and outfielder Austin Hays remain on the injured list instead of in the middle of the order.
“We’re just trying to push through (the injuries) these first few weeks and start banking some wins,” Krall said.
Banking might be the operative word of that sentence for a front office that squeezed what it could from ownership’s limited payroll budget in the offseason, including late-winter, one-year free agent deals for Hays ($5 million) and reliever Scott Barlow ($2.5 million) on the heels of acquiring Jose Trevino, Gavin Lux and Taylor Rogers in trades.
Krall said he doesn’t know how the slow start might impact finances if it were to continue much longer and is concentrating more on the baseball at hand and getting guys back from the injured list.
Until then, another stat from the small sample size of the Reds’ opening homestand last week: After back-to-back 40,000 crowds the first two games with Hall of Fame manager Terry Francona headlining a new level of expectations, they didn’t draw 40,000 in the next three games combined.
Some of that certainly was related to worse weather in Cincinnati.
But almost as certain is the fact that the longer this slow start lasts, the less eager large numbers of fans will be to pay to watch it in any weather.
“You want to win, you want to build some momentum,” Krall said. “You want to get off to a good start for a variety of reasons.
“The winning reasons are the most important.”
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: The Cincinnati Reds' other rea$on for concern over slow start
Continue reading...
