Cincinnati Reds Preview 2011

Today Cintucky Zone offers a preview of the Cincinnati Reds 2011 season. I am going ahead and looking at the 2011 season because I refuse to even acknowledge a team that lets Mike Lincoln face Albert Pujols with a runner on at a critical moment in the game.

So my predictions for 2011:

• Dusty will not be the Manager of the Cincinnati Reds
• Aaron Harang will not be on the Cincinnati Reds
• The opening day starter will be Homer Bailey
• The other four starters will be: Johnny Cueto, Aroldis Chapman, Edinson Volquez, Mike Leake
• Edinson Volquez will last 4 months and then will be put on waivers when the team realizes he'll never be the same as before Tommy John surgery

To be honest, I'm not sure why I am that disappointed in today's loss. I've been saying all Spring that Harang needs to go. And when I remembered last week that Opening Day would be Harang vs Carpenter, I knew they might as well just jump to Wednesday. In the end, Harang wasn't AS bad as I thought he would be, it was the bullpen (read above concerning Mike Lincoln) that was so solid last year that did not make the transition from Spring to reality.

Everyone knows the definition of insanity: Doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. So the fact that by the end of the first inning I was wondering whether I was watching a replay of the 2009 season says a lot about the changes the Reds made in the offseason. Honestly if I could have made 3 predictions for the first inning that I would write in stone as for sure to happen they would be: 1) Chris Dickerson picks up where he left off striking out to lead it off for the Reds, 2) Albert Pujols would hit a homerun in his first at bat, and 3) Joey Votto would pick up where he left off and get a hit.


Is it sad the Reds are that predictable? Probably about as sad as Pujols career numbers against the Reds (141 games, .365 avg, 42 HRs, and 121 RBIs). Also about as sad the Reds Opening Day win-loss record the last 13 years (3-9-1).

Ok, so enough over reaction. That's what we do here in Cincinnati. Past performance predicts future results. 15 years since the playoffs, why would something be different this year? Ok so lets talk about some of the positives that we can take out of the game:

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All in all it was an ugly start to the 2010 season for the Reds. But really, ok there were SOME positives we can take out of it right? We saw what Dusty couldn't see: That Drew Stubbs should be hitting leadoff and not Chris Dickerson, we saw that Scott Rolen (aka Russell Crowe) still has some pop in his bat, we saw that Joey Votto continues to be my hero and could bat .400 this year, we saw that this Ondrusek guy could be an absolute stud reliever, and we saw Juan Fransisco get a pinch-hit RBI single.

The other big positive I hinted on earlier was that Harang really isn't our number 1 pitcher. At least he won't be by the time the next rotation re-arrangement happens. If you look at the Reds rotation, we do not really have a legit #1 pitcher. We have about 7 pitchers that fit into the 2, 3, 4 slots. When the Red's #1 matches up against most other teams #1 the other team is usually going to have the better pitching outing. But as the series moves on the Red's rotation gets stronger as the other teams gets weaker. This leads to a lot of favorable matchups and wins for the Reds. So while I expected the Reds to lose this one, I expect them to win 4 out of the next 5. Oh wait, tomorrow is against Wainwright, make that 3 out of the next 5.

On a side, slightly related note, has anyone else thought that Albert "Poopholes" Pujols looks exactly like he's taking a massive dump every time he is at the plate and in the field. Look:























See? told you so.


Alright so everyone just hang in there on the Reds, don't freak out AND OVERREACT. EVERYONE KEEP THEIR EFFING COMPOSURE.


Greg "1 Game" R.