June 22, 201212 yr Those numbers are not bad, but quite frankly I would hope the Reds do not get less than 25k at any game. As of June 12 they were +4000 over last year at a little over 27k per game. Hopefully this improves throughout the year with bigger draws and rivals, but obviously it could be worse. So, it was a split series. However, there was a clear winner on the attendance side. Attendance at Great American Tue 24,758 Wed 27,428 Thu (D) 34,193 86,379 Attendance at Progressive Mon 19,948 Tue 17,213 Wed 23,544 60,705
June 30, 201212 yr Attendance was great for the last home stand. 34,000 on Friday the 22nd, sellouts on both weekend games, 35000(!) on a Monday night for the Brewers, another 33,000 on Tuesday night, and a good crowd for the day game. I think they are over 28,000/game right now. Would love to see it get to 30,000. By the way, these road trips out west always scare the crap out of me.
June 30, 201212 yr By the way, these road trips out west always scare the crap out of me. Agreed, haha. And the shutout did not help. But last night eased things up a bit.
July 11, 201212 yr With tonight’s All-Star game marking the unofficial halfway point of the season (technically we’re at 85 games - just a bit past halfway) now is a good time to look at the first half of the Reds season. The Reds are 47-38 and are 1 game behind the surprising Pittsburgh Pirates in the Central Division. The Reds are first in the wild-card standings (this is the wild-card berth that gets you automatically into the playoffs - not the second wild-card that requires a play-in game which is new this year). So here’s a position by position look at the Reds season-to-date: Catcher: Hanigan and Mesoraco have formed a fine tandem behind the plate. The veteran Hanigan got most of the starts early in the season while the rookie Mesoraco was brought along slowly. But in the last two months Hanigan and Mesoraco are splitting the starts nearly 50/50. Hanigan has less power with 2 HR’s and a better .276 BA and .356 OBP. Mesoraco has more power with 9 HR’s but a lower .214 BA. First Base: What is there left to say about Joey Votto? Near the top in most NL offensive categories with 35 doubles, 14 HR’s, 48 RBI’s, and a .348 BA/.471 OBP/ 1.087 OPS. An MVP candidate. Second Base: Brandon Phillips gutted out some nagging injuries early in the season to put together some good offensive numbers - 10 HR’s, and a .280 BA and .322 OBP. Defensively, Phillips is on his way to another Golden Glove award. Probably the best defensive second baseman in baseball. Shortstop: Zach Cozart has settled into starting shortstop position rather nicely after his cup-of-coffee last year. Good all-round offensively and defensively. Could stand to cut down on the strikeouts and raise his .252 BA and .298 OBP in the second half though. Third Base: The presumed starter Scott Rolen has been a non-factor with extended injuries and a miserable .178 average. Fortunately, Todd Frazier has stepped into his spot quite well. Offensively, Frazier has 9 HR’s with a .278 BA/ .345 OBP/ .901 OBP and is defensively solid. Left Field: Heisey and Ludwick each had their highs and lows while platooning in left. Heisey has 3 HR’s with a .268 BA and .310 OBP. Ludwick has 12 HR’s with a .239 BA and .311 OBP. Center Field: Drew Stubbs has really struggled at the plate. Although blessed with great speed, Stubbs can’t take advantage of it because of a high strikeout rate and a .215 BA and .286 OBP. If Stubbs can’t improve, he might get replaced by the trading deadline. Right Field: Jay Bruce is near the top in NL power numbers with 18 HR’s and 56 RBI’s. His .249 BA and .326 OBP could be improved over the second half though. Starting Pitching: The five pitchers in the Reds starting rotation have stayed completely intact over the first 85 games with no injuries. Johnny Cueto is pitching like a #1 starter with 10-5 record and a 2.39 ERA. Latos has been up and down but is looking better lately with a 7-2 record and a 4.13 ERA. If Latos can keep this up, he will be the #2 starter the Reds have been looking for. Arroyo has been his normal consistent inning-eater #3 starter with a 3.73 ERA. Leake and Bailey have struggled at times but managed to post 4.01 and 4.14 ERA’s respectively. Relief Pitching: The Reds relief pitching has been riddled with injuries. Presumed closer Ryan Madigan went down with a season-ending injury. Presumed set-up righty Nick Masset is on the 60-day DL and presumed set-up lefty Bill Bray has been injured and ineffective. However, the replacements have been great. Aroldis Chapman (aka The Cuban Missile) became the closer. Marshall became the set-up lefty. While Arredondo and Ondrusek became set-up righties.
July 14, 201212 yr The 7th sellout this season. It looks like the rest of the series will be sellouts as well.
July 14, 201212 yr The Reds are first in the wild-card standings (this is the wild-card berth that gets you automatically into the playoffs - not the second wild-card that requires a play-in game which is new this year). This is not actually correct. The playoffs have expanded from 8 teams to 10. There will be two wild cards in each league. Those two wild cards would play in a one-game playoff to determines who gets into the Division Series. So as it stood at the break, the Reds would have been playing in the "play-in" wild card game (probably hosting it, I assume).
July 14, 201212 yr Well now we are back tied for first. :-) Let's sweep those whiny Cardinals and get a few games up!
July 15, 201212 yr The Reds are first in the wild-card standings (this is the wild-card berth that gets you automatically into the playoffs - not the second wild-card that requires a play-in game which is new this year). This is not actually correct. The playoffs have expanded from 8 teams to 10. There will be two wild cards in each league. Those two wild cards would play in a one-game playoff to determines who gets into the Division Series. So as it stood at the break, the Reds would have been playing in the "play-in" wild card game (probably hosting it, I assume). Whoops. My bad. Must have been thinking about the NFL wild card or something. It looks like the Reds should just go ahead and win the Central and forget the wild card. And along that line - I was interested in the discussion during yesterday's nationally televised game about the need to upgrade the Reds offense. They talked about ways to do this and pointed out that upgrading the 1-2 hitting in front of Votto was probably the easiest way to do it. They threw out a number of names - like Denard Span from Minnesota and Juan Pierre from Philadelphia. But I hope they go after Shane Victorino from Philadelphia. Victorino's a free agent at the end of the season, so a mid-level prospect or two might acquire him. He would be a big upgrade over Stubbs at the plate while still providing great speed and CF defense. Moving Victorino to lead-off and Cozart to #2 would upgrade the line-up without disrupting the rest of the batting order. Plus Victorino's a switch hitter. And the Reds need more bats from the left side.
July 16, 201212 yr Nice. Where's that put us for the season. I know the schedule is favorable for good attendance the rest of the way.
July 16, 201212 yr The Banks garage filled up entirely on Saturday during the game. People wanting to go the restaurants had nowhere close to park, but the waits were all 45 minutes so it didn't matter.
July 16, 201212 yr Nice. Where's that put us for the season. I know the schedule is favorable for good attendance the rest of the way. Averaging 29,155 per game for the season. Still 17th overall but climbing nicely. The highest we could reasonably expect to get at this point is about 14th, which would probably need to be over 30,000 per game. Colorado is 13th but they average 33,000+ per game. http://espn.go.com/mlb/attendance
July 16, 201212 yr Not good news. Votto out 3-4 weeks. He will get knee surgery. Good thing the schedule is in Reds favor.
July 18, 201212 yr 700WLW is fanning a rumor that Sean Casey is rejoining the REDS while Votto is on the DL.
July 18, 201212 yr 700WLW is fanning a rumor that Sean Casey is rejoining the REDS while Votto is on the DL. Its fake. Its a 700wlw ploy to get ratings. Typical 700wlw Casey already denied it
July 19, 201212 yr Great comeback. The largest since 2007. CINCINNATI (52-40, 70 games to go) vs. NL Central: 43 games remaining (21 home, 22 road) vs. winning teams: 18 games remaining (12 home, six road) NOTES: The Reds do not face a winning team on the road until the final week of the regular season when they visit Pittsburgh and St. Louis for the final six games. ... The Reds' schedule is chocked with losing team, and not just teams with losing records who are lingering on the wrong side of .500, but teams who are spelunking well below .500. The Reds have six games against Houston (23 below .500), 10 against the rising Cubs (still 16 below .500), three against Colorado (21 below) and four against San Diego (17 below). ... The Reds have nine games remaining against Pittsburgh, nine against Milwaukee, and six against the Cardinals. Read more: http://www.stltoday.com/sports/baseball/professional/birdland/what-s-ahead-in-the-nl-central-race/article_66b654d8-d1ba-11e1-a58f-001a4bcf6878.html#ixzz216VjLp3n
July 21, 201212 yr I hate to jinx him, but I have to say that Homer is turning into a pretty good pitcher. I like the front of the rotation with Cueto/Latos/Bailey right now.
July 21, 201212 yr ^Bronson is having a nice bounceback, but so far he hasn't come close to pitching as well as he did in 2006. He's having a year pretty much along the lines of his '07 or '08 seasons. Which is a huge improvement over last year. http://www.fangraphs.com/statss.aspx?playerid=978&position=P
July 25, 201212 yr Chapman is insane. He would strike out 20 as a starter easy. 13-2 last 15 games. 6 in a row.
July 26, 201212 yr Two straight 9th inning game-winning hits from Drew Stubbs against former Reds closer Francisco Cordero. Nice!
July 26, 201212 yr Let's hope Coco pulls it together for the 4 game weekend series. "It's just fate, as usual, keeping its bargain and screwing us in the fine print..." - John Crichton
July 29, 201212 yr 9 in a row. Reds now tied at 60-40 with Nationals for the best record in the NL (and with the Yankees for both leagues).
July 29, 201212 yr Great streak! I guess we can say the Pirates are also for real at this point but I keep hoping for a collapse.
July 29, 201212 yr Yeah, the Reds, Bucs, and Cards are all playing really well right now. Not gaining much ground on anyone, but not losing any ground either.
July 30, 201212 yr Winning 10 in a row: Great news for the Reds - Bad news for Marty Brennaman's hair From: Marty Brennaman's hair at stake with win A couple of weeks ago, during the back-and-forth banter on the team plane with bench coach Chris Speier, Reds Hall of Fame broadcaster Marty Brennaman said he would shave his head if the Reds won 10 in a row. The Reds did extend their win streak to ten with a 7-2 win on Sunday. "And this one belongs to the Reds! Cincinnati has won 10 in a row and I'm gonna shave my head absolutely bald," Brennaman exclaimed after Sunday's win.
July 31, 201212 yr Well the Reds got Jonathon Broxton from the Royals today. It wasn't what I expected, but a solid move at the least. They released Brackman and put Bray on the DL again. I was hoping they were going to turn around and flip him in a package for Denard Span but i'm sure the asking price was outrageous.
August 1, 201212 yr I was surprised the Reds got Broxton too. But I agree this seems like a solid pennant run move. For the price of two minor league pitchers, the Reds got a quality set-up man that could occassionaly fill in as closer, so as not to overwork Chapman. Even though they didn't get a lefty lead off hitter like Victorino (who went to the Dodgers), that's probably okay. Stubbs has been hitting very well lately. Plus with the hot hitting of Ludwick and Heisey, the older lefty bat of Bruce and the newer lefty bat of Xavier Paul - the Reds now have a glut in the outfield.
August 1, 201212 yr Xavier Paul is a bench player and pinch-hitter, nothing more. There's a reason he was out on the street when they signed him to a minor-league deal. I sure as heck hope he doesn't take any at-bats away from the other outfielders. It's amazing to me that Bruce is still our youngest outfielder. Feels like he's been here a long time--in a good way.
August 1, 201212 yr Xavier Paul is a bench player and pinch-hitter That's exactly why the Reds need him. Stubbs recent hitting surge allowed the team to pass on Victorino. But Paul is the only left-handed bat the Reds have on the bench. In the late innings of a critical game, you will want Paul facing the other team's best righty instead of Stubbs. So far Paul has excelled as a pinch-hitter, going 4 of 8. Stubbs has a lefty-righty split of .298/.210.
August 1, 201212 yr Hoping we see some better pitching for the rest of this Padres series (on both sides, really!). What a sh!tshow so far.
August 1, 201212 yr Sounds like BP is out for a little while. Ugh. Only silver lining is that middle infield is one of the positions we actually have some minor league depth to callup if need be (Henry Rodriguez, Didi Gregorious). We'll have to see.
August 1, 201212 yr Xavier Paul is a bench player and pinch-hitter That's exactly why the Reds need him. Stubbs recent hitting surge allowed the team to pass on Victorino. But Paul is the only left-handed bat the Reds have on the bench. In the late innings of a critical game, you will want Paul facing the other team's best righty instead of Stubbs. So far Paul has excelled as a pinch-hitter, going 4 of 8. Stubbs has a lefty-righty split of .298/.210. I agree with all that, but you said the Reds have a "glut" in the outfield, which implies (to me at least) that there are more good players than spots to play them. I think they're just about where they need to be in the OF--Bruce playing everyday, Ludwick playing most of the time, and Stubbs/Heisey splitting the rest of the time. Paul is not (and should not) competing for playing time the way Ludwick/Heisey/Stubbs are. But I agree it's nice to have him on the bench.
August 2, 201212 yr every win with both Phillips & Votto out is so great. If the reds go .500 for the rest of the season they would end up with a record that ties or beats some of 2011's wild card teams and I don't think anyone expects the Reds to go .500 for the rest of this season.
August 2, 201212 yr As of now, the Reds have the best record in baseball by 1.5 games. I'm really looking forward to the series against Pittsburgh this weekend, and heckling whatever fair-weather fans they bring out of the woodwork.
August 4, 201212 yr Very nice win over the Pirates! Looking forward to two more. Even without Phillips and Votto, the Reds are doing great. Sure hope they come back soon, though!
August 4, 201212 yr Charlie and Martin Sheen were at the Reds game and all over downtown last night most notably Ruby's
August 4, 201212 yr Reds now 4 1/2 ahead of Pirates. 14th win in their last 15 games. And Marty Brennaman goes bald!
August 4, 201212 yr This could be the beginning of a new rivalry. Anyway, the Pirates are now surely looking for blood even more than they were. Andrew McCutchen FREAKS out after Getting Hit By Pitch
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