Friday, May 25, 2012

Looking Beyond First Place

The Reds have climbed into first place in the NL Central.  It's thanks to a current 6-game win streak that has seen some excellent pitching, terrific defense and an offense that has taken full advantage of the small dimensions of Great American Ball Park.  It also helps that St. Louis has gone 5-5 in its last 10 games.

Cincinnati's win streak, coupled with the team's first 4-game sweep at home of the Braves since 1980 has certainly buoyed spirits in Reds Country.  Couple that with the fact the current 7-game home stand concludes this Memorial Day weekend with the Colorado Rockies, who own the 3rd worst record in the National League, and you've got the ingredients for downright euphoria!

Far be it from me to sound like a wet blanket, but there are a couple trends that still give me pause for great concern.  And they have to do with the team's inability to drive in runs and its penchant for striking out.

Before last night's game here's where the Reds ranked out of 16 NL teams in 3 important offensive categories:  Runners on -- hitting .219 (15th), Runners in scoring position or RISP -- .195 (15th), 2-out RISP -- .190 (14th).  Last night the Reds were 2 for 8 with RISP, a batting average of .250.  During the course of this season-high 6-game win streak they are hitting .159 (7-for-44).

Contributing to the lack of clutch hitting are the strikeouts.  The Reds rank 9th in Major League Baseball with 357 (tied with the Chicago White Sox), and only 5 NL teams have punched out more than Cincinnati.  True the Reds ranked 7th in strikeouts during their 2010 NL Central Division Championship season.  But they also hit .278 with RISP that season, 2nd in all of baseball.  With 2-out and RISP in 2010, Cincinnati hit .269, only Texas was better.

What's the solution, your guess is as good as mine.  If there was a formula, Dusty Baker and hitting coach Brook Jacoby would have used it by now.  One thing that would help is more consistency from Jay Bruce.  He was once voted Minor League Player of the Year and was rated a better prospect than Joey Votto as the two were coming up through the Reds minor league system.  I root for Jay.  Follow him on Twitter.  He tries hard.  Wants to be better.  Plays Gold Glove caliber defense in right field.  But the one consistent thing about Bruce offensively is his inconsistency.  In his last 10 games, he is 2 for 33.  A batting average of .061 with 17 strikeouts.  His batting average has plummeted from over .300 to it's current . 252.  That's over 50 points kids!  In April he hit .296 with 7 HR and 17 RBI.  So far in May he's hitting .205/3 HR/11 RBI.  He's been like this throughout his career, great one month, horrid the next.  At some point you are what the back of your baseball card says you are.

I know this sounds like I'm picking on only Jay Bruce and there are certainly plenty of others you could point out for this team's struggles to hit in the clutch.  But Bruce is one of the cornerstones this club decided to build around.  They didn't give him a 6-year, multi-million dollar contract 2 years ago if they didn't think he could blossom into a perennial All-Star.

So, what happens if the Reds don't improve at the plate?  Well to quote Robert Downey, Jr. in The Avengers, "There is no throne.  There is no version of this where you come out on top."

3 comments:

  1. Maybe they should replace Jacoby. They also need to beat Colorado. They own us since 2007. Something like 26-8. Crazy!!

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  2. Jacoby was the hitting instructor in 2010. He's not the problem. Besides he just helped to turn around Cozart and Phillips.

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  3. Agree, the Reds hitters need to take a page out of Votto's work ethic spend extra time hitting curve balls, etc

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