A Little Help Here?
By
Amanda
Posted at 9:54 pm
The boys looked frustrated. They looked beyond frustrated. Stymied, perhaps. The game, like the season, felt like it was swirling out of control and there was no one who could help.
Ryan Freel thrown out trying to stretch a single into a double to lead off the game. Rich Aurilia pinch grounding into that double play in the seventh. Brandon Phillips grounding out in the ninth. Jerry Narron grinning ironically as the game skittered out of his reach. The body language of these guys couldn't have advertised their frustration any more clearly if it was on a freaking billboard.
But it was the look on David Weathers' face that caught my attention. He looked like he expected (wanted?) to be taken out of the game on every pitch. I realize that I'm reading a lot into a facial expression, but I think we won't be seeing much more of Weathers, and not because the Reds are going to cut him.
That thought put my own frustration into perspective. Though Weathers couldn't come through for the Reds this evening, he's done a lot more for the team during his most recent tenure than I ever would have expected he could, and personally, I appreciate his contribution.
Meanwhile, Todd Coffey took the mound and promptly gave up a triple and a home run. The expression he wore showed that he understood that there wasn't anyone else who could rescue him. Then he settled down and got the job done. So maybe there's a little hope yet.
Nevertheless, a little help is always appreciated.
O’Krivsky’s a bum who can’t find any bullpen help.
Heh…O’Krivsky?
The points made about bullpen help are well taken, however. Give this team a bullpen and they might well be running away with the division.
Some Hard Facts about the Reds’ bullpen discovered while surfing the sortable team stats on mlb.com:
* Reds relievers have allowed more homers than any other NL bullpen, with 36 round-trippers served. The next worst is the Nationals with 31, the Rockies have surrendered the fewest (9).
* Of all NL bullpens, only the Giants’ (126) relievers have notched fewer strikeouts than the Reds (135).
* The Reds’ bullpen ERA of 5.15 is better than all but 14 of the other 15 teams in the NL. Only the Braves, with 5.30, are worse.
* The Cinci pen has a collective WHIP of 1.52 – also worse than everybody else in the NL except for the Braves (who have a 1.65 WHIP).
* The NL’s slugging percentage against Reds relievers is .487, the worst in the league.
* The rest of the NL has a .356 OBP against Reds relievers (the only NL team with a worse stat is, again, the Braves with .375).
* The rest of the NL is batting .289 against Reds relievers, putting the Cinci bullpen dead last in the league in this category as well.
* And finally, the Cincinnati bullpen has given up hits at the alarming rate of 10.27 per nine innings pitched, the league’s worst figure in the category and an obscenity as compared to the league’s best in the category, the 7.78 posted by the Mets’ bullpen.
Despite all this, they still lead the NL wild card race? Don’t anybody feed this team beans. They might pass gas and cause the horseshoe to fall out.
Anyway, a main weakness of this club is obvious. Time for Kriv-Dawg to get to work!
John (HMZ)