It took four tries, but Mat Latos finally overcame his streak of terrible Aprils to start seasons. That it came in his second year with the Cincinnati Reds is not really a surprise, given how much looser he was coming into camp.

Latos talked about this during spring training, mentioning the pressure that he felt after the trade in 2012.

“Who’s to say that I’m that good to be traded for four guys? That’s what killed me,” Latos said. “If I had been traded for one guy, it would have been a lot different. Something like that happens, automatically there’s a pressure regardless. You’re like, ‘Crap, I’ve got to prove that I’m worth four guys.'”

That feeling is over with this year.

And the results have shown it. Consider his first three Aprils in the majors.

Year	W	L	W-L%	ERA	G	GS	CG	IP	H	R	ER	HR	BB	IBB	SO	HBP	WHIP	SO/9	SO/BB
2010	1	2	.333	6.20	4	4	0	20.1	24	14	14	5	6	1	13	0	1.475	5.8	2.17
2011	0	4	.000	4.98	4	4	0	21.2	19	17	12	5	10	0	25	1	1.338	10.4	2.50
2012	1	2	.333	5.97	5	5	0	28.2	35	19	19	4	10	0	18	0	1.570	5.7	1.80

6.20, 4.98, and 5.97. Those are not the ERAs of someone who starts the season strong.

Now look at 2013.

Year	W	L	W-L%	ERA	G	GS	CG	IP	H	R	ER	HR	BB	IBB	SO	HBP	WHIP	SO/9	SO/BB
2013	2	0	1.000	1.83	6	6	0	39.1	35	11	8	3	8	0	37	1	1.093	8.5	4.63

An ERA below 2.00 and almost 40 innings. Back in the spring, Latos had this to say.

“I’m hoping to resurrect my April,” Latos said.

With those stats, consider that mission accomplished. Now if he can make this his weakest month, then 2013 will be shaping up to be an amazing year.

I’m so glad Mat Latos is a Red.

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Reds (13-10)	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	1	1	2
Nationals (11-11)	0	2	4	0	0	0	0	2	-	8	12	0

Boxscore

It took until the fifth start of the 2013 season, but Bronson Arroyo’s evil, incompetent twin Badrroyo finally made his first appearance. Arroyo pitched six innings, allowing nine hits, six runs–five earned, while striking out two. It was a bad performance that the Reds’ offense had no hope of overcoming.

The Reds scored just one run, and that was thanks to a solo home run by Joey Votto in the fourth inning off Washington Nationals starter Gio Gonzalez. Gonzalez was on top of his game, though, as that was the only hit he allowed over his eight innings of work. I wonder if Votto will be criticized for hitting a “wasted” home run. It’s probably not something he’s paid to do.

Arroyo was bad and the offense was bad, what else? The bullpen didn’t help matters much. JJ Hoover contributed a scoreless inning, which is nice to see. He’s been a lot more effective now that he’s not being called on to pitch every game. But Logan Ondrusek had a bad outing in the eight, allowing the Nationals to score two more runs. Other than that, he’s been much improved since returning to the majors this year.

Today the Reds will go again for their second road victory of the season. That’s right. They’ve won just one road game so far, having an away record of 1-6. They’ll hope for better luck tonight when Homer Bailey goes against Jordan Zimmerman at 7:05pm.

With the minor injuries to Zack Cozart and Jonathan Broxton recently, I started thinking about how injury prone the Cincinnati Reds have seemed so far during the 2013 season. So I loaded up a list of all the injured players across Major League Baseball to compare the Reds to their National League Central opponents.

The Milwaukee Brewers have been the unluckiest, with seven players on the disabled list. The Chicago Cubs are next with six, the Reds have five, and the Pittsburgh Pirates have four. That leaves the St. Louis Cardinals as the healthiest team, with just three players on the DL.

The Brewers have been hit the hardest by far, with two players out for the season. Aramis Ramirez, Mark Rogers, and Jeff Bianchi are on pace to be back in the next few weeks, but Corey Hart and Chris Narveson aren’t expected back until May.

None of the Cubs players are listed as being out for the entire season, but they are the Cubs. Historically, no one is as unlucky as them.

That brings us to the Reds. Like the Cubs, no one is out for the year, although at this point it’s easy to wonder if Nick Masset will ever pitch again. He hasn’t pitched since 2011. Ryan Ludwick is the most severely injured and isn’t expected back until the All Star Break. The rest–Sean Marshall, Johnny Cueto, and Ryan Hanigan–are all expected back in May.

The Pirates have been healthy during the season. All of their four players started the season on the DL.

The Cardinals are similar to the Pirates. Two of their three players were placed on the DL during spring training. Those two–Chris Carpenter and Rafeal Furcal–were big potential parts of the team and will be missing the entire season. Jason Motte is the only one to be injured during the season.

Overall, the Reds seem to be in the middle of the pack. Sure, all but one of their disabled players have occurred in the first month of the season. But with the exception of Ryan Ludwick, those injuries appear to be minor and the players are expected back in May. Assuming the rash of injuries stops, then the earliness of the season almost insures that these injuries won’t have a major impact on the team’s overall performance.

Milwaukee Brewers (7)

Updated	Player	Pos	Injury	Expected Return
04/20/13	Mark Rogers	SP	Shoulder	15-day DL. Expected to make Double-A rehab start April 23
04/19/13	Taylor Green	1B	Hip	15-day DL. Out for season
04/13/13	Jeff Bianchi	SS	Hip	15-day DL. On Double-A rehab assignment
04/09/13	Chris Narveson	RP	Finger	15-day DL. Out until at least early May
04/08/13	Corey Hart	1B	Knee	60-day DL. Out until at least late May
04/06/13	Aramis Ramirez	3B	Knee	15-day DL. Out until at least mid-April
03/20/13	Mat Gamel	1B	Knee	60-day DL. Out for season

Chicago Cubs (6)

Updated	Player	Pos	Injury	Expected Return
04/22/13	Matt Garza	SP	Elbow, lat	15-day DL. Expected to make Double-A rehab start April 24
04/14/13	Steve Clevenger	C	Oblique	60-day DL. Out until at least mid-June
04/13/13	Kyuji Fujikawa	RP	Forearm	15-day DL. Out until at least late April
03/31/13	Scott Baker	SP	Elbow	60-day DL. Out until at least late May
03/27/13	Arodys Vizcaino	RP	Elbow	60-day DL. Out until at least early August
04/14/13	Ian Stewart	3B	Quadriceps	15-day DL. On Triple-A rehab assignment

Cincinnati Reds (5)

Updated	Player	Pos	Injury	Expected Return
04/22/13	Sean Marshall	RP	Shoulder	15-day DL. On Triple-A rehab assignment
04/21/13	Ryan Hanigan	C	Thumb	15-day DL. Out until at least early May
04/21/13	Nick Masset	RP	Shoulder	60-day DL. Out until at least late May
04/15/13	Johnny Cueto	SP	Triceps	15-day DL. Out until at least late April
04/15/13	Ryan Ludwick	LF	Shoulder	60-day DL. Out until at least early July

Pittsburgh Pirates (4)

Updated	Player	Pos	Injury	Expected Return
04/22/13	Charlie Morton	SP	Elbow	15-day DL. Expected to make Double-A rehab start April 23
04/20/13	Francisco Liriano	SP	Arm	15-day DL. On Double-A rehab assignment
04/10/13	Jeff Karstens	SP	Shoulder	15-day DL. Out until at least mid-April
03/20/13	Chase d’Arnaud	SS	Thumb	60-day DL. Out until at least early June

St. Louis Cardinals (3)

Updated	Player	Pos	Injury	Expected Return
04/12/13	Jason Motte	RP	Elbow	15-day DL. Out until at least early May
03/30/13	Chris Carpenter	SP	Neck, arm	60-day DL. Out for season
03/23/13	Rafael Furcal	SS	Elbow	15-day DL. Out until at least early September

Long gone are the days when the Cincinnati Reds had a rotation of Aaron Harang followed by pray for rain. No, now each day brings with it confidence in whoever the Reds have starting that day. That transformation is due, in large part, to pitching coach Bryan Price.

The Cincinnati Enquirer ran a profile on him over the weekend.

Detailing his accomplishments with the Reds, the article notes that in his first three seasons the Reds ranked seventh, 12th and third in team ERA. Prior to his arrival, the Reds were often seen in the middle of the pack, if not worse. Last year was arguably the team’s best pitching performance in the history of the franchise. In addition to finishing third in team ERA, the team set a record for the total number of strikeouts with 1,248, finished first in the Major Leagues in relief ERA (2.65) and saves (56), first in the NL in opponents’ BA vs relievers (.219) and fourth in the NL in starters’ ERA (3.64). Not to mention none of the starters missing a single regular season start.

Yeah, the guy’s good. But what makes him so effective? What’s his approach

“It’s very similar to what everyone else talks about: Being aggressive, working ahead and staying ahead in the count, composure, preparation and accountability,” he said. “The last one is the hardest. When you don’t succeed, it’s hard to own your own failure and not look for other places to blame.

“That’s real hard. Character is hard to find. We really try to make sure the starters understand their obligation to pitch innings. That’s one thing we’ve impressed upon them wherever we’ve been. Relief guys aren’t supposed to be in 80 games a year. And when they are, it’s because the starting rotation isn’t getting the job done.”

Homer Bailey has high praise for Price, crediting him with not only finding problems but having plans on fixing the problem. And given Bailey’s rough time at the beginning of his tenure as a Red, that’s saying something. Bailey seemed close to un-coachable his first couple years. That’s changed, and everybody’s happy with Bailey’s improvement.

And to think, the team was close to losing him. Lest you forget, in the off-season Price was considering interviewing for the Miami Marlins job. Given the ineptitude of the Marlins team that just lost 3 of 4 to Cincinnati–and were very close to being swept–I have to think Price feels he made the right choice.

I know I’m happy he signed that extension. As awesome as Shin-Soo Choo has been in this first month of the season, retaining Price as the pitching coach is the most important move the Reds made during the off-season.

Cincinnati Reds catcher Ryan Hanigan has had a rough start to the 2013 season. His batting average is .079 and his on-base percentage is an uncharacteristic .182. So the news today of him being placed on the 15 day disabled list isn’t surprising.

Hanigan had been dealing with an injury to his right thumb, but Reds manager Dusty Baker said Hanigan hurt his oblique in the ninth inning of Frida’s game against the Marlins when he reached high to catch a fastball from Aroldis Chapman. The time on the DL will also help give his thumb time to heal.

Between a sore thumb and a strained oblique, no wonder he was struggling.

In Hanigan’s place, fan-favorite Corky Miller has been called up from Louisville. He, and his mustache, were in uniform for Sunday’s game. While he’ll get a few starts, the bulk of the catching time will be given to Devin Mesoraco.

Mesoraco, unlike Hanigan, is off to a solid start this year. And with the presence of Miller, his mentor, he’s likely to continue doing well.