This isn't going to be easy for me...
This isn't going to be easy for the Blue Jays either.
There's
always an awkward feeling that comes when two teams you carry strong
affection for wind up meeting for a series. That awkwardness only
increases by the meaningfulness of those games for either team,
understandably so. Well, this series is awfully important for the Blue
Jays, who could be out of first place if they can't take at least one
game. But see, this series is really important for Cincinnati also.
The
Reds have had a challenging 2014 thus far. As ridiculous as this
sounds, it feels like they've been fighting back all season from the 3-8
start, but at no point in 2014 has the team been over .500. There was
some unfortunate luck early on (The Reds were 4-11 in One Run Games at
one point) but the real problem for April and May was the same calamity
striking the Blue Jays now: these guys can't score.
Unlike the
Blue Jays, who have only been missing Lind and Rasmus for most of this
power outage, Cincinnati was struck by a plague of injuries early on.
Devin Mesoraco, Joey Votto and Jay Bruce have all missed large chunks of
the season (and all were out at the same time for a while, leading to
such insane sentences as: Skip Schumaker, leadoff hitter and: batting
cleanup, Brayan Pena). The pitchers haven't been immune either. Aroldis
Chapman, Mat Latos, Tony Cingrani, Jonathan Broxton and Sean Marshall
have all danced with Lady Disabled List. With Latos coming back last
weekend, this is the first time all year the Reds have been completely
and totally healthy (aside from Marshall, but he's been awful in 2014
anyway). That Cincinnati has hovered around .500 despite the injuries,
and are still just three games back of the second wildcard, suggests
that this might be a team ready to do some serious damage.
Anyhow, here are three (somewhat) quick notes on the Reds:
Team Defense
The
Reds are a phenomenal defensive team, leading all of baseball in fewest
errors committed. It is interesting that they don't have an elite
defender anywhere on the diamond (though Hamilton is getting close), instead having an above average player
almost everywhere (LF and C are probably the exceptions). Frazier and
Cozart on the left side of the infield are both fantastic (there's a
reason they keep Cozart's awful bat in the lineup), Phillips is at the
point in his career where the flashy plays he makes now are the routine
ones from four years ago (he's still good though) and a healthy Votto is
exceptional at picking the low throw. Ludwick moves around somewhere
between Tumour Cabrera and Tumor-Free Cabrera but if he gets to it he'll
catch it, while Hamilton and Bruce are exceptional outfielders (Bruce
especially, I don't know how a dude built like that can cover so much
ground).
Billy Hamilton
Turns out the guy can
hit a little bit too. Some folks around baseball were suggesting
Hamilton would struggle to hit .200 in the majors, and yes he did
struggle mightily in the first three weeks of the season (after seeing
what Wainwright did to him on opening day, I wondered if .200 was
optimistic). But Hamilton has exploded in June, batting .344 with five
doubles and three (!) home runs. Yep, Hamilton has as many June home
runs as Edwin Encarnacion.
Anyhow, keeping Hamilton off base (as
fun as that is to watch) will be important for Toronto pitchers.
Otherwise, Hamilton has a tendency to do some insane things, such as
score from second base on a hard ground ball to the second baseman. Or score from third on a modestly deep pop up to first base. The dude makes Anthony Gose look like a Molina. A slow Molina.
The Bats
With
everybody healthy, this lineup has some tough outs. I've mentioned
Hamilton already but there's always Walk-A-Matic Votto (Just
kidding, Joey), Todd Frazier (quietly having the best season of his
career) Devin Mesoraco (the best hitter on the team, who before 2014 was
looking awfully Arencibish) and a resurgent Ryan Ludwick (what a weird
career). The real question mark though is Jay Bruce, who after improving
every season has just stunk this year. He's "slugging" .353, and this
was a guy with 40+ doubles and 30+ home runs last season. I for one
really hope he figures it out and gets it going.... next week.
To the pitching matchups!
Friday (7:10) Liam Hendriks (1-0, 2.31) versus Mat Latos (0-0, 0.00) *six scoreless innings in his only start so far
Saturday (4:10) J.A. Happ (6-3, 4.05) versus Mike Leake (4-6, 3.80)
Sunday (1:10) R.A. Dickey (6-5, 4.08) versus Johnny Cueto (6-5, 1.92)
Assorted Nonsense
Jay
Bruce has one of the weirdest batting quirks I've ever seen. Just
before he gets ready, he flicks his back arm up wildly in the air as
though trying to snatch a mosquito buzzing above him. He does it for
every pitch so keep your eyes keen.
Brandon Phillips also has an awesome batting stance. I swear he's trying to play Whack-A-Mole or something.
Aside from Chapman, Broxton
and LeCure, the Reds bullpen is really bad. Those three are lights out
though, so Blue Jays hitters are going to have to do something they've
not done a lot of lately and that's knock a starter out early. If J.J.
Hoover is coming in, they've done the job.
Frazier always has this smug look on his face. If he does well this series, you're probably going to hate his guts. Don't worry Todd, I still like you.
Last year I wrote about the three promising 1989 pitchers, Tony Cingrani, Matt Harvey and Patrick Corbin. Well, Harvey and Corbin are both gone for 2014 with Tommy John surgery while Cingrani is 2-8 and was kicked out of the rotation when Latos came back. Uh, sorry guys.
How is Cueto only 6-5????
The Blue Jays don't face him this series, but how about the year Alfredo Simon is having? 10-3, 3.05 ERA? A WHIP around 1.10? Who saw that coming?
Mike Leake is going to get a hit off J.A. Happ. I just know it.
If Votto is crushing his hometown team this series, maybe we should call on this guy to face him: http://www.sportsnet.ca/baseball/mlb/watch-snider-strikes-out-votto/
But seriously, how is Cueto only 6-5????
Yeah, this is awkward. Well, one of them's gotta win, right? Right.
https://www.battersbox.ca/article.php?story=20140618232354624