Getting a look at how the other side lives

The Reds continued to feast on bad opposition today, with a 9-0 win over the Astros, leaving us with a 20-2 surplus over the last two games. Now, that's really going to throw off the Pythogorean projections. I know these are bad teams we are beating, but I'm not complaining. Three weeks ago, we couldn't have beaten a bad team, and couldn't have scored these runs against the worst of pitchers. So, I'll take what I can get. If we can end June about 6-7 games out, we could make the .500 season a reality.

There's a whole lot of real estate between here and there. But having Aaron Harang on board is helping. He's firecracker hot, and we must sign him to a long-term deal. MUST. Do you understand. Not guys like Paul Wilson. This guy. He's as close to the real deal as we are going to get.

Finally, I felt what it was like to be the team inflicting a humiliating ninth-inning collapse onto the bullpen of another club. So far, we only knew about the receiving end of that situation.

Hey, even when he plays for Houston, beating Clemens means something. He's an absolute marvel, and this season proves it. But, they don't score, and he made one mistake to Randa, and that was essentially all the runs we needed. The announcers kept talking about how Harang had no margin of error pitching against Clemens. Imagine how Clemens feels pitching against anybody?

Reds need to come back tomorrow and win the series. For now, dismal has morphed into "futile, but less embarassing."

Reds End Up Splitting With Pirates

This is our longest string of success this season. As I noted a couple of weeks ago, we did hit a string of weak opponents, and it continues for the next week and a half. If our pitching staff can keep itself from doing for Houston's pitiful offense what it did for Cleveland's pitiful offense, we might be able to win that series.

Our winning % is now jacked up to .400, and we are ten games below .500. In other words, ten games out of what I would envision as a successful season. Of course, at a .400 rate, you would win about 64 games.

Brandon Claussen pitched well yesterday. I'm not ready to give up on him yet. Eric Milton, of course, was atrocious on Saturday, and I'm about ready for him to put on the "disabled list."

Sean Casey was back in the lineup yesterday, saying that the injury to his shoulder was not related to the one that wrecked most of a couple seasons for him. Reds fans will fail to rejoice at him being back in the lineup, but keep this in mind--how pitiful is our offense when we start the AAA line up of a few days ago.

Great catch by Ryan Freel.

Through gritted teeth I note that Rich Aurilia was activated from the DL, with Bergolla sent to Lousville. I'm OK with the second half of that equation, but Aurilia doesn't have to start--wait, apparently he did.

Back to the yard today. Our most effective starter, Aaron Harang, is taking on the most remarkable Rocket. Great thing to do on a Memorial Day before the barbecue kicks in!

And Back to Earth We Come

Well, we got spanked out there last night. We brought forward what would be considered an average AAA lineup, and got the results you expect. I doubt if any Reds lineup has looked that weak since a lineup I recall in 1987 (I think) when we had five starters injured.

Here's what it looked like: Players in Red should be in AAA.

Freel CF
Bergolla 2B
Felipe SS
Kearns RF
Dunn 1B
L. Lopez 3B
Romano LF
Valentin C
E. Ramirez P

I think that largely makes the point. Of course, we got ripped.

No doubt, health is a problem. WMP and Aurilia are on DL, and Randa and Casey are walking wounded. And Griff apparently needed a day off against a tough lefty.

If we're putting out this line up by Mid-June, its all over. WAY over.

And why, you ask, would we be doing that? Well, Baseball Tonight said last night a Reds executive is gearing up for another firesale. Everyone, and he said everyone, is available. Including Adam Dunn, if you needed that clarification.

I'm ambivalent on this. We're unlikely to keep Adam when the time comes, and I don't think he's the kind of guy who carries a team. Having said that, these firesales never seem to net any real players, and we just end up having another firesale one or two years later. I would support a firesale and a wholesale reboot of the franchise if I thought we were headed in a forward direction and would end up contending. If its the choice between futility and utter futility, I need to know there's going to be a playoff run down the road.

Here's what CNN/SI had to say:

The Reds have so many problems right now, and everyone is calling for manager Dave Miley's head. Should he be fired? What do you think is the Reds' biggest problem, and what can they do to solve it?
-- Laura, Dayton, Ohio

Miley needs more of a run. Obviously, the Reds don't have anything close to a competitive pitching staff. They better make sure they get good value for one of their outfielders. They'd consider trading Ken Griffey Jr., but there's not much of a market for him because of his age, health history and especially the contract with years and years of deferred money. Austin Kearns has good value. There is just no sense in keeping Kearns, Griffey, Adam Dunn and Wily Mo Pena when they need so much pitching. (Emphasis added).

Thanks for calling, Laura.

Update: Here's the kind of lineup I was referring to, courtesy retrosheet.org.

Game Played on Wednesday, July 26, 1989 (N) at Riverfront Stadium

SD N 0 0 0 2 1 0 0 1 1 - 5 12 1
CIN N 0 0 0 2 0 0 1 0 0 - 3 4 1

Cincinnati Reds AB R H RBI BB SO PO A
Duncan ss 4 1 1 1 0 1 4 3
Winningham cf 4 0 1 0 1 2 3 0
Benzinger 1b 3 1 0 0 0 0 8 0
Roomes rf 3 0 0 0 0 2 1 0
Youngblood lf 3 0 0 1 0 1 0 0
Griffey ph,lf 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0
Madison 3b 3 1 1 0 1 0 0 2
Oliver c 4 0 0 0 0 0 7 0
Quinones 2b 3 0 0 0 0 0 4 7
Mahler p 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 2
Richardson ph 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0
Franco p 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Davis ph 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0
Totals 30 3 4 2 4 6 27 14

SWEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP!!!!

The Reds bounced off the mat with a thrashing of the Nats at GABP, by a 12-3 count. Great performance. Good to have Ryan Freel back in the line up. Belisle pitched great in a pinch, with Harang suffering from the flu. First sweep since the opening series of the season. Hopefully, we can get some confidence back against some weaker teams over the next couple of weeks.

Reds Disable Wilson, Scratch Harang

Reds fans sweating the 13 pitchers can now breathe easier. Wilson has been placed onto the disabled list, with Jason THE SUCK BOY Romano called up. At least its a body, and Wilson has obivously been hurting for a while. Don't expect him back until after the All-star break.

Aaron Harang was scratched with the flu. Nevertheless, we appear to be close to a sweep.

Apparently, Sean Casey went onto Dan Patrick and whined about Graves being cut. Man, these guys no idea about the real world. If I sucked at my job as badly as Graves does, I'd be fired, too.

Celebrate! Two in a row! We win a series

It look a little extra time, and a freak hit (career first) by our pitcher, but the Reds won their first back to back game since mid-April, and assured themselves of their first series win since April. Every little bit helps.

I wonder if Danny Graves was smiling when Weathers blew the save in the ninth. Of course, with Danny, it would have been like five more runs and certain defeat, but there you go. Danny's too classy to react like that anyway.

It goes to show you what you can get when the starting pitching keeps you in the game, even if the bullpen blows up after that. Meanwhile, the Reds can get their first sweep since the opening series of the season.

One thing is for sure. Aaron Harang needs to pitch deep into the game, because the bullpen was taxed tonight.

Sean Casey may miss some time. Worst case scenario is if he's injured badly enough to not play but not badly enough to be placed onto the DL. We are already down to 12 position players, and if you pull Randa (foot) and Casey off the list, then your back up catcher is quite literally the only player on the bench.

Day game tomorrow and a quick turnaround for the guys.

Our Nightmare is Over

At 3:30 this afternoon, Dave Miley informed the media that Danny Graves had been released from the ballclub. Implicit in that is the message that the Reds are willing to pay him to do nothing rather than pay him to do worse.

I would have been fine putting him into the mop-up slot to see if things got better, but he has been really, really bad, and I can see why the club decided the time had come to let him go.

A couple notes. First, I hate that the bird in the dugout is being tied in with this. He decided to go because he was awful--flipping a fan off is nothing.

Second, the other players had an initial reaction that was not comforting. All season, there has been a palpable lack of crisis in how our guys have played, and they seemed to think Graves had some kind of right to a roster spot. Sean Casey (who is coming around), was more strong in this.

Fair enough. Sean is a clubhouse chemistry kind of guy. Casey did say one thing that was right. This wasn't the only thing wrong with this team.

Now, the secondary reaction from the players might have been a little better, because we had a good win over the Nats, who started the game 8.5 games better than our team. Milton finally pitched a good game, and Weathers got the close. I mentioned yesterday that we're hit a patch of a weak schedule, and it would be nice for morale and crowd support if we put some wins together. Winning a series would be nice, and we can get that done tomorrow.

Hopefully, at some point, the situation will stabilize, and an upward vector can begin. But we were 1-5 last week, and are 6-15 in May.