Before this season, I was a skeptic.
Believing In The Redlegs
About the Cincinnati Reds, I mean.
I might have been right about the Reds. Then again, I might not have been. At the moment, I’m leaning toward not.
Why? For one thing, the Reds have the best run differential (+41) in their division.
For another, when I look at these fourth-place Reds -- granted, they’re only three games out of first place -- I see some real upside.
Three of Cincinnati's starters -- Bronson Arroyo, Edinson Volquez, and Travis Wood -- have earned-run averages higher than 5, but all three are better pitchers than that.*
* In fact, Wood has lost his rotation slot, but is still a good pitcher and is available as rotation depth when the Reds need him.
Homer Bailey's pitched well, but has been limited to six starts by injury. He's back now.
Since returning from the minors, lefty reliever Aroldis Chapman has struck out five hitters in two innings. We don't know that he's really back yet, but the early returns are good.
Among the hitters, Jay Bruce, Joey Votto and Ramon Hernandez have been outstanding. But two of those are hardly surprising, while the Reds have a number of hitters -- Paul Janish and Scott Rolen, in particular -- with reasonable chances of hitting better than they have.
Then of course there's the competition. Without Adam Wainwright and Albert Pujols, the Cardinals look decidedly un-Cardinalsian. And while the Brewers look good on paper, their run differential (+17) is unimpressive and it's far from clear that Yuniesky Betancourt or Carlos Gomez or Casey McGehee will ever hit.
Okay, so my money's still on the Brewers. But this did look like a three-team race entering the season, and almost halfway through it's still a three-team race (with apologies to the Pirates) and the winner's probably going to be whichever team is healthy and has the most pitching depth. Right now, that team looks a lot like the Cincinnati Reds.
For much more about the Reds, please visit Red Reporter.
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