When I went to the Great American Ball Park this summer to see the Reds, I was not expecting much. The team was in last, the pitching was floundering, and it didn't feel like there would be a lot of life in this team.
And...I was sort of right. There's not a ton of life in this Reds team. If there was more life, they'd be chasing the offensive. But there is a ton of charm in this team. Especially in its lineup, where Joey Votto, Scooter Gennett, Eugenio Suarez and Jose Peraza all sported some phenomenal numbers. Even defensive specialists, like Tucker Barnhart and Billy Hamilton, did a bang-up job throughout. And even though walkoff hero Jesse Winker hit the DL halfway through the year, Phil Ervin and Mason Williams did well enough as home run-producing bench players, the latter proving that there is indeed life after being a bench player in the bronx.
The pitching was still pretty bad, but there were some exceptions: Matt Harvey managed to recapture his better numbers after a mid-season trade from New York, Luis Castillo and Tyler Mahle have kept serviceable numbers, and Raisel Iglesias and Jared Hughes have been fun to watch in the bullpen. They just need to work on...literally everything else about pitching. And then they'll be in better shape.
Looking to 2019, with the likelihood of some NL Central contenders regressing a little bit, we could see the Reds squirm out of fifth. It's a nice thing to hope for, even if it may not happen, but...I dunno, if they keep the right people around, I'm not calling it impossible.
Coming Tomorrow- A journeyman starter-turned-reliever-turned-starter-again, doing his best to finish out the season for a playoff hopeful that didn't exactly pan out.
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