Thin-cinnati

Last season, the Cincinnati Reds' lineup was well-built and worthy of success, while their pitching rotation was dilapidated and pathetic.

This year...they don't even have a good lineup. So yeah...so much for the progress we all thought they were making.

The problem might be that even the people that we KNOW are great at baseball, like Joey Votto and Billy Hamilton, aren't playing well right now. Billy Hamilton, Adam Duvall, Devon Mesoraco...all hitting under the Mendoza line. Scooter Gennett and Jesse Winker are playing well enough, but aren't completely excelling. Eugenio Suarez is injured. The rotation's slightly less dire, thanks to the presence of Homer Bailey, but the rest? Not worth it. Even Brandon Finnegan, whose slight health last season was one of the few good pitching moments for the team...even HE'S slumping this season.

Plus, in a division where the other four teams are furiously competing and winning games, these pathetic Reds aren't worthy of matching up, which is sad, as there was some real promise in this lineup last year. Now I'm not sure when they'll be able to compete again, or how many more of these starters will be traded until we get results. It's very sad to watch.

Coming Tomorrow: Catcher who's finally found some job stability...on an improving but still unspectacular AL West squad.

4 Home Runs...and that's about it...

Well, it looks like this division's finally sorted itself out. Unfortunately, that means the pitching-less Reds are in 5th place.

Look, it's sad, because the lineup's actually still pretty nice. Joey Votto's having his best season since his MVP, the infield of Votto-Peraza-Cosart-Suarez (with occasional assists from Scooter Gennett and his ability to hit 4 home runs in a game) works well as an infield, Scott Schebler and Adam Duvall are still hitting, Billy Hamilton's still one of the best base-stealers in baseball, Tucker Barnhart's doing well in the starting catcher spot, and holy crap that's the whole lineup isn't it?

That's the worst part- this is a great lineup searching for a better pitching staff. They're in last, and while they're not too far from the Pirates, at least the Pirates have Ivan Nova, Jameson Taillon and Gerrit Cole. The Reds have absolutely nobody. And this total lack of pitching is probably going to continue further into the season, unless Brandon Finnegan returns on a hot streak from the DL.

This pitching thing is gonna take a few years to completely rectify, which means that by the time they get a passable rotation, the Reds may have already traded away most of this lineup. No matter the outcome, it's not gonna end well.

Still, Reds fans at least have Joey Votto and Scooter Gennett to make them feel good now. It just might not last long.

Coming Tomorrow- Last year he was catching for my team until a hot rookie came along. Now he's somewhere arguably better than the Bronx, on his way to a potential starting ASG spot.

Uncustomed Heroes of 2016: Brewers

The Brewers are...kind of sad these days. Their farm system's been struggling, as the guys they're bringing up aren't really doing the job, and the few veterans they have are, like, 2-3 year veterans like Scooter Gennett. It's getting pretty dire, and hopefully something's gonna happen soon. Meanwhile, Gennett had a pretty nice season, and is still a nice infield bat.

Chase Anderson was an import from Arizona, and did a pretty nice job as a part of the surprisingly-good rotation. He's got some improvement to come, but he's still promising enough.

Zach Davies was another nice, relatively young arm that held up the rotation this year, and like Anderson, he did well enough to get a pretty guaranteed gig next year. Not sure how he fits into the future, but he'll do for now.

Coming Tomorrow- Time to talk about the St. Louis Cardinals. I'll try to hold back.