Let’s talk baseball
ByHello again to my gathering of loyal readers. This week will be devoted to the sport of baseball and my beloved Reds. At this writing, the Reds have lost 6 of 7 games in interleague play and have scored only 7 runs in the past 4 games. They are getting solid pitching by and large, especially from Leake, Cueto, and Arroyo. Wood and Volquez have been spotty but have had their moments. The hitting, however, has been sorely lacking. Votto and the catchers have been solid, but Phillips and Bruce are slumping. 3rd base, shortstop, and left field have yielded very little production and Stubbs strikes out too much at leadoff. With Sappelt and Cozart hitting well of Louisville, it’s time to give them a chance. Sappelt is a fast base hitter who doesn’t rely on hitting it out of the park. The Reds badly need people who just get on base to achieve some consistency.
It seems re-alignment is a hot topic these days. Two issues seem to be fueling this. One is the unfairness of the unbalanced schedule and divisions with differing number of teams. I totally agree this is unfair, especially to the Reds, and needs to be corrected. The second issue fueling this is the desire for expanded playoffs by teams in divisions stuck with perennial powerhouses such as the Yankees, Red Sox, and Phillies. I am OK with adding a 5th playoff team from each league as long as the playoffs conclude by the end of October. Realignment suggestions have mostly centered on moving either the Astros or Diamondbacks to the American League. I think the Astros would be the better choice since they have never won a World Series and would leave the NL central with five teams and balance the divisions. I am not in favor of putting all the teams together in two big leagues. It is not good for fans to have their team be in 14th place and 25 games out at the All-Star break. The only drawback to two 15 team leagues is the need for one interleague series all season long. I don’t like this but can live with it as long as the number of interleague games are not increased and the September matchups are scheduled between lower-ranked non-contending teams. Six 5-team divisions seems like the best solution to me so they will probably do something different.
Until next week, Doc.
