Everything seems to be mounting up all at once and not slowing down. From the incompetence of the manager, injuries, overworked starting rotation giving up runs early and a bullpen that is gassed. 4 pitchers on 1 team have pitched the 5 most games of any reliever all season and the front office did next to nothing to stop the bleeding in the bullpen. Cincinnati does not have that killer instinct to come back in games right now that was there earlier in the summer and will just lay down and die when teams run up a big lead on them. The issues of not having the same energy from earlier in the year falls on leadership to figure out how to get back to that point. Not sure I trust Bell is going to be able to do it before this team finds themselves in a much deeper hole out of the race like 2021 when they fell off post All-Star Break. Now twice contending teams are falling apart in 3 years with Bell with a veteran team then and a young, talented team now. They definitely are ahead of schedule in development but quite a few of these losses are much more than rookies and injuries but the managerial decisions.
Krall & ownership failed to address the starting rotation over the offseason believing it was okay to start the year with Cessa & Overton at the 4th-5th spot and did nothing again at the deadline knowing this is the time of year to skip starts & shutdown rookies for their workload management. Played it too conservative when smaller trades could have been made for back end starters and a setup reliever or two. Then again expecting the front office to make the trades at the deadline for impact players to significantly change the course of the franchise would be delusional. Will never be big spenders like New York, Atlanta, Chicago or LA. Did not really add anyone impactful in 2021 either when they were trying to contend instead of rebuilding. Both teams dealt with injuries and the front office did little to address the issues. Pieced together a rotation on a hope and a prayer that Weaver is somehow a quality major league starting pitcher and Lively being out of MLB for 5 years was a gamble in of itself that for the most part has paid off until the last start. Cincinnati is getting what they paid for right now.
They need India's presence back on the field and enough of the Senzel & Newman experience. I said earlier in the season when India trade talks are brought up, better know what you have first in all of these prospects before trading India with the leadership he brings to this Reds team. Rookies have hit the 'rookie wall' and are making mistakes that weren't happening in June and most of July. Doesn't help when you have veterans like Senzel screwing it all up and playing Pirates scraps like Kevin Newman.
Still obviously high on EDLC, McLain, Steer, Benson, CES. India should bounce back after healing up and getting some rest. Expected more out of Stephenson offensively at this point. Reds will probably stay status quo in the outfield with Friedl top 10 in the NL batting avg & Fraley 2nd on the team with 15 HRs, most RBIs with 63. Both are good players, ideally your 3rd best outfielder in a lineup on a deep team. Why not look to upgrade there with all of these infield prospects who will never make it to Cincinnati and go trade next year for an outfielder who would have 20 + HR & 80 RBIs at this point in the season. An impact outfielder to go along with Benson, plus Fraley/Friedl would give this team much needed depth.
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