2009 Cincinnati Reds Season Thread

[gman5431]

So, i'm taking it upon myself to start a thread for following the Reds through the 2009 season. Right now, i'm super excited about the team. Hopefully their level of play will keep my spirits up as we go through the dog days of summer here in the Nati. Without further ado....

April 6th is Opening Day. I plan on going down for the parade, popping over to Izzys for a famous corn beef sammie and potatoe pancake and then back home to watch the game with friends and family. Its supposed to be highs in low 40s and rainy. Possibly will snow Monday night. Seems like recent Opening Days have all been cold and rainy.

Anyways, to the game - the Reds start Aaron Harang. I'm glad they are still letting the Hoss get the nod for the Opening day start. To me, he is the big piece of the season - if he bounces back to pre 2008 form - the Reds will be in the thick of it. He is opposed by Johan Santana, who argueably is the best pitcher in baseball. Earlier in the spring it looked like we might get lucky and not get Johan on Opening Day, but he got back on track so here we are.

After an off day on Tuesday, they come back for a night game Wednesday night. Who is going to pitch that game? In past years Arroyo has thrown game # 2 but i have heard Edinson will get that duty. Only problem i see with that is then Arroyo may be pitching the Thursday day game and he has been dreadful in days games since coming to the Reds. Who is going to start for the Mets in games 2 and 3? I think Pelfry and Perez but i am not sure. Anyhow, going against Johan is tough of course but i'm hoping we can hold serve and take 2 of 3 at home like we did against AZ last year.

PLAY BALL !!!

G Rizzle

[Brad Harris]

Seems like recent Opening Days have all been cold and rainy.

Rain seems to always be a portent of bad things to come for the team. 1999. Game 163. It poured for days before that game - I got drenched standing in line for tickets the night before - and we ended a promising season in a humiliating two-hit shutout. The next spring, I got drenched marching in the Opening Day parade, sitting in a wet seat to see Junior's Cincinnati debut only to watch Dante Bichette embarrass himself rolling his fat rear in the slick right field grass before the game was cancelled and rescheduled for the following day.

Bad omen. Let's pray for sunshine this year.

[Brutus26]

ESPN radio earlier in the week made predictions for the season and they predicted the Mets to win the Wildcard but said the Reds will be a darkhorse and be in the Wildcard race. I think this opening series will allow us to see how well we compare to the Mets by that standard. It is obviously early but good to see where we stand.

[redlegsfan21]

Changed title and stickied

[Extra Innings]

Not a bad outing by Harang. He gave up the Murphy HR, but it is 30 something degrees out there.

[gman5431]

He battled. 114 pitches to get thru 5 innings isnt what you want but he toughed it out and didnt budge. He was continually in trouble, i think they stranded like 9-11 runners in his 5 innings but all he let score was the homer. A few of the hits off of him were infield dribblers and bloops. All in all, i like what i saw from Harangatang and i'm feeling better about our chances of having or ole Hoss back.

The offense was non existant. They couldnt get anything going against Joahn, but who can? Once they got him out of there i felt good about their chances against the Mets pen but they couldnt dent the plate. 3.1 shutout innings. Bruce really let me down with the weak dribbler to lead off the 9th against the over rated K Rod. Anyhow, as far as losses go, they did a lot right but a loss is a loss. We got Edinson taking the bump Wed nite!

G Man

[Extra Innings]

He battled. 114 pitches to get thru 5 innings isnt what you want but he toughed it out and didnt budge. He was continually in trouble, i think they stranded like 9-11 runners in his 5 innings but all he let score was the homer. A few of the hits off of him were infield dribblers and bloops. All in all, i like what i saw from Harangatang and i'm feeling better about our chances of having or ole Hoss back.

The offense was non existant. They couldnt get anything going against Joahn, but who can? Once they got him out of there i felt good about their chances against the Mets pen but they couldnt dent the plate. 3.1 shutout innings. Bruce really let me down with the weak dribbler to lead off the 9th against the over rated K Rod. Anyhow, as far as losses go, they did a lot right but a loss is a loss. We got Edinson taking the bump Wed nite!

G Man

I guess that's why Johan is one of the best pitchers in the game today. The bats were cold like the weather and Votto/Bruce/Phillips couldn't get a thing going. Didn't you go to the game? Did the weather prevent alot of people from going?

[redlegsfan21]

I guess that's why Johan is one of the best pitchers in the game today. The bats were cold like the weather and Votto/Bruce/Phillips couldn't get a thing going. Didn't you go to the game? Did the weather prevent alot of people from going?

I went and stayed the whole 9 innings but when they announced the official attendance, I knew no way. The said 42,000 but I would guess about 25-30 thousand showed up.

[gman5431]

I went to the parade and it was cold and getting colder. I didnt have tickets because i would much rather watch Opening Day at home then pay $50 or more. I'll go to the Wednesday night game for $5 along with other real fans. Opening Day is always sold out but like a lot of events that are sold out, the actual attendance can be much lower. From what i heard with the weather there were plenty of open seats.

G MAn

[Brutus26]

Not a bad game, pitching was good offense was meh and the defense wasn't spectacular but its the first game and it was freezing cold. Still 161 on these things left! I would have liked to have seen Dickerson in the lineup as well as Taveras, don't knwo if it would have helped or not but Taveras should be back Wed and don't know about Dickerson/Mcdonald/Hairston?

[gman5431]

Not a bad game, pitching was good offense was meh and the defense wasn't spectacular but its the first game and it was freezing cold. Still 161 on these things left! I would have liked to have seen Dickerson in the lineup as well as Taveras, don't knwo if it would have helped or not but Taveras should be back Wed and don't know about Dickerson/Mcdonald/Hairston?

Dickerson didnt play because he is a lefty swinger and Johan was pitching. McDonald got the start because Taveras was ill. Reports are Wily will be ready by Wednesday night. In any event, McDonald did score their only run (but also committed an error). I would expect to see Dickerson in left on Wednesday and McDonald and Hairston on the bench.

G Man

[Brutus26]

Dickerson didnt play because he is a lefty swinger and Johan was pitching. McDonald got the start because Taveras was ill. Reports are Wily will be ready by Wednesday night. In any event, McDonald did score their only run (but also committed an error). I would expect to see Dickerson in left on Wednesday and McDonald and Hairston on the bench.

G Man

Yea i seen that about Dickerson and Taveras. I was really looking forward to seeing those 2 especially Dickerson. I'm not sure why he just gives me a good vibe. So hopefully that will mean something! lol

[gman5431]

As i thought, Dickerson is playing tonite. I want to go down because Edinson (my boy) is pitching but its supposed to be 35 degrees by game time with possible chance of some rain. May just go watch it at the bar.

G Man

[Brutus26]

As i thought, Dickerson is playing tonite. I want to go down because Edinson (my boy) is pitching but its supposed to be 35 degrees by game time with possible chance of some rain. May just go watch it at the bar.

G Man

It will be good to see him start. I'm hoping to catch it on tv but it looks like FSN OH is going to show the Bluejackets game instead. Don't know, that may change last minute or they may split it up on a different channel. They used to do that for the Indians before they went to STO. If all else fails i got the radio! I'll have to do that at work tomorrow anyway.

[redlegsfan21]

I went to the parade and it was cold and getting colder. I didnt have tickets because i would much rather watch Opening Day at home then pay $50 or more. I'll go to the Wednesday night game for $5 along with other real fans. Opening Day is always sold out but like a lot of events that are sold out, the actual attendance can be much lower. From what i heard with the weather there were plenty of open seats.

G MAn

I will say that Opening Day is probably the only day I could convince my boss to let me have a day off. I kinda wish we played more day games because I could go to a lot of weekday day games.

[gman5431]

Another tough fight and another lose. Looked a little rough last nite and my boy Jay Bruce has been letting me down. Getting picked off on the fake to third, throw to first play that hasnt work since Abner was a little boy and then falling down in the OF? C'mon Jay Bird ! Anyways, we got Bronson on the bump here in about 4 hours, hoping to salvage something from the series.

We had over rated K Rod on the ropes last nite but couldnt KO him

G Man

[Gravy Train]

Even though he made an error (a somewhat understandable one) yesterday, it is so nice to see Alex Gonzalez back at SS. I'm really looking forward to watching him in the field all season long.

[gman5431]

Even though he made an error (a somewhat understandable one) yesterday, it is so nice to see Alex Gonzalez back at SS. I'm really looking forward to watching him in the field all season long.

Yeah, that error was crucial - as was the strikeout with the bases loaded in the 9th. But, it is good to have him back.

G Man

[Brutus26]

Yea tough one and Bruce is off to a rougher start than i had hoped. K-Rod really struggled but i was impressed that he came back on those last 2 batters and threw some nasty pitches. But with the bases loaded with 1 out we should have gotten some runs. I really thought the ball nix hit at the end was gone at the first crack!

[Gravy Train]

Forgot to mention, I loved Jeff Brantley's chocolate ice cream story last night.

[Brutus26]

Forgot to mention, I loved Jeff Brantley's chocolate ice cream story last night.

I missed that one. I was hit and miss with the game last night and bounced between radio and tv.

[Gravy Train]

I missed that one. I was hit and miss with the game last night and bounced between radio and tv.

The gist of it was, don't fall asleep in bed while eating a bowl of chocolate ice cream!

[gman5431]

The gist of it was, don't fall asleep in bed while eating a bowl of chocolate ice cream!

Haha, thats funny. I missed that too but it makes Thom's comment this afternoon of the Cowboy falling asleep with ice cream on his "boiler" make a lot more sense.

G Man

[Brutus26]

lol, i can imagine doing that! Hey by they way what have they done to our offense! They're alive!

[gman5431]

Offense is going to be fine. Its better than most people think. Edwin and Bruce havent even began to hit yet. Anyways, pulled our first win today, 8-6. Bullpen did pretty well, esp Coco who struck out the side to lock down the game and garner his first save.

G MAn