Reds sit atop Prospects Mountain and in 4th place.
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It’s FreeForAll Monday, kids, you’re going to have a great week. Today’s missive concerns the Iffy Reds before straying into cheap TVs, disappointing shows and scary movie scenes. All right here in This Space. And it don’t cost nothin’. Today. The rest of the time, it’s $8/month. Enjoy.
Someday, maybe someday soon, Noelvi Marte will be a good major-league ballplayer. The experts believe so. They love Marte’s potential. The experts never miss, yeah?
I don’t know about that. And as always, my crystal ball is in the shop, suffering from a significant case of the opaques.
What, Doc?
“Not able to be seen through. Not transparent.’’
You and I only know what we see. What we’re seeing is someone who has returned from an 80-game PED suspension to K 14 times in 41 plate appearances, and defensively play the baseball as if it’s ticking. Five errors in an 8-game stretch, including a decisive E Sunday.
Most troubling is Marte’s penchant for errant throws. If a physical issue becomes a mental fixation, uh oh.
Flash back to last September, when the experts were sure that the Reds 3B questions had been answered for at least the next six years. (At which time the Reds would parting-gift Marte to a team willing to pay him.)
What Marte was doing on the field was very good, but not as excellent as what his performance signified off the field. He was a bright-lights symbol of a new Reds era.
The Club had made the necessary transition from having no long-range plan to having an enviable stable of good, young, cheap talent. The kids were better than all right.
The problem with that thinking was the Club decided good kids was all it needed. Proven players cost too much. Besides, we have Marte.
He’s the current poster player for the If thinking that predominates at the Small Park. As much as any team in the league, the Reds operate from a position of If. IF Teams make overly optimistic assumptions based on scant track records and crossed fingers.
Meanwhile, WHEN Teams have players who have already excelled in the bigs. The Mets, for example, didn’t worry about Francisco Lindor’s horrible April and half-May, because Lindor was a 4-time all-star in his prime, who last year scored 108 runs and drove in 98 more.
He’s fine now, on pace to match last year’s output.
Prospects are only half the answer to winning. The Reds hoard them like Midas atop his throne of coins. It’s If Thinking personified.
If Marte and McLain can hit like last year. . .
If we can get a healthy year from Lodolo. . .
If Benson can make more contact. . .
If Ashcraft can pitch all year the way he did last July. . .
How many WHEN players are currently playing most days for the Reds?
I count three (Run-DLC, India and Steer), four if you include Candelario.
The pitching is a little better. Greene is becoming a When guy. So is Abbott. Lodolo’s already there, If he’s available.
A reason to have a lot of good prospects is, you can trade a few if you need to. Of course it’s risky to deal a promising If Guy for a solid When Man. Is it any riskier than going into a key stretch of a season with the lineup the Reds offered Sunday? (Espinal, Wynns, Benson, Dunn.)
Matt McLain was the Reds best player in ‘23. Noelvi Marte had the best September. Based on what Marte has done since returning from suspension, is there reason to be suspicious that McLain could suffer the same fate?
Of course there is.
IF Teams praise their prospects. WHEN Teams win games.
“We’re not selling off. We’re in this for the long run. We’re not tearing this down,’’ GM Brad Meador told the Enquirer recently.
In what for the long run?
Now, then. . .
WOW, BETTER THAN AMAZON. . . The Bengals are selling used TVs from PayJoe Stadium for ridiculously low prices. The county says they all work. Enquirer:
This Saturday between between 8 a.m. and noon, at Gate D on the Elm Street side of the plaza.
(curvedview.com)
The pricing:
24-39 inches for $30.
40-49 inches for $40.
50-55 inches for $50.
56-85 inches for $60.
The county said the TVs "were in working order when they were removed from the walls." Buyers need to bring cash in the exact amount. Mounting brackets will be available for free. Buyers will need to obtain their own universal remotes.
All TVs must be picked up at purchase. One TV per adult. No returns..
THE CONTACT PLAY IS STILL DUMB. I don’t care how many legit reasons DBell can offer in its defense. In a close game you’re losing, you don’t risk losing a runner at 3rd if you still have outs left.
Nor do I care that Blake Dunn “has the sixth-fastest average sprint speed in baseball this season,’’ per the Enquirer. Is he faster than an 80-foot throw from a third baseman to the plate?
Enquirer: Bell also pointed out that if Dunn had stayed at third base, then Stephenson would have ended up being out at first on the groundout. Regardless of the Reds’ approach, there would be two outs in the inning.
Yep, except the runner would be 90 feet from scoring the tying run, not 270 feet. This is simple, no?
“I like our approach and how we’ve done that,’’ Bell said.
Well OK, then.
BECAUSE TV IS MY LIFE. . .The Bear was arguably the best show on the toob last year. This year, it has suffered a predictable fate. Its creators were told how creative their show was, so they decided to make it. . . more creative! Forgetting that telling good stories is more important than making your show, I dunno, literary.
It’s just television.
The Bear has gone all artsy on us. Camera shots linger for no real purpose. Story stalls. (It’s the story, stupid.) Flashbacks, dream scenes, cutesy dialog. Ugh. Why give viewers glazed duck when the cheese steaks were fantastic?
BECAUSE MOVIES ARE also MY LIFE. . . The Ringer is a fun site, full of good writing. I excuse its NBA fascination and its eternal quest for hip-ness, partly because its lists are so good.
The newest list is Top 111 Scary Movie Moments, such as Father Merrin’s leap from Reagan McNeil’s bedroom window near the end of The Exorcist.
The list was complete, save one glaring omission. It happened near the end of a Top 5-ever scary movie, The Strangers. The Strangers is about, well, a group of strangers who terrorize a couple spending the night in their cabin in the woods.
SPOILER ALERT, SHOULD YOU WANNA CKITOUT.
The couple sits bound and staring at death. The strangers are still in costume masks.
‘Why are you doing this to us?’’ the tied-up woman asks.
“Because you were home,’’ a stranger replies.
Chilling to the marrow.
I think of that line every time we venture to our own cabin in the woods, out east.
QUESTION O’ THE DAY. . . The backyard deer have dead-headed the last of the impatiens that formerly lived in the pots on the patio. Rather than buy sprays that don’t work or sit vigil at 3 AM with an air rifle, I bought a bunch of deer-resistant plants. Lantana, heliotrope, alyssum, to be exact. Two weeks now, no signs of deer.
But I love the impatiens and the thought of plunking Bambi in the short ribs with, I dunno, a dirt clod, is not entirely unappealing.
So, all you Davys and Dan’ls out there. . . Do you have a sort-of weapon you use on deer? A discourage-r, a deterrent, one that leaves ‘em with nothing more than a bruise? Do tell.
TUNE O’ THE DAY. . . Tunes conjure memories, of course. It’s a big part of music’s allure. Something pops up on Sirius and you’re instantly back in time. It happened to me Sunday. This one took me back to my senior year of high school in suburban DC. Early May to be exact, just a few weeks before graduation. My buddy David Orochena and I, ditching school to hang out at Great Falls, drink a few beers and soak in some rays.
Your tunes/memories are welcome.
Intersperse impatiens among the lantana, heliotrope, and alyssum. Maybe try Russian sage? Bees and hummingbirds love the stuff but deer think it stinks.
I totally agree about The Bear. The first two seasons were fantastic, and then the creators decided to believe all the (mostly deserved) hype. The reviewers constantly labeled it an "important" show. I hate when critics label movies or tv shows as "important." The first aim should be entertainment. Then, let its importance be evaluated by historians 50 years from now.
One of the reviews of this season that stuck with me was: "The central premise of the show has not been developed enough to support all this messing around. Storer seems more eager to show us what he can do on a technical level than he is in holding The Bear together as a cohesive, discrete series." (Vanity Fair)
TV suggestion: If you're looking for a reasonably mind-bending good time, check out Dark Matter on Apple TV. Yes, it plays into the multi-verse craze that somehow took over entertainment in the last 5 years, but at least it's an adult show without super heroes in stretch pants.
As for the Reds, I gave up over 15 years ago when Marty Brennaman was asked if he thought the Reds would ever win a series in his life time. He sadly and honestly said no. I still listen on the radio because it remains to be an entertaining pastime. And I have so many good childhood memories with the Reds. But I don't understand the notion of caring about a sports team that will never have any chance to win.
If Doc or anyone reads this ridiculously-long post, could someone explain why MLB will never have a true salary cap? I'm pretty ignorant of the inside strategies of baseball. I know the rich teams don't want a salary cap. I know it has something to do with TV contracts. I try to research it and get 8,000 different answers. As far as I'm concerned, it's a dying sport. America loves the NFL because, supposedly, every team has a chance to win it all every few years.
I used to love baseball until reality set in. Is it simply a matter that the Yankees and Dodgers won't allow a truly competitive league? Thanks in advance.