All Star Break Breakdown, Successful Draft

July 15 arrived quick and for baseball fans, it’s sad to see that the season is more than halfway over. The good news though? The Cincinnati Reds are very much still alive with a record of 47-50. While it wasn’t an ideal start to the year and as we know, injuries have plagued this roster, but all things considered, Cincinnati is in an “ok” spot at the break. Let’s take a look at some quick facts and comments on the first half of the season:

· The Cincinnati Reds are eight games back from the first place Brewers in the NL Central, but just three games back from a Wild Card spot. The two series after the break could change this in a hurry.

· TJ Friedl will be returning after the break, Matt McLain is looking at a possible return next month, and the shocking performance of Rece Hinds has given this team even more hope than it had just a week ago.

· Outside of Brandon Williamson and now Graham Ashcraft, the main pitching core of Lodolo, Greene, Abbott and Montas is still intact.

· Jonathan India has been the best hitter in baseball for a month and a half. Let’s hope the bat stays hot when he returns.

· If Will Benson and Jake Fraley could turn it on and get back to playing to the caliber that we know they are capable of, Cincinnati could have a chance to really make up some ground.

· Elly De La Cruz leads the team in hits with 92. For his first full year in the majors, I think that we all should be pretty ecstatic.

· For all the teams fighting for a Wild Card spot, Cincinnati has the second highest run differential of +38. Those one-run games can’t go the opposite way forever.

· Since his return, Noelvi Marte has been very bad with a .175 average, one home run, and an OPS of .463. If this team is going to make a run for it, Marte has to kick it into gear fast.

MLB Draft

The Cincinnati Reds held the second pick in the draft this past Sunday, along with the 51st pick and 71st pick. With the second pick in the draft, Cincinnati drafted the best pitcher in the country in Chase Burns. Let me start by saying this, for the life of me, I can’t understand the “always grumpy” Reds fan. They literally drafted someone with better numbers than Paul Skenes did out of college. Furthermore, I would bet 98% of people complaining haven’t sat and watched a full college game outside of the World Series this year and can’t even name 10 players in college baseball. I know I can’t and I am the first to admit it. Of course, Condon has the numbers of Babe Ruth, and maybe it will be a regret in the future. Who knows? But, I definitely am not going to take time to be mad that we just drafted what many believe to be a top 10 pitcher in the last decade of college baseball. Let’s go over some facts and comments here:

· Chase Burns had a 51% whiff rate and 30% chase rate in 2024, both exceeding what Paul Skenes did in 2023.

· Right handed batters, per Bryce Spalding, hit .127 with a 54% strikeout rate against Burns in 2024. Holy!

· Burns struck out 16 batters against Clemson this year who held a record of 17-7 at the time.

· Burns led all D1 pitchers with 191 strikeouts in 100 innings pitched, 17.2K/9.

· In the month of May, he held a 0.34 ERA with 57 strikeouts.

· Pitchers don’t want to sign to play half their games in GABP. Keeping a steady young core ready is an absolute necessity for this organization.

· Stop being mad for no reason. The grouchy Reds fan and mad about everything fan is bizarre to me. Breathe some fresh air.

· Danny Graves stated that Burns can pitch in the big leagues immediately. He stated his stuff is absolutely electric. I’ll trust Danny Graves.

· Google the inflated offensive numbers in college baseball and the difficulty in assessing college batters.

To add to the draft class, Cincinnati drafted Tyson Lewis (SS) out of high school and RHP Luke Holman out of LSU. Tyson Lewis became the highest drafted high dchool player in state history, as he was the Nebraska Gatorade Player of the Year with a .496 average. No, I didn’t know who he was until yesterday and neither did 99.9% of Reds fans I would assume. Luckily, there are people in place for this sort of thing. Luke Holman was a projected top 40 pick that slid all the way back to 71. He had childhood cancer, has battled through adversity, and was top three in ERA, strikeouts, and opponent BA in the SEC last season.

Last year, the Reds took Rhett Lowder with the seventh pick in the draft, 2022 they drafted Cam Collier, 2021 they drafted Matt McLain, 2020 they drafted Austin Hendrick (bust at this point), 2019 Nick Lodolo, 2018 they drafted Jonathan India, 2017 they drafted Hunter Greene, 2016 they drafted Nick Senzel, and 2015 they drafted Tyler Stephenson. Maybe, just maybe, respect what they have been able to do with their first picks and just how good the front office has been at their selections.

Rece Hinds

I couldn’t go an entire article without talking about Rece Hinds. Holy smokes, what an entrance into the big leagues. Multi-homer game, grand slam, five total home runs, nine total XBH, and a game with all three types of XBH’s. Nobody in MLB history has done that in any point of their career. Not Babe Ruth, not Albert Pujols, not Shohei Ohtani, nobody. Of course, this isn’t going to last and his numbers will fall eventually. Heck, he might not even stay up on the big league roster come 30 games from now. I do know one thing though, I don’t want to miss a single at-bat of his right now. His power is remarkable, his energy is contagious, and he is the spark the Reds needed over the last week. I think Hinds is going to do everything in his power to stay up on this roster and for now, he is doing a pretty swell job at it.

Enjoy the All-Star Break everyone and thank you for reading. Go Reds!