For those of you who, like me, were listening to the 700 WLW radio broadcast of the Reds' Wild Card game last night during the 8th inning, Hall of Fame broadcaster Marty Brennaman gave public voice to something I have been saying privately to a handful of you over the past season or so:
"There are no big-game players on this ballclub."
The Reds roster as currently constructed has many good and great players; current and future All-Stars, a half-dozen or more team Hall of Famers and probably one Cooperstown Hall of Famer. These good and great players produce impressive statistics over the course of a 162-game schedule for which they should be rightly appreciated, and our four leading position players (Bruuuuuce, Cin-Soo Choo, Dat Dude BP & MVP minus The Brass Monkey who experienced a lost 2013 season due to the shoulder injury which he suffered on opening day and from which he still is recovering) each had superlative, 2013 seasons; two had 100-RBI seasons, two reached base over 300 times, one had 30 home runs. Three starting pitchers won 14 games, one threw his second career no-hitter. Both on the pitching staff and among the position players, the Reds have personnel which are regarded as being the best in the National League.
This ball club can win 90 games in its sleep.
But when the days grow short and the calendar turns to October, the wheels fall off.
When in 2010 the core of this then-young ball club first reached the playoffs in the Great American Ball Park era, they subjugated themselves to the Phillies' Doc Halladay and were compliant victims of only the second postseason no-hitter in MLB history in Game 1 of that season's NLDS. In Game 2 of the 2010 NLDS our lauded defense was charged with 4 errors committed by our leading defenders; one error each by Scottie Rolen and Bruuuuuce, two errors charged to Dat Dude Fan Favorite. For Game 3 the Reds returned home and made their last stand with a 5-hit, no runs, two errors effort and were swept effortlessly from the 2010 playoffs.
During spring training in 2011 we heard platitudes about learning from the experience and being better prepared. In 2011, the Reds finished third in the Division with a sub-.500 record. No playoffs.
In 2012 the Reds won the N.L. Central with a 97-win season, a nearly completely healthy roster and every opportunity to claim the franchise's sixth World Championship. Up two games to none on the eventual champion Giants of San Francisco, the Reds came home needing to win only one of the final three games to move onto the NLCS - home to GABP where they hadn't lost three games in a row all season long - and promptly scored 8 runs over those three games and having reliever Big Boy Broxton give up a heart-breaking go-ahead run to the Giants in the top of the ninth of Game 3 and in the deciding Game 5 Phat Mat surrendered a clinching upper deck grand slam to a guy named Buster. What killed the Reds in the 2012 NLDS was their consistent inability to hit, to produce, with runners in scoring position. Jelly-legged pitchers didn't make matters any better.
This spring in Goodyear, Arizona we heard from the players that they learned from the experience, that you can't let an opponent up of the mat, that you have to have the killer instinct, smell blood in the water, keep your boot on the neck of the other ball club and assorted other triteness from 101 Sports Cliches.
In a 3-way battle for the American League Wild Card this season, the Texas Rangers won seven of their final eight regular season games, including seven in a row to force a Game 163 "playin." The Cleveland Indians, who hadn't made the playoffs since 2007, and who were in the fight of their lives, won 10 straight to conclude their season and hold onto the top A.L. Wild Card spot. By contrast, the Reds - with everything still to win (Division title, home Wild Card game) - lost 5 straight to conclude their 2013 regular season schedule (including being swept at home by their Wild Card rival Pirates), lost 6 of their last 8 and lost 10 of their last 18 including losing 2 of 3 at home to the toothless Cubs, losing 2 of 3 to the hop-less Brewers and losing 2 of 3 at home to the no-account Mets. This team was just spinning its wheels since August 13th.
The crucible of postseason pressure causes this Reds team to fold up like a cheap card table.
For the month of September, the Brass Monkey batted .224, Bruuuuce .222 and Dat Dude Show Boat .211.
Over their respective final 10 games of the 2013 season:
--- The Brass Monkey batted .184 with zero home runs and 4 RBI and with no hits over his last 5 games.
--- Bruuuuuce batted .179 with zero home runs.
--- Dat Dude Style Over Substance batted .231 with zero home runs and only 2 RBI.
--- MVP batted .226 with one home run and 3 RBI.
--- Cin-Soo Choo batted .235.
Homie lost his last two starts of 2013, both against the Pirates. Fat Mat had two losses and a no-decision over his last 3 starts of the 2013 season. Yo-Yo got hammered at home by the Pirates in his last start of the season, his last start as a Cincinnati Red. Six-Run Leake lost at home to the Mets in his last start of the season. Johnny Cueto has started playoff games in three different years - 2010, 2012 and 2013. His next postseason victory will be his first.
Last night's one-and-done Wild Card debacle was more of the same out of this ball club; no clutch hitting, fielders misplaying routine balls at critical junctures, pitchers who crumble under the pressure of October baseball. Following our Opening Day defeat this year, I wrote the following conclusion in an email to the Paleo Rider:
I hear [your] position about not extrapolating Opening Day onto the remainder of the 161 game schedule, but - dadgumit - the last 3 games I saw at GABP (the 2012 NLDS) we played a playoff caliber team (Captain Obvious, here) under bright spotlight, big game circumstances and could not hit with RISP [runners in scoring position]. On Opening Day this year we played a playoff caliber team in the bright spotlight of a big game and went 0-for-10 with RISP. ALL AT HOME. Colour me British spelling cynical until this roster proves they can produce runs the old fashioned way; hitting with RISP.
Since moving into GABP in 2003, the Reds have played in 3 postseasons, three of their last four seasons in fact. They have yet to win a playoff game at home. The Pirates haven't had a playoff game since 1992 and in their first home playoff game in 21 years they achieve victory for their hometown fans at PNC Park.
The guy I am most sympathetic towards today is my good friend Robert (he lets me call him "Bob") Castellini. He's doing everything he can to develop, acquire and retain premium players and to bring championship baseball back to River City. He must have been sick last night by the grim look upon his visage in the late innings.
This Reds roster, as currently constructed, has no heart. Summer soldiers and sunshine patriots, to borrow a quote from Founding Father Thomas Paine.
Yet..... all hope is not lost.
In 1970 the Reds lost the World Series 4 games to 1.
In 1971 they failed to make the playoffs.
In 1972 the Reds lost the World Series 4 games to 3.
In 1973 the Reds lost in the NLCS 3 games to 2.
A similar pattern has emerged here; 2010 playoffs, 2011 no postseason, then a return to the playoffs in 2012 and 2013. The 1974 Reds did not make the postseason but their exploits in 1975 and 1976 are legendary and many of the same questions we have about the current Reds ball club are an echo of doubts that engulfed public perception of the Big Red Machine prior to the 1975 World Series.
I see glorious days ahead for the Cincinnati Reds.
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