It's hard not to jump

[Jamie_B]

http://georgevogel.blogspot.com/2010/06/its-hard-not-to-jump.html

[quote]It's Hard Not To Jump
By George Vogel


It's very hard to be a Reds fan right now and not jump off the ledge. They have lost six of their last seven games. In three of those losses they were shutout, and they scored a total of six runs in the six losses. So the offense has gone to sleep. Teams go through swoons, but the Reds are swooning at a terrible time. While losing games to Kansas City and Seattle, the real heavyweights are lying in wait on the horizon. A team that is destined to make the playoffs would have chewed up the competition in the past two weeks. But in the last 14 games, the Reds have a 5-9 record. Ten of those 14 games were at home. There is time to get it together, but the Reds have blown a golden opportunity by losing to teams they should have handled. Now they will have to turn it around against teams that present some hurdles to overcome. Oakland is 21-13 at home. Cleveland should provide a respite next weekend at GABP, then three at home against the talented Phillies. After that, THE TRIP, an 11 game road trip that will decide the Reds fate this season.

It was good to see Aaron Harang give the Reds a clutch performance. But two things stick out: Harang really needs to pitch in a ball park like Safeco Field where the fly ball isn't such a bad thing. And 110 pitches in six innings? The big guy still needs to find a way to be more efficient and get deeper into games.[/quote]

[Jason]

Honestly I'm not terribly concerned [b]right now[/b]. The Reds have struggled against west coast teams, especially on the west coast for a long time. Fortunately the Cardinals aren't playing very well either.

Now, if the Reds come home and get swept by the Indians, [b]THEN[/b] I will be concerned.

[JBandJoeyV]

Funny that Jamie posted this article...1/2

Just messin with you jamie, not trying to start an argument.

But my opinion on this whole thing, yeah we are sucking right now. Do I think we can contend through September? Honestly I dont know. Are we the team that had a dominant May, or the team that is having a terrible June. Honestly we are probably somewhere in between.

I still think we have a chance at this thing, and in my opinion what is the point of "jumping". Is it going to suck if I keep putting a lot of emotion into this team and they dont have a good rest of the year? Yeah probably. But that doesnt mean Im not going to still root hard for them and watch almost every game and hope for the best.

If it doesnt work out, oh well theres always next year. If it does work out, then it will be fucking sweet.

In my opinion, there is just no point in "jumping".

[JBandJoeyV]

Also I read somewhere that like of our 92 remaning games, only 35 or something are against teams over .500 and then the other 57 are against teams .500 or less.

Now obviously Seattle and KC are under .500 and we didnt do well against them, but that still plays to our advantage.

One final point, Volquez will be back soon, if he is anything like his 2008 season that will be a HUGE boost.

Bray will also be back soon, and he pitched very well when healthy in the past.

Hanigan should be back soon as well.

Get healthy, stay healthy and we have a shot.

[The Scales]

Tonight I will sacrifice a tomato and drink its blood as a sacrifice to Jobu. Jobu will make RBIs.

[JBandJoeyV]

One more thing, in the last 13 games we have lost 8 games.

In those 8 games we have faced:

Cliff Lee: Former cy young winner, 2.55 era
Felix Hernandez: 3.39 era with ACE stuff.
Matt Cain: 2.16 era
Barry Zito: Former Cy young winer, 3.13 era
Zach Greinke: Defending cy young winner,
Clayton Kershaw: 2.96 era, ACE stuff, young but extremely talented

So we lost to 6 pretty damn good pitchers, including 3 former cy young winners.

Obviously you have to beat some good teams and good pitching to be a great team, but it hardly means we suck cause we lost to a lot of good pitchers.