Twelve, yes, twelve is the magic number the Reds have at the moment to garner the National League Central Division title and their first playoff berth in -guh- fifteen years! And having a seven game lead on the St. Louis Cardinals is a good place to be.
It amazes me that Cincinnati has not seen the post season since beating sweeping the Los Angeles Dodgers in the National League Division Series and getting swept by Atlanta Braves in the NLCS back in 1995. Though I have to say the '95 team and this year's squad are similar in the fact that they are not overpowering, but rather more efficient (unusually) than others.
In '95, despite being a short season of 144 games, the Reds had Ron Gant and Reggie Sanders with 29 and 28 home runs, but no one else had more than fifteen.
In 2010, Joey Votto has 34 dingers thus far and Jay Bruce has 20, but four others could easily hit the twenty mark before the season ends.
Back then good ol' Pete Schourek led the way with 18 wins and John Smiley added twelve, but no one else had more than seven. Of course it helps to have low numbers when thirteen different pitchers started games for the Reds that season.
This year Bronson Arroyo has 15 wins at this point, Johnny Cueto has 12 (but should have almost 20) and Mike Leake is the next with eight. And just eight pitchers have started for the Reds this year.
Speaking of wins, the most recent Yahoo! Sports Cincinnati Reds Team Report indicates that Cueto's "missed win" total this year is at six right now. Those are potential wins that Cueto has missed due to blown saves by reliever Francisco Cordero.
The most recent came this weekend when Cordero squandered a 1-0, ninth-inning in a 3-1 loss to Pittsburgh. Cueto is second in the majors in that category behind Florida Pitcher Josh Johnson, who has seen seven possible wins turned into no-decisions.
And in 1995, ironically, Jeff Brantley -the current co-radio guy for the Reds- led the bullpen with just 28 saves. No one else had more than five. This year the go to guy is Cordero who has 34, but does his best to see the most batters he possibly can before closing (or coughing up) a game.
It is interesting, though, at how Cordero pitches to certain teams.
In that 3 to 1 loss to Pittsburgh this past Sunday, the hero for the Pirates was Outfielder Andrew McCutchen. This is what had to say about facing Cordero, "I knew what he threw. I've faced him a few times. All the pitches were sliders. After you've seen it a few times, you recognize it out of his hand. He left it up and I got the good part of the bat on it."
Well if that doesn't make you want to slug Cordero, nothing will.
The pitching staff's ERA fifteen years ago was 4.03 and it is at 4.08 this year. The major difference being that four starters had ERAs under four fifteen years ago and the bullpen was the culprit in pushing it higher as a team. It's almost vice versa in 2010.
Cincinnati beat out Houston for the divison in 1995, winning by a full nine games. The Reds lead the Cardinals by seven games right now with seventeen to play.
You can compare anything and make assumptions, but my point is that Reds are almost a carbon copy of what many Cincinnati teams in the past have done to make the postseason and be competitive.
It just amazes me at how many times in the recent past this organization has put out teams that could not at least somewhat follow the steps to winning baseball. They instead would rely on short term winning streaks and hope that other teams would eventually falter. They reason they did not falter is because the stuck to the guidelines of winning baseball.
Luckily, the Reds found and followed those measures this year. I'm just hoping it isn't lightning in a bottle. I'm having way too much fun to wait another fifteen years.
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