So, apparently I forgot to schedule a post for this morning. It will be pushed to tomorrow.
Baseball Prospectus has up an article this week that I thought would be an interesting share on how important a balanced lineup is in terms of having lefty-righty-lefty. It’s a discussion I’ve seen all over the place, especially with the two Reds best hitters long being Joey Votto and Jay Bruce, but they were always split up. The conclusion of the article:
Lineup balance is nice, but it’s much less important than just acquiring talented players.
That is always what rang true with me. Early in a game if you have back-to-back hitters from the left side facing a righty, you theoretically get the platoon advantage 2-3 times. After that you may lose the advantage against a LOOGY, but that situation may never arise for various reasons discussed in the article. It’s an interesting baseball theory discussion though.
I missed this when it happened apparently, though it still isn’t being reported on Reds.com’s transactions page, but Baseball America is reporting that Neftali Soto has re-signed with the Reds. That is a good signing as it adds some depth in Louisville, where I’d imagine he spends plenty of time playing first and third base, splitting time at each position with Josh Satin.
Michael Morse has signed with the Marlins, leaving one less option for the Reds to go after. Not that I think Morse would have been the most ideal fit, but he would have been better than a scrap heap reclamation project as well. That really leaves one “name” option left for left field on the free agent market with Nori Aoki. There are other options out there, but Aoki seems to be the safe bet that is left. Trades also remain an option.
If you would like to get your quick Fall/Winter Ball update I wrote about Felix Perez continuing his hot hitting in Venezuela as well as an update on how everyone was performing at Redleg Nation earlier today.