Reds left-hander Nick Lodolo got some good news, per Charlie Goldsmith of the Cincinnati Enquirer. The southpaw has been in a walking boot due to a tibia stress reaction in his left leg but the boot is now off and he’s been cleared to ramp up.
That’s not to say that he’s close to a return, as Goldsmith says Lodolo is on a similar timeline to righty Hunter Greene, who isn’t expected back until August. But it’s at least a good sign that things are progressing.
The Reds have surged to the top of the National League Central, currently tied with the Brewers at 43-38. But that’s mostly been fueled by their offense and in spite of a rickety rotation. Lodolo and Greene are two of six starters currently on the injured list, which has obviously had a negative effect on the results. The Reds’ starters have a collective 5.91 ERA this year, better than just the Athletics and Rockies.
Lodolo struggled to a 6.29 ERA this year before landing on the IL but had a much stronger 3.66 mark in his debut last year. Getting him and Greene healthy could give the club a huge boost for the stretch run as they try to take advantage of their surprising return to contention.
Some other notes from around the division…
- Sticking with the Reds, their rotation could get another reinforcement, even earlier than the returns of Lodolo and Greene. Goldsmith relays that right-hander Ben Lively could be back before the All-Star break to make a start. The right-hander returned to the majors this year after a few years in Korea and has been doing well. He posted a 4.11 ERA through 46 innings before landing on the IL due to a right pectoral muscle strain. He struck out 23.1% of opponents against a 6.7% walk rate while getting grounders at a 38.8% clip. The All-Star break is just over a week away, so it seems he’ll be able to come back shortly and get at least one more outing under his belt prior to the layoff. The club’s rotation currently consists of Graham Ashcraft, Levi Stoudt, Brandon Williamson, Andrew Abbott and Luke Weaver but Abbott is the only one out of those with an ERA below 5.82.
- The Pirates got an important arm back today, with right-hander Colin Holderman reinstated from the injured list. He missed the past two weeks with right wrist inflammation. Fellow righty Cody Bolton was optioned in a corresponding move. Holderman has emerged as a key piece of the club’s bullpen, posting a 4.01 ERA over 26 appearances this year. He’s struck out 25.7% of hitters while walking just 6.4% of them and getting grounders at a 48.6% clip. He’s lived up to his name by securing 12 holds and one save, indicating he’s moved up into higher leverage work. The Bucs have alternated hot and cold all year and are currently riding a three-game win streak to get their record to 38-42. Despite that subpar mark, they’re only 4.5 games off the lead with no one running away with the division. Each game will take on magnified importance with the trade deadline now just a month away and having Holderman back is a nice little boost for Pittsburgh.
Too bad the Reds didn’t add a veteran pitcher or two like they needed before the season. May have gotten 5-10 more wins at this point. That’s how bad the starting pitching has been.
Call the Tigers and get Erod and Lorenzen in a package deal with the return centered around around Cam Collier or one of their 8 million other minor league IF’ers.
That would be worth it if it weren’t for Rodriguez’s opt out.
I said that then and people told me I was crazy, they had no chance to win.
I haven’t seen them lately.
I mean I didn’t think they’d play this well honestly. I’m ALWAYS hopeful. They should have done it just for the trade deadline prospect return, if not to help the young pitchers with innings (and depending on the guy, mentorship).
They didn’t expect to be contending the way they are. It’s the same reason they traded Castillo instead of extending him last year. They expected to be rebuilding for several years.
I told them to. Deadline is coming up so it’s not too late.
Cubs would be happy to give you Taillon for 2 bags of rosin.
They weren’t expecting to be where they are right now. This is a case of just everything going right at the right time. Look at the Pirates, they added Rich Hill and Vince Velasquez and got off to a great start but have been hot garbage since May 1st
They’ve been hit garbage but most of the time it hasn’t been due to pitching. Keller has been, uh, stellar, and Oviedo and Ortiz have shown a great deal of upside. And Hill is 7-7
No, the overall problem is an incredibly anemic offense. Nice of the Padres to come to town and play like the walking dead. With the new kids who’ve come up, maybe it’ll jump start the lineup. Cutch can’t do it all
Santana was 7-14 against the Padres, his bat is beginning to get hot
cornwhisperer;
Have been unimpressed with the majority of the Pirates
young position players (actually, can’t think of one that’s
impressed me). Like Cruz, they’re undisciplined and don’t
seem to know how to play baseball. The young pitchers
aren’t much better.
The run they had early in the year was due to the veterans
they brought in. But those guys aren’t good enough to carry
a contending team for a season.
Agree, Samuel.
No idea about what is going on with the Pirates player development department, let alone their scouts
You look at the O’s and Reds—and they seem to have kids coming up who have all the tools, and understanding
In the past week, they’ve brought up 3 kids who have provided a great deal of hope in Davis, Gonzales and Triolo, and apparently the second wave of kids are cut from better cloth
Disagree about the pitchers but other than Keller, it depends on what day you see them. That is, they seem to be up and down, as kids pitching in front of an anemic offense often do
Pirates management bending over backwards and cutting corners for Oneil Cruz set a terrible example.
The guy’s supposedly a superstar in the making – a major league player that doesn’t even know how to slide. He wants to run real fast, throw the ball real hard, catch the ball at SS (which he’s not qualified to play), hit the ball real hard and real far. That’s nice. Elly De La Cruz of the Reds has a similar build and similar tools. De La Cruz is 3 years younger than Cruz, does everything better than Cruz, doesn’t demand special treatment and is a complete ballplayer,
Am not impressed with the Pirates development staff, or their ML manager and coaches. Was very high on their rebuild until I saw plyers come up only to play sloppy baseball. You cited the Reds and O’s – their players didn’t come up and play like that.
As I noted the other day – most rebuilds fail. I don’t doubt the Pirates will get some good ballplayers out of this rebuild. But the lack of self-discipline, commitment to doing what’s best for the team each game as well as most youngsters displaying a low baseball IQ on the field soured me on their rebuild. Many longtime Pirates fans posting on here saw it before I did…they left and haven’t come back. I’ll move on as well.
P.S. Players can come up from the minors initially and look good…..until the opponents get a book on them. The Pirates youngsters haven’t played enough games yet. The Reds youngsters have and they’re continuing to produce in spite of the opposition making adjustments to them.
That hot garbage team just swept the Padres
Bigger series starts tonight. If you watched the Padres series, imagine being a fan of theirs. No fire. No passion. Some guy kept yelling, “Your team doesn’t play hard” at their bench during the broadcast a couple nights ago
He wasn’t wrong
20-9, best record in the NL in April. 18-33 since including a stretch of losing 12 out of 13 prior to the Padres series.
As for the Padres, maybe Cohen and Seidler can compare notes on how to spend absurdly and have nothing to show for it
Agreed. And yes, the Pirates have been garbage
As for the Padres, I really looked forward to seeing that “murderer’s row” of hitters. They did very little here and again, played like they’d rather be somewhere else. This includes pitching superstar Snell, who apparently thought throwing hanging curve balls dead red would be fine
Something is clearly wrong with that team, and I’m betting it starts in the clubhouse
Santana hit another double in his first AB in tonight’s game keeping his bat hot
Of course Suwinski did what he does most often, he struck out
Yeah, but he’s part of the “all star platoon”
My eyes are rolling
That manager in Bull Durham has something to tell the Padres.
Lollygaggers.
Tremendous comeback tonight. Really battled and the walk off was the icing on the cake
And with that, the corn man has left the building
No wonder you guys don’t see the Suwinski all star platoon even though the numbers clearly say it’s all star. Suwinski walks, has two hits, scores a run and drives in a run and you are talking smack. You even watch the games?
I thought the Pirates rebuild was going good. But now that Samuel says its awful I have to raise expectations even higher. Pirates rebuild must be great or fantastic.
Last night’s game was only shown on Apple TV.
I already pay an arm and a leg for Xfinity cable with 600 channels, I’m not spending another red cent for an extra choice
Suwinski is 3 for his last 31 I think. You make him out to be more than he is
I actually agree with you ( again) Dream.
Their rebuild has it’s ups and downs, will fail as well as succeed but in general is a process that should result in positive results during the season
You mistake people who critique Jack with people who hate Jack. We want him to succeed. He just needs a private hitting instructor to teach him plate discipline against left handers. That’s all
He’s a good outfielder. He’s got power. And he pushed Reynolds into his more natural corner outfield spot. Surely, someone can work with this kid
And yes. I watch every game. It’s a sick habit, sometimes akin to sticking a fork in my forehead
As stated previously, TheMan3, get used to it. This is where pro and college sports are headed. Streaming services you’ll need to pay for on top of your cable packages. ESPN has already begun the process
Given the incredible salaries of players in all sports, the incredible profits of owners and the NCAA, it’s just more greed from the broadcast industry
Within five years, seeing games on cable outlets or on the three networks as part of your existing package is going to be a nice memory
Your other platoon “ star”, Connor Joe, pinch hit in last night’s game and expectedly, struck out
I’d like to see Andujar given another chance while sending down Palacios. He’s not consistent enough to play everyday
Cancelled my MLB TV sub for that exact reason last week. I despise Apple corp and all it stands for.
Suwinski leads team in ops. 40 higher than next guy Reynolds. Most pitchers throw right. He is making improvements vs lhp but doesn’t matter because Joe or you can easily find someone else who crushes lefties.
I never had cable. Parents did but they got rid of it years ago. They used to make some good tv shows but haven’t thought that in a few years. Cable is still good for honest people who watch multiple sports. I get mlbtv free but it’s only 100 bucks a year. $70 if you can wait for mother’s day. 4 apple games is nothing. Apple is free. Should wish for all games to be on there.
Pirates rebuild was one of or maybe most challenging one to accomplish. They didn’t have any mvps or cy young level players to trade. No one wanted to give up anything worthwhile for Reynolds. Missed entire year of minor league development. 2020 draft was weak and they had a non top 5 pick. Really this is year 3 of rebuild and they are in position to finish over 500 and take division. Not that they will or won’t but they are right here in July. Other than Davis you haven’t even seen the real prospects yet. Triolo has a great glove and versatility. Gonzales has some pop. Mlod is solid reliever. That’s absolutely nothing compared to what’s coming.
It’s us the consumer that has forced them to go to streaming because we have gone to streaming. With cable the rsns and espns get paid from every subscriber. Small percentage have cable to watch sports. Same with news. Everyone pays for fox cnn etc and most don’t watch. Cable system was a sweet deal. You are right about the greed. If they didn’t charge so much that cable bills are over $200 many wouldn’t have got rid of cable. They put Yellowstone on tv but if you want watch the prequels you have to get the stream service. Cable subscription numbers are at 1980s levels. 2 3 million have been getting rid of it each quarter for years. Once espn streams and final season of Yellowstone cable tv numbers drop even more.
Joe very much is producing as a all star with his 903 ops and leading the the team with his 380 obp. Even his ba is decent for you old timers at .279
It must not be working out so well considering ESPN just cut 20 on-air hosts
he also leads the team in strikeouts, and can chalk up another to his totals as he just swung at a pitch almost in the dirt
and Joe is second on the team in strikeouts pinch hitting last night while adding another to his season totals
by the way Marcano needs to go back to AAA
Oh no strike outs lol
Suwinkski’s 2nd AB in today’s game, he never took the bat off his shoulder and struck out looking
I realize you don’t care about players striking out but unless a ball is put into play you’re not going to get on base without drawing a walk
Marcano is another strike out machine
And Shelton doesn’t deserve to be on the NL All Star staff
His lineup again is an absolute disaster
Marcano’s lame throw that should have been a double play eventually became a 3 run homer by Yelich. Keeping Oviedo in the game after throwing 90 pitches into the 6th inning, finally yanking him after allowing runners at 1st and third
Palacios needs to go back to AAA, he’s not a leadoff hitter and fails consistently at getting hits
There’s a good chance we get shutout today
No shut out when you have a all star Jack Suwinski my friend.
Bae Castro can’t play ss. Triolo may be a bit better than Marcano but rest days and all both will need to play.
Lineup is fine. I wouldn’t bat Palacios 1st but statistically it isn’t significant enough to worry about. If the team had more run producers like Suwinski Cutch would be ideal leadoff. Maybe when Reynolds comes back.
Palacios may be dfa soon. Option if he has any. Just a guy. Marcano could as well if someone steps up. At least he is more versatile.
Keeping Oviedo in was fine. Someone everyone needs to eat innings.
Judge struck out 7th most in all of baseball last year. I thought he had a ok year despite all the k’s.
I agree with most of what you state here, and almost everything where baseball is concerned
I like the Pirates core: Hayes, Reynolds, Suwinski, Davis, Cruz and Keller. The jury is out on everyone else, and that’s fine. The younger players likely jumped up through the system by necessity when they would have had more reps at AAA in an org such at Atlanta or TB. You have to expect ups and downs
Today illustrated Samuel’s point about pitchers like Oviedo and Ortiz. Clearly, Oviedo didn’t have it from the first pitch. Perhaps he’s pitching on eggshells, as he seemed to lose it when he was called for taking too much time with his very first batter, Yelich.
You and mlb1225 (Bright eyes) talk about what’s coming up. Let’s hope so. I like what I have seen from Triolo and Gonzales and hopefully, they’re a hint of better prepared players on the way
Again, I’m ok with a 70-75 win team this year. And to me at least, Shelton and Haines simply can’t be blamed for working with the hand they are dealt. Too often, they simply have few options
Your comments about cable and streaming however are reflective of either extreme naïveté or buying into the corporate line. Without boring you with my family background, but everything from oil to tires and now television is built on extreme greed. Extreme. Huge profits driven by consumer demand when what they are actually producing costs pennies on the dollar
You’re preaching to the crowd here. I come from the black and white TV, three network era and an era when pro athletes took off season jobs and then sought new careers when their playing days were over just to survive
You can believe what you like
You state that cable is good for honest people but fail to note the games XFinity, Verizon play in their package options. Unless you only like zombie shows, for instance, you’re relegated into purchasing packages where you can watch your favorite programming. The people behind all of this aren’t stupid, and your usage of the word “honest” is almost ironic
On Friday, NBA signings totaled $1B—just for that single day. Ask yourself what owners must be making and where the revenue streams are coming from but please, don’t use the word “honest”
I get that younger generations are more prone to paying without questioning. There’s a reason most people now live paycheck to paycheck. Maybe it’s because my parents lived through the Great Depression but you’ll forgive me for saying the entire scenario of big money having this unquenchable hunger for more is well, grotesque
There’s nothing honest about it
Sorry for the rant. I appreciate your baseball insights but on this point, you’re way off base
Cable is for honest people means everything on cable is available for free online. If you choose to have cable you think streaming is difficult or you believe in paying for service rendered.
Companies will usually charge as much as the customer is willing to pay. Don’t like it don’t pay. And many ditched cable. Streaming will get more expensive and if not available for free people will just do something else. Non sports watching people are really get hit hard with cable. Not counting taxes, fees, rentals half a cable bill is live sports.
A bit of apples and oranges here
On one hand, many ditched cable and yet, over the past two quarters streaming companies have either not had the profits they had projected and missed their goal or have actually lost money
Streaming isn’t difficult, even for an “old timer” like me, but the problem again comes in the packaging you assemble. I know many people who’ve ditched cable but all have found that since they have varied interests, the assembling of channels means increased costs. Unless you are happy with pairing basic TV networks with let’s say a sports streamer, you’re really in the same boat as cable subscribers. These programmers aren’t stupid, either
This was another game that to the casual observer of the Pirates, it would appear there are many minor leaguers masquerading as MLB players, TheMan3
Let’s take Palacios, for example. In the first inning, Yelich goes from 1st to 3rd on a single….hit to left. I get that Palacios was shaded towards center a bit, but my God. He later failed to run down a fly ball that dropped at the edge of the track and went for a double
You mentioned the Marcano throw, and how about a ground ball that Bae never got to at 2nd, or a pitch in the dirt Delay failed to block behind the plate
I won’t even go into some of the at bats today. Burnes throws the cutter almost exclusively, but why throw it in the strike zone if batters can’t pick up the spin and swing at pitches in the dirt?
Most companies aren’t ran well. Streaming companies spend so much on content that either isn’t good or doesn’t appeal to enough people or usually both. They went into the negative trying to get subscribers only to discover if you don’t keep the content up the subscribers will leave.
My company did consulting for a media company. They didn’t listen to me on hardly anything so happy to see their failure. Went over about as well as the Suwinski platoon except they didn’t even have a bright eyes. I love it * insert evil laugh.
If you aren’t willing to use a vpn you aren’t going to save much $ ditching cable. If you watch more than 2 or 3 sports leagues you won’t save much. Cord cutting isn’t great for big sports fans.
Not everyone is perfect like Corn and theman. Delay has been a good backup catcher but fails to block one today. It happens. Sorry Palacios doesn’t have world class track star speed to get to that ball. Marcano isn’t a ss so shouldn’t make those plays all the time and he didn’t. They are mlb players, just backup ones. Other teams and past pirates teams have worse. Much worse. They will be probably be gone when people get healthy and better prospects are ready.
Very strange response from you with this one. You may throw analytics at me to justify a point of view but I’ve never known you to be a rose colored glasses type
The deflection about myself or TheMan being perfect is a bit prepubescent, no? I don’t recall either of us claiming to be perfect although in my professional career, I “left it all out on the field” every day. Perfect? No. Just dedicated to professionalism
The defense of Palacios is disturbing. World class speed? Maybe a better jump or read would have been better. Did you watch the game?
Delay has been a good backup and no doubt, Oviedo crossed him up. Hedges would have blocked it
And whether Marcano is a natural SS or not is besides the point
Major leaguers, back up or not, should make these plays. It’s hilarious that here, you’ll excuse it, claim they are just back ups, bark at those who criticize and then proclaim that hey, they’re in the hunt
Not sure what past Pirates teams have to do with this, but ok
The pretzels are on me, Dream, in celebration of your logic tonight
Ah. So cable is for honest people who are willing to pay. Streaming for people with a vpn is dishonest but really allows people to cut that cord
Your line of logic astounded me tonight, Dream. I’m going to go out and scream at my corn and then bang my head off the barn door a few times
You got a good hold on the cable vs streaming.
It’s not reasonable to expect Palacios to get a good read or good jump. I don’t know how hard he worked or continues to work but hard work only gets you so far. He is lucky to be playing at all and a good chance he won’t much longer. If Marcano could field slicker or throw harder he would be a ss and not a utility player. They are what they are. Why criticize them for not doing things they aren’t capable of doing? If they are capable it’s 1 game. People make mistakes.
Understand that it’s just one game. Not the point. Again, you have a keen eye where talent coming to the majors is concerned. Compare what’s come up through the ATL, TB, BALT and CINN farm systems
They just seem more polished, that’s all. And again, it gets down to questions many of us have with the player development/scouting departments and the PR people, who keep pushing the “they’re not far off from competing” mantra
It’s funny that some have jumped on posts like the one “retired” wrote on another thread. Really, if you’re looking at the time period between the great Bonds years and now, there has been only one small window where the team did well and the kids coming up lived up to the hype
While I don’t blame it on Nutting per se, it’s emblematic of a complete failure over a long period
Yes. It’s one game. But it represents more of the same. I don’t know why that’s so hard to grasp
Those other teams didn’t take over for Neil Huntington or have a Chris Archer diaster right before taking over. It takes time to find the right employees. Anyone who knows anything about baseball already has employment. Out of all pirates fans there is only 1 bright eyes. Same way with finding scouts coaches. Bright eyes didn’t discover it but simply understood it. To find a innovator is almost impossible. So Pirates can emulate what Atlanta Tampa does but never do it as well let alone out do them. When they do something else to improve the Pirates can discover this years later and follow suit. They will always be behind these teams. But half the league isn’t even trying to do what these teams do so Pittsburgh is ahead of them.
Pirates didn’t have a Castillo Mahle to trade. Baltimore rebuild has been twice as long and they had superior draft picks. If you want to feel better look at KC DET who have also been rebuilding twice as long. Davis looks polished for a guy who was fast tracked. His defense is never going to be great and they knew that when they drafted him.
I’m not sure about all this bright eyes love but hey, we have Buctober. It’s a wash
Emulating is fine and I don’t think anyone can rise quickly to the level of ATL or TB. Your points are well taken as is your commentary about finding scouts or development wonks who aren’t already gainfully employed
And while you make note of KC and the Tigers, failing to note what the D-backs and Reds have done—and in quicker fashion than the Pirates—is to not only re-stock their minors but also to develop the young talent. Angels broadcasters were saying as much on their telecast last evening “They did it right!” legendary ex-manager Bobby Valentine chimed in
I get that it’s a crap shoot, like anything else. As Buuba, TheMan3 and others will tell you, there was a time that the Pirates had the preeminent pipeline in the late 60’s and 70’s, borne again in the late 80’s
Everything is cyclical. That time has passed and really, we were spoiled
Best regards
Reds have done a lot of losing since 2013 they should be better. Dbacks better market should be better.
There’s this urban legend that the Pirates have been rebuilding forever. They were very much trying to contend in 2016 2017 2018 2019. They just didn’t do a good job. 2020 there was no minor leagues and the only key piece they traded was Marte. Rebuild didn’t start until 2021.
Hopefully Holderman returns to his superior pitching prior to the few appearances where he gave up runs trying to protect a lead
Hopefully he can come in and be a holder, man.
The Reds have a great young lineup, and they could possibly be trade active at the deadline until the healthy pitching reinforcements come back hopefully in the late summer,
The Reds front office really dropped the ball this past off-season. Instead of pursuing pitching, they spent $7.5 million dollars on Wil Meyers who they have since DFA’d. The Reds decided to bank on Greene-Lodolo-Ashcraft none of whom had thrown more than 120 innings in a season.
You must be a carpenter because you nailed it.