Frustrating Reds

When I started this blog, I want another way to write, another way to vent and I wanted to write about things I can't write about in my day job.

This blog is all about venting.

The Cincinnati Reds are my favorite baseball team. They have finished in fourth or fifth place in each of the past six seasons after making the playoffs a handful of years in a row.

The club went out and made some moves to fix a bad offense from the previous season. They signed Nick Castellanos, Mike Moustakas and Shogo Aikyama to help with the lineup, added Wade Miley to an already good rotation and helped the bullpen by signing Pedro Strop.

And they are still 1-4. I know it's early. But there is no such thing as early in a 60-game season. 1-4 is like 3-15. It's not good. And frankly, I have no reason to believe things will get better.

The Reds lost two of three to what is supposed to be a bad Detroit Tigers team. And now have dropped two close games to the rival Cubs.

The Reds took two players from the Cubs roster after winning the season series last year and now suddenly can't beat them.

Baseball is frustrating. Being a fan of the Reds is frustrating. I have decided to not watch another game until they win. That means, I won't be watching Sonny Gray tomorrow. Or probably Luis Castillo on Thursday. Enough is enough. I am getting too old to be disappointed every night.

And Last Chance U just dropped on Netflix so that can hold down my time for now. I also want to binge a few other shows.

This team is maddening. Castillo, Gray and Bauer struck out 33 batters and allowed 3 ER in the first three games of the season and went 1-2. Then the Reds scored 7 runs in the first game against the Cubs and lost.

Tuesday night's game was brutal. Three hits and three runs through 8 innings. They ended up with 5 runs but it's all or nothing with this team. Either they homer and they don't score. No clutch hitting. No situational hitting. It's bad.

And when the pitching is brutal, see Wade Miley last night or the bullpen most nights, the hitting is at least good. When the pitching is great, the hitting can't be found.

I don't know if they can turn it around or not. There are still 55 games left. And other fans keep saying they are such and such games away from first place. Well, it doesn't feel positive to me.

I want to like David Bell. He seems like a great dude. And I can't fault him for looking at the numbers and being up to date with analytics.

It's the way baseball has headed. I understand Jesse Winker won't bat against lefties and I know Phil Ervin is not going to hit much against righties.

But isn't there any "I just have a feeling" left with baseball anymore. You have to know your guys. I don't think he has any kind of handle on the players. Because frankly, following the numbers 100 percent of the time is not working.

Time for a new game plan.

It would help to have Moustakas, Senzel and Tucker Barnhart in the lineup. It would also help if the Reds would just cut bait with Christian Colon and Freddy Galvis and sent Josh VanMeter to the alternate site.

If they are going to lose, I would much rather watch Jose Garcia and Tyler Stephenson every night. Stephenson just had a huge night in his debut and was nowhere to be found tonight. Bell picked Colon over Stephenson in a late-game situation with the game somewhat still in reach.

I don't get it. And it's frustrating. Now back to your regularly scheduled blog.