[Old School Hound]

OSH, I must be slipping. Votto as Reds manager had never occurred to me. But I love the idea. Experience or no, I think Votto has the right mindset to be a manager, and I feel like guys would play hard for him. Bell has had his time.

As far as this season, I really hope they can approach 90 wins and sneak into the playoffs, where in baseball anything can happen. Last year’s exciting young  team, coupled with the pitch clock rule change (the greatest rule change in sports history!) brought me back to my childhood, when baseball was king and the Reds were the Big Red Machine. You and I are old enough to know that, I would say anyone under 50 wouldn’t believe that baseball was actually THE sport in America for a long time.  Anyway, it still comes down to pitching over a long, long season. The Reds seemed to make some off-season moves that showed they actually are trying in that respect, we will see how that plays out. And you have to wonder if Diaz can have another season as a closer anywhere close to what he produced last year. He faded a little down the stretch, and a lot of those guys have maybe one big year and never match it again, so we will see.

Diaz did fade down the stretch. I think they need another guy that is capable of closing games out when Diaz is unavailable. I would have liked to have seen them sign Aroldis Chapman to help in the 8th inning and to close out games when Bell won't pitch Diaz because he pitched the previous two days.   I cannot underestimate the importance of having lockdown relievers in innings 7, 8, and 9. Remember the "Nasty Boys"? There were games the Reds lost last season by having to finish games off with a couple or three chumps because Diaz apparently couldn't pitch two or three games in a row.

One of my biggest peeves about today's game(and there are many) is how pitchers are coddled, to the point where they feel their arm just can't handle back-to -back days on the mound. Back in the '70's , I remember a doubleheader where the great reliever, Mike Marshall, tossed nearly 12 innings . He threw over 200 innings one season as a reliever. Now these guys feel they are too overworked to pitch three or four innings a week. Give me a break!