Dodgers fans are licking their chops in advance of the upcoming 3-game series. Among the blogs kicking the Reds while they are down on Monday was truebluela.com.
Truebluela.com’s preview (don’t feel like you have to give them a page view unless you REALLY want to, because I’ll cover the high points), which blasts Jay Bruce repeatedly (at one point calling him “the king of the poster children of Delmon Young, Andy Marte and Alex Gordon”) and calls the Reds “a team in disarray,” and doesn’t think very highly of our projected starters for the series (nor our “decaying” starting backstop):
• On Homer Bailey: “Homer has never quite lived up to the lofty expectations. His control is awful, his dominance only adequate, and he lives up to his name.”
• On Aaron Harang: “He has a 7.82 ERA, a 6.59 FIP, but only a 4.32 xFIP, suggesting he’s had some bad luck in the home run department. That probably won’t improve after our outfield gets done with him.”
• On Mike Leake: “Mike Leake jumped from college to the starting rotation and has a done a job in two starts in keeping base-runners from scoring. He’s gotten into the sixth inning in both his starts. We will kill him. That sterling 2.63 ERA will look very much like his xFIP (5.69) after Thursday Night. He does not belong in a major league rotation yet. At least not one facing the Dodger outfield.”
Just a couple of other gems, with our responses in Redleg red (which I realize is a no-no because folks might mistake them for links but please allow me an exemption of sorts, just this one time):
• “Help for the rotation could be on its way with Aroldis Chapman who is in the minors for some reason.”
Heaven forbid a 22-year-old pitcher from Cuba with known control issues makes a couple of starts at Triple-A Louisville before joining the Reds.
• “Bullpen:Francisco Cordero is still the closer and still doing the job.”
Preview posted Monday but Saturday’s recap/box score apparently weren’t available. It IS, however, a compliment, so actually we’ll take it.
• “Hitting stud Micah Owings is doing the best work. The ex-starter seems to be thriving in the bullpen, to bad this reduces the times he will hit. Others we will see are Nick Massett, Daniel Herrera, Arthur Rhodes (yes he is still pitching), and Mike Lincoln. Anyone else and that means the game is out of hand.”
So I guess this means that the game will have to be out of hand if Logan Ondrusek makes an appearance. Which would be quite a departure from Ondrusek’s game log thus far considering that up until now he’s appeared in some very close games.
• “I expect a sweep as our offense will overwhelm their pitching.”
Your offense that scored a grand total of two runs in its past two games – at home? Keep in mind your Dodgers dropped two out of three in friggin’ Pittsburgh just a couple of weeks ago, which isn’t quite as bad as getting swept but it’s not good Ethier (intentionally misspelled just for fun). We’re reeling a little right now but we’re not going to get swept in consecutive series. So don’t bet the farm. Your team is 6-6, dude. Let’s dial it down.
OMGReds: promoting goodwill among fellow fan blogs since Jan. 9, 2008.
