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I'm hopeful Waino looks better today. His first start wasn't that bad, and the second start he was delayed and had really [expletive] weather thrown in the mix. Today it should be perfect weather for a ball game and he's at home.

Holiday goes 4-4 with a 2b and homer

Nothing like a little morning baseball (for me anyway, at least the 1st inning).

Looking for a sweep and a single-digit ERA for Waino after today's game. Based on how loose he was in the dugout last night, I'm expecting a good performance.

go birds wrote:Holiday goes 4-4 with a 2b and homer

That would be nice too.

Freese needs another day off?

I don't want to be a downer here, but I would not expect a quick bounce back from Wainwright. He might be able to squeak through with a decent game, but his stuff is not dominant and there's no switch he can turn on to change that. It's an arm strength issue; a dead-arm stage, where his muscles simply aren't responding the way they were earlier.

He's going to have to work through that and continue building up strength and endurance before he's right. I'm going to watch and chart his pitches again to see if there's anything different, but I'm expecting fastballs in the 87-89 range, a slider and change at 84-85 that don't get many swings and misses, and a curve that's ignored because they don't have to swing at it.

A productive day and a good outing right now for him would be fewer 87's, sharper break on his breaking pitch, and better command overall, and all that regardless of his results. I know we're into the season and it's the Reds and we want to win, but I would almost ignore results today. Every outing from AW should be treated like an "extended spring training/rehab" outing for him that we have to suffer through so we'll have the real AW in July.

The Reds' bats haven't really gotten into gear yet, so hopefully Adam will have that going for him today so he can get some better results, even if his arm strength hasn't quite returned yet. Glad to see him loose and having fun in the dugout, but he needs a boost with some success on the field. I'm sure the rest of the club would feel a lot more confident with him returning to form as quickly as possible as well.

Nice to jump all over our main "competition" within the division early in the year and put them in their place. Plus no quality starts from Carp or Waino? Whodathunkit?

dmarx114 wrote:Freese needs another day off?

I'd give him one, too. But I don't want it to be a regular thing with him getting a day off each week. Despite the days off so far, there's only one between now and May 10th.