2017 Cincinnati Reds

2017 Cincinnati Reds / BR Team Page

Record: 68-94, Finished 5th in NL Central Division (2017 NL)

Coaches: Freddie Benavides, Billy Hatcher, Tony Jaramillo, Mack Jenkins, Don Long, Ted Power, Jim Riggleman and Mike Stefanski

Ballpark: Great American Ball Park

History, Comments, Contributions[edit]

Not much was expected of the 2017 Cincinnati Reds coming into the season, as they were still in rebuilding mode and sported a number of blatant holes. Still they started off the year well, going 11-13 in April and 13-15 in May, remaining within four games of the division leaders at that point, as no team in the NL Central had played particularly well over the first two months. Things began to go sour in June however, as they went through a nine-game losing streak from June 9-18 that dropped them to last place, ten games below .500. In spite of the mediocre results, there were some early highlights, with 1B Joey Votto hitting over .300 and reaching base at over a .400 clip, while he and RF Scott Schebler were both in the National League top five for homers in mid-June. The biggest highlight came from an unlikely source, utility player Scooter Gennett, who on June 6th had a four-homer game in which he drove in 10 runs in a 13-1 win over the St. Louis Cardinals. On June 19th, they suffered another blow when they had to place another of the players who had done well thus far, SS Zack Cozart, on the disabled list. The victim of a strained right quad muscle, Cozart was hitting .320 at the time. Joining him on the DL was P Bronson Arroyo, who, returning to the majors at age 40, was one of the band-aids keeping the pitching staff together; he had lost his last four decisions and had seen his ERA shoot up over 7.00 when it was revealed he had been dealing with a shore shoulder for the past six weeks.

The Reds fell apart after the All-Star Game, going 2-14 in their first 16 games after the break. They were already 10 games below .500 and in last place before the tail spin started.