Doogie's Thought's

The Cincinnati Reds have a top 5 offense in baseball and 4 of 5 starters with ERA’s under 4.3 and every starter under 4.8. Not the best in baseball but good enough in just about every single ball game. That should bring a team that’s competing for a division. However, the Reds bullpen has the highest ERA in baseball with a 5.42 while also leading the league in HR given up with 67 and 3 in walks with 198. Not having Michael Lorenzen and Tejay Antone has really haunted the Reds.

Since the All-Star break, the bullpen has given up a run in all 15 games and have lost 4 different leads in the 7th inning or later. They picked up 2 very good pen arms at the deadline in Mychal Givens (Rockies) & Luis Cessa (Yankees). They also get back Michael Lorenzen who has been out all year. All 3 pitchers have thrown at least twice in the last 5 days and have not given up a run so things might be looking up for the Reds bullpen as long as David Bell goes with those guys in close games compared to the guys he’s had in the pen all year.