Does the teams overall approach at the plate seem off?

[BCubb2003]

Sounds like answer is to not get to two strikes.

[Falls City Beer]

I think the offense looks pretty vanilla overall. They need more genuine power and OB threats. They’re not a terrible offense but they’re not going to scare many teams.

[Powder River]

I agree that it's mostly injuries and 2/3 of the team that's healthy being in a slump. The real positive part of that to me is that we are still doing well.

The one that does concern me is CES. He's giving me vibes of (insert any of the litany of former Reds that had this affliction) because you can get him to two strikes pretty fast and then he will literally swing at anything the pitcher buries in the dirt. I love the guy and think he's making great strides at 1B but he has to have better plate discipline or he's not going to last. MLB pitchers will never throw you a strike if you show them they don't have to.

I think the same could have been said about EDLC a few weeks ago. Elly is looking much better with pitch recognition and is spitting on those down and away breaking balls that he was chasing. Like Elly, CES is young and learning. Let’s give him some rope. The kid has tremendous power and is playing well at first base. If I’m going to be concerned about anyone, it’s Candy. His defense looks mediocre to my eye and he never seems to come through with the big hit when it’s needed.

[Kingspoint]

FYI,...

1988 League Results with 2 Strikes was .184AVG/.248OBP
2004 League Results with 2 Strikes was .191AVG/.262OBP
Early in the 2024 League Results with 2 Strikes is .166AVG/.247OBP

Protecting the plate hasn't changed that much, if at all, as the final results of AVG in 2024 will likely be closer to .184 than .166, while the OBP is already the same as it was 20 and 37 years ago.

One thing interesting about the REDS is their Hit Location when pulling the ball by RHB's. They aren't finding the success that most RHB's who pull the ball normally get.

In 2004, RHB pulling the ball had a .434/.431/.785/1.216 line.
In 2024, RHB pulling the ball have a .406/.403/.753/1.156 line.

The REDS RHB pulling the ball have a .304/.304/.544/,848 line.

One thing that's been observed by many during the game threads is a team-wide tendency to not go with a pitch against pitchers who are throwing Changeups and Sliders, and instead are trying to pull the ball resulting in more outs than they should be getting.....in other words, they are having poor plate appearances and not adjusting to the situation. That was the most glaring during the MIL series as the Brewers were clearly doing what the REDS, and every team, should be doing.

The exception is Tyler Stephenson, of course, who is back to having very good plate appearances as a RHB. Steer has had some bad luck.

The culprits have been Espinal, Thompson, India, CES, Maile and Candy when he bats Right. Fairchild has also not found success, though his pitch-count has been high.

Of course, Espinal, Thompson, Fairchild, Candy and India are getting the large number of PA's because of the missing Friedl, McLain and Marte.

[CaiGuy]

Last week they were missing 2/3 of a starting starting lineup at times.

McLain
Friedl
Marte
India
Fraley
Candelario

So you end up with a lot of scrubs playing.

[SteelSD]

Sure that would be great, as a team they are hitting .180/.263/.269 with two strikes which is better than the Reds who have a woeful .119/.219/.207, with a .243 BABIP so that's probably the bottom of the barrel

The Brewers are currently tied for 13th in MLB in number of two-strike PA- exactly one slot above the Reds (15th) in the middle of the pack. Not sure why people have the idea comes from that the Reds are doing poorly "avoiding" two-strike counts this season.

Any complaint about two-strike performance is just another version of demanding that a team strikes out too much, because those counts represent the only plate appearances that can possibly end in a strikeout. All of a team's strikeouts are rolled into that particular "situational" statistic, which severely bloats the out count/rate, suppressing the performance line versus what we see when viewing overall performance. It's a given that a batting line is going to look terrible when introducing events that can't happen in any other counts, which is why we see even the best contact hitting teams log seasonal two-strike batting averages in the .180 range without a signficant amount of BABIP luck. The average person views those two-strike lines and think they stink without realizing that's what overall performance would look like if every PA started with two strikes.