Cincinnati Reds: August 2012 Summary

The Reds went 19-11 in August, which was their second-best mark of 2012 (behind the 19-7 record in July).  They now sit at 81-52, with the most wins in all of baseball and only a slightly worse winning percentage than the Washington Nationals.  Because both Pittsburgh and St. Louis struggled a bit, they both fell farther behind in the NL Central.  The Reds' lead over Pittsburgh expanded from 3 to 10 games, and their lead over St. Louis from 7 to 9.5 games.
Cincinnati played 8 complete series in August, winning 5 (one sweep at Arizona), losing 2 (one sweep at Milwaukee) and splitting 1 (at Philadelphia).  At the start of the month, they also finished off a winning series at home against San Diego with two wins.  At the end of the month, they won the first game of a series in Houston.

**The Reds already have six different winning streaks of 5+ games this season, and could make it seven with a win on September 1st**

Home record: 10-5 (4-1 to finish their first stand, 5-2 in the second, then lost a series against St. Louis)
Road record: 9-6 (3-4 in the Milwaukee/Chicago trip, 2-2 in Philly, 4-0 so far in Arizona/Houston)

vs East: 4-3
vs Central: 10-8 (a little disappointing)
vs West: 5-0

Overall offensive trends: The offense continued its successful summer, in fact posting its best batting average of the year (.272) in spite of missing Votto for the entire month.  Ludwick, Rolen and Frazier continues to star.  Bruce stepped up after a mediocre July.  Heisey has emerged as a possible hope in CF after Stubbs returned to poor form after his deceiving pre-deadline surge.  The team also slugged an impressive 38 HR in 30 games, with Ludwick and Bruce providing 7 each.


Overall pitching trends: The staff actually had its worst month of the year as a whole, but the numbers were still fairly good, which goes to show how much improvement the organization has had since recent years.  Both the starters (3.96 ERA) and relievers (3.31 ERA) had their worst marks.  There were still some impressive individual performances, and they closed out the month with four straight solid outings on the road.

Individual hitting trends: 

UP significantly from July (20 or more OPS+ points): Cairo +65, Hanigan +55, Bruce +50, Cozart +44, Frazier +30

DOWN significantly from July (20 or more OPS+ points): Paul -163, Mesoraco -96, Valdez -81, Stubbs -67, Ludwick -22

No significant change: Rolen, Heisey, Phillips (all had good months)....Votto (still injured)

New arrivals: Dioner Navarro had only 6 hits but two were key homers.




Individual pitching trends:

UP significantly from July: Latos, Simon, Leake, Arredondo

DOWN significantly from July: LeCure, Marshall, Bailey, Arroyo (only in terms of ERA), Ondrusek

No significant change: Chapman (still dominant), Cueto (still dominant)




New arrivals: Hoover was awesome in his return, trade acquisition Broxton has been pretty solid overall, and Redmond was shaky in his fill-in start


And finally, my "Randy Awards" for the month of August...

RANDY HITTER: Todd Frazier.  The clear favorite for NL Rookie of the Year went .330/.393/.587 with 6 HR, 8 doubles and a team-leading 25 RBI.

Honorable mention: Ryan Ludwick, Jay Bruce

RANDY MOST IMPROVED HITTER: Ryan Hanigan.  A guy with only 19 RBI on the year had 7 in August, including some very key hits (one of them a walk-off).

RANDY STARTER: Johnny Cueto.  Our ace was awesome again...4-1, 2.76, 0.85 WHIP.  38 K and only 7 walks.

Honorable mention: Mat Latos had a 2.61 ERA and insufficient run support.  Bronson Arroyo had 5 wins.

RANDY MOST IMPROVED STARTER: Mike Leake.

RANDY RELIEVER: Aroldis Chapman, again.  After a spotless July, allowed only one run in August.  0.68 ERA, 0.75 WHIP, 18 K and 2 walks in 13 IP.  11 for 11 in save opportunities.

RANDY MOST IMPROVED RELIEVER: Jose Arredondo.  After a poor July, posted a 2.61 ERA and 1.26 WHIP in August to return to form.

RANDY NOOB: Dioner Navarro.  Two key and unexpected homers.

RANDY SINGLE-GAME HITTING PERFORMANCE: Brandon Phillips.  He hates the WLBs, and he gave a hell of a performance on August 25th in helping the Reds win at least one game of the home St. Louis series.  BP went 3 for 5 with a homer and 2 important RBI in an 8-2 win.

RANDY SINGLE-GAME PITCHING PERFORMANCE: Mike Leake.  When people looked at the Leake/Dickey matchup on August 15th, they probably didn't expect Leake to dominate it.  But he did.  In that 6-1 win, he tossed a complete game, allowing only 1 run and 4 hits.  Leake struck out 4 and didn't walk a batter.  Meanwhile, the Reds offense went yard multiple times off the knuckleballer in his support.