Francisco Cordero

The Boston Red Sox are getting closer to starting the defense of their World Series title when they begin regular season play on March 31 against the Baltimore Orioles.

Some questions about the roster have been answered during their time in Fort Myers, Fla. However, new ones have appeared due to certain performances, and others still need to be figured out.

At the time of this writing the Reds are nine games out of first place, pending what the Milwaukee Brewers do later. They have just lost the series to the upstart Chicago Cubs and try (I hope) to avoid a sweep tomorrow afternoon.

I have been meaning to post a “Hot Stove” update for several weeks, but the misery of watching and writing about the Bengals has taken its toll.  However, when I read this story written by Paul Daugherty, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to comment.

We are in the home stretch of the long, arduous MLB season. The Minnesota Twins have wrapped up the AL Central, while five others (New York Yankees, Tampa Bay Rays, Texas Rangers, Philadelphia Phillies and Cincinnati Reds) are all pretty much guaranteed spots.

That leaves the quartet of the Atlanta Braves, San Francisco Giants, San Diego Padres and Colorado Rockies jockeying for the final two postseason spots: the National League West Crown and the NL Wild Card.

By the grace of God, the Reds won the series against the Pittsburgh Pirates, instead of losing it 2-1.

Out of 16 pitchers on the roster, is Coco Cordero the only one who can be entrusted to close a game?

 If so, we should just hand the Central Division trophy over to the Cardinals right now.

Let’s take a look at who had a big day and who didn’t yesterday:

Three Hot:

In Wednesday’s series finale with the San Francisco Giants, the Reds looked like they were going to beat them as if they stole something.

Joey Votto, Jonny Gomes, and Ryan Hanigan all homered to stake Homer Bailey to a 4-0 lead in the first inning. It looked like payback time for the boys from the Queen City.

Votto hit another homer in the third inning, his 31st of the season, to cap a four-run inning and the Reds were on top 8-1.

Francisco Cordero is tied with Heath Bell for second in the major leagues in saves.

He is 24 for 30 (80%) for the season. His career save percentage is 81.5%. His save percentage with the Reds 85.8%.

Here are some more stats to chew on.

Of the 15 pitchers with 20 or more saves, Cordero is worst in the league in WHIP (1.55), ERA (4.20), and third worst in batting average against (.263).

The Reds pay Cordero a lot of money, so continuing to run him out there for every save will likely be the choice.

Bronson Arroyo was again the victim of bullpen mismanagement.

Arroyo has a knack for being the best pitcher in the Central Division one night and the worst pitcher who ever pitched an inning the next night.

He pitched a very good game Sunday, giving up six hits and two runs in eight strong innings. His day was done, and he left the game trailing 2-1.

I have to preface this by saying that I have totally and fully jumped onto the Sabermetric bandwagon. I know I'm late with it, but I am hooked.

There is still a lot I have to learn in the intricacies of the endless list of stats that didn't exist 15 years ago (for instance the difference between WPA-win probability added and VORP-Value over a replacement player, they seem like they are measuring the same thing).

Anyway, I had to preface with that because I have become fascinated with one stat in particular, clutch.