Reds Baseball is back!

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Baseball is back! A new season is upon us, and with that the Reds begin the season at home with a series against their division rivals, the St. Louis Cardinals. Both the Reds and the Cards made the playoffs last season, so this first series will certainly be a competitive one.

To recap, during the off season the Reds hardly made any big moves besides trading Ryan Hanigan in a three team trade. But the move that has my interest is Bryan Price becoming the new manager. Price, who previously was the pitching coach, has never managed a team. While watching Spring Training games it seemed as though he is handling it well, although it is only Spring Training.

Now that the games matter, I look ahead at the first month’s tough schedule. The Reds will play six games against the Cardinals, seven against the Pirates, three with the Rays, and three with the Braves. All of these teams won more than 90 games last season which puts the Reds behind the eight ball right away. The Reds also have Aroldis Chapman, Jonathan Broxton, Mat Latos, Sean Marshall, Devin Mesoraco, Skip Schumaker, Jack Hannahan, and Brett Marshall on the disabled list to start the season. The three best relievers on the DL hurts as the bullpen will probably be relied on heavily in this first month.

My concluding thoughts are; if the Reds will be lucky to come out of April with a record of .500 or above, but to be cliché, it is a long season. Get used to Brandon Phillips hitting second in the order behind Billy Hamilton. Lastly, look for starter Tony Cingrani to pick up right where he left off last year.