Is Rhett Lowder the Answer to Cincinnati Reds' Pitching Crisis?

rumors are circulating that the Reds could be about to make a massive call [Music] up you are locked on reds your daily Cincinnati Reds podcast part of the locked on podcast Network your team every day welcome into locked on reds my name is Jeff Carr and I am a life long Cincinnati Reds fan seriously got the baby pictures to prove it and I've been hosting this podcast now for six seasons I'm part of the locked on podcast Network your team every single day I'm also the channel manager for our locked on MLB channel and I aim to bring locked on reds to everybody make it accessible to every Reds fan out there I want to talk about the biggest thing going on in Reds country diving into some geeky numbers here and there and try to make them make sense and overall just overreact to the Daily Motions of the ml Ocean and the 162 but I'm glad that you're alongside me here today because the Reds could make a sneaky good free agent signing yeah free agent signing here in August I'll tell you why later on in the show the Reds may be discovering the second half of a onew punch that starts with Ellie I'll tell you who is on the other side of that SEC that that onew punch here in in a few minutes but we will begin the show with some rumors that's all coming up on today's lockdown Reds podcast that is brought to you by FanDuel now through September 22nd all FanDuel customers can bet $5 and get a three week free trial of NFL Sunday Ticket from YouTube and YouTube TV visit fanduel.com lockon to get started and all right here's where we're going to start today because there were some rumors and just in case you were not aware social media around Red's country was a bit of Buzz with the possibility of Rett louder being called up to pitch on Wednesday the reds are in Dire Straits with the pitching staff there's no two ways about that but I don't think there's a whole lot of legs to this rumor now look I I I I can't really see it being real but I will be ecstatic if Rett louder gets the call I have talked to a couple of folks around the team they have not heard anything about this but there were a couple of things that made it seem as though Rett louder may be getting the call in fact CBS Sports their website listed Rett louder as the Red's probable starter for Wednesday's game against the Oakland A's that that was kind of strange and there was also this Twitter account uh that was run it's run by a guy who does Fantasy Baseball content and it said quote all signs point to louder getting called up for Wednesday's game how did it come to this all signs pointing to Rett louder pitching for the Reds on Wednesday all signs pointing to that being the case is simply because the red starting pitching staff is depleted I mean Nick clo is going to most likely be the starter for tonight's game it's not been announced as of recording here in the Wei small hours of Tuesday morning but I'm assuming that's who it's going to be given this is his fifth day then you're probably GNA see Julian agie our pitch on Thursday just because that lines up with when he last pitched but there was a crazy not really a good Bullpen day for the r 5 days from this Wednesday you know Buck farmer started the Reds ended up throwing seven different pitchers in Pittsburgh I don't think they're going to try to do that again given the fact that they have seven games starting today in the next six days and in fact they don't have another off day until September 16th so this this day begins a stretch of games with no off days including a double header this Friday against the Brewers so the Reds need pitching not really sure where they're going to get it so this kind of makes sense in the logistical sense that Rett louder could get the call up and let's talk about the benefits of this for a minute and again this is unsubstantiated talk about this Saul just a random report mlb.com did not corroborate cbssports.com you know not really a report but like CBS Sports listing Rett louter the probable starting pitcher for Wednesday was very curious mlb.com doesn't say that and folks that I've talked to around the team do not agree and they have not heard this but it could make some sense I mean he has good command he has shown that through three different levels of the minor leagues this year and while we like to talk about you know the the quality of competition and the talent that guys face in the minor leagues varies wildly from level to level and none of it really Compares with the majors one thing that you can control if you're a minor league player is if you're a pitcher and if you throw balls and Strikes and R louder does a good job of limiting the balls and throwing lots of strikes he has good command I mentioned it yesterday and 108 in a third Innings pitched he only has 24 walks across all three levels of the minor leagues that he's seen this year Dayton Chattanooga and Louisville just 24 walks in that span that's fantastic that is the kind of thing that at least translates a little bit now if he's going to fill up the strike zone there's a chance he gets clobbered that we don't necessarily know right now but he has a four- pitch mix he throws a four seamer he throws a sinker he throws a slider and he throws a change and his for seamer and his slider are kind of his go-to combo to get guys out throws the Sinker in the change to keep guys guessing as to what's going to come up there but really the the velocity is fine on his fast ball it's not going to blow you away it's fine but like I said it's all about command and he has a lot of it and the other thing for him is the difference in velocity from his fast ball to his change up in his slider is very substantial around 94 miles hour on the fast ball 87 on the slider 85 on the change so you are talking about a nice little Gap there that you can play with in full hitters which is the name of the game and look the the benefit to all of this should the rumor should should the Rumblings I don't even know that it's you can even call it a rumor at this point it's more of a rumbling should that all be true he would get to debut against the A's the A's are in the the small group of teams that you're like kind of feel okay with a rookie pitcher getting their debut against him sure you worry about Brent Rooker but the rest of the lineup isn't much of a worry for me the the thing about this though and and probably the reason the biggest reason that I don't see it happening he's only got one start for Louisville he just got there and sure you can you can say well everything lines up the reds don't have a guy the reds don't have a lot of depth I mean let's face it outside of ret louder you got to square really hard to see whoever might be getting the call up and quite frankly all of the guys who have been getting starts for the Louisville Bats here recently none of them Inspire much confidence there's one guy in Brandon lebrand I believe that's how you pronounce his last name liebrandt or lebrandt or something like that but he has three starts here in the month of August where he has gone six innings in in three consecutive starts his most recent start he got got pulled after throwing only one inning and his most recent start was on August 25th Sunday I don't think he's going to be the guy and if you're not looking at Rhett louder or anybody else you're looking at Randy win who has not been good you're looking at some other names who have not been good like there's there's really nobody I mean lion Richardson even has been pitching out of the bullpen remember lion Richardson he was a guy that got a couple of odd starts last season you know here and there and everywhere else if they were to call him up it would be in a relief pitching capacity it would be probably in a bullpen game but the hardest part about figuring out this pitching staff for this Oakland A series is what happens this weekend with four games in three days and the fact that they pitched both Nick Martinez and Carson spers on the same day on Sunday I think they were setting those guys up that one is going to start the first game of the double header on Friday and then the other's going to start the other just whoever it is if it's Nick Martinez in game one and Carson Spire in game two whatever but those guys are slated from Milwaukee they're not going to pitch on Wednesday so maybe that lines this up but I just don't see Rhett louder getting CAU up right now I would be through the roof if he did I would I would make sure to see if I can get tickets to that game because that's going to be fantastic and he is a guy that has a bright future albeit I don't necessarily know that he's going to get caught up and throw no hit or anything like that but it will be fun to see him begin his major league career and he's going to be a guy for this rotation for years to come I just don't think it's going to start this Wednesday could be wrong and I'd be happy to be wrong let's change gears a little bit because we've been looking for the second half of some kind of onew punch with Ellie and somebody else and the red they might be discovering that as we speak you've heard us talk a lot about FanDuel and why not they're America's number one sports book well we have something a little bit different to tell for you today because now through September 22nd all FanDuel customers can bet $5 and get a 3- week free trial of NFL Sunday Ticket from YouTube and YouTube TV then with a YouTube TV base plan you'll be able to watch every regular season Sunday afternoon out of Market game all you need is a Google account in a current form of payment and you can cancel any time and with that $5 I would hammer the Ellie parlay with the A's in town I got a good feeling that Ellie is going to have a big series and again the Ellie parlay is for Ellie Del La Cruz to get two plus total bases to get at least one steal and a score at least one run you put all three of those together normally you get a payout around 4 to1 or 5 to one on FanDuel just visit fanduel.com lockon and download America's number one Sportsbook thank you for making lock on reds your first listen today and every day as always and now make sure after this show you check out for your second listen locked on MLB because Paul Sullivan AKA SU has he covered every single day leading up to the playoff races all through the dog days of summer with his National expertise that's sprinkled with some of his trademark humor that's lockon MLB as Sully gets you prepared for the fall classic each and every day part of the lock on podcast Network your team every day and speaking of everyday shout out to our every dayers out there and uh for for anybody who is an everyday thank you if you're not an everyday make sure you become by become one by hit the Subscribe button here on YouTube or on your favorite podcasting app and because on the next lockdown Reds podcast Steve will be back and we will be answering what questions the Reds can answer the rest of the season because we're kind of looking this as like don't think they're making the playoffs here so what can they prove the final five weeks and two days I think it's like five weeks in a day or something like that of the Season I'll tell you this though there's somebody who's proving something right now and that is Tyler Stevenson because he has emerged as the two in a potential onew punch with Ellie talking about Ellie Del La Cruz Tyler Stevenson onew punch right now look at this because the last 28 days Tyler Stevenson has been as hot as the surface of the Sun he's hitting 321 in these last 21 days he's got an on-based percentage of 4 400 and a slugging percentage of 607 he has been phenomenal he has six homers during that time span in fact he has seven homers since the All-Star break no Reds hitter has more than those seven home runs you kind of wish that there was somebody that had more than seven home runs on the team that's just kind of been how the power has gone for the Reds it's been there and it's been gone and it's very inconsistent feels like Aaron judge I think hit seven home runs since I began saying this sentence so just things like that you know you kind of wish you had a guy that's hitting for more power but Tyler Stevenson is the guy that's leading this team in power right now and even if you go back to what I was talking about these last 28 days Tyler Stevenson leads the team in total bases with 51 he has more total bases than Ellie during this time span and Ellie's been doing pretty good during this time span too in fact um for the year Tyler Stevenson now is to the point where he is second on the team in war at least according to Fan graphs baseball reference has him at third right behind Spencer steer but still like Tyler Stevenson has been one of the most valuable hitters on the team all season but it's really been turned on here lately and for me and and and the biggest thing about this because Tyler Stevenson was a guy that last year really struggled there were some folks that were writing him off there was there were folks during this offseason that were in our comment section they were hitting us up on social media which by the way you can hit me up at Jeff car with three FS on X I also have a um Tik Tok account same handle at Jeff Carr with three FS uh but but there were people that were telling us in the offseason that they're done with Tyler Stevenson and they the Reds need to get a different catcher he is proving all of the naysayers wrong at least at the plate defend Ely he could improve in some areas but he was better than he was last year and he's certainly better at the plate this year than last year and for me it's all real I I I think that the biggest disappointment of last season was that in 2022 before he got hurt before he broke his collar bone off that that Wicked foul ball he was killing it in the hidden statistics department and it was all inflated he wasn't hitting the ball very hard the advanced metrics and Stat cast you know his average exit velocity wasn't great and his batting average on balls in play babip was showing that he was getting extremely lucky all of that is good this year he is in he's in the top you know top quarter of the League top 25% of the league with his average exit velocity his quality of contact is over 90 mph on average and he has an elite ability to square up the baseball he is in the 97th percent top three% of the league in being able to square up the baseball few hitters do it as well as he does and his babit this year actually says he's getting a little bit unlucky where his his batting average on balls in play was unsustainably high in 2022 it's actually lower than League average this year it's at 281 this year I think League average is around 290 it's actually lower than it it usually is for the entire league but his is even lower than that consider that he's he's sitting the world on fire he's he's destroying baseballs disintegrating them right now and some of the advanced stuff say that he's actually getting unlucky with it he could be doing better and we're talking about he's he's right close to you know an Ops of 800 for the season his Ops plus the statistic that Steve and myself we we really enjoy using this it's kind of a One-Stop shop for hitting it doesn't tell you the whole picture but it gives you a lot of it in one number his op S Plus is 119 League average is 100 he's 19% better than League average this year he's been doing so good at the plate and he's emerging as this one-w punch because I feel like at the beginning of the year we knew it was going to be Ellie and Spencer steer as the one-w punch honestly I kind of thought it'd be Matt mlan and Ellie but then when Matt mlan went down we're like okay I got to find somebody else so I think that you know I expect at least to be Ellie and Spencer steer but Spencer steer's had such a weird year like it's not been a horrible year but it's definitely not met the expectations we had for him Tyler Stevenson I think he's stepping into that role and that's why you see that see that lineup configuration so much where it's Ellie Tyler Stevenson because Ellie gets on base Stevenson brings him in and this is why if you get that cleanup hitter you get that Bonafide RBI guy and you put him right behind Tyler Stevenson cooking with gas this lineup will be doing exactly what we want them to do if you're able to get that that consistent dude and that's that's going to be a big thing for me this offseason every dayers get ready we won't be talking about that a lot different ways and you know analyzing it in different ways but that that is a huge thing for me for the Reds to do this off season is to go get a Bonafide cleanup hitter not not a not a bevel second tier guy they go to they got to spend some money for it but there's plenty of reason to believe that they have the ability to do that but the good news is we're really starting to see a one-two punch here forming this lineup and that's because Tyler Stevenson is blossoming breaking out going crazy CRA loves seeing what he's doing at the plate you know a veteran outfielder became a free agent on Monday who and and nck crawl should be blowing up his phone to bring him to Cincinnati I'll tell you who it is and why coming up next get supplies from the site that's made for the skilled trades supplyhouse.com supplyhouse.com is the reliable way to order Plumbing HVAC and electrical products online their easy to ous website is packed with helpful resources and the latest product info to help you get the job done right shop a complete inventory of over 200,000 Parts with over 400 top brands and get your order delivered right to your door with fast shipping from coast to coast need help with an order get expert support and industry-leading service from the friendliest folks in the business and talk to a real person every time Pros in the skilled trades can actually get a Competitive Edge by joining supplyhouse.com trademaster program it's all free and every tradem gets access to a dedicated phone line free shipping and discounts on every order join the thousands of trade Pros already benefiting from their free membership at supplyhouse.com sltm and Order Plumbing HVAC and electrical products from anywhere with just a few clicks at supplyhouse.com you can catch every pitch of the Red's Hometown broadcast with SiriusXM just download the sxm app and search the word Reds and you can take the Reds Hometown broadcast with you everywhere you go also make sure you bookmark Cincinnati Red talk.com for written content about your Cincinnati Reds had a couple of uh articles I wrote over there yesterday talking about the ret louder rumor that we we spoke about here a few minutes ago don't think that it's a substantiated rumor but could the Reds call him up you know maybe I really don't think so but it could happen also I wrote about what we want to talk about here right now because um the Reds should sign J Jason Hayward and and I I know the numbers aren't going to wow you you're you're you're probably looking up Jason hayward's numbers for this season right now cuz you're like Jason Hayward my Gody gosh he's still playing yes he is and they're not great but it will help solidify this Outfield because first of all his numbers are better than will Benson he is a lefty outfielder so it's not as if I'm talking about bringing in a platoon guy here I think that his value to this team would go beyond the box score though Jason Hayward is a guy that whenever he was cut by the Dodgers here recently there were a lot of rers players either going to social media or mentioning it in postgame pressers or something like that they were talking about how much they're going to miss him how much he means to them you know as as a teammate and things like that he will bring a veteran presence that is invaluable to this team and I got to believe that you can have him on the league minimum or something like that now there's a very good chance and and I say all of this with a caveat of knowing that there's a very good chance he could already be on his way to Atlanta he has deep connections with the Braves the Braves are competing for a playoff spot it's possible that's what he wants right now and he doesn't really care about anything else but he could be a invaluable asset for being the kind of Veteran leader for guys like will Benson steuart Fairchild even TJ fredel and even Spencer steer because consider this too like I talk about the numbers not being all that great he has a 91 Ops plus mentioned Stevenson's 119 Ops plus League average is 100 so 91 means he's 9% worse than your league average hitter but will Benson has an 80 Ops plus I I love will Benson but he has had a horrendous season could Jason Hayward be the kind of guy that like mentors him a little bit you know a lot was made about his connection will Benson's connection with Joey vad last season could he make a connection with Jason Hayward and learn something from him because he hasn't had I mean as much as it was said that you know jamer candelerio was kind of a mentor for the young infielders the Reds didn't have that in the Outfield and oh my gosh the Red's Outfield has been bad this year like the the thing and the bar is so low here but the thing for me on going and getting Jason Hayward is you got a guy who's done it for a while for a nice long time you get an outfielder who can play The Outfield like the Reds had Santiago espanol and right field just this last the last game that they played Sunday you're telling me you wouldn't rather have Jason Hayward in right field than Santiago espanol I get it the bat argument like Santiago espanol's bat has been fantastic here recently but defensively that outf field was a nightmare and it's been that way all season like Jason Hayward would be the second best Fielder on this team right now steuart Fairchild has the best numbers when it comes to outs above average Jason Hayward would be right behind him both will Benson and TJ Friel are firmly in the negative and so is Spencer steer in fact let's do this just briefly because there's much more that I want to say about this much more that I want to discuss this with Steve and quite frankly we're going to be talking about the Outfield all off season by the way I mentioned you know power or power bat middle of the order RBI guy huge theme for the off season The Outfield might be an even bigger one so you know every dayers get ready for that but the Reds Outfield as a whole just baffles me this year like right now look at the active roster right now for the Reds Outfield will Benson who has been here all year there is no sample siiz argument for will Benson and he's been bad at everything steuart Fairchild who can't hit righties he just can't he does really well against lefties and he's a really good Fielder but if you put a right-hander on the mound st's got nothing for you TJ friedel who he's finally coming around a little bit but it still feels like he is day to day like you cannot expect him to be consistent because of all the injuries that he suffered this year feel like the dude like there's some guys that are really looking forward to this off season just to hit the reset button TJ fredel might be at the top of that list so as much as he is giving us that is good know that TJ fredel still isn't all the way back and I don't think he will be until the end of the season and then you have Spencer steer who I'm going to say it defensively he's not an outfielder and at the beginning of the year I said that that wasn't a problem I remember saying that the Reds can out hit their bad defense and I was Stone Cold wrong about that and I'm Stone Cold wrong about the fact that Spencer steer's okay in the Outfield if you look at his outs above average which is my go-to Fielding statistic Fielding statistics are a crapshoot in most cases but outs above average approaches some sense of viability and Spencer steers outs above average are not good in left field I think that he's an infielder masquerading as an outfielder because the Reds just didn't go get outfielders this off season and they didn't go get outfielders during the season and think about this Amed Rosario he actually played some Outfield in Tampa Bay hasn't played any for the Reds yet they got they went and got him he's more of an infielder anyway and and then whenever candelerio hit the injured list they went and they got a first baseman and Dom Smith who is a power bat but he's a first baseman and he's not really even good at that he's more of a DH they have been rolling with pretty much this Outfield all season long this needs completely reimagined during the off season and quite frankly I would be okay if TJ Fredo is like the third or fourth guy will Benson he I don't know if like you can send him down to Triple A next year to to kind of redevelop some things but he needs work St probably a good option as your fourth outfielder right now he's like the team's second outfielder and Spence for me think you need to think about moving Spence to the infield the Reds need a complete overhaul in the Outfield next year they need a a legitimate dude but they need you know maybe one or two other p pieces as well and for me at least till the end of the season you can sign Jason Hayward bring him in have a legitimate outfielder and a legitimate veteran presence to help Mentor these guys I I I I think that they they need him and they should go get him guessing the Braves probably probably pick him up but love to see him in a Red's uniform before we go I would like to invite you to become a lock on reds Insider I'm offering a 14-day free trial if you join me today by texting the word Insider to 513- 597 0944 we'll text back and forth daily about the Reds we'll we'll talk some ball you can become that friend that everyone 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