Nick Martinez and Cincinnati Reds Pitching Dominates Atlanta Braves to Seal Series Sweep

Nick Martinez was nearly unhitable as the Reds sweep the Braves down in Atlanta and also can I get a Viva La France Viva you are locked on red 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 his name is Steve offen Baker and we are life long Cincinnati Reds fans and we've been podcasting about this Cincinnati Reds team this is like our 12th season when you put them all together because we love these Reds seriously I got like baby pictures and reds gear to prove it plus I am also the lock on MLB channel manager lockon Reds lock on MO is all part of the locked on podcast Network we are your team your Cincinnati Reds every single day and every single day we want to make lock on reds for you we want to make it for everyone we'll talk about the big thing going on in Red's country we'll talk about some geeky stats and make them make sense and we'll overreact to the Daily Motions of the MLB Ocean and the 162 but hey look I'm glad that you're alongside me here today because Ty France is proving his Destiny lies along a different path than what we thought whenever the F the Reds first traded for him we'll tell you why later on in the show the force was strong with Alexis Diaz and Fernando Cruz on Monday night and we'll wonder about next year's Bullpen that's coming up here in just a few minutes but we will start with the chosen one Nick Martinez and how he has brought balance to the force of the Reds pitching staff here recently that's all coming up on today's lockdown Reds podcast that has brought to you by FanDuel now through September 22nd all FanDuel customers can get $5 or bet $5 and get a three-week free trial of NFL Sunday Ticket from YouTube and YouTube TV visit fanduel.com to get started and Steve where we will get started here today is Nick Martinez and how he has brought peace Justice and security to this new pitching Empire that the reds are surviving with I just can't even with you right now rest in peace James Earl Jones my goodness how many Star Wars references did you just squeeze in there that's that's that was good that was good on you that you you exceeded you exceeded my expectations which is good because because I am your father listen Nick Martinez is doing things that we have not expected from him we thought that he might compete for a starting gig we thought he was going to be a valuable arm to just kind of have around right Jeff we thought huh an insurance policy a dude that can give you some extra innings out of the bullpen a dude that can start a double header or fill in if somebody's injured right now he's the Ace of this staff and I know you have that written down I didn't have that written down but here we are uh what an outing for him uh tremendous 23 of 24 batters were greeted with a strike on the very first pitch a total three total base runners Jeff in the whole game and only one not named Matt Olsson brilliant seven brilliant Innings I just I can't be I can't be more more happy for how this Nick Martinez uh signing has turned out you know when they got him we we all kind of gave a collective ah okay all right whatever but boy I was calling for I was I'm I'm H I was happy that the Reds got Nick Martinez he was on my offseason wish list I'm very happy that the Reds got him and yes I mean he was absolutely Stellar for the Reds on Monday night and I kind of want to reiterate the whole Matt olssen thing because Matt olssen had a couple of a couple of kind of you know babip singles and that was it for the hitting side of things for Atlanta and by the way that this was the third win in the third time that the Reds played in Atlanta so the Reds swept the Braves in Atlanta anybody in the comment section from Braves fandom uh uh and any and any Mets fans in the comments section uh you're welcome so because now the Mets are in the wild card and and Atlanta's out of the wild card but this was a fantastic pitching performance from him and just more of the same I mean he had five strikeouts in those seven Innings with just one walk he has really kind of come into his own and especially at a time when the starting pitching staff is all on the injured list we were looking around and everybody collectively in Red's country was looking around like okay how many more games do they have to pitch how many more Innings do they have to fill who's going to fill them Nick Martinez has been one of those guys because August 5th was the first start in this like run of starts that he has had to make for the Reds every fifth day Steve and and during that time since August 5th he's made eight starts and he has averaged five innings per start look I know that that's not Elite we're not talking about you know he's like garnering sa young votes with this performance but he has been absolutely invaluable to a Red's pitching staff that quite frankly they were about to call you and me up to see if we could give them some Innings no that's absolutely true I'll say this right now um overall on the season Nick Martinez has the best ER amongst the starters Still Standing on the year he's at 3.67 the only eras on the team better than those belong to Brett suder at 3.43 and buck Farmer at 2.92 so Nick Martinez has been the man pretty much all season long in whatever role the Reds have asked him to fill whether it was that long man in the rotation or if it's now filling in as a starter but but you know I questioned early on Jeff H Nick Martinez looking like it threw him off his game a little bit to be a starter versus coming out of the bullpen uh he seems to have overcome that he seems to be comfortable now starting games and it's going to make things really interesting uh come decision time to keep Nick Martinez around because his contract and I I listened to your show yesterday um his contract is nowhere near starting pitcher money and I think he's gonna go get starting pitcher money yeah and that's going to be something that I bet his agent really approaches a lot of different teams with like if you want to sign my player you are going to give him starting pitching money because his he has a player option for next year for $12 million he made $14 million this year so I don't think he's going to take less money to hang around I would be surprised if that were the case so he'll become a free agent probably looking for a 15 1617 million deal maybe for like two years or something like that maybe even a one-year deal if a team is like going to guarantee that he gets a starting rotation like a good shake at a starting rotation spot out of the gate and that's going to be the hard thing for me because I really want to see him on this Red's team next year this Red's pitching staff will not be as deep without him um there's a chance it'll be better but let me ask you this if if he if everyone I love when we do this exercise but if everybody's healthy if only wishing made it so if everybody was healthy does Nick Martinez even have an opportunity to compete for the starting rotation for the 2025 Reds I don't see it not for the opening day rotation no right and and that's the hard part because if he wants to be guaranteed a legitimate look at that he's going to have to go somewhere else but if he is okay returning to this role next year for the Reds then my goodness the Reds need to do whatever they can to bring him back but that's kind of the whole thing with this I mean we're talking about a dude that has been super consistent over the last three years we love to pick out sample sizes and I have a little bit of a sample size since June 1st that he's looked really good in but quite frankly over the last 3 years 2022 his ER was 3.47 2023 his erra was 3.43 and currently here in 2024 his ER is 3.46 you know what you're going to get out of Nick Martinez and when you come into next season with uh you know health concerns and young pitchers trying to make a name for themselves and all this other stuff there's only a couple couple of guys on this pitching staff that you know what you know about them and Nick Martinez would be one of those guys if he's back yeah absolutely here's the thing Nick Martinez he has been amazing and you know who else has looked pretty good lately Jeffrey your guy Alexis Diaz he's looked really good of late and it kind of has us wondering is that back end of the Reds Bullpen well back we're gonna tell you coming up next take the guest work out of buying MLB tickets with game time listen Jeff and I tell you about the game time app all the time this is what we use when we head down to the banks we find our favorite restaurant or favorite Watering Hole establishment uh we have a few drinks have some dinner and when it's about game time we jump on the game time app we get our tickets we head over to the stadium it's just that easy and listen it's not only for MLB tickets I have a buddy that's heading out to Seattle and is going to check out the Seahawks versus the Dolphins in a couple weeks he used the game time app to grab his tickets it was super easy for him all he had to do was download the game time app and create an account he used the promo code locked on MLB and he got $20 off his already low price because it was his first purchase the game time app gives you all in pricing he knew exactly what he was going to pay before he ever clicked that purchase button uh he's never been to a game in Seattle and it shows you the view from your seat he was able to see exactly what he was going to be able to see from his seat out there in Seattle so he knew exactly what he was going to get it's why Jeff and I love this app we've never had a bad outcome we've never been disappointed our our seats are always as avertised again all you have to do to get in on this deal is download the game time app create that account and use the promo code locked on MLB for $20 off your first purchase terms to apply again create your account redeem the code locked on MLB for $20 off download game time today last minute tickets lowest price guaranteed thanks for making locked on red your first listen today now for your second listen enjoy the locked on MLB podcast host Paul Sullivan also known as Sully is here daily to provide National expertise with his trademark humor to help get you ready for the MLB playoffs here in the dog days of summer prepare for the fall classic with Sully who has it all covered every single day on locked on MLB available on YouTube or wherever you get your podcast it's part of the locked on podcast Network your team every day all right Jeff I teased it there at the end of the first segment uh Nick Martinez was good last night in Atlanta but so was the bullpen Fernando Cruz was good Alexis Diaz was good and if you look at their last oh three outings or so they've been consistently good uh maybe a return to form even and it makes us wonder if is the the back end of this Bullpen back not yet um I I would actually ask you this question we didn't really discuss this before the show started but I would ask you this question can Alexis Diaz and Fernando Cruz specifically these two guys can they prove between now and the end of the season that they are in fact back um yes and no yes Alexis Diaz can prove that he is back and be a valuable member of this team in 2025 and there's nothing for me that Fernando Cruz can do to Warrant taking up a bullpen spot in the 2025 Reds Bullpen he's 34 years old he's been inconsistent I think the Reds have squeezed every ounce of extra they're goingon to get out of him and he's one of those relievers where for me it's time to move on in the offseason Diaz is intriguing to me because since the month of September began he has not allowed a base runner and we've talked about him multiple different times on the show off the show at the game you know all this different stuff we've talked about Diaz a lot of like has he hit a collective wall not just this season not just the workload that he has seen this year which is lesser than in years past but when you put together the last two seasons along with this one has it all kind of come crashing down on him well the fact that he has started off September so strong at least gives me a little bit of hope that he will be that guy next season I'm a little bit with you on Fernando crw Fernando Cruz is kind of maddening because what you and I love to talk about and what I always tell folks is that when you try to evaluate a relief pitcher don't look at his ER look at his strikeout to walk ratio that is a phenomenal stat in favor of him well at least on the strikeout part his last three outings four Innings pitched 10 strikeouts and only one walk now now walks have played him this year in fact it's gone up his his walk rate has gone up year over year but his strikeout rate has also gone up and he has been an elite strikeout pitcher the problem is that what you combine when he's not striking out guys he gives up League average contact as far as average exit velocity goes but he's given up a lot of barrels that's above that's you know worse than League average and he's given up a lot of hardh hit contact so when he gets hit he gets hit bad and that's why you see RA in the fives yeah and and I'm I'm with you you can't really look at a reliever ra a couple bad outings does it in and you look at his last just his last three outings Jeff in his last three outings he's pitched four Innings allowed two runs on three hits he's only walked one guy though in those four Innings do you know how many he struck out in those four Innings 10 um 10 to one strikeouts to walk I will take uh his overall in the season he's averaging 14.3 strikeouts per nine 4.6 walks per nine um you know I don't like to see that walks per nine anywhere too over three at all it's too high but I'm more concerned about his age you know him arriving to the scene relatively late um you know at 34 the Reds have gotten him into 64 ball games now 65 ball games this year counting last night um that's probably excessive for what they should be using Fernando Cruz um you know doesn't that feel low though like it feels like he pitched the entire month of April and May I think that's and I think that's why the middle of the season was so bad for him they disused him too much too early too often um and I just don't know how a guy that's gonna be heading into his age 35 season recovers from that um you know we've seen breakdown in Ian Jabo as his workload got doubled and doubled and I'm afraid that's kind of what we're gonna see with Fernando Cruz as well I don't know that you can head into 2025 and safely count on him now that's not to say that he doesn't show up out in Good Year and look great and they have this Bullpen figured out and he only has to pitch in 40 games instead of 60 and and maybe he looks lights out but I don't think you can head into the season counting on him to be your number two guy in the back end of this Bullpen maybe he can play his way onto this team but you can't count on him to be that guy and the big reason the big reason why we're considering this is that back in April if you were to ask us who the who the alphas of this Bullpen are it's Alexis Diaz and Fernando Cruz and that's exactly what we said and and both of them in some way shape or form have proven that to be false at least most way through the season hopefully Diaz can kind of get back to that I don't know that he can get all the way back to Alpha but I will feel better about him if he continues this run of form here in September but it does have me thinking not necessarily who specifically the alpha is for next year but who do we trust the most when we're going into 2025 and we're looking at the Red's Bullpen and and and let's let's forget about contracts for just a moment because there are some guys who have expiring contracts but but if you can bring back anybody who are the guys that you're most confident in bringing back Sam Maul that's that's the top of my list I know he's hurt right now but his last appearance doesn't doesn't bode well for that but he has been overall good this year right I I think he's probably been Mr reliable right up until he was injured whether that's a real injury or a a phantom injury whatever that is he's was really good right up to that point so I think I'm rely I can I think we can R him The Phantom Menace injury oh boy and then I'm not even I can't even do this with you and then Tony sanon is probably the other guy like if I have to take two that I I think we can rely on it's those two guys um and then on the fringes looking in as Alexis Diaz because I'm not quite sure who he is right now but yeah those are the three names come to mind yeah that's my thing is that I say Alexis Diaz but I do not say that as he's like written in ink that he's the closer or he's the Ace of the bullpen staff like that's up for grabs next year the Reds should definitely be looking for guys that could fill that role could challenge him and probably overtake him and aace next spring training they need to challenge him because I feel like what they did with hunter green this year was brilliant they said you're not the ace de facto well you can get there with some work and he got there with some work they kind of wrote Alexis Diaz as the de facto Ace of the bullpen into this season after seeing what he did the second half of last year and they're just like no he's he's going to be back to normal and he never really got back to normal at least here until we get to the month of September overall his performance everybody's going to point start screaming you know shouting to the clouds and things like this they're just like but his his saves and his blown saves I don't care about that what I care about is like his individual things the things that he can control his walk rate has been atrocious his strikeout rate has been down and he has been hit hard you put all those three things together for the most part you're talking about a very untrustworthy Bullpen guy but here recently we've seen everything return back to the way it was early 2023 so hopefully he can continue this and bring it into next year but I'm not writing him in as the bullpen Ace yet I agree with you about Sam Maul I do think I agree with you about uh Tony sanon I'm intrigued a little bit and I I wrote about this over at uh Cincinnati Red sock.com Jacob junis Jacob junis has a mutual option for $7 million he is a a another example and he's only made two starts he's not made eight starts for me to go crazy about but he's made two admirable starts and he's made some very nice appearances out of the bullpen in a long relief fashion he is the kind of guy that would give this Bullpen the versatility that it has this year continue it next year and do it at a pretty reasonable price I and I know I said take contracts out of this for a minute so if we don't have to worry about the option whatsoever I would like to see him back Jacob junis in his 11 games for the Cincinnati Reds this year Jeff he has a 7.2 strikeouts per nine he has a walks per nine of 0.7 the I that that was one of my points is that looking back at Nick Martinez who we just talked about and com and combining him with Jacob junis they are number nine and number 10 respectively in Major League Baseball and walk rate they are so Elite at not throwing four balls in some fashion to a hitter all right Jeff I think uh what we know is the bullpen is going to be one of our biggest talking points this off season and while they have looked better lately they haven't done quite enough for either one of us to feel comfortable in saying we've got our guys no not quite Steve they got to make some moves and they got to do some considering about this Bullpen but look the ability to destroy a planet is insignificant next to the power of Thai France and coming up next we'll tell you where he fits on next year's Reds roster you've heard us talk a lot about FanDuel America's number one sports book but now we have something a little bit different for you now through September 22nd all FanDuel customers can bet $5 and get a three week free trial of NFL Sunday Ticket with 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 and a current form of payment and you can cancel anytime and with that $5 bet why I always tell you this put it on the LA parlay didn't actually hit in Atlanta last night but got a good feeling about it as the reds are heading to St Louis Ellie loves to play against the Cardinals and he's going to get at least two total bases a steal a stolen base and one run scored that's the Ellie parlay put those three things together usually pays out about four to one so head over to FanDuel with a $5 wager on the Ellie parlay and get yourself three free weeks of NFL Sunday Ticket from FanDuel that's over at FanDuel / lockon they're America's number one sports book you can catch every pitch of the Red's Hometown broadcast with SiriusXM just download the sxm app and search the word Reds also make sure you bookmark Cincinnati redst talk.com a lot of great written content over there I'm writing over there James rin's writing over there Greg kuffner from reds daily over on Twitter is writing there as well that's Cincinnati Reds talk.com bookmarket today something else you can bookmark Steve is the fact that Ty France is gonna be here next year via France Viva and we've been talking a lot about the pitching from Monday night's win because quite frankly the pitching is the reason that the Reds won they allowed zero runs and the Reds they only scored one and that was thanks to Ty France he went two for four had the only RBI on Monday so you know game winning RBI all that all that wonderful stuff but he is a guy that honestly whenever the Reds first got him we both were like great sounds fun whatever Seattle's throwing them away I guess we'll give them some cash and we'll see what we got and what we got so far has been pretty encouraging I've uh I've been seeing the comment section Jeff I know you you read everything that gets written to us as well and there's been a lot of people talking about Ty France being the every every day first baseman next year that he should be uh in that conversation or he should be be that guy and I know that you push back on it a little bit we didn't go that route when we did our way too early lineups on the live show last week uh but I wanted to ask you this uh in a in a blind taste test Jeffrey if you have to pick one of these as your air parent you're starting first baseman let's say heading into spring training if you're making a death chart before spring training is your first baseman the guy who has a slash line of 266 341 412 or is your first baseman the guy that has a slash line of 243 291 414 while you think a bonus statistic the first guy has a career Ops plus of4 the second guy has a career Ops plus of 88 I think I mean just by the stats I I know who we're talking about here um because I can guess but just by the stats you take the 114 Ops plus guy plus the fact that he has six seasons that he's done that with yeah that is Ty France the first the first guy is Ty France 266 341 412 and Ops of 114 the other guy that is Christian incarn on strand in his very short Major League career 243 291 414 88 eight Ops Plus or as I like to call that 12% below League average and this is kind of where you know when we were doing our lineup talk the other day I'm I I I'm curious about how serious the reds are about overhauling The Outfield and who their first baseman is because we'll we'll we'll see like they might just pencil in Christian Inc carnos on Strand and quite frankly he's going to have some sort of hand that is reminiscent of Luke Skywalkers because he broke two wrist bones and tore a ligament and who knows what's there anymore he might even have a wrist might have to have some s biomechanical wrist or something that doesn't exist but that'd be kind of cool so basically you're saying we need the artificial hands for both CES and Joe burrow in Cincinnati right just need really got to get that going where's that Droid at that that put that thing together anyway uh so we don't know what we're going to get out of him the only concern that I have is that over the last two years yes his slugging percentage for his career for Tai France for six years is over 400 but for the last two seasons looking at his time in Seattle included in this his thugging percentage has been under 390 so we're not talking about a Big Bopper we're not talking about a power-hitting guy I like him more as a bench piece more of a depth guy that you know you can bring in as is a good pinch hit if you need him to give somebody a day off at first base that's fine and quite frankly I think the best case scenario for this team is that they go get a couple of outfielders and they put Spencer steer at first base um I don't think they're going to go out and get a first baseman although we could salivate a little bit about the chances that they go get Pete Alonzo but I think at the end of the day the easier answer and the better answer for me is that Spencer Seer plays first Bas and you you work CES in you see where he's at see how he can get better because it was clear that the injury sapped him a little bit but my goodness he couldn't hit a baseball for the better part of two months before hitting the injured list so I cannot in good conscience just say yeah we're handing him the first base job on opening day right now yeah here's the one part of our our lineup discussion that I am gonna stand by I I'm really considering Ty France getting an opportunity here uh but I do stand by that CES is not going to be a guy sitting on the end of the Reds bench next to B David Bell hoping to get into play if he's not if he's not starting he's not on this team he'll be in Louisville I think you he has options it would make no sense at all to have him as a bench guy for the Cincinnati Reds in 2025 so uh it you're right it is very interesting because the Outfield really depends a whole lot on this um I don't see them getting enough outfielders I think they'll sign one yeah um we're asking for two they'll get one that's going to be a right fielder I think Spencer steer will stay in left TJ Fredo will stay in Center uh this first base conversation I really think comes down to CES in France and I think jamer candelario is your designated hitter next W Soo does play right field yes he does I don't think I don't think there's a lot of moves that they're going to be able to make on that infield I think it's getting very narrowly defined here pretty quick um and Ty France in his success I think has complicated the conversation I don't think when they brought him in here they thought he was going to be this dude I think this is a surprise I think they were looking for a body they were looking for somebody that might could hold their own at the major league level uh they weren't expecting to get a guy that was going to make us have this conversation about who's playing first base next year yeah it's funny I I tweeted something about you know whenever France got this RBI and reds go up one nothing I was just like boy what a what a nice fine that Ty Fran has had and somebody replied to me was just like yeah amongst all of these other guys and he Ed like all the different players that the Reds have acquired this year that haven't done anything at all and it's just like yeah yeah it's kind of like that guy that takes every line on FanDuel just so that he can hit at least one of the lines um not going to say that's what I tried to do on on the first NFL Sunday but it's kind of how it felt that for you it didn't work out very well but I mean Ty France has really shown that the feel good about their depth and he is under team control through arbitration for another year now next year will be his last year of arbitration so that's the only year of Team control past this season and he made about 6.7 million this year so I still think that it's very rare that a player loses money in arbitration he probably gets a raise to about 75 maybe eight million something like that um so that might be a little bit interesting depending on what the red see from him I still think that they keep him and they they pay him that money but overall I I I think that the Reds have really found somebody that you can feel good about the depth and and and and I know I know I know we did this back in February and it seems like we might be starting this again but makes them feel good where where are they gonna play all these guys Jeff where are they where's everybody gonna play be careful to not choke on your ambition offen Baker and that's where we will end today's podcast rest in peace James earol Jones uh one of the most I of characters that I mean quite frankly I think Darth Vader might be one of the most influential characters of my lifetime so there's that thank you so much for that James Earl Jones rest in peace uh and and before we go I would like to invite you to join our lock on reds insiders text the word Insider to 51 35979 44 you'll get a free 14-day trial $499 a month after that we'll text Reds every single day and you could become that friend that everybody comes to for Red's information again text the word Insider to 5135 970944 let's talk some Reds baseball that's going to do it for this edition of locked on reds thanks for always making us your first listen every day every dayers coming up we're going to continue to talk about uh the endings of this season and what we can expect for the Reds in the offseason and Beyond we're going to gather up all the information about this team and keep you covered every single day go make your second listen the lockon MLB podcast prepare for the fall classic with Sully who has it covered every single day as well you can find a link to locked on MLB in the description of today's show so you don't even need to go and search for it it's part of locked on podcast Network your team every day until next time Jeff and I are G to gather up all of that news and bring it back here to keep you locked on RS every single day May the force be with you