Season Preview: Cincinnati Reds

Last Season: 73-81, 5th in NL

Manager: Johnny Neun (2nd season in Cincinnati, 3rd total)Offseason: The Reds got a little younger in the offseason with the few deals they completed. First, they sold Elmer Riddle to the Pirates. All-Star Bert Haas, nearing the end of his career, was traded to the Phillies for Tommy Hughes, a pitcher who probably would've finished a whole lot better than 4-11 last year on a more competitive team. Another one-for-one trade with the Phillies saw Eddie Miller swapped for new center fielder Johnny Wyrostek. Almost no one is left from the World Series champions squad in 1940 as Cincinnati moves to embrace the future with these moves.Catcher: Ray Lammano was an All-Star in 1946 and only needs one or two days of rest per week. Lining up sixth in the batting order to start the year, Lammano is better than the typical catcher batting. He took the job from Ray Mueller, who is still on the team but is now 36 and four years removed from his own All-Star appearance in 1944.
Infield: The youth movement in the infield seems to have Cincinnati set up for the years to come. Grady Hatton has 30 homers in his first two seasons while hitting .276. He also draws a lot of walks compared to his strikeout rate. With Miller out of the picture, rookie Virgil Stallcup takes over. He had just one at bat last year in his debut. He also hit .338 for Jersey City at AAA level. With Benny Zientara sidelined to start the season, Bobby Adams will get the chance to make second base his. Adams has already played a full season's worth of games at the position over the last two years and handles himself well on defense and at bat. The lone veteran is Babe Young, who came over from the Giants last year. He has some power but the Reds may still look to deal him themselves. Rookie Ted Kluszewski has already worked his way up to the majors at 23 and Cincinnati would like to get him on the field. The only place they can do this is at first base.Outfield: Wyrostek will bat in the two spot behind right fielder Frankie Baumholtz. Neither have shown much power but both have speed and solid batting averages. The wild card is Hank Sauer, who is 31 but only appeared in 47 games in his major league career. Sauer slugged 50 homers and 141 RBIs last year in Syracuse at the AAA level, but how much of a drop off there is when he moves up to Cincinnati is anybody's guess. Veteran Augie Galan survived all the trades but will enter his fifteenth season primarily in a reserve role. Galan has hit over .300 in each of the last four seasons and is great at getting on base, drawing walks far more often than striking out, but he is a liability on defense and the Reds believe he may be slowing down.Rotation: They expected big things from him, but Cincinnati was stunned by the sudden emergence of Ewell Blackwell as one of the top pitchers in all of baseball. A year after going 9-13 in his rookies season, Blackwell led the majors with 22 wins, led the National League in strikeouts, and had the third best ERA in the MLB. He finished second in MVP voting at the age of 24. Unfortunately for Cincinnati, the rest of the team's starters are far worse. No other returning pitcher who started for this team last year had an ERA below 4.00. Johnny Vander Meer was once the ace of this team and is still only 33, but he hasn't had a winning record since 1942. Ken Raffensberger was probably the number two starter after he was traded from the Phillies last June, but he has never had a winning season with a career record of 36-60. Howie Fox will get a shot in the rotation. He wasn't on the team last year and pitched just five innings in 1946. Hughes, another starter who has never had a winning record in four years with the Phillies, will round out the rotation. Still around is Bucky Walters, who is coming off the worst season of his career. Walters more than doubled his ERA from the year before, signalling his playing days may be coming to an end.Bullpen: Veteran Harry Gumbert moved full time to the bullpen and found some success finishing games for the Reds. He averaged about two innings per appearances and was the pitcher at the end of 34 games. The team also like to turn to Kent Peterson last year, who started 17 games but also made 20 appearances out of the bullpen. Peterson is only 22 and should continue to get plenty of work whether starting or as a reliever. The same goes for Buddy Lively, who is just a year older.Outlook: The Reds are a hard team to read for 1948. Several significant moves have shaken up the roster. With their team getting younger, there is more uncertainty. However, they still have possibly the best pitcher in baseball in Blackwell and a strong core in the middle of the lineup. The Reds now sit at three straight losing seasons, and the range of possibilities goes from that streak ending to a last place finish depending on how all of the question marks are answered.