The ice is thawing

The approach is important with the offense. I think Choo could be the sort of player who can set a standard for the extra-base hit.
Doubles will win games on the road.

I wonder how many teams will load up lefties against the Reds just to get Choo out.

That might not be such a good idea.
 

If Choo struggles against lefties, Heisey will probably get at least some time in CF.  He hit marginally better (at least in 2012) against lefties than he did against righthanders.

If Choo flops we can maybe get Stubbs back. Now that Cleveland has signed Bourn.

If you sit up close on a hot day. You can always enjoy the breeze off Stubbs bat. While he is striking out

If Stubbs stays in Cleveland, I can't guess at the coaching he'll get, but I suspect he's likely to an education...about platooning.

Stubbs' batting average wasn't terrible against lefty pitchers... BUT,  if you want to play more and make more money, but don't have good L/R splits, you need to be a lefthanded hitter... About 67% of all MLB pitchers are righthanded, and 98% of them can throw a curveball away from a righty hitter that can't tell it from a fastball until it's too late. That point was lost on Stubbs as a Red, because he played everyday, anyway.


One of Dusty's anti-Chris Heisey statements was that Heisey didn't hit lefties very well...that was Dusty's justification for his early season revivial of the "buffoon platoon"  strategy- alternating playing time with 2 righty hitters in LF... He said Ludwick would get most at bats against lefties because he hit them better than Heisey, and as it turned out, Ludwick got most of the at bats in LF against righties too...Stubbs DID hit lefties better than Heisey, so Heisey couldn't argue to platoon with Stubbs in CF....what I couldn't fathom was how Stubbs could get 500 at bats hitting .213, when lefty hitting CF Xavier Paul was hitting 100 points higher, and would have been a perfect platoon partner for the righty pitcher challenged Stubbs.


At this point, Stubbs matters not, but the Reds K problem isn't over...This whole TEAM strikes out at an alarming rate, and doesn't walk that much. 

Stubbs struck out over 30% of his plate appearences last year, but Bruce was at 25%, Choo, Frazier and Ludwick were all over 21%, and Cozart about 19%.  Votto was 16%, Phillips only 13% but he walked less than 30 times in over 600 PA's, the WORST walk rate among Reds regulars.  Cozart also walked a miniscule 31 times in nearly 600 PA, and if you project Fraziers walks/K's over 600 PA this year- it's 50/146...Hanigan K'd at the lowest % among projected regulars at 10% of PA.

Hanigan and Votto were the ONLY Reds regulars to walk MORE than they struck out, while the others were overwhelmingy K'ing about 3 times for every walk. It's undertsandable- no one wants to pitch to Votto, and the pitcher hits after Hanigan...and the others,  I can't really blame them...the Reds odds of getting a walk around to score wasn't great.

For a good team, the Reds weren't very good at GETTING a runner INTO scoring position with LESS than 2 outs, much less actually scoring them- the MLB average with 2 outs is .200... They were also last in the NL in steals (and attempts), and other than pitchers, the Reds just don't bunt, or hit behind a runner at 1b often, and they aren't exactly loaded with high OBP, .300 hitters. Dusty's offensive philosophy is simple: swing hard in case you hit something....and they try to.