BAR: Reds officially eliminated from NL Central
The Blog Above Replacement is Reds beat writer C. Trent Rosecrans' daily look at the Reds, their minor leagues and whatever else is on his mind.
This is hardly a surprise to anyone, but the Reds aren't going to win their division.
With the Reds' loss last night and the Cardinals' victory, the Reds were officially eliminated from the National League Central race, the first team to be mathematically eliminated this season. There's still hope (not really) for the wild card, with an elimination number of 11 — that is a combined number of Reds losses and wins by the top two teams in the wild card standings.
There are actually four teams with a lower elimination number than the Reds — the Braves (10), the Marlins (9), the Rockies (10) and the Phillies (8).
The hard-charging Braves, in fact, are racing the Reds to the bottom of the standings. Atlanta has lost 14 of 15 and is a half-game ahead of the Reds for the fourth-worst record in baseball.
The Braves are making a run at the first pick — an honor that appears will be captured by a National League team. A total of six National League teams have a worse record right now than the worst American League team (Oakland).
MINOR LEAGUE ROUNDUP
• Triple-A: Toledo 7, Louisville 5: Robert Stephenson gave up six runs on eight hits in just three innings in his second start since returning from a wrist injury. Kyle Waldrop had a double and drove in two, while C Chris Berset was 2 for 4 with a double. [Box]
• Double-A: Jackson 8, Pensacola 7: SS Alex Blandino had three hits, including his third home run at Double-A, while C Kyle Skipworth had a double and drove in two. Pensacola held on to its second-half divisional lead by half a game with a Mississippi loss. [Box]
• High-A: Clearwater 3, Daytona 2, 8 innings; Daytona 3, Clearwater 0: Amir Garrett allowed two runs on five hits over six innings in a no-decision. LF Brian O'Grady accounted for both Tortuga runs in Game 1 with his fifth homer of the season. In the second game, Seth Varner allowed just two hits in five scoreless innings and 1B Daniel Pigott gave him all the support he would need with a two-run homer in the first. [Box][Box]
• Low-A: Lake County 5, Dayton 1: Starter Tejay Antone gave up three runs on three hits with three walks with three strikeouts in three (times two) innings. RF Aristides Aquino was 2 for 4 with his fifth homer of the season to account for the Dragons' lone run. [Box]
• Rookie: Helena 6, Billings 3: 3B Hector Vargas was 2 for 2 with a double and triple before leaving the game in the fifth. [Box]
THE ROTATION
1. Eno Sarris of FanGraphs has some interesting stats about whiff rates in regard to John Lamb and Raisel Iglesias. Lamb's changeup is — in a small sample size — a monster, while Iglesias' slider and fastball are above average.
2. Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post Dispatch has a proposal to make the September call-up time more fair for all teams, the healthy scratch and the series roster. It's pretty tough to argue with him.
3. Connor Barwin, former UC Bearcat and current Philadelphia Eagle, talks music. Barwin is among my favorite guys I've ever covered. [SI.com]
4. An interesting look at Disney Infinity, which I bought this weekend, because I'm a giant Star Wars nerd. It's pretty fun, I'll say that. I found this the most interesting, though: "Vignocchi said the decision to highlight Ahsoka, a female Jedi apprentice to Anakin, tied into surprising demographic data about Infinity's players, adding that they expected a split of 70% male and 30% female. "With Disney's IP treasure chest of powerful and strong female characters, we actually are seeing a split with Infinity that's more 50% boys and 50% girls," he said."
I had Boba Fett picking up and throwing Elsa this weekend, so that was fun. (She also froze me, so I shot her.) [Wall Street Journal]
5. The end of "Aqua Teen Hunger Force" marks an end of an era for TV animation. [AV Club]
And in honor of ATHF ending, here's Carl from a couple of years ago on the Bengals.