Got so many compliments on this sign it’s unreal. Red’s country is beaten and bruised

With tonight's worst shutout loss in franchise history I petition the mods to change this sub back to Soviet propaganda!

Usually an eternal optimist but the way this team has played in total for 2026, it's time to put the rose colored glasses away and take a long, hard look at the squad and admit the management failed us this season. All the little breaks we got in 2025 went the other way for us in 2026. Two lone bright spots, Burns and Stewart; but that's not nearly enough to be optimistic about what's ahead. And there's no Calvary to speak of with regards to the farm system, so where do we go from here?

The season is over and has been for a month or better. That's nothing new to Reds fans this time of year. For Reds fans our season is opening day (our game 7 of the World Series), April, May, June, and if we are lucky part of July. After that it's prospect evaluation time and hope for next season. This year feels different. I don't feel any hope for next season or really any season in the foreseeable future. There is no excitement about a prospect. No "if we can just get a bat or a pitcher then we could make a run" talk. The organization is filled with AAAA players that will never progress. The Pirates have a brighter future outlook. I just don't see a successful path forward for this team.

Just this once, can we pause in our fixation with advanced metrics and be cool with RBIs again? Can we acknowledge the Cincinnati Reds’ Sal Stewart as a unique candidate for National League Rookie of the Year, lacking in WAR but bringing his team great peace?

“I’m struggling with this one because I think part of winning an award is what story you’re telling,” said former Reds great Joey Votto, the 2010 NL MVP. “With Sal, he’s hit so many home runs and driven in so many runs on a not-strong team that it’s almost as if we’d be OK collectively for him to be the exception to the rule.”

What’s this? Votto, an analytical darling throughout his potential Hall of Fame career, talking about narrative?

Stewart, who has 31 homers and leads the majors with 105 RBIs at age 22, is inspiring such conversation.

Most statistical analysts do not view RBIs as a meaningful gauge of offensive production, considering rate stats and park-adjusted measures more useful. But many current and former players hold a different opinion.

Talking about Stewart’s Rookie of the Year candidacy on “Foul Territory,” former catcher A.J. Pierzynski said, “If you’re a rookie, you’ve got 30 homers and you’re leading the league in RBIs, there shouldn’t even be a doubt.”

Both teams in the ALCS have lower budgets than the Reds. That tells me that what the Reds spend is enough to put a World Series caliber team on the field. The problem isn't the amount of money being spent it's how it's being spent (not a shocking revelation I know). Talent evaluation is where the problem lies. I read almost daily about what the Reds need to do in the off season. Who the need to keep or sign or move on from. Until the talent evaluation personnel changes this franchise will continue to flaunder, period. So I guess ownership is to blame for not cleaning house and getting competent people in those talent evaluation positions.

I would root for a Dodgers 3 peat anyday all day everyday before a division rival so anyone but the Cubs or Brewers.

You know

https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/cincinnati-reds-broken-franchise-154309051.html

The owners could not be more obvious in their dreams of being successful while simultaneously being more oblivious to their own meddling. The front office, continually stubbing its toes in attempts to persuade the owners into making more practical moves, has been forced to pivot to their second and third backup plans, most all of which have blown up in their faces in spectacular failure. Yet here those factions are, familiar in a Butter Battle Book way, insistent that they be the only two voices that ever get the chance to steer the wheel of this once proud franchise.

Neither seems able to budge. The Castellinis won't sell, won't change, and won't change a thing about the front office that can't get out of its own way. That has become the Reds way, even though it has tanked any and all interest in the club despite the roster boasting a handful of the single most electric talents in the sport today.

The term dinosaurs often gets lobbed around about individuals who have simply been everpresent for so long they must be decrepit. Dinosaurs also need be used to explain how a whole sect of sentient beings went extinct due to an inability to adapt to the pressures around them, and for the Reds that latter definition rings more true today than perhaps at any point in their century and a half of professional existence.

The Reds are broken, and the only people capable of fixing that simply won't.

Who's ready to run it back again in 2027?

Absolute comedy gold

Sell the damn team, Bob

President of Baseball operations in the dugout doing his job? Nick would NEVER

He seems to be finishing the year “strong”…I’m gonna call it now, he’s a Red next year too. I hope I’m wrong, but, I mean, come on…this is Krall we r talking about

Seems like it’s that time where we all share our thoughts on the Reds’ future. I agree with what a lot of folks wiser than me have said: we have to invest more in scouting, development, coaching, and training.

We have lost whole games this year not just on preventable physical errors, but due to poor on-field decisions, players not hustling, not following fielding protocol, and not being prepared on-field for opponents’ tactics like the bunt, pitch-outs, etc. These are all trainable skills that even a AA guy should know and execute. Moreover, many were predictable situations, that a coach should’ve been in someone’s ear about ahead of time, and clearly wasn’t.

But more than that, we don’t have an identity. We can’t afford to be a slugging juggernaut. But we still manage and strategize like it. Old school baseball, slave to L/R metrics and historical batting averages against specific pitchers that are years old. Running out a struggling starter for just one more inning again and again because we want to get him a chance for QS or a win or rest the bullpen. Those tactics work when you have a Dodger-deep roster of 26 guys. They don’t when you have Sal, Elly, and…some other guys.

We need to teach, inspire, and REquire our “other guys” to each do what they’re capable of doing to contribute.

We need small ball.

I’m gonna paste a comment I made about small ball a few months back that sums up my thoughts. Thanks if you made it this far.

Small ball is a culture.

You can build on it, and it perpetuates itself in the clubhouse from year to year; young guys learn to be scrappy from the senior guys in the dugout. Everybody works hard and has to contribute; defensively too, not just at the plate.

Hitting homers means you need a couple of guys. But those guys make all the money and they don’t need anyone else in order to do their thing. Dinger ball doesn’t build culture. It builds a few careers/bank accounts while the rest of the team acts as supporting characters making the league minimum.

Give me scrappy small ball any day of the week. I want to pitch out. I want to pick off. I want to dive for fly balls. I want to bunt for base hits. I want to steal bases. I want to double-steal. I want to squeeze. I want to run out every last contact as if you have a chance to beat it.

I want to walk into that stadium and turn on that TV and never know what the hell the Reds are gonna do next because the only rule is work hard and create chaos.

I want a team full of Blake Dunns. It’s way more fun than waiting through eight guys for Kyle Schwarber to come up.

Fandom that relies on everything being good is fickle.

Me, I'm gonna hang on loving my team no matter what. I want things to be better. Losses make me unhappy. Stupidness torques me off. Of course. And I take breaks when I've had too much. But it's not just about performance for me. It's about standing by my choice to make them my team.

This isn't sunshine & rainbows fandom. This is down & dirty, mud-covered, in the trenches, spines made of steel fandom. It's not for the faint at heart. It takes guts, fidelity, endurance.

I'm up for the challenge. Are you?

I started recording as soon as I realized we were bottom of the 9th, bases loaded, with 1 out and a sac fly would walk it off.

My wife watched the video and couldn't stop laughing because she thought I was being ridiculous, but that's how I cheer for all my teams. I've been banned from watching football inside the house for almost a decade lol.

I took my 8 year old son for his birthday. I was just excited for a win, and my son is now a Reds fan for life. He's already told me he wants to start a team set of baseball cards for 4-H collections next year.

Also bonus Mr. Redlegs appearance, and I was as over the moon to see him wave the flag as I came across.

Looking at the remaining schedule because I was bored.

Starting the last three games in August it’s Cubs, Padres, Brewers, Dodgers, Brewers, Dodgers, Cubs, Braves, and finally Blue Jays.

yikes..

Throw the rest of the team in the trash. We have zero players outside the two that can hit consistently.

I’ve thought this since I saw the schedule come out last year, but what demented fuck gave us 4 alternating series of Brewers-Dodgers-Brewers-Dodgers and then followed it up with the Cubs, Braves and AL pennant winner from last year!?!!!

We’re the fucking Cincinnati Reds, who haven’t won a playoff series since 1995!!!! Fuck Manfred and MLB for approving this shit. Hope we pull a miracle and LA sucks a big fat one in the playoffs this year. A lockout is needed based on this shit alone!!

What happened to the grass in the outfield? Is there supposed to be some design in there? Looks like sections are yellow from lack of sunlight. But it’s very inconsistent.

Is this just a “normal” fielding error by Elly? Or was he incapable of getting his glove down because the hammy was too tight/bothering him?

A question for the sub: if we knew that Elly was planning to stay a Red and/or he had already signed a multi-year contract with us, would we be handling his injuries with more caution?

I know he wants to play every day. But it seems clear that we caved to his desire to play through and pushed things on the quad injury last year, and I’m wondering if we’ve done the same thing with the hamstring this year.

I want to think that we’re an ethical organization and would never risk a young guy’s potential career and livelihood. But we continued to pitch Pagán when he was iffy as well. And there’s a lot of debate about Hunter Green‘s elbow (although I personally can’t point to anything specific there).

Does our training/medical team deserve more scrutiny? Or is this just how it is for MLB teams as a whole?

I myself am undecided. Legit looking for other opinions.