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Thursday April 12th, 2012

Ryan Ritchey:  The Reds went out and got two relievers this year to help out in the back-end of their bullpen, with Francisco Cordero leaving. Those two pitchers were Ryan Madson and Sean Marshall. As I wrote in a previous article, Madson has gone down with Tommy John Surgery and now Sean Marshall will have to take over the closing duties. This puts a lot of pressure on Marshall to succeed because the Reds will likely play in many close games throughout the season.

With the injury to Madson, it changes a lot around in the rotation. In Spring Training Aroldis Chapman was getting his arm in shape to be a starter, since their was enough bullpen to shut down teams in late innings. That all went out the window with the Madson injury. Chapman is 2-0 and has 10 k’s in 5 innings pitched this first week of the season in the bullpen. So far…so good.

The Reds had an open spot in the rotation with Chapman moving to set up man and that last spot was earned by Mike Leake. The young right-hander out of Arizona State University is a great 5th starter in my opinion. With more innings comes more experience against big league hitters, he should end up being a 3rd starter by the end of this year or next.

The problem I see with this Reds pitching staff is Bronson Arroyo. Even with mono last season, he pitched through it and gave up 112 earned runs. This outrageous for a starter. A lot of that was coming from him giving up 2.1 home runs per 9 innings pitched. Great American Ball Park is a hitters park, but he has averaged about 1.2 since he has arrived in Cinci in ’06.  Coming into this season, Arroyo needs to have a comeback year if he expects to remain with the Reds next season.

The stud starter for this staff has to be Johnny Cueto. Coming off a Cy Young type of year last season, he has to be very confident coming into 2012. Making his first Opening Day start of his career this season also has to boost his confidence to be the best in the National League. Along with that “Ace” mentality comes a lot more pressure also. In my opinion Cueto is going to carry this pitching staff into the playoffs for the second time in three seasons. Last, but certainly not least, big time acquisition Mat Latos could be the true ace of this staff by year’s end. The Reds gave up a ton of top prospects to get Latos. But when the Reds make the playoffs this year, it will all be worth it. Losing Madson will hurt the Reds, but having big arms throughout the pitching staff to cover the slack should soften the blow.

Ryan Ritchey is a MLB reports Baseball Intern. I am a high school senior, play second base and plan on studying sports journalism in college. I am a huge fan of Barry Larkin and Brandon Phillips. Have been a baseball fan my whole life and have been writing about baseball since freshman year. You can reach me on Twitter (@Ryan13Ritchey)

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