Like us on Facebook here

Saturday April 13,  2013

Sean Marshall was acquired by the Reds in Dec of 2011 in a trade with the Chicago Cubs. In 74 games and 61 Innings Pitched in 2012 – he Struckout 74 batters and carried a 2.51 ERA. He is a guy good for 75-80 Appearances – and a mid 2.00 ERA. Outstanding numbers for a Relief Pitcher looking to lock down holds for the later Inning guys.  The Reds are happy that they have Chapman back in the Bullpen to solidify the Relief Core – plus shorten games,  but who will take over in the 7th Inning Role while the LHP is out?

By Matt Steinmann (Reds Correspondent): Follow @thesteinmann

Injuries, as we know are part of the game. Every team will have to overcome them, some more than others. In Cincinnati, the Reds are already dealing with their second key injury.

Left Fielder, Ryan Ludwick went down on Opening Day after doing his best Pete Rose impression into Third Base, resulting in a torn labrum. He won’t be back anytime soon.

Now, Reliever Sean Marshall is on the mend, placed on the 15 Day Disabled List  this past Wednesday with shoulder tendonitis.

Sean Marshall Interviewed after the Trade to the Reds Last Year:

Marshall is signed for the next 3 years, so the Reds trio of fireballer Relievers, all have contracts that can run them through the 2015 year. The Reds will spend much more dough in the 2014 and 2015 years, however this season Marshall makes even more money ($4.5 MIL) than Broxton ($4.0 MIL) and Chapman ($2.0 MIL).

The Sean Marshall situation is interesting. After not being available for the first 5 games with some lingering shoulder fatigue from Spring Training, they kept him on the roster. He finally made his season debut on Sunday against the Washington Nationals, pitching one scoreless inning. It looked like he was back.

After the game, an M.R.I. showed no structural damage, but manager Dusty Baker was quoted as saying “he’s not right.” He was unavailable for the next couple of games, again leaving the Reds bullpen an arm short. Finally, on Wednesday, they made the move, and Logan Ondrusek, the big Right – Hander who’s pitched 175 Innings – with a 3.45 ERA over the last 3 seasons out of the Reds Bullpen, was brought up from AA.

Now, the Multi-Million Dollar question, why did the Reds wait so long to place Marshall on the DL, essentially playing one man short for the first week and a half of the season? Had he been placed on the Disabled List prior to his appearance on Sunday, they could have retro-activated it back to March 23rd, making him eligible to return on April 8th. He pitched on April 7th, and will now be out until at least April 22nd.

During his absence, J.J. Hoover was over worked, pitching 4 out of the first 6 games, throwing 96 total pitches, including 47 in relief on Opening Day, while accumulating an ERA of 8.31 in 4.1 innings.

With the big lefty out of the bullpen, and a key piece to the back end of it, Left – Hander Manny Parra is going to have to step up in LOOGY situations. So far he’s only pitched in 2 games, 4 innings total. I look for Logan Ondrusek to be given every opportunity to make his case that he belongs with the big league club.

I also look for Sam LeCure, who may be the most important arm in that bullpen, because of his versatility to pitch multiple Innings on a regular basis, to see more action and bridge the gap to the Jonathon Broxton, Aroldis Chapman lethal combination.

Throw in Alfredo Simon and a rested J.J. Hoover – and the bullpen should be able to hold down the fort while Marshall’s shoulder recovers, which hopefully doesn’t turn into a lingering issue.

Sam Lecure has improved in each of his 1st 3 years with the big club, dropping from ERA’s from 4.50 in ’10, to 3.71 in ’11 , to 3.14 in ’12 over 48 Games and 57.1 IP. In 2013 – the RHP has appeared in 4 Games – spanning 5 frames, yielding only 5 Base Runners – while Striking out 5 hitters. Perhaps he will be counted on more frequently in coming weeks.

*** The views and opinions expressed in this report are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of mlbreports.com or their partners.***

A big thank-you goes out to Matt Steinmann for preparing today’s featured article. Matt was born and raised in Cincinnati, and has been a Reds fan his entire life, along with the Bengals and the UC Bearcats. His first baseball memory was watching Pete Rose hit #4192 with his Dad and grandparents when he was 5 years old.

He didn’t quite understand exactly the significance of it at the time, but it’s always stuck with him, and his love and wanting to learn about the game grew from there. Matt considers himself lucky that he was able to watch Barry Larkin play his entire Hall of Fame career in Cincinnati, so he goes down as his favorite player.

Matt currently works for 700WLW radio, the Cincinnati Reds flagship station, as the producer for the early morning show. Feel free to follow Matt on Twitter and talk the game of baseball Follow @thesteinmann

Please e-mail me at: mlbreports@gmail.com with any questions and feedback. You can follow us on Twitter and become a fan on Facebook. To subscribe to our website and have the Daily Reports sent directly to your inbox, click here and follow the link at the top of our homepage.

Like us on Facebook here