Homer Bailey Is A Mudder, Slump, Nick Senzel And Rehabbing Players

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Rain is falling around the Cincinnati Reds in the literal and figurative sense.  It has been a wet spring with Mother Nature scratching two to the Reds first scheduled nine games and the Reds losing 12 games.

Homer Bailey will try to stop the reeling Reds and bring a little sunshine to the clubhouse on a rainy Sunday.

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"Homer has been here long enough to know what it's like pitching in Cincinnati, Pittsburgh or a lot these places in the midwest that get a lot of rain," Bryan Price said  "He's been through this drill before.  I thought yesterday was handled really well, even though we started in that light steady rain, that we knew that if we delayed the game by an hour, the rain will come at 4:30 and we would have trouble getting that game in."

The Reds are hoping the training staff can get key players ready to help put the  Reds back on track.

"Scott has joined the Triple A team in Lehigh Valley," Price said.  "He should be out playing today, weather permitting out there. We will see what type of reports we get from Pat Kelly and the training staff.  I think he's eligible to come off tomorrow.  I'm not saying that he will.  It doesn't mean he'll only play one either.  He will play at least one maybe more depending how he feels."

"David Hernandez threw really well yesterday.  He is scheduled to throw a simulated game Tuesday in Milwaukee.  He will see how he recovers," Price said.  "The issue in spring wasn't even when he threw he was good once he got loose.  It was the day after that was the problem.  In today's day and age we can't nurse him through it with a mandatory day off the next day.  We need guys to be durable. If he recovers well from his first outing or two. I would say he is ready to do this."

One of the players missing from the Reds lineup that hurts as much as Schebler is Eugenio Suarez.  He was hit on the right thumb last Sunday by Pittsburgh's Jameson Taillon and is expected to miss three to six weeks.  The Reds have Nick Senzel in Louisville.  Senzel was the team's first round pick in 2016.  Last season Senzel hit a combined .321 with 40 doubles for Daytona and Pensacola. The Reds tried him at shortstop and second base while they signed Suarez to a contract extension.

Senzell had a good start," Price said.  "I think he had four hits in his first two games. He played some second base.  He's gone over to play some third since Geno got hurt.  He scuffled a little bit with the bat.  He's made better contact the last day or two.  He plays with his hair on fire.  He plays hard."

The decision is not Price's alone.

"We're an organization.  We're not one person.  This is not a situation where one person gets to say, 'this is what happens.' " It is a decision that's made by a lot of people for a lot of varying reasons.  I think that's where I stand on it.  I think he could help us. There's also the argument that the people that see him on a regular basis and know him better than I do need to feel that he's ready.  When that time comes I think that we could see him here, especially with Geno out."

The fact that any team goes through a 14-game stretch that is 2-12 is not rare.  It is rare that a stretch like that starts the season.  This year the Reds are off to their worst record after 14 games since 1931

"I think in Seattle in 2004 or 2003, we were 2-12 or 3-13. We had stretches in Seattle not to start the season so much.  We had some really rough Augusts.  We had one in Arizona. We 3-18 at one point."

"When you're in it, you're not comfortable.  It always turns.  It will turn. You wonder when's it going to turn.  You get impatient.  Everybody is impatient and frustrated.  No one sees us as a 2-12 team.  There is no excuse.  We don't talk about, we don't have this or we don't have that.  We talk about the 25 that we do have.  We have enough to go out there and win games with the 25 guys we have.  That frustration is palpable, no doubt about that.  As far as guys coming in early has not change.  The frustration level has turned and won't change until we start playing better ball."