Grab The Popcorn - The Reds Are A Legit Fun Team To Watch

Cincinnati is rapidly becoming unmissable entertainment...

These aren’t your Father’s Cincinnati Reds.

Man, I didn’t think I’d ever be typing out those words for a whole multitude of different reasons.

Firstly, I’m a not a Reds fan. For those of you who don’t know, I root for the New York Mets but I’m keeping it professional here. Secondly, I don’t have a real deep knowledge about Cincinnati other than it produces great chilli and it was responsible for launching the storied career of NFL writer Peter King, who is one of my all-time idols.

Other than that, however, I haven’t had the pleasure of visiting the land of the Bengals (yet, it is on my list), and I haven’t really watched a whole lot of Reds baseball.

For good reason. And that isn’t a shot at the Reds but they just haven’t ever really crossed my radar apart from the odd game. Plus, they’ve excelled in sucking recently having racked up six straight losing seasons prior to 2020.

However, after showing small offshoots of improvement during the Pandemic shortened season and then again in 2021 - finishing above .500 in both seasons - the 2023 vintage are doing their utmost to prove one thing:

The Cincinnati Reds are back, baby!

Yes, you read that right.

And, yes, I am jumping on the Reds bandwagon right now and I have no shame whatsoever in admitting that. I am all in on the Cincinnati Reds and consider me a shill trying to entice you to do the same.

I mean, this is just a damn fun team to watch and I am finding myself watching more and more Reds games with every passing day. I Tweeted out on June 10 that Cincinnati have become my new favorite go-to team to watch on MLB.com, and I don’t see that changing anytime soon.

For full transparency, by the way, I do tend to cycle through three or four teams per year that I just can’t get enough of and, that whenever they are on and the Mets aren’t playing, I’ll tune into their games.

However, there’s just something different about this Reds team.

Like I said at the very top, these aren’t your Father’s Cincinnati Reds. I mean, heck, these aren’t your Cincinnati Reds from even 2020 when they lost in the National League Wild Card to the Braves.

For starters, they are on a roll right now having won three straight and gone 6-4 in their last 10 contests. They are 32-35 on the year, playing just below .500 ball and they are only 3.5 games out of first place in the NL Central. And, based on current evidence, it would not surprise me in the slightest if the Reds climb above the Brewers and the Pirates over the coming months. They certainly seem well equipped, that’s for sure.

They also make things interesting when watching them given that they now lead the entire National League in come-from-behind wins with 21. The Reds may be many things, but they aren’t boring. That’s for sure.

But, what makes this team beyond compelling to watch is the slew of mouthwatering young talent that is laced throughout this roster.

After all, you suck for nearly a decade in order to replenish the farm system, stockpile a boatload of high-end talent and bluechip prospects and garner the most cash so you can go out and sign the very best top international prospects that are available year in and year out.

The Cincinnati braintrust has hit a home run or five in that regard and, while the sucking has been tough on one of the most passionate and underrated fanbases in all of baseball, they are starting to get rewarded for their loyalty and their patience.

This is a storied franchise with a rich, proud history firmly and rapidly on the rise again led by a plethora of young studs ready to take Major League Baseball by storm.

We’ll start with the man of the moment and the sparkling, bedazzling jewell in the Cincinnati Reds crown:

Elly De La Cruz.

Now, I’m working on a bigger feature in relation to the most exciting and exhilarating prospect in all of baseball right now so I won’t devote a load of words to De La Cruz in this space, but what a freaking gift from the Baseball Gods.

Outside of Francisco Álvarez for the Mets, I don’t think I’ve been this excited to watch a prospect make his Major League debut in a long, long time. I’m maybe talking years here. When De La Cruz was called up to the bigs on June 6, the entire baseball world was pumped. This was a kid with a whole lot of hype, a real five-tool player who arrived in the majors as the No. 4 overall prospect in baseball, according to MLB Pipeline, after making a habit of producing jaw-dropping play after jaw-dropping play in the minors.

I made sure I wasn’t doing anything the night of De La Cruz’s Major League debut so I could tune in and, boy, I was not disappointed.

There’s a reason why he was one of the most highly-anticipated call-ups in recent memory.

De La Cruz has just morphed into a human highlight-reel ever since. Here’s a taste of some of the things he’s already accomplished less than 10 games into his Major League career:

• He went 1-for-3 with two walks and a run scored in his Major League debut against the LA Dodgers, recording his first big league hit with a third-inning double against Tony Gonsolin that left the bat with an exit velocity of 112 mph - the hardest-hit ball by a Reds player this season. Oh, and De La Cruz also went from home to second base in 7.74 seconds at 30.4 ft/sec (elite speed is 30 ft/sec).

• In his second game, De La Cruz somehow managed to eclipse his achievements from his debut. And then some. The uber-talented stud absolutely crushed a 91.9 mph four-seam fastball from the Dodgers’ Noah Syndergaard 458 feet into the last row of seats at Great American Ball Park. The absolute missile left De La Cruz’s bat at 114.8 mph - the second-hardest hit ball by a batter for his first home run in the Statcast era (since 2015).

• In his second at-bat of his second game, De La Cruz lined a ball into the right-center gap and made it from home to third in an insane 10.83 seconds. That’s the fastest in the Majors this year.

• De La Cruz capped off a magical first series in the Majors by going 4-for-11 with two walks in four games against the Dodgers. And he finished with a flourish, again flashing his five-tool skillset by recording his first career Big League steal, making it look like an absolute art form in the process. In doing so, De La Cruz became just the second player in Major League history to collect a home run, a triple, a double, a single and a stolen base in his first three games. The other? That would be the Milwaukee Brewers’ Bill Bruton in 1953.

De La Cruz is currently hitting .296/.406/.519 with a .925 OPS through his first seven games in the Majors. That’s just an incredible slash line that early into someone’s career. But maybe we shouldn’t be too surprised. After all, with speed to burn, able to hit for power and for average, with incredible athleticism and the ability to just make things happen, De La Cruz is the new King of Baseball and he’s doing unprecedented, historical things with a boatload of swagger.

So much swagger. He declared himself the “fastest man in the world.” And who are we to argue with him. De La Cruz is here for both a long time and a good time and I am on the edge of my seat waiting to see what he does next. Every at-bat has now become unmissable. And it’s been a while since we’ve been able to say that about a prospect.

He’s just the tip of the iceberg, however. The Reds boast a crop of other young talent that all are making contributions at the Big League level this year. There’s Matt McLain, a rookie shortstop who I followed a lot when he was tearing it up in College for UCLA, hitting over .300 in both his sophomore and junior seasons on his way to being selected No. 17 overall by Cincinnati in the First Round of the 2021 MLB June Amateur Draft.

McLain has always had the talent and I’m thrilled to see him producing on the biggest stage possible. While he doesn’t come with the same flash as De La Cruz, he can make things happen with one lethal swing of the bat as he proved in the 9-8 walk-off win over the Dodgers, hitting a bases-loaded single. McLain is hitting .330/.379/.504 with a .883 OPS over his first 26 Big League games. Mark my word, McLain is going to be a consistent and productive hitter for a long time to come in the Majors.

He’s also currently fourth in voting among shortstops for the 2023 All-Star Game in Seattle, which is testament to just how good McLain has been since making his Big League debut. He deserves more hype and more attention, for sure.

There’s others too. Rookie first baseman Spencer Steer leads the club with eight home runs. He also won the National League Rookie of the Month in May after hitting six dingers. And then there’s rookie starter Andrew Abbott, who became the first Reds pitcher since 1893 to begin his career with two consecutive scoreless starts of five innings or more. Oh, and he’s also thrown 11 2/3 scoreless innings since making his debut against the Dodgers in June.

Then there’s Jonathan India. I mean, how we can forget / sleep on Jonathan India?! The 26-year-old second baseman is an absolute cornerstone of this Reds franchise, and he’ll continue to be a vital glue guy in an increasingly young clubhouse. India has been the heartbeat of this team and he’s currently slashing .277/.360/.422 with a .782 OPS to go along with seven homers and 34 RBIs.

While this current vintage has a way to go before they can start dreaming of achieving the kind of success The Big Red Machine enjoyed in the 1970’s, it isn’t out of the realms of possibility. After all, this is a young talent-laden team with the perfect sprinkling of reliable veterans, the 5th best farm system in all of baseball according to MLB Pipeline, and they also happen to boast a freakishly, super-human prospect in Elly De La Cruz who looks to be on the cusp of becoming the next big young star of the game.

The Cincinnati Reds are coming so you best get ready.

The Reds have become the very definition of fun in Major League Baseball right now. They are playing with confidence, they are oozing swagger and they are finding different ways to win games. And that’s key. Sure, it is important to not get carried away because there is still a lot of road ahead when it comes to this rebuild. In saying that, though, the Reds came from behind to beat the Dodgers in walk-off fashion in back-to-back nights, they put plenty of runs on the board against the Cardinals and they beat the Royals in extra innings. Winning is what really matters in the bigs and the Reds are starting to make major strides in that department while putting on an absolute show in the process.

I’m just beyond pumped to watch this team begin to fulfil its lofty potential the rest of the way in 2023. I think the ceiling for the Reds is absolutely limitless at this point and I know it’s going to be a hell of a lot of fun watching them claw their way back into baseball relevancy on their way to becoming an absolute force once again.

Oh, and yes, even with the Mets playing the Yankees in the Subway Series tonight, I will be making sure at least one of my many screens has the Reds on it. Because, after all, they have become must-watch TV and I don’t want to miss a second of it.

These aren’t your Father’s Cincinnati Reds. And that’s very good news for the game of baseball.