Reds pitching rotation Jack Marcheschi’12 The Reds looked good heading into this season. They were the preseason pick to win the World Series. We just inked our star player, Joey Votto, to a massive ten year contract; and we are putting young talent in all the right places with new additions and bringing free agents. One of the crown jewels of the Reds off-season acquisitions was Ryan Madison, the stud-closer from the Phillies. Of course, we paid him a pretty hefty contract for one year (one year $8 million), after all, he saved 32 out of 34 games he attempted for Philadelphia. As things always seem to happen with Cincinnati sports, things seem to go horribly wrong right before we are supposed to visit the promise land of Championships and eternal glory; Madson tore a ligament in his elbow and is out for the year. Now the other hurlers will have to step up, and step up in a big way. One pitcher that will step up is the Cuban flamethrower, Aroldis Chapman. In case any of you Elder students have been living under a rock in this city for the past couple of years, you know who Aroldis is. He has the fastest pitch in the majors at 107mph, that’s simply crazy. With that speed though, comes a price, and last year that was his accuracy. More often than not, Mr.Chapman’s pitches would be flying over batters heads rather than going over the plate; causing the Reds’ opponents to score runs that could be avoided, and games lost that they could’ve won. This year though his control has been looking good, and hopefully he can keep it up for the rest of the year. That’s not the only pitcher that will step up; a lot of them have the talent to make this season special for the Reds. Probably the best pitcher in the Reds’ rotation is Johnny Cueto. Over the past couple of seasons, he has really come in to his own. Coming off of a year where Johnny posted career highs, or lows rather, in ERA and WHIP with 2.31 and 1.09 respectively. He was very effective last year, giving up only 51 runs and allowing only eight homeruns during the entire season. With those numbers being really good for a pitcher who is only in his fifth year in the majors, but he’s on pace to have better numbers this year. Granted, Mr.Cueto has only pitched in a few games this year, but his ERA is at 2.25 and his WHIP is at 1.00. With the progression he’s made each and every year, I wouldn’t doubt if he surpassed his numbers from 2011. In my opinion, these are the pitchers on the Reds’ staff that have the most room to improve, as well as the most likely to step up in Madson’s time spent on the DL. With Cueto’s ERA and dominant breaking balls accompanied with fast Chapman’s blazingly fast pitches, I don’t think the Redlegs will have a problem making up for Madson’s absence.