34-year old righty starting pitcher Bronson Arroyo has had a rough time in 2011 for the Reds. He has started 31 games for the Reds so far this year and he is 9-12 with a 5.09 ERA and a 1.37 WHIP. Arroyo has given up 218 hits this year, of which a major league leading 44 of them have been homers in only 191 innings! That is awful. He has limited the damage by only walking 44 batters and whiffing 102 of them, but he still has been pretty awful this year. Arroyo has now pitched in 200 games (all starts) in his first six years with the Reds and he is 79-72 with a 4.14 ERA and a 1.30 WHIP. The Reds hope that Arroyo bounces back in 2012.

The Reds have sent 27-year old righty starting pitcher Edison Volquez to AAA. Volquez has pitched in 16 games (all starts) for the Reds so far this year and he is 5-4 with a 5.93 ERA and a 1.64 WHIP. He has only given up 84 hits while whiffing 85 batters in his first 85 innings with the Reds so far this year, so the stuff is there. But, he has also given up 15 homers and he has walked 55 batters so far this year and that is a very lethal combination. The Reds have called up 28-year old righty reliever Carlos Fisher to replace Volquez on the pitching staff. Fisher pitched in 10 games (0 starts) for the Reds earlier this year and he was 0-3 with a 3.71 ERA and a 1.47 WHIP.

The Reds have sent 27-year old righty starting pitcher Edison Volquez to AAA. He has started 10 games for the Reds so far this year and he is 3-2 with a 6.35 ERA and a 1.67 WHIP. Volquez has walked 38 batters and he has given up 47 hits (9 homers) in his first 51 innings this season, and that’s not going to get the job done. The Reds will use 26-year old righty Sam LeCure in Volquez’ old rotation spot. LeCure has pitched in 12 games (4 starts) for the Reds so far this year and he is 0-1 with a 3.18 ERA and a 0.97 WHIP. LeCure should have little problem pitching better than Volquez has so far this year.

Righty starting pitcher Edison Volquez is off to a very tough start for the Reds. He has started 4 games for the Reds so far this year and he is 2-0 with a 6.75 ERA and a 1.59 WHIP. He has given up 20 hits (6 homers) in only 22 2/3 innings so far this year and he has walked 16 batters which is pretty awful. He does have 24 strikeouts this season, so it’s not all bad. If Volquez just can tighten up his control a bit, he will get back on the right track as he is a much better pitcher than he has shown so far this year.

The Reds were expecting big things out of 28-year old righty reliever Nick Masset as they planned to use him as Francisco Cordero’s top set-up man based on how well he pitched last season. He pitched in 74 games (0 starts) for the Reds last season and he was 5-1 with a 2.37 ERA and a 1.03 WHIP. The things that made Masset such a good pitcher last season (throwing strikes and missing bats) have eluded him big time so far this season. Masset has pitched in 34 games (0 starts) for the Reds this year and he is 3-3 with 1 save, a 7.07 ERA and a 2.04 WHIP. He has given up 41 hits (5 homers) in only 28 innings this season while walking 16 batters. But he has struck out 37 batters this season showing that he has the stuff needed to turn things around and the Reds desperately need him to do so.