# 1959 Cincinnati Reds season

The 1959 Cincinnati Reds season consisted of the Reds finishing in a fifth-place tie with the Chicago Cubs in the National League standings, with a record of 74–80, 13 games behind the NL and World Champion Los Angeles Dodgers.
Prior to the season the club, after calling themselves the Cincinnati Redlegs for the past six seasons, changed its nickname back to the Reds. The Reds played their home games at Crosley Field, where they attracted 801,298 fans, eighth and last in the Senior Circuit.

## Offseason

* January 30, 1959: Smoky Burgess, Harvey Haddix and Don Hoak were traded by the Reds to the Pittsburgh Pirates for Whammy Douglas, Jim Pendleton, Frank Thomas, and John Powers.
* March 20, 1959: Eddie Miksis was released by the Reds.

## Regular season

For the second consecutive season, the Reds played under two managers. Mayo Smith, hired during the previous off-season, managed the Reds to a 35–45 start, seventh in the eight-team league. He was replaced during the first All-Star break by Fred Hutchinson, manager of their Triple-A Seattle Rainiers affiliate, on July 9. Hutchinson then led Cincinnati to a 39–35 record the rest of the way.

### Season standings

vteNational League :
| Team | W | L | Pct. | GB | Home | Road |
| Los Angeles Dodgers | 88 | 68 | .564 | — | 46‍–‍32 | 42‍–‍36 |
| Milwaukee Braves | 86 | 70 | .551 | 2 | 49‍–‍29 | 37‍–‍41 |
| San Francisco Giants | 83 | 71 | .539 | 4 | 42‍–‍35 | 41‍–‍36 |
| Pittsburgh Pirates | 78 | 76 | .506 | 9 | 47‍–‍30 | 31‍–‍46 |
| Chicago Cubs | 74 | 80 | .481 | 13 | 38‍–‍39 | 36‍–‍41 |
| Cincinnati Reds | 74 | 80 | .481 | 13 | 43‍–‍34 | 31‍–‍46 |
| St. Louis Cardinals | 71 | 83 | .461 | 16 | 42‍–‍35 | 29‍–‍48 |
| Philadelphia Phillies | 64 | 90 | .416 | 23 | 37‍–‍40 | 27‍–‍50 |

### Record vs. opponents

1959 National League recordvte Sources: :
| Team | CHC | CIN | LA | MIL | PHI | PIT | SF | STL |
| Chicago | — | 9–13 | 11–11 | 10–12 | 10–12–1 | 12–10 | 12–10 | 10–12 |
| Cincinnati | 13–9 | — | 13–9 | 11–11 | 9–13 | 9–13 | 8–14 | 11–11 |
| Los Angeles | 11–11 | 9–13 | — | 14–10 | 17–5 | 11–11 | 14–8 | 12–10 |
| Milwaukee | 12–10 | 11–11 | 10–14 | — | 13–9 | 15–7–1 | 12–10 | 13–9 |
| Philadelphia | 12–10–1 | 13–9 | 5–17 | 9–13 | — | 9–13 | 9–13 | 7–15 |
| Pittsburgh | 10–12 | 13–9 | 11–11 | 7–15–1 | 13–9 | — | 10–12 | 14–8 |
| San Francisco | 10–12 | 14–8 | 8–14 | 10–12 | 13–9 | 12–10 | — | 16–6 |
| St. Louis | 12–10 | 11–11 | 10–12 | 9–13 | 15–7 | 8–14 | 6–16 | — |

### Notable transactions

* May 1, 1959: Del Ennis was traded by the Reds to the Chicago White Sox for Lou Skizas and Don Rudolph.
* June 8, 1959: Hal Jeffcoat was traded by the Reds to the St. Louis Cardinals for Jim Brosnan.
* June 23, 1959: Walt Dropo was traded by the Reds to the Baltimore Orioles for Whitey Lockman.

### Roster
## Player stats
### Batting
#### Starters by position

Note: Pos = Position; G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in
| Pos | Player | G | AB | H | Avg. | HR | RBI |
| C | Ed Bailey | 121 | 379 | 100 | .264 | 12 | 40 |
| 1B | Frank Robinson | 146 | 540 | 168 | .311 | 36 | 125 |
| 2B | Johnny Temple | 149 | 598 | 186 | .311 | 8 | 67 |
| SS | Eddie Kasko | 118 | 329 | 93 | .283 | 2 | 31 |
| 3B | Willie Jones | 72 | 233 | 58 | .249 | 7 | 31 |
| LF | Jerry Lynch | 117 | 379 | 102 | .269 | 17 | 58 |
| CF | Vada Pinson | 154 | 648 | 205 | .316 | 20 | 84 |
| RF | Gus Bell | 148 | 580 | 170 | .293 | 19 | 115 |

#### Other batters

Note: G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in
| Player | G | AB | H | Avg. | HR | RBI |
| Frank Thomas | 108 | 374 | 84 | .225 | 12 | 47 |
| Roy McMillan | 79 | 246 | 65 | .264 | 9 | 24 |
| Dutch Dotterer | 52 | 161 | 43 | .267 | 2 | 17 |
| Jim Pendleton | 65 | 113 | 29 | .257 | 3 | 9 |
| Whitey Lockman | 52 | 84 | 22 | .262 | 0 | 7 |
| Pete Whisenant | 36 | 71 | 17 | .239 | 5 | 11 |
| John Powers | 43 | 43 | 11 | .256 | 2 | 4 |
| Walt Dropo | 26 | 39 | 4 | .103 | 1 | 2 |
| Cliff Cook | 9 | 21 | 8 | .381 | 0 | 5 |
| Buddy Gilbert | 7 | 20 | 3 | .150 | 2 | 2 |
| Del Ennis | 5 | 12 | 4 | .333 | 0 | 1 |
| Bob Thurman | 4 | 4 | 1 | .250 | 0 | 2 |
| Bobby Henrich | 14 | 3 | 0 | .000 | 0 | 0 |
| Don Pavletich | 1 | 0 | 0 | ---- | 0 | 0 |

### Pitching
#### Starting pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts
| Player | G | IP | W | L | ERA | SO |
| Don Newcombe | 30 | 222.0 | 13 | 8 | 3.16 | 100 |
| Bob Purkey | 38 | 218.0 | 13 | 18 | 4.25 | 78 |
| Joe Nuxhall | 28 | 131.2 | 9 | 9 | 4.24 | 75 |
| Jim O'Toole | 28 | 129.1 | 5 | 8 | 5.15 | 68 |
| Jay Hook | 17 | 79.0 | 5 | 5 | 5.13 | 37 |

#### Other pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts
| Player | G | IP | W | L | ERA | SO |
| Orlando Peña | 46 | 136.0 | 5 | 9 | 4.76 | 76 |
| Brooks Lawrence | 43 | 128.1 | 7 | 12 | 4.77 | 64 |
| Jim Brosnan | 26 | 83.1 | 8 | 3 | 3.35 | 56 |
| Jim Bailey | 3 | 11.2 | 0 | 1 | 6.17 | 7 |

#### Relief pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; SV = Saves; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts
| Player | G | W | L | SV | ERA | SO |
| Tom Acker | 37 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 4.12 | 45 |
| Willard Schmidt | 36 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 3.95 | 40 |
| Bob Mabe | 18 | 4 | 2 | 3 | 5.46 | 8 |
| Hal Jeffcoat | 17 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 3.32 | 12 |
| Luis Arroyo | 10 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3.95 | 8 |
| Don Rudolph | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4.91 | 8 |
| Claude Osteen | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 7.04 | 3 |
| Mike Cuellar | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 15.75 | 5 |

## Farm system

| Level | Team | League | Manager |
| AAA | Havana Sugar Kings | International League | Preston Gómez |
| AAA | Seattle Rainiers | Pacific Coast League | Fred Hutchinson and Alan Strange |
| AA | Nashville Vols | Southern Association | Dick Sisler |
| A | Savannah Reds | Sally League | Bob Wellman and Jack Cassini |
| B | Topeka Hawks | Illinois–Indiana–Iowa League | Johnny Vander Meer |
| C | Visalia Redlegs | California League | Dave Bristol |
| D | Palatka Redlegs | Florida State League | Clem Koshorek and Tony Pacheco |
| D | Geneva Redlegs | New York–Penn League | Reno DeBenedetti |
LEAGUE CHAMPIONS: Havana