For a brief time in my life, I lived near Cincy. I almost went to a Reds game but couldn’t the time off of work, or afford the tickets or something. Instead I drove with a buddy from the area of Cincy to New York and watched the Yankess play the Red Sox from behind home plate. Saw Jim Leyritz before things went south for him. This was the game where Melky robbed Manny of a home run and Manny seemed like he couldn’t believe that anyone would do that to him. What does this have to do with this year’s Reds? Nothing at all, but it is my blog. I actually think this team will end up behind Pittsburgh this year but ahead of Houston.
Manager: Dusty Baker was a cool guy in San Fran, then and OK guy in Chi-town. In Cincy he’s a conundrum for me. I like that he defies the statistic guys and does what he wants to do. I like that players like him. But sometimes, he makes decisions that just defy logic forget the stats guys. Then there is his treatment of young pitchers. Has anyone ever ruined more elbows?
Key Departures: They really didn’t lose anyone that is going to cause anyone to get excited. They traded Taveras away but is that really that big of a deal? He was a terrible lead off man.
Key Pick-ups: Orlando Cabrera is a nice pick-up. He’s been successful wherever he has gone and he’ll add some maturity to a young roster.
Outfield: Jay Bruce struggled last year. It may have been the nefarious sophomore slump or was his rookie year a fluke? Drew Stubbs the highly touted farm prospect is going to get his first real shot at the full time CF position and will bring all that having a rookie there brings. Jonny Gomes will get a shot in LF this season. He had an OPS of .879 last year. This may be his last chance at an everyday gig. The pressure of that might cause him to crumble or it might serve as motivation for improvement. Grade: Offense C; Defense B-
Infield: Joey Votto will continue to shine this year and should improve on already impressive numbers from his breakout season last year. Brandon Phillips had career-best-numbers last year but on the eye test I wonder if that won’t cause him to go backwards a little bit this year. Scott Rolen is back in AAAA National league so he’ll probably see an uptick in his offensive numbers. Cabrera is a huge upgrade from last year at the SS position which resembled a professional politician cleaner last year it was so unproductive. Grade: Offense B-; Defense B+
Catcher: Ryan Hannigan in 88 games last year had one of the better on-base-percentages last year for the team (.361) but this position is not going to cause anyone to get excited. The platooning catcher’s may make up for their lack of offense with defense or the ever illusionary “how they handle the pitchers” but not by much. They just aren’t that good. Grade C-
Starting Pitchers: Bronson Arroyo will be the leader again this year. He didn’t miss a single start last year. Aaron Harang seems to be having a troubling trend where his strikeouts are dropping significantly along with his innings. Johnny Cueto has showed some promise but may be a trivia question answer in the future. Aroldis Champman may stabilize the rotation but seems to be an unknown. Grade C+
Bullpen: The bullpen is strong. Francisco Cordero saves the opportunities he gets. Danny Harrerra will be strong again. This may be the best part of the Reds team. Grade B+
Key To Winning in 2010: 301. That’s a bad number when it is the on base percentage of every player who hit first or second for you last year. This team is trying to win without having any semblance of a lead-off hitter or a traditional top of the lineup. If they can figure that out and someone steps up and does a yeoman’s job at the top and if they can put together a full rotation they might surprise people. Still, they have some cool uniforms.
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