Baker: “I’ve always been used to having stability as a manager, both in San Francisco and Chicago. Obviously, there hasn’t been a whole lot of that this season. This team looks nothing like what we thought we had coming out of spring training, and many things have changed. I don’t see too many teams who have taken the hits we’ve taken this year.”

Really? Besides Harang, who has grossly underperformed expectations? Besides Gonzalez, what expected starter has missed significant time to injury? I’ll admit that I thought this team would be more competitive – though I still only predicted a 78-84 record – but it has always been an “everything must go right” type of team. I don’t know what kind of stability Baker expected when he saw the roster.

The other quote is: “Castellini did not bring in high-profile people like Jocketty and three-time NL Manager of the Year Baker just to rebuild, and he is expected to give Jocketty the directive to hit the free-agent market hard this upcoming winter.”

The ghost of Eric Milton lurks in sentences like this. I trust Jocketty more than the previous two GMs to find free agent help, but it’s a little frightening to think of the big contracts the Reds might tie themselves down to this off-season. Like MM said, this team isn’t a player or two away, but if they spend like they are the results could do more harm than good. I will do my best to give Jocketty the benefit of the doubt until he actually makes a move though.

He can only play 1B, and even does that poorly. The Reds already have Votto, who’s exactly the kind of player you want to keep (and didn’t play LF very well when given the chance) and Alonso, who they just gave a bazillion dollars to.

So signing him would (1) make the defense much worse at one, and possibly 2, positions, and block one of the building blocks of the team. I’d rather they spent the money on Manny, and I really prefer they don’t sign him.

i’m a lot less excited about the south carolina game…

but i’ll still watch it!

And by this I mean that Bama-Clemson game (which could be a one off) and the annual Florida-Georgia game, which some think is one of the best rivalries, yet contains the phrase “Cocktail Party” to describe a football game.