i wasted my entire day watching this stillborn team.

of course, as soon as I do that, leave it to the team to no longer give me a reason to post about them save for “aw FUCK”

All my friends are giving thumbs-down to “Up.”

Who was in the Nationals booth?

fay tried to spread the rumor that votto’d be back on tuesday. guess that didn’t catch fire.

will he or won’t he.

It was a sickening waste of time. I could hear George Grande as the Reds made the last out . . . “Brian Bannister was the story today, wasn’t he J.D.?”

Yeah.

Not doing anything to fix this team is foolish, ‘cause we’re not going anywhere but down, and the Cardinals, Brewers, and Cubs (who actually won today) aren’t going to keep on losing forever just to keep us in the thick of things.

But hey, it’s “worked” so far, right Walt? Right? RIGHT? …Meh.

What is his problem? I know the team is calling it some anxiety thing, which could still be a side effect of the ear infection. In fact, my co-worker who just had an inner ear infection a couple weeks before Votto said he still gets flare ups, so he thinks it’s still the infection bothering him.

Then there’s the crazy shit out there. I read the following today…

1. Some idiot said that some Cincy radio station (could find the one) said that Votto was gay…ummm ok.
2. Another idiot on cbssports in the commenting said he heard that Votto was going deaf.

Shit like this makes me wish the team wouldn’t be as secretive, so people don’t go crazy with likely bullshit theories.

I think it is disgusting for these “baseball guys” we have in the organization to continue to look past the stats and think that we have a good defensive team, enough hitting to actually cover up our defensive woes, and if we are going to suck, no matter what the rest of the central is doing, then why ruin our pitchers arms?

AGonz and Taveras are the epitome of our problems.
Gonzalez should have had that double play ball in the second inning of game 2 vs the Royals. Bronson sucks (I’ll get to him later) but if Gonzo was this amazing defender he is being made out to be by Dusty and the boys then he eats that up, changing the entire dynamic of the game! The guy is terrible at covering ground, Keppinger-esque to be exact, and thats no exaggeration.
On top of this, Taveras was supposed to be an upgrade in center. GIVE ME PATTERSON! Once again, not an exaggeration. Taveras’ arm is awful, the guy doesn’t get on base, and he doesn’t give us anything else. CUT HIM.
With these guys defensive woes they are also terrible at the plate. It’d be one thing if they showed some penchant for hitting, but no, they suck.

So the current fix is to move on:
Janish should move into SS. Let him be a hoover at the 6. Yeah he can’t hit, but he will save us runs on D.

Then we need to start going through the progression in CF. First guy is Dickerson, give it to him until he spits it out. Then stick Gomes and Nix in LF with Bruce in RF and Cherry spelling them. If CDick does spit it out, which I don’t think he will, we move on to Stubbs.

Then we need to add a few position players. Hernandez can’t be our starting 1B. So hopefully these idiots in the organization know some of the truth on Votto, and EdE for that matter, and see if we need to move on to some degree, according to our positional depth.

Guys I’d target would be cheap. I’d look for Laynce Nix/Brandon Phillips types and keep cycling and trading PTBNL for them right and left. High upside guys who maybe just need another chance. I’d start with 3B Andy Marte in Cle, SS DeJesus and Chin-lung Hu in LAD, the LAA’s entire inf, mainly SS Erick Aybar, SS Macier Izturis, and even SS/3B Brandon Wood, if they have indeed soured on him (Yeah yeah, itll take more than a ptbnl to get some of these guys, but its worth a shot).

The last thing to do is to look into trading some of our pitching. Im not talking our top notch guys (Volquez, Cueto, Bailey, and yes I still include Harang). However, I would be selling, after his next solid start, on Bronson. He is making way too much money to be so replaceable. In the past I’ve felt Arroyo can be a luxury as a 4th starter, but I never though the Reds would have the pitching depth they have. Lets face it, we don’t need him any more. I would also look into what I’d get for Maloney, try to sell high, but I would gladly keep him if I’m not given a favorable deal by a pitching starved organization.

My last thought. Lets not sell out our organizational depth and our SP’s arms for this season! I know we are hanging around, but I want to have a team that competes for the division every year, not just ‘09. Volquez being injured scares me. I don’t care if its his baby toe or his UCL in his elbow hurting him, we need to handle with care. Same with our other big guys. Keeping their innings down would also give us a shot to give Homer a prolonged look as well as Maloney and anyone else who earns a spot (Maybe Massett back in the rotation?). We need to do the same with position players as well. If Yonder keeps moving up through the ranks, we need to figure out if he or Votto can change positions. (No Yonder in the MLB this year, don’t want the clock ticking.) The same goes with Frazier, EdE, and other Corner Infielders in our organization.

If you made it this far, thanks for reading… I could probably keep going for hours but I’ll just stop.

Leake didn’t start today, but Fleury played for UNC (who lost, 5-2 in 10 innings). He went 0 for 3 with a walk, a sacrifice bunt, and a strikeout. He also seems to have made an error, but I don’t know what that was.

Alex White threw 131 pitches over nine innings for the Tar Heels, striking out 12 while allowing 7 hits and walking 3. But he allowed one run in the second inning, so the game was tied when he left. See? That guy would have been ready to join the Reds!

I’m sure the ladies appreciate your support. Next year, try really stepping out of your comfort zone.