It's easy to forget after the past two weeks, but this isn't a bad team. Average? Sure. But they're really not that bad. They're a .500 team, which is an improvement over the past five years of Reds baseball.
Quick thoughts:
- Kind of looks like Javier Valentin should have played a little more this season. He struggled early but he's up to .250/.302/.433, which is certainly a drop from 2005, but not a horrendous one. A .735 OPS from your backup catcher is more than acceptable. A David Ross / Javier Valentin platoon would probably work pretty well next year, if the Reds can somehow rid themselves of Jason LaRue.
- Hats off to Adam Dunn. 40+ home runs three years in a row is so rare it's only happened once before in Reds history. The Reds would be a lot worse off without Adam Dunn.
- I have no idea if Rich Aurilia can do this again next year, but I don't see why he shouldn't be the starting second baseman next year, with Phillips moving to short.
- Lohse is up to seven starts, and 45.2 innings and he's put up a 2.96 ERA. Even more encouraging is his 38/11 K/BB ratio. I definitely don't think he's really as good as he's been these last seven starts, but I do think he can be a solid number four next season. Harang, Arroyo, Milton, Lohse doesn't sound too bad going into next season. As a Reds fan anyway. I'm sure if I were, like, an Oakland A's fan that would sound pretty bad.