The Reds are holding up trade traffic, according to Jon Morosi

If you're a Cincinnati Reds fan that grew up in Central Kentucky, you've had the following experience happen after at least half the games you've attended at Riverfront or GABP.

You leave the stadium, track down your car, and after wading through a see of walking Johnny Bench and Jay Bruce jerseys, you hop on Pete Rose Way before finally making it to I-71/I-75 to head back over the river.  You dodge a semi trying to change three lanes at a time on the Brent Spence, and after you pass the old Travelodge Travelode you finally begin to see traffic break as you round the bend and head up the hills away from the river.

But just as you hit the gas to get on your merry way, you make it far enough into the turn to see a guy in a '97 Ford Ranger hauling a boat twice the size of his truck doing 42 mph in the left lane.  You know where he's going - he's got Grant County tags, so he's not exiting anytime soon - and you can already tell that he's not the least bit concerned about holding up the rest of the interstate since he's determined to pass the loaded eighteen wheeler next to him that's doing just about 41.5 mph.

So, you wait, because despite there being an easy solution evident to most everyone around you, all it takes is one oblivious person to slow down the whole damn process.

According to FOX Sports' Jon Morosi, Walt Jocketty is hauling the obnoxiously slow boat that's clogging up the left lane of the baseball world.

Why no major pitching trades yet? The Reds, who control some of biggest chips, prefer not to make moves until after All-Star Game.

— Jon Morosi (@jonmorosi) July 6, 2015

If that's tangibly true, it confirms at least one of the two nonsensical dogmas Reds fans have heard whispers about for months, with the off chance that both head-scratching theories are true.  If there's a hard deadline that's been put in place for all potential deals and said deadline comes after the city of Cincinnati gets to host the All Star Game, either the front office of the Reds is prioritizing having Reds players in the All Star Game more than them being healthy trade chips, or the front office is deluded enough to think the next week's worth of games still has significant bearing on whether the Reds can be a contender in 2015.  Or both, if you're way into baseball masochism.

You can bend your mind a bit to see that the Reds' unwillingness to yield carries with it a bit of admirability, at least in a Spartan sort of way.  Perhaps they're determined to fight until the end against all odds in some grandiose attempt at generating pride through unsuccessful stubbornness.  Perhaps the front office came across a spare $200 million that the rest of the world is unaware of and they plan on using it to keep the likes of Johnny Cueto and Aroldis Chapman around for the rest of their playing days.

Or perhaps the insistent patience from the Cincinnati front office to prioritize a 2015 season that isn't going anywhere will, in turn, cost the team and their fans any chance at a successful 2016, 2017, or 2018.

Is having Johnny Cueto introduced at next week's All Star Game with a Reds hat on his head really worth risking his health for a few additional starts?  He's already dealt with elbow issues that have potentially torpedoed his trade value, and there's nothing about the 2015 Reds season that is currently riding on Cueto's probable start against the Washington Nationals on Tuesday.  Not to mention, of course, that he's also scheduled to start on Sunday against the Miami Marlins, which means he'll likely be wholly unavailable to pitch in the All Star Game at all regardless of which team he's representing.

At 36-44, the Reds are staring at a 72 win season that has already seen Devin Mesoraco, Zack Cozart, and Homer Bailey relegated to the sidelines with major injuries.  They're already farther behind their division leader than every team in baseball aside from Milwaukee and Philadelphia, and every day their best trade pieces aren't plying their skills with another team lops off value in return that the rebuilding Reds will most certainly need in the near future.

Put on your blinker and get out of the fast lane, Reds.  You're not just bogging down everyone else, you're risking a wreck that could seriously hurt your future.