No, the Cincinnati Reds aren't in a great spot entering the 2016 season. We get it. We've watched them falter on the field, beset by bad luck, bad performance, and bad injuries. We've groaned as the team shed salaries and players for the last 14 months, stripping away the fabric of the 2012 National League Central championship squad. And, with the 2016 season on the cusp of getting underway, we're all pretty much aware of the obvious, that being that the current roster isn't well equipped to compete anytime soon.
Leave it MLB Network to spell out exactly how ill-equipped.
Our #Top100RightNow list is complete! Take a look at who was ranked #100 down to #1: https://t.co/4yLZgj63g4 pic.twitter.com/qkJee6ovou
— MLB Network (@MLBNetwork) February 26, 2016
A quick perusal of their proprietary Top 100 Right Now gets you quickly to Joey Votto at #11, the battleship in the Reds' lineup who's coming off a third place finish in the 2015 NL MVP race. That seems fair, given that both guys who finished ahead of him in that vote - Bryce Harper and Paul Goldschmidt - check in ahead of him, and the rest of the list's Top 10 is a who's who of the baseball elite. You could probably argue him up several spots, but it would certainly be splitting hairs at that point.
Farther down the list, you'll find Reds 3B...no, Reds 2B...no, wait a minute...Reds pitc...
No, you won't. You won't find any other Reds. There is Joey Votto, and then there is pain.
Barry Bonds is the only player in MLB history to have walked more than 200 times in a season, a feat he managed when ambling unobstructed to 1B a whopping 232 times in 2004. The 143 times Votto walked in 2015 stands as a career high for him at this point - and as the 27th most in any single season in MLB history - but that career mark stands to be tested in 2016 early and often.
A-Rod made the list. Stephen Vogt made the list. Do you even know what a Stephen Vogt is? You do not know what a Stephen Vogt is.
Go Joey Votto. Go Red.