Manic Musings

Two days ago I called a friend and former manager of mine to chat about the Reds. Actually, it was more of a case of me calling my Reds guru to allow him to calm me down and convince me that the Reds are doing just fine. I convinced myself that the Reds needed to win that night - and they did - and he was there to allay my fears about Griffey and Freel and the starting pitching. Thanks, Steve.

Well, unfortunately, I'm feeling sort-of the same way again. One second I'll be thinking that the Reds need to take this series from Philadelphia, and then two minutes later I'll have decided that so long as they take one of three, they'll still be OK. After today's absolutely masterful performance by the 'pen (Yes, you can cut the sarcasm with a knife there, folks.), I am reminded just how much this team needs to improve in certain arenas if they want to contend.

I'm not going to run around and sing the praises of the Reds on nights like this, even if I love this team, which I do. Tonight was awful. Last night was pretty awful as well - the way it ended made everyone forget for a while how we got to the 11th inning, and I think I'm guilty of falling victim to the same memory lapse.

Here we are, again... tied for first place with the Cardinals. The good news is that this is our position after going only .500 over the last 10 games. The bad news? What if this is it? What if April was a fluke and this team will play sub-.500 baseball here on out? See. I need to talk to Steve again.

What I really need to do is quit watching "Baseball Tonight" and "PTI" and "Around the Horn." "ATH" featured the Reds as one of the ten topics today, and they talked about attendance. ATTENDANCE. No, I'm not making any long run comparisons here, but the White Sox couldn't fill their seats last year, either. Not to mention the fact that it is insanely unseasonably cold and rainy here, and has been for the past 5 days or so, and rain is supposed to be in the area until the middle of next week. Jay Mariotti, whose comments I usually enjoy, was talking about how the Yankees might go after players like Alfonso Soriano, Junior, and Austin Kearns in June to replace the injured Hideki Matusi. EXPLAIN to me exactly which players the Reds would be getting in return. I know Kearns isn't going anywhere, and I doubt Griffey is either. Since ownership is so committed to winning now, I sincerely doubt that we'd trade one of our best hitters (and if you're thinking Kearns, our best defensive outfielder by far) for one of the three or so class A prospects they have left in their system. And the Yankees can keep Johnny Damon, thank you. At least on "PTI," Bob Ley (is that his name?), filling in for Tony Kornheiser, prognosticated that the Reds would win 87 games. Hey, that's totally freaking random, but it's better than the sixth place NL Central finish 'Sports "Ashlee will never buy me again" Illustrated' predicted for the Redlegs, so I'll take it! (Even I said 81-81.)

Bottom line: It's late, I'm tired, and I'm over-thinking all of this mess. I have tickets to the game tomorrow, and I think the Reds will win. Yeah, Dave Williams can feel the flames on his feet and is going to pull a great start out of his ***, 'cause if Milton comes back next week as suggested, Elizardo Ramirez isn't the first one leaving the rotation...

Go Redleggins!