Cincinnati Reds Spring Training 2008

At the time of this printing, the Reds are at .500 with a 12 and 12 record and are four-and-a-half games back of the Mets, which is not bad considering the type of pitching that they have.

However, they did make a good decision finally to get rid of Tom “Boom Boom” Hume as the pitching coach. It was a joke in itself when they had him as the bullpen coach, but then to promote him to head coach, that was just unbelievable and a mistake waiting to happen.

Then during the offseason, when they should have been trying to get some good pitching, they traded off one of they better players in Josh Hamilton for two unproven prospect pitchers, and the Reds have had a long history of doing this and never making any good of this.

We can only hope that this is the year that it does work out or we could be seeing the end of the Ken Griffey Jr. era here at Cincinnati. As previously stated by Lou Pinella in a interview several years ago, which lead to Junior being traded away by the Mariners, was the fact that he had stopped staying in shape during the offseason and would spend more time with his family.

Now, a man can not be blamed for wanting to spend time with his family. But you do have to take into account that when the man is being paid a huge multi-million dollar salary to be in shape, it should not hurt him to get out a few hours a week during the winter months to stretch his muscles and keep himself limber.

Perhaps if he had done this when he had first come to the Reds he would not have been injured so much and missed so many games. 

But now there is a new season, a newer team, and a much newer and different manager. I am very optimistic with Dusty Baker's ability to put foot-to-butt in making men out of these boys, and making them play ball and not just lay about. 

If Aaron Harang and Bronson Arroyo can get the form back they had two years ago, and the promises of Volquez and Cordero from the Hamilton deal come through, and Homer Bailey matures, the Reds should be a formidable team to cope with, as long as they can come up with some runs. Go Reds.