OMG! The end of the world!!!11!

I do it all the time. The power of the "publish post" button is such that it invites reactionary commentary before one even has time to think. You see some bad news, you explode upon impact. I've never felt so roller coastery in the offseason as I have this one. One day I feel like I shouldn't bother looking at the 2009 schedule for games to go to, and the next I have that characteristic irrational hope that maybe this is the year, that maybe the ifs will finally turn into whens and we can by some miracle win 90 games and collect our $200 as we pass go around Wrigley Field.

Jocketty says that Hairston is not the everyday shortstop as had been reported yesterday. Boy did I overreact about that. Of course, I knew I was overreacting even as I wrote about my despair - hyperbole is a staple of this blog. Yet it relieves me to no end to know that Jocketty does have the sense not to depend on Jerry to be the everyday shortstop. This is one loud "whew!"

We should give Walt Jocketty the benefit of the doubt, given that he's taken a team to two World Series and a heck of a lot of playoffs in this decade. It's just that it's been so darn long since the Reds had a winning season, and we've seen so many stupid blunders, what with signing, resigning, or trading for players like Eric Milton, Joe Mays, Dave Williams, Corey Patterson, Ryan Franklin, Royce Clayton, Gary Majewski, Mike Stanton, Juan Castro, Chris Hammond, and a whole host of others I've blocked from my memory as a sort of defense mechanism against mediocrity.

Maybe we should focus more on the positive aspects of the team, because there are many. For the first time in a heckuva long time, we aren’t really concerned about starting pitching. Sure, we have some ifs - will Harang return to form, can Bronson win 14, can Cueto improve, can Volquez repeat, will it be Homer or Owings or Thompson or Ramirez or Maloney, but these are all ok concerns to have, not like last year when we had Harang and Arroyo and who knows going into Spring Training.

Then there are Bruce and Votto and Phillips and Edwin, all young players capable of producing thirty homer seasons. We have a loaded farm system. (If the Reds really do want to throw in the towel for this year like it seems they are doing by signing Taveras and Hernandez, they might as well bring up Stubbs and Valaika and the like, but no, they don't even get Spring Training invites?...Ack! There's that negativity creeping in again!)

And hey, we still have a long way to go before the season starts. Anything can happen in that time. (Does my smile look fake?)

Thirty-six more days until pitchers and catchers report!
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