Just wanted to add...

In all of my pessimism about 2009, I have no problem with the Gomes signing and hope he has a killer year and wins the leftfielder job. But there are just too many ifs to be hopeful.

If Gomes can play as he is capable of playing.
If Dickerson/Gomes can be a productive platoon.
If Taveras can get on base.
If Hernandez stops being a lazy bum and hits like an All Star.
If Gonzalez returns to form.
If Cueto is more consistent.
If Volquez pitches like last year.
If Harang returns to form.
If Arroy can win 14 games.
If Cordero doesn't blow a bunch of saves.
If Edwin doesn't throw every ball away.
If BP can hit 30 homers again.
If Votto doesn't have a sophomore slump.
If Bruce hits better than last year.

ififififififififififififififififififififififififififififififififififififififififif

Day Two of the We're Done Stage

Is there anything good to write about the 2009 Cincinnati Reds and their quit at no cost attitude* towards the season? I guess we can say at least we're not the Pirates with that owner who doesn't care about winning as long as he can run his team with the funds from revenue sharing. But it is downright embarrassing to be put in the same class as the Pirates and the Royals, and those two teams can say the same thing about us.

This is Bob Castellini's fourth year as principal owner. You choose to rebuild in year four, Bob? There is a statute of limitations on patience.

Contrary to some national sports journalist idiots, the Reds have a good farm system. So there's that. But we had that last year and the year before and the year before that. And by the time the farm boys are Major League ready, guys like Brandon Phillips and Joey Votto and Jay Bruce are going to be too expensive to retain. Have we turned into the Reds of the old days when the Cincinnati team was basically used as a farm system for the East Coast teams, when we developed players and just sent them away to the likes of teams like the New York Giants? Why haven't we signed Jay Bruce and Joey Votto to longterm contracts like other, successful teams have done with their young players? Why, if we are rebuilding, did we bother to get Taveras and Hernandez and those other jokers instead of just letting young guys like Stubbs play?

The recession is just a convenient excuse. It didn't prevent other teams from getting better. This is a result of poor business decisions, and I, for one, am not going to vote for a bailout. After all of the money I have given to this team over my lifetime, I'm just not going to do it this year. And it has nothing to do with recession. So have fun, Bob, raising revenue when you are losing even your loyal fan base. Adam Dunn could have changed things. Bobby Abreu could have changed things. Nick Swisher could have changed things.

Hal McCoy is right.

Swell. Rush to purchase those tickets now. Send in those season ticket applications. Everybody wants to see a fifth-place team. Everybody wants to see a ninth straight losing season.

One of the great things about baseball is that a bad year ends and you still have hope for the next year. Well, not this year. Remember last year when Sports Illustrated picked the Reds to come in second place in the division? I bet they pick us last this year.

It's a fairly warm day today. Spring feels like it is just around the corner. But for us Reds fans, it's going to be a year long winter.

*I hope they are quitting rather than thinking they actually can win with what they're fielding. Look, I said they rather than we.

There goes 2009

With the announcement that the Reds are done for the winter, hopes for the 2009 Cincinnati Reds go out the window. So much for the "number one priority" of getting a righthanded bat.

One line in the article prompted a thought from me:

Meanwhile, the club is trying to find ways to generate and improve its revenue stream.

It isn't going to be from ticket sales, that's for sure.

I sure hope Chris Dickerson can surprise the world with an amazing season.
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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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