2008 MLB PREVIEW: CINCINNATI REDS - THE INEVITABILITY OF NEIFI

by Tony Riazzi, Pray for Mojo

When the blackness of night falls on my house, and I'm left with only my thoughts and my rubber sheets to comfort me, I can still hear a disquieting sound in the distance. It starts as a whisper, but steadily amplifies as the March night grows colder. Baseball season is fast approaching, but that's not the issue. That sound I hear is the laughter of Chicago Cubs fans.

For you see, not only has Dusty Baker, their once beloved-now loathed former manager (Remember "In Dusty We Trusty?") found a new job in their division with my team, the Cincinnati Reds, but he's already up to his old tricks.

The Bad:
Dusty has this thing for wasting uniforms on some of his most atrocious former players, usually light hitting middle infielders who are tied to steroids yet don't improve even to the point were they can be classified as "useful" (See Perez, Neifi.)

To wit, two weeks ago the Reds signed Jerry Hairston, Jr., a former Cubs infielder and poor man's Neifi. Jerry Hairy hit .198 last season as a backup in Texas- IN TEXAS! If you cannot hit .250 and 20 home runs in Texas than you're either missing arms or you're Brad Wilkerson.

In that same vein, Baker also has a thing for playing underwhelming veterans because he prefers the illusion of stability they provide over a young guy. Hence the reason he would rather play a guy in center who literally can't hit the ball out of the infield (Norris Hopper) over one of the franchise's top prospects (Jay Bruce) that has hit the shit out of the ball at every level.

One of the Dustbag's reasons for wanting to hold back Bruce, as well as first baseman Joey Votto, is he doesn't want to rush him along and put undue pressure on him the way he feels he did in Chicago with "can't miss" centerfielder Corey Patterson, who shockingly just signed with...wait for it...the Cincinnati Reds. I'm so cold, so cold...

The Good:
However, having voiced all of these concerns, I am still filled with a sense of optimism about the 2008 Cincinnati Reds. The Reds are deeper than they've been in years at key positions. Brandon Phillips dominates. The Harangatang is a bonafide ace and as big a douche as he is, Arroyo is a solid 2. Throw in young arms Johnny Cueto and Edinson Volquez, who are dominating the likes of the Tigers and Yankees starting lineups this spring, and you've got the makings of the Reds first legitimate rotation this decade. Plus, they patched some bullpen holes by putting David Weathers out of his misery and getting a real closer- grossly overpaying for that closer, but getting one nonetheless. Not to mention Ken Griffey, Jr., who is confident he can play somewhere near 90 games this year, and Adam Dunn, who thinks he can cut his total of called third strikes taken into the 150 range.

Now I know what you're saying. Spring training is about optimism- every team feels good about their chances at this time of year. Well, you're wrong. Spring training is about the players getting far away from the wives and families they've consistently spent the better part of 5 months with, meeting up with their cactus/grapefruit mistresses and maybe taking some grounders or fungoes if need be. Also, the Reds recent history is a few steps above Pirate/Royal levels and last time I checked, those teams and their fans are pretty sure the glass is half empty and they'd like to break the glass and use it on their wrists come, oh, around May 1.

Take boom boxes out of the equation and Dusty has a consistent record of getting teams to play together and play well. That's all Reds fans can ask for because that's a complete 180 from what we've grown accustomed to. Is he even the best manager in his own division? Absolutely not, that's close between Sleepy La Russa and the man that delivered the Reds' last World Series title, Lou Piniella. Why they ever let Lou get away is beyond me, but Baker is what Cincy's got now and he's likely the best manager the Reds have had since Trader Jack left in 2000.

As frustrating as his awful in-game management will likely be, Baker was the right hire for THIS franchise, one of baseball's oldest and most storied that has had more managers in the past 10 years (5) than winning seasons (2). For a team that regularly finishes in the bottom half of one of the worst divisions in baseball, just a return to the top half of the division would be enough to send the blood rushing to the fanbase's collective Red Rockets.

Call me crazy, but I see something even better than that. IF (BIG IF) Dusty allows the young guys to play at some point this year prior to September, and IF some of the young pitchers that have looked so good in camp come through and actually give this team some semblance of a major league starting rotation, and IF that doesn't mean they end up having radical reconstructive elbow surgery at some point, then I see this team competeing for the NL Central title. Maybe not taking it, that may still be a year away, but they will give the Cubs a run. And who knows, with a little luck and a little stumble by the Cubs (has that ever happened?), the Reds could arrive a year early a la the Diamondback last year. A man can dream, can't he?