And Now a Blue Print for our beloved Cincinnati Reds

Blue Print for the Reds


I think that the present Reds team has some serious deficiencies. If I were going to build a team, here is how I would do it.


An old baseball adage is your team must be strong up the middle in other words catcher, pitchers, short, second and centerfield. This is the basis of your team defense. It is also should be your speed basis on offense (except for the pitching and catching).

For my team I want a shortstop, second baseman, and centerfielder who can run and hit for average. The guys on the sides of the field first basemen, third basemen, left and right outfield must provide power offense. I start looking to put people into these slots from low A ball on up. In other words if you are not a power-hitting first base or left or right fielder, I am going to trade you for some one who is. No slow centerfielders, no power-hitting shortstops unless they have everything else (then it’s a very happy bonus).

Setting up your team in this way ensures you have team speed on offense and defense. Setting up the team in this way means that I would probably trade some popular players, but I am willing to do this to put the plan into action.

Right now the Reds are so very slow footed, so power laden, that they cannot even begin to play small ball.


Pitching: Ideally I want two power pitchers one from the left and one from the right for my one and two starter. I want the righty throwing fastballs and curves (not the freaking slider the Reds are in love with), and the lefty maybe a fastball and splitter. I want the third pitcher to have a sinking fastball as his main pitch (I want the ball on the ground). The fourth guy should be a guy whose best pitch is not his fastball ala Orlando Hernandez. The fifth guy I would want a knuckle-baller to eat up innings. I want the pitching rotation set up this way because in post-season play, the men in blue really tend to squeeze the strike zone. I think this is why Atlanta only won one world Championship. If you have to “pitch in a box” then at least you can get away with it for a while…

In the bullpen, I want a fire balling closer with a good slider (think Rob Dibble). A sinker balling set up man (Graves in his hay-day), a right-handed side-armer ala Scott Sullivan, a left-handed specialist with a good breaking ball (think Jesse Orasco), and one guy with a specialty pitch like Bruce Sutter or Tom Gordon. With this make up you are always coming at the competition with some thing different.

To fill out the roster I want a good utility player, a pinch hitter than can hit a homerun if I need one late, a back up catcher is a must, maybe another pitcher, and an outfielder with tremendous speed and glove.

This plan is very different from going out and getting “the best guys available.” I think that the Reds have done this for a very long time and it has not worked.