At Home Plate - 2007 Season Postmortem: The Cincinnati Reds

2007 Season Postmortem: The Cincinnati Reds

Written by Adam Adkins (Contact & Archive) on December 26, 2007

The 2006 Cincinnati Reds played over their heads. Because of that, the 2007 Reds' season looks like a failure. To be honest, it wasn't - in the sense that the Reds can't win anyhow - to be honest, it was merely another stretch of highway for a team that has no signs of hope to come.

MVP: Adam Dunn. Ignore the idiots (yes, idiots) who say Dunn's a bad influence on the team. The dude is a monster. (And, yes, I did write an article saying he was falling off a cliff. And, yes, I did stop taking acid the following morning.)

Best Hitter: Dunn.

Best Pitcher: Aaron Harang. Harang's a classic power pitcher, racking up K's and Innings. However, some, such as ESPN.com's Keith Law, have suggested he's benefiting from pitching in the NL Central. I'm inclined to believe that Law is right, and Harang is more of a 3rd starter than he is a #1 starter.

Reason For The Ugly Record: They aren't any good. A lack of talent mixed with incompetent spending can lead to this sort of thing. In '07, the Reds ran out 4 above average players regularly (Dunn, Brandon Phillips, Ken Griffey Jr. and Scott Hatteberg.) Some, like Alex Gonzalez and Edwin Encarnacion, are good players who missed time for a handful of reasons. Others, like the newly dealt Josh Hamilton, showed promise but couldn't stay healthy.

Reason For Optimism: Jay Bruce is coming, and he's gonna be a stud. Make no mistake, he's probably the best prospect in the game not named Upton. Even with Homer Bailey flopping like a fish, Reds fans should be happy with the idea of Bruce getting 500 ABs.

Offensive VORP Leaders: Dunn-45.5, Phillips-37.2, Griffey Jr-31.1

Pitching VORP Leaders: Harang-53.8, Bronson Arroyo-30.7, David Weathers-18.5

Best Prospect: Bruce. No doubt about it.

Reason To Think The Ship Is Still Sinking: Well, they hired Dusty Baker, they gave Mariano Rivera like money to someone who's decidedly not Mariano Rivera, Wayne Rivsy (err, Krivsky) is still the GM...no talent...?

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Reason To Think The Ship Is Still Sinking: Well, they hired Dusty Baker, they gave Mariano Rivera like money to someone who's decidedly not Mariano Rivera, Wayne Rivsy

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