At the end of the 2010 season the Reds were the NLC champions, owners of the NL MVP award, and just generally full of promise and hope. The offense was killer, the rotation looked solid, and that ridiculous Jim Edmonds experiment was at an end. Things were looking good.

Then, a month into 2011, and it was already becoming clear that this was, again, not going to be Cincinnati’s year. The pundits are out and talking about how the offense underperformed (though really, they performed plenty, just not at the right times) and how the pitching that was supposed to be a strength turned out to be a liability and how the injury bug bit the team.

While all that is true, I want to make sure that Dusty Baker gets his fair share of the where-did-it-go-wrong attention. Though Brandon Phillips had to take matters in to his own hands to shake up the line-up, I’m not talking about line-up construction this time. And though Juan Fransisco had to await an act of God to get a couple innings at third, I’m not even complaining about the young guys not getting a chance.

My complaint about ol’ In-Dusty-We-Trusty these days is two-fold. First, this just doesn’t seem to be the kind of team he’s good at motivating. Give him some big stars and more mature players, and he’ll get the most out of them. But the most tenured players on this Reds team are Bronson Arroyo and Brandon Phillips. Frankly, I give more of the credit for the team’s success last year to Scott Rolen than Dusty Baker.

Second, there seemed to be an utter strategy disconnect between Baker and Walt Jocketty. Not that I won’t have plenty of words for Jocketty tomorrow, but these two guys have got to be on the same page if there is any hope of wringing the potential out of the roster. The fact that Baker doesn’t care for statistical advice and resents bloggers is really just a footnote compared to being given a roster full of high-potentials whom he was bound and determined to misuse, apparently on principle.

It was not, however, the kind of season that gets a manager fired. If the team wins out, they’ll still make .500, and let’s not forget that they’re still just a season removed from winning the division. Even so, unless Jocketty acknowledges the special needs of Baker and brings in a motivational old guy who can be a leader on the field, I’m afraid we’ll be seeing more of this season in 2012.

When the Cincinnati Reds began their season, they were faced with a lot of injuries.

Johnny Cueto missed the first month, Bronson Arroyo had mononucleosis, and it felt like every other member of the team was dropping every other game.

Now that the 2011 season is wrapping up, the injury monster is hungry again.

Today it took a bite out of Dontrelle Willis’ back, making him unable to make his scheduled start Sunday.

In addition to Willis, the team also has several other players in a day-to-day state.

Cincinnati catchers Ramon Hernandez (bruised lower left leg) and Ryan Hanigan (back spasms) are banged up. Miguel Cairo has a sore shoulder. Johnny Cueto was knocked out of Monday’s start by a strained right lat.

And that neglects to mention infielder Chris Valaika who will have season-ending surgery to repair a torn ACL on Monday.

It does bring a certain sense of circularity to the season, though. The Reds are limping towards the finish line, much like they limped out of Spring Training.

Boxscore

Saturday night’s game between the Cincinnati Reds and the Milwaukee Brewers was unfortunately a bit of a snoozer. The Reds lost 10-1, with the only offense being a solo shot from Yonder Alonso.

The game was fun, though, despite that, with some great tweeting going on via all the Reds Tweetup guests. You can view the tweets here.

Before the event was also the unveiling of the new Johnny Bench statue. Bench spoke to the crowd before the game.

After that, Edinson Volquez took to the mound. He started well, but was probably left in too long and fell apart in the 7th. (No thanks to his bullpen, who allowed all inherited runners to score.)

The Reds’ batters had no luck either, aside from Alonso. The heart of the lineup was quiet, with Joey Votto and Jay Bruce combining for zero hits.

Yovani Gallardo was on his game for the Brewers, and the game was effectively over when Volquez and the bullpen imploded.

Volquez got the loss and Gallardo took the victory. It was a far cry from last September’s Tweetup, when the Reds clinched the division. And from the last Johnny Bench night, when Bench homered to lead the Reds to a win. Sadly, there were no fireworks from Reds catchers tonight.

Still, it was a fun event, and I’m looking forward to next year’s.

Conversation ’round the ol’ dinner table around here has been focusing more and more lately on who’s to blame for the utter free fall that we’ve endured the Reds suffering this season. All it takes is someone shaking their head and mutter, “remember at the beginning of the season when the Reds were good?” and off we go. It is only a matter of time till those sentiments overflow and the posts start taking on an indictment flavor.

But it’s the weekend and tomorrow there’s a tweet up and a Johnny Bench statue and a first place NLC team to check out. Why not let the vitriol simmer for another couple days while we take in the last home weekend game. Hell, Baker and Jocketty can wait; they will (probably) still be there on Monday.

Since the last time I posted, the Reds were eliminated from post-season contention, first thanks to a win by the Brewers to eliminate them from the possibility of winning in the NLC, and then thanks to a win by the Braves to eliminate them from the possibility of winning the NL wildcard.

If you pay close attention to the “Events” that we show over on the right side of the blog layout, you noticed about a week ago I predicted that the elimination day would be yesterday, September 14. And, as it turned out, both eliminations happened on that day, thanks to the Brewers having a long game that went just past midnight EDT.

So, tonight’s Reds-Cubs game is definitely among those lame duck events where we get to see the flashes of awesomeness from the young guys and think, “why couldn’t he have done that in July?” Among the awesomeness I’ve seen tonight has been Chris Heisey’s facial hair. Not only would it surely have made all the difference in July, but it’s also nice for making young Heisey look legal.

This weekend’s games are not quite as exhibition-y as tonight’s game, seeing as the Reds are hosting the Brewers and could do their part to…I don’t know. Give the Cardinals a chance? Tire out the team? Take Prince Fielder out to Boi Na Braza?

Whatever the team does, there’s going to be the big unveiling of the Johnny Bench statue to take in, plus the Tweet-up on Saturday. I understand there may be prizes for participating tweeters.