The Cincinnati Reds had an off-day today, and talk turned to the looming trade deadline.

Every July 31st, it comes. This is the deadline to add players to the major league roster without having them pass through waivers. (The second trading deadline that requires players to pass through waivers and allow every other team a chance to claim doesn’t happen until August 31.)

So what are the Reds’ plans this year? Are they buyers or sellers? Looking at their record, one might think the would be interested in selling. Not so, says general manager Walt Jocketty.

“We’re looking to upgrade any area,” Jocketty said.

That sounds like buying to me. Which is good. Aside from Bronson Arroyo, Francisco Cordero, and Brandon Phillips, the Reds don’t have salaries to dump. Arroyo’s having a bad year and has no trade value; Cordero’s over-paid and struggling of late; and getting rid of Phillips might cause a fan riot on Fountain Square.

Having said that, the Reds do have holes. No losing team doesn’t. The Reds’ biggest one is starting pitching, despite what was seen during the Pittsburgh Pirates series. It’s easy to look good against a punchless offense, and despite their success, the Pirates’ offense is weak. Nobody besides Johnny Cueto can be relied on each start to go deep and give the team a good chance of winning.

Offense from left field and shortstop has been mentioned, but playing Chris Heisey more and finally calling up Zack Cozart–two weeks later than it should have been–seems to have improved that.

To me, starting pitching is the obvious area to target.

The Reds have been rumored to be interested in the Arizona Diamondbacks’ Ubaldo Jiminez and the Tampa Bay Devil Rays’ James Shields. Both are good young starters still under team control, which means they would cost a bundle. However, the Reds are loaded in the minors, with a team that would have rivaled any of the terrible Pirates teams before this years down in Louisville. They’ve got a surplus, and I’m hoping they spend it on something good.

Boxscore

In fact, one win in a row would be pretty good at this point. I’m going ahead and predicting a shutout series. After two straight times of being shutout against the once lowly Pittsburgh Pirates, I’m feeling confident.

Last night, the Pirates overtook first place in the division. A series in July between first and fourth place in the NLC, the Pirates and Reds: you might have predicted that at the beginning of the season, though you might have been thinking about it a little differently.

Tonight, both the expected standings and the expected outcome were flipped, as the Pirates beat the Cincinnati Reds 1-0.

Mike Leake started for the Reds and allowed 1 run over 6 innings, clearly a terrible outing that deserves the loss he received.

Maybe the Reds won’t be swept tomorrow. But given their lifeless offense–even the might Zack Cozart had his hitting streak snapped at 6–nobody except the Pirates’ pitchers should feel optimistic.

The Jonny Gomes Bobblehead giveaway is coming up at Great American Ballpark this Saturday, July 23. And the Cincinnati Reds have put out this short video advertising it by having other Reds players attempt to perform Gomes’ trademark helmet wobble.

It’s quite entertaining and worth 30 seconds of your time. Of course, it’s strangely un-embeddable. You know, how you want your ads to be. Anyway, check it out here.

And don’t miss the blink-and-you’ll-miss-it appearance by Joey Votto.

Holy cow! It’s a win! The season has finally turned around!!

Just kidding, of course, but it’s hard when you know how good this team is not to succumb to the sense that every win is the start of something big. And we get to have that sense, like, every other game. Let’s hit some bullets:

• Homer Bailey was all manner of awesome today. It’s nice to think that maybe the team has two starting pitchers it can count on.
• And Fransisco Cordero didn’t even give up the one run he had to play with when he came into the game in the top of the ninth today. What’s going on?
• Zack Cozart has a 6-game hitting streak going on right now. Funny: that matches up with the 6-games he’s been with the team. What a nice bullet.

Could tomorrow be the day that the Reds finally win their second game in a row? They were saying on the t.v. today that that hasn’t happened in 25 games or something. To be fair, though, and they haven’t even had the chance to win two in a row since yesterday.

Not that I ever had those hopes. Not really.

After a walk-off win thanks to a bottom-of-the-ninth home run from Brandon Phillips last night, the Reds were back to their losing ways tonight as they fell to the Cardinals 4-1. Bronson Arroyo wasn’t that awesome for the Reds, and apparently Chris Carpenter was that awesome for the Cards. No word yet on what he might have complained about before, during, or after the game or what he may or may not have to explain to his son.

Frankly, I checked out emotionally yesterday around the seventh inning. It hardly seems worth hoping these guys will come back from behind (and they’re *always* behind), even when they’ve just done it the night before. I’m not sure whether the team will ride out the rest of the season in fourth place, but at this point it seems more likely than making it to first.

So, here’s a question for you: why the heck aren’t they doing anything about it? There’s practically an entire major-league ready team in Louisville waiting to be traded or fill in for someone who is. At the very least, shouldn’t Baker be feeling some pressure by now? Bad luck, sure, but the time is past to hope that bad luck will go away on its own.