When Clearly It’s Brad Thompson

I was reading this ESPN article about the Cardinals crowded outfield when I stumbled over this sentence.

Chris Duncan appears ready to reclaim playing time coming off cervical surgery.

Wait, what? Doesn’t one need a cervix to have surgery performed on it?

So, those Reds traded Ryan Freel, eh? Might actually be a decent move, I suppose, but against the backdrop oft he cluster that is Dusty Baker’s management, it’s hard to see this move as anything other than more of said cluster.

In any event, the massive level of annoyance that it aroused in the Red Hot Household was enough to shake us from our three-month long podcasting malaise. This ought to motivate us for at least a couple months, at which time I guess they’ll have to trade Brandon Phillips to the Nationals in order to raise my ire enough to create more audio content.

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Boxscore

The Reds ended the season doing what they spent most of it doing: losing. Oh, and also playing manager Dusty Baker’s favorite crappy players.

The Cardinals ended the year in 4th place, 11.5 games out of first, somehow winning with players that I didn’t think had the combined abilities to compete. Yet there St. Louis was competing for a playoff berth until about a month ago. Not bad. And since they haven’t made any expensive acquisitions, either in terms of monetary commitments or by giving up prospects, they should be in a good place to jump up a few spots in the standings next year.

Cincinnati finished the season in 5th place, 23 games out of 1st place and 7 games ahead of the Pirates. The Reds have tons of great young talent, yet I have no optimism about them competing next year. Their starting rotation has two extremely talented young kids, with more competing for spots. If only the team had someone in charge who knew how to deal with them. Sigh. No, I expect 2009 to be more of the same.

Wow, nothing I wrote there was funny at all. I tried this year, I really did. But there are only so many jokes you can make about the clueless moves Dusty Baker repeats before the well is dry. All I can hope is that the Reds start next year losing 30-40 in a row so Baker will finally be gone, otherwise the misery of Cincinnati will not end until sometime after 2010.

Boxscore

Remember when the Reds hired Dusty Baker because he was a proven winner? (I still haven’t gotten the smell out of my clothes from that bull crap.)

Well, Baker proved that statement false, as so many knew he would. The Reds lost their 82nd game yesterday, cementing them as a loser for 2008. That’s, what, 8 years now? Look out Pittsburgh!

For Baker, it’s now his 3rd losing year in a row. I expect at least 1 more, 2 should the Reds insanely not fire him sometime next year.

As for the game, Edinson Volquez looked tired and overworked. It’s a good thing the Reds manager is renowned for his delicate care with young, still-growing pitchers.

This episode is recorded live on location at beautiful Victory Field in Indianapolis, Indiana. The last place Indianapolis Indians (Pirates’ affiliate) hosted the division leading Louisville Bats (Reds’ affiliate) as they always do during the holiday weekends.

The Bats had long since clinched the division, so it was hard to imagine that they’d put too much effort into their last series: 4-games against the cellar-dwellers (and that was just in Indy; afterward, they immediately took off for two more games in Louisville). But it was a good time anyway, seeing the Reds and Pirates of the future (and past *cough*Chris Duffy*cough*) defining themselves on the field.

We attended all four games, but only stayed for the duration on Saturday (darn school nights), so this program is the culmination of four days and about 20 innings of baseball spectatorship.

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