I’m winning…the battle of the Central. The Reds have regained the spot at the top of the National League Central (by 1/2 a game) thanks to a victory over Roy Oswalt and the DisAstros. Oswalt was 23-2 against the Reds before last night.

I’m losing…the battle with mosquitoes. Bug spray isn’t even working.

Anything you’ve been winning and losing of late?

I didn’t get called to serve on the jury. Many people aren’t fans of going for jury duty but I didn’t mind. The only annoying thing is that I would have preferred to stay home. The day started with a juror orientation video and then we waited…and waited…and waited…for the judge to call us in.

We went upstairs to her courtroom and then we waited…and waited…and waited to be called into the courtroom from the hallway.

Once we were inside, they called 16 from the jury pool to sit in the jury box and the judge asked them a series of questions. After those 16 were done we took another break. The judge came back in and excused a bunch of them and then excused the rest of us because they had selected their jury from the first 16 people. I was home by 12:30 (not bad at all)

Now I’m off the hook for having to be on a jury for 6 years in state court and 2 in federal court. I think I got lucky because they were only selecting one jury in the entire courthouse. I’m guessing it is because it is the summer.

The case was about a wrongful termination of a teacher in the New York City school system. The woman was claiming racial, gender, age and handicap discrimination. I doubt they would have let me on the jury since I’m a teacher and involved in the teachers Union.

While waiting in the hallway, the door to the courtroom opened and the sound of a dog barking echoed in the halls. I figured there was just one extremely weird potential juror. I looked over and sure enough there was a dog in the hallway. It was one of those service dogs for the plaintiff. The dog was a beauty and at least it gave me something to occupy my time while waiting…and waiting…and waiting.

The dog looked like this:

Reds Talk
So the Reds finally met up with Stephen Stasburg, the rookie phenom that everyone is going gaga over. I’ll say this, the guy can definitely pitch…I’m not taking anything away from him. I just find it annoying that other very good pitchers are being overlooked by the media because of him…including the 7-1 rookie pitcher from the Reds Mike Leake.
Thanks to Stasburg, the Reds lost yesterday, falling to 1 1/2 games behind the Cardinals. The Cardinals have won 7 or 8 in a row since the All Star Break.
The Reds had a sellout crowd to see Stasburg. What made me sick was seeing this picture of the Reds team shop, which usually only sells Reds gear.


The Reds are definitely in a must win situation today against the Nationals…which you can watch at 12:30 on the MLB Network.

The season preview is located here.
Most people thought I was crazy when I predicted 87 wins out of the Reds with a possible Wild Card berth. Surprisingly, it remains a possibility. In fact, the Reds can still win their division. They remain in 1st place as I write this (July 18) by 1/2 game.

Looking Back
Basically all of the strengths that I addressed in March are the reasons that the Reds are playing so well. Not only are the Reds strong in the minors, those players (Mike Leake, Chris Heisey, Travis Wood, Matt Maloney) have made significant contributions to the Reds success.

Keys to Victory: 2nd Half

• Stay Healthy-The Reds fell apart last year because of injuries to Ramon Hernandez (currently injured), Edinson Volquez, Joey Votto, Jay Bruce and Aaron Harang among others.  They must avoid the injury bug this year.  Without all of the parts, this team isn’t as good.  Thankfully, injuries that have taken place have been easily replace by our strong pitching depth.  I don’t recall a time when the Reds had such depth.  They have about 8 or 9 possible starters that can actually pitch.

• Cut Down on Strikeouts-This is still a concern for the likes of Stubbs and Bruce.  Put the ball in play and make things happen.

• Get innings from starters/Don’t overuse the bullpen-I’m still worried about this.  Cordero needs to be sharp to finish the season and the other stud in the bullpen is Arthur Rhodes.  Rhodes is 40 years old and if overused might not be as crisp as the Reds need him to be in important games.  The Reds need a big finish from Edinson Volquez (won 17 games 2 years ago) and Mike Leake (started strong and has sputtered a bit of late).

• Give Breathers to Rolen/Cabrera-These two guys have meant so much to the Reds for their leadership and quality of play on the field.  But the fact of the matter is, they are both past their prime.  Dusty Baker cannot be afraid to give them days off/innings off late in games when the Reds are up by a lot or down by a lot.  Paul Janish and Miguel Cairo have proven that they can play and spot start.  Take advantage of that so that Rolen and Cabrera can answer the bell when it really counts.

• Continue to Get Timely Hitting, Good Defense and Good Baserunning-If you watched the 2010 highlights video, you know what I’m talking about.  The Reds have had several come from behind victories this year.

• Beat up on bad teams, play well against tough teams-To make a playoff push, the Reds MUST play well against the Cardinals next month and early September.  Another key stretch will be the west coast trip from August 17 to August 25.  The Reds have seen playoff chances die in CA before…they can’t let it happen again.

• No Fear-The Reds need to be fearless when playing big games.  The difference between this team and the Reds of 2006 (the last time they were competitive) is that this team has much more playoff/World Series/big game experience.  Orlando Cabrera, Scott Rolen, Miguel Cairo, Arthur Rhodes and Bronson Arroyo have all made contributions to championship teams.  They need to lead our younger players in the big spots.

• Will There Be A Trade?????? The Reds definitely have a lot of young talent to trade away for a big name to help down the stretch.  The Reds just have to be careful not to give away the next 3-4 years of success for a shot at winning this year.

The Hunt for Red October

The Reds currently have 51 wins.  I’ll stick with the 87 win prediction and hope for more (they’ll probably need it).  The Reds WILL be playing meaningful games in September and possibly even October.

Good propaganda to get people to convert to Reds fans. This has been a great year to be a Reds fan (so far). Here’s to hoping for a great 2nd half highlights video.