It's August and the Reds are the best team in baseball

It looks strange to type that.
I had to double check it.

Using the barometer of wins and losses, no team in baseball has had a better year than the Reds. (Sorry "Run Differential." You are not trumping wins and losses yet.)

It's not the Yankees nor the Rangers. The surprising Nationals are not the best. Nope. It's the Reds.

After this afternoon's 9-4 defeat of San Diego, the Reds have raised their record to 64-41.

They are doing it without Joey Votto. Replacement first baseman Todd Frazier homered for the 13th time this season. Johnny Cueto improved his record to 14-5 with a 2.52 ERA.

With a .610 winning percentage, the Reds are on pace to finish the season 98-64, which would be the sixth highest win total in the team's 131 year history.

Should this Reds team be looked upon as a World Series front runner? They are the best in the game as of this writing and there are only a few months to go.

Well, as we have seen the past few Octobers, it does not matter so much what your record is as when you get hot.

St. Louis got hot in October of 2006 and 2011. In neither year were they the best team in baseball but they wound up winning the series.

The Giants in 2010, the Phillies in 2008, the Marlins in 2003 and Angels in 2002 were all teams that got hot at the right time and got a parade out of it.

The 2007 Rockies of course became unreal, going from also rans to pennant winners.

The Reds are superhot now. They have had a six and ten game winning streak since early July. They were 45-38 on July 6th.

They are 19-3 since then.

They have also been playing the likes of San Diego, Colorado, Houston and Milwaukee during that stretch. Not exactly the caliber of teams they would face in the playoffs.

It is clearly important to win the games against the lesser clubs. But this is also an instance of a team peaking with two months left to play. The Reds are on top of the baseball standings as of this writing but only three games in the loss column ahead of Pittsburgh. The best team in the game is not even assured a spot at the playoff table.

The Reds are a great story now. For their sake, I hope they have another great streak in them. Preferably one that starts around the last week of September.

 

CINCINNATI FANS… THE REDS' MAGIC NUMBER IS 125

That’s right… we are in Mid May and the Reds have passed the Cardinals. The Cincinnati Reds are in first! I don’t want people to be blasé about this along the banks of the Ohio River.

One of the great baseball cities of all time has a team in first place… and they got there with some complete games, some clutch hitting and some home grown players with kick ass names like Joey Botto, Jay Bruce, Johnny Cueto and Mike Leake.

I picked the Reds to win the pennant last year and while I was WAY off, I didn’t pick that team out of a hat. I felt their young talent could blossom into an exciting young team that Reds fans can call their own.

That could be what is happening now.

I am not expecting every game at Great American Ballpark to be standing room only… but you fans aren’t Rays fans, a fan base that is being treated to one of the most exciting young teams the game has seen in years who could possibly outplay the Yankees and Red Sox for the second time in three years… and can’t fill half their stadium.

The Rays play in a crappy ballpark that is hard to get to and the fan base has no tradition in baseball.

The Reds are just the opposite. They have a great park that is easy to get to and one of the richest traditions in all of baseball. Don’t believe me? Read up!

Time to put some fannys in the seats. School will be out soon and the kids in Ohio and Northern Kentucky are going to be treated to a team that is in contention. By midseason they might even be inserting Aroldis Chapman into their rotation to give them an even bigger boost.

You hear how New York, Boston and St. Louis fans are the most passionate about baseball. Time to punch your entry into the discussion Reds fans.

I know the 2000s were rough for the Reds as they were part of the “less than magnificent seven” teams that went from 2000 to 2009 without a playoff appearance.

I know young fans might be apathetic.

No excuse now… you’ve got a contender on your hands. And any combination of Reds wins and Cardinals losses that equal 125 will send the Reds back to the playoffs.

It’s never too early to count down!

My A's/Reds prediction was bad last year, but now not so much

OK, my 2009 World Series picks of Oakland vs. Cincinnati blew up in my face last year.

But maybe I was just a year early.
As I type this the A's are in first place and can be in first by themselves with a win tonight. (They are currently scoreless in the 2nd in Arlington.)

Meanwhile did you know the Reds are on a 5 game winning streak and got back to back complete games by Johnny Cueto and Homer Bailey.

Granted they were against the Pirates, but still! The Pirates are technically a big league team.

And both of these teams are making a run at the top... just as I predicted... 13 months ago.