What the Reds are lacking

I sit here on a Friday night at my mother’s house (my fiance is out of town, get off my back) and I watch the Reds close out a 6-0 loss to the Cleveland Indians. I sit and I wonder why I invest my time so much. I started reading some NFL stuff tonight and this is extremely unusual for me.

Then I get frustrated and go back to watching this brutal, spineless ball club. I think about what is really missing here. I think long and hard about why things just go wrong for this group. I think I’ve come to it.

The Reds are a team loaded with names and talent. They really are. Even if you disagree with me, they’re certainly better than they’ve shown all season long. This isn’t a last place club on paper. This team just plays flat. They come out and look emotionless, like they don’t want to play 9 innings. That leads to lapses in their play and all the inconsistencies.

I think the Reds need to make some changes, and one of the big ones that would help this flat play is to bring in a fiery leader. A veteran who plays every day that won’t allow this shit to go on. When the Reds have had good teams in the past, they had guys out there that thought they were going to war when they stepped between the white lines and war wasn’t over until there was 27 outs. This goes back to Pete Rose if you want to go back that far, or even in more recent history with Greg Vaughn or even Sean Casey. I won’t include Larkin because I question his ‘fiery’ leadership.

I will stop there for tonight, but the Reds have definitely succeeded in making me completely pissed on what otherwise could have been a great night of relaxation. Fuckers.