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I have had the personal pleasure of seeing the Reds play in several different stadiums across the country.  Wherever I go, I see the same thing.  Usually, names such as FOSTER, BENCH, MORGAN, and pretty much anyone you can think of off those great big red machine teams are what you are seeing on the jerseys that the fans are wearing.  That’s all well and good, as the Reds have had a great history, but since their last world series appearance, the Reds haven’t done much, and haven’t given fans many reasons to wear the jerseys of the current players.  There are kids in junior high school now that were born the last time the Reds tasted the postseason in 1995 (if you don’t count the one game playoff against the Mets in 1999).  No winning seasons since 2000.  Your's truly, who is 27 years old, was fresh out of high school when that event occured.

To get back on the right path, here are what the Reds need to have happen to them this year.  I would like a championship parade again sometime in my life, preferably before the point in my life where I would have to worry about breaking a hip from jumping with joy.

Luck - Before anything else, this is the most important thing. Small market teams like the Reds cannot afford to have injuries to key contributors. We can’t go out and readily get reinforcements, and with the lack of depth, the dropoff from starter to reserve at most positions is pretty severe.

All around offensive improvement – Obviously, you can’t win if you can’t outscore the other team.  They were 23rd in the league in total runs last year.  Why weren’t they outscoring the other team on a consistent basis?  Well, for starters, they were next to last in MLB in hits and batting average, 25th in on-base percentage, and 23rd in RBI’s.  They were 7th in home runs, but paired with the other numbers, that can only mean one thing:  Lots of solo home runs. The long ball may be an exciting thing to observe, but the damage is minimal when there aren’t any other ducks on the pond.  Also, against good pitching, you can’t rely on that slugging style to always come through. Situational hitting is very key to winning baseball.  Get ‘em on, get ‘em over, and get ‘em in, as they say.  There was very little of that in Cincinnati.

Bounce back years from key vets – With Ken Griffey Jr. proving that one truly can return home, and Adam Dunn taking his act to the nation's capital, the Reds will look to Brandon Phillips for leadership.  A finger injury cut his difficult season short last year. He will need to resemble the 30/30 guy from 2007.

From the pitching rubber, Aaron Harang had a difficult year last season.  Harang has been a workhorse for Cincinnati, consistently piling over 200 innings a year.  Perhaps the wear and tear from that was his downfall in 2008.  However, Harang is still only 30 years old, so it’s not outside the realm of possibilities that he can return to pre-2008 form, but for the Reds to have any chance of success, he needs to be that guy again.

There are other veterans as well who didn’t perform up to their capabilities.  Closer Francisco Cordero and Edwin Encarnacion had tough years, but clearly, the guys highlighted are needed to be leaders.

Continued improvement from youngsters – It can be argued that, despite the mess of a season that the Reds had last season, that they really learned a lot about the true foundation of their team.  In the first half of the season, Edinson Volquez looked not only like a possible rookie of the year candidate, but a potential Cy Young Candidate as well.  Johnny Cueto performed brilliantly at times, Jay Bruce started off incredibly strong, and Joey Votto gave them good production as well, and possibly the most consistent production of the rookies.  A sophomore slump is probably for some of these players, especially Volquez, who really tailed off at the end of last year.  However, if he can avoid that, and Harang bounces back (as already mentioned), that can be a 1-2 punch that few teams in the national league can match up again.

In conclusion, that’s obviously a lot of “If’s.”  As the saying goes “if ands and buts were candy and nuts…….”  Forget how the rest of that goes, but the point still stands. More than likely, a few of those things won’t happen, and the Reds will once again be a struggling teams. However, unlike years past, there is a real sense of hope for the future.  Not at any point in recent memory have the Reds had such a strong core of young players to build around, and they have a GM in Walt Jocketty with a proven track record of success.  Not to mention, outside of the Cubs, there is a lot of turmoil in the national league central.  Adam Dunn and Ken Griffey Jr. were superstars who had box office appeal, but didn’t bring any success.  “If you aren’t part of the solution you are part of the problem.”  Right?  Well, the Reds have moved on, and now have a faster and younger club, one that can take a small step forward in 2009 and even bigger ones in the future.