What in the name of Pete Rose is going on here? Would you have bet on the Cincinnati Reds to be playing as well as they have been this year? In 2005 The Reds did show some slight inkling of better things to come and it seems so far that the additions to the club in 2006 are paying early dividends in the win column. In a recent ESPN Power Ranking the Reds were in 4^th place of all major league clubs. They have risen from # 17 two weeks ago and last week they were in 10^th. Sure, the bubble may break and we may see a reincarnation of the Reds of old getting back to losing more than winning, but currently they look like a team that means business.

I recently read a quote from the Reds Manager Jerry Narron where he was saying that everybody had picked them to be last. So, other than the standard magic of “smoke and mirrors,” a’la the Las Vegas magicians, how have they managed to get off to a 21/11 record as I’m writing this article?

This team has been hitting well and normally you would expect that Ken Griffey Jr. would be a large part of this scenario. However, after being able to complete 2005 without major injury, Griffey has been out since mid-April and really hasn’t contributed much to the team’s success so far. He is expected back soon and this is really good news to Reds fans as his bat can only improve on what has been a surprisingly good hitting record with a team batting average of .266 at this point and an on base average of .355.

You usually don’t get baseball wins consistently without good pitching, and over the last while, the Cincinnati pitchers have done the job with closer David Weathers already surpassing his personal best seven saves by one with eight. Arroyo and Harang lead the starters with records of 5 and 1.

BACK TO THE BASICS

How many times in sports, have you heard managers or coaches say, we had to get back to the basics, or, we had to get back to square one. It’s one thing to say this, but it’s never as easy as it sounds, but Manager Jerry Narron took this approach at the Red’s training camp this spring and it looks like it worked. Observers at camp noticed how much time was spent on getting the fundamentals of the game in order before even attempting any of the more complicated strategies of baseball. Baseball is hit, pitch and catch and if your players can get this right and keep errors and mental mistakes to a minimum, then the wins will take care of themselves. So far it’s working for the Reds.