I don’t know what’s more disappointing, another losing season from the Reds or the fact that I couldn’t keep up with my blog.  In a couple of weeks, Reds Cutting Edge will be five years old but I’ve really only blogged for about 2 1/2 years during that time frame.  I’m not throwing in the towel yet, but I let myself down again this year.  It’s easy to blame the Reds for not giving me much to get excited about, but Brian kicked off his Tigers’ site in 2003 and is going strong despite that 119 loss season kicking off his writing career.  I don’t even have work to blame because while I was busy, it wasn’t overwhelming busy.  I just found more things to do.

Soooo, I’m going to ride out the rest of the season.  I’ll cover the rest of the Reds final four weeks and I’ll also cover the Reds affiliates that made the postseason (which looks like it’ll be the Bats, and that’s it).  I’m back, for now.  I can’t promise much more then that.

It’s bad when your leading home run hitter is there despite a stint on the disabled list.  Still, Joey Votto has put together back to back solid seasons and he’s looking like a keeper.  Jay Bruce is right behind him with 18 home runs and he’s on the DL now, but he hit just .207.  Cut the guy some slack because he’s still just 22 and he has 39 career home runs to his credit.  Votto has 49, but he’ll be 26 this Thursday.

I still don’t know what to make of Homer Bailey.  From July 16 through August 18, he was just awful.  Now he’s thrown together four straight solid starts and if he keeps his head up, he could finish with a winning record (he’s 5-4 right now).  If he puts together some solid weeks to come, he’ll put himself back on the map heading into next spring.  It’s still disappointing from a guy who was supposed to be one of the top pitching prospects in baseball.

Something happened in July.  If you look at the Reds ERA by month, it ranges from 4.02 (June) to 4.13 (August) if you take out July but in that summer month, the pitching just failed them with a 5.58 ERA.  In that month, the team was 8-19 and if you carve that out of their season, they’re 55-55.  That’s nothing spectacular, but it goes to show what one bad month can do to you.

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