You Have Shit For Brains If You're Still Doubting The Cincinnati Reds

I believe in the Cincinnati Reds. 

Chris Castellani believes in the Cincinnati Reds. 

Hubbs believes in the Reds. 

And then there's Chris Klemmer. 

I could do 1,000 words right now cold turkey without considering a broader narrative. I won't. But I'm tempted right now. 

The bigger takeaway is the disparity between the top of the league (Rays & Braves) and everyone else. That's where people want to spend their time bitching about baseball teams. 

And realistically, the Braves are another level above the Rays and that's not to emphasize the gap. That's the truth. The true distance between the top and the rest of the league is much bigger than most realize. 

The Reds have closed it substantially in the last 60 days. They've closed even more since Elly made his debut 30 games ago. They're scorching hot and I've watched enough baseball to know when the momentum outweighs the starting pitching. 

Lodollo is hurt and will be back. 

Hunter Greene is hurt and will be back. 

The Reds should be much worse but they're not. They're actually good and they believe in the fact that they're good. It gives them purpose to play hard. You see it every night they've taken the field with this group. It's a completely different club. 

And if anything - there should be some uplifting sense to the Reds turnaround. Sure, they're not the Braves. But a couple months ago, they were much closer to the Rockies and Athletics than these Power Rankings. So don't get too quick to compare them to the Braves. Just enjoy the journey and respect the ceiling. 

Some other notes: 

John Schneider won me over last night:

I've casually questioned him over the last 12 months. Nothing hard. Just enough to get the take molded for a meltdown, and now I'm convinced that day never comes. 

Schneids has no business being in Seattle right now. He lives in Toronto. It's the All Star break. Every other manager without responsibilities is fishing, getting a blowjob or some similar combination. John is instead throwing championship BP and slugging Labatt Blues with the locals. 

Vlad Junior win derby. 

Good for him. Some cool moments like that kid getting smoked in the face. Pretty sure most of America was all horny for Adley's sister. He hit some bombs righty after mashing lefty. Julio put on a show. Etc. 

But the day belongs to Vlad and that's because he's a walking, living, breathing Panzer tank. Or a Sherman. I know the Panzers came first and the Shermans later. 

Whatever the classification, he's an unstoppable force yielding violent destruction. His power is boundless. His curves, magnificent. 

Thick, chunky, strong. This is not a Donovan McNabb soup commericial. This is the greatest young slugger in baseball TODAY

Randy Arozarena is the coolest guy in baseball. 

If you disagree, you're a fuck face. 

Nobody cheered for Luis Robert. 

Because he plays for the White Sox and they're almost entirely irrelevant outside of Chicago. And even inside Chicago, they can't get relevance. Sure the playoff atmosphere is nice once a decade. But the brand is so weak and that couldn't be more obvious when Luis Robert dismantled Adley Rutschman's 1st round to the sweet sound of Seattle silence. 

Get your fuckin shit together Rick. 

Jerry. 

The Marketing guy Brooks from the Bulls. 

Kenny. 

Everyone over there needs to start shoveling their way out of that legacy-disaster. 

This is alarming:

75% want the 10-out format. Some great moments but far less home runs. Then MLB changed the balls for the event and you start getting 25 homers in a round. That went on too long so they went to the timing format. And now it's like 25000 homeruns and you don't enjoy any of them. I remember zero home runs from last night. I remember every swing Sammy Sosa took 21 and 22 years ago respectively. 

This isn't to say one is better than the other. I'm just surprised SO MANY would say the 10-out format. So many of you want that. 

The truth is somewhere inbetween and get rid of the 440 foot bonus. 

Another poll: 

This isn't a question but more performance art. I want you to go through the exercise of seeing the disparity. Click an option. 

The point is the Derby absolutely smokes the Dunk Contest and every other domestic all star skills competition. Not even a worthwhile exercise to debate. Just take it and deal with it. 

One step forward - the same applies to the actual all star game. It's certainly not perfect, but tonight's 9 innings will far exceed whatever iteration of touch football gets served before next year's Big Game. 

It's a good time to be a baseball fan. 

That's the point.

For all the bullshit and bitching, pissing, moaning and complaining. For all the public negativity and WOE IS ME-MY OWNER DOESNT LOVE ME noise. For all the outside rallying. 

Go fuck yourself. 

Baseball hasn't been this healthy since congress had to get involved. Things are pointing up no matter what your Aunt Nancy says this Thanksgiving. 

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