What The Heck Is Going On?

First of all, a quick rant about my health. How in the world do you get a debilitating head cold at the end of July? This really tees me off and if the symptoms continue much longer I'm going to have to turn to some 100 proof to see if that can kill the germs. While I'm at it, I may just swallow a bottle of Listerine too.

Watching the Reds is enough to give anyone a debilitating headache. Sometimes you wonder if they will ever make it work. What did this franchise do to deserve this? Was it Marge's mouth? Was it Bowden's arrogance? Of the firing of the beloved Tony Perez after just 44 games as manager? Was it Jerry Narron saying "Shooooot, Marty" every day on the pre-game show? Was it Bob Boone saying "points" instead of "runs"? It couldn't be Pete could it? After all, the Reds won the World Series in 1990, just after Rose and MLB ran the game through the mud. It can't be having a bobblehead night every other weekend because the losing ways started long before that. Was it allowing Jimmy Haynes or Joey Hamilton to take the mound on Opening Days? Maybe it was trading Paul O'Neill away. Something, somewhere, somehow, really hacked off the baseball gods because the Reds can't catch a break, even when the deserve one. How else do you explain bringing in Scott Rolen taking a fastball to the skull in his second game with the Reds? Then the very next day the club learns promising young pitcher Edinson Volquez needs his elbow reconstructed through Tommy John surgery? No, there's something evil at work here. It might be time to build an alter at home plate in G.A.B.P. and sacrifice something, Gapper, Mr. Redlegs, or the all-you-can-eat section, something! Maybe we should just sacrifice the rest of the 2009 season.

As for the Rolen trade, everyone else has weighed in, and now that I can lift my head without screaming, I'll weigh in. When a team is trying to build for the long haul, I hate to see young starting pitching leave while a 34-year old veteran comes up board. But Rolen gives the Reds a nice upgrade at third and fills a glaring hole for 2010. But if he doesn't stay healthy and doesn't wear a Reds uniform past 2010, the deal is a dud. Even if Rolen stays, this will further hamstring the payroll, so somebody better start selling a lot of canteloupes.