the perfection of 162 games

The best thing about baseball is that, across six months of six games a week, teams almost always get what they deserve. It is the absolute truest regular season in all of sports. Flawed teams are revealed, good teams are rewarded.

The Reds were not nearly as bad as 31-51. Way too much talent, that stayed almost entirely healthy. Consider what would have happened had the Reds lost Harang and Arroyo the whole year, the way the Cards lost Carpenter and Mulder... and the Brewers have lost Sheets.

Conversely, they're not as good as 29-19 under Mackanin. The way they're winning now is not the way consistently good clubs win. You are not going to hit your way out of every tight spot, the way this club mostly has all month. The worst thing that could happen to this team is to finish with 78 or 79 wins and ownership adopt the We're Not That Far Away mentality -- a mostly stand-pat winter, keep the manager etc... and finish with 78 or 79 wins again next year. I havent seen enough encouraging yet from the young starting pitching, for example, that would make me think a big upgrade isnt required.

In March, I said this was a club with .500 talent that with a little luck, a lot of health and a career year or two could make things interesting. A few things have gone better than expected... Junior's year, BP's power, the emergence of Keppinger, Hopper and Burton... a few have gone worse: D. Ross' hitting, Arroyo's inconsistency, Lohse, mostly miserable middle relief...

But all in all, the Reds are only slightly worse than where I guessed they might be by now.

When they finish with 78 or 79 wins, can we please not hear how close they are to being good... see it as a small first step, then make the needed changes...