Yet I Still Believe - Reds in 2013
By Ryan Bramwell
What to say, what to say...honestly, I do not know. I am not even sure if I should yet be writing about this crushing event that just befell upon me and all of Reds Nation. It becomes painfully obvious just how serious we take the sports teams we love after big victories and even bigger losses. It's that feeling we get down inside. We know we were
supposed to win. We know we were the better team and that we
deserved it.
"This is our time." "This is our year!" Those are the thoughts.
"Nothing is going to stop us this time around." After defeat there is bitterness. All that time and effort we spent watching, listening, reading, knowing all we could about our favorite team, and for what? For it to end like this? We get that feeling that maybe it was all in vain and a complete waste of time, money, energy and emotion. Then there is the anger for both parties, the winners and the losers. We hate the Giants for putting an end to a miraculous "what-could-have-been" season, and we hate the Reds for leading us on all year only to blow a 2-0 series lead with three chances at home to finish things off. We despise the "baseball gods" as we refer to them for allowing this disaster to happen.
"Don't they know that we are the good guys?" We are the smaller-market team with the smaller window of opportunity. We have been waiting 22 years for another title, while some of the Giants are probably still getting their championship rings fitted from their 2010 World Series victory. Those are the thoughts that scatter through our fan-riddled, baseball-minded brains as we attempt to piece it together now that it's all over.
We dare not say that it isn't fair. Baseball is a game. A damn fine game that is not without its faults however. Only in baseball will you find a field manned with a team earning $200 million facing another professional franchise with a payroll of $50 million. Although those numbers don't exactly scream fairness within the game, they are what make victories over the perennial powerhouses that much sweeter. We witness something special nearly every season from at least one of those small-market/low-budget teams. This season, once again it was Billy Beane's Oakland A's. For a brief moment it was looking like
Moneyball: Redux as the Athletics routed the mighty Rangers and won the AL West in comeback fashion. Miracles often do happen in baseball. Yes, it is hard to look past those 27 world championships that the Yankees own. They've consistently possessed amazingly historic players since the beginning of the 1920's, and also benefited from playing in the USA's largest market ensuring them a bottomless piggy bank forever. But it is those years in between Yankee championships that are usually special. The 1997 and 2003 Marlins. The 2004 Red Sox. The 2005 White Sox. The Braves finally in 1995. The Twins in 1991. Even my Redlegs in 1990 were not supposed to beat the Bash Brothers of Oakland. And that is just (somewhat) recent history. Anything can happen in any given season of baseball. We are still waiting for that first Cubs World Series since 1908, but I think we will see it in our
generation lifetime.
As for our 2012 Cincinnati ballclub: We relished in a 97-win season and our second division title in three years. We witnessed a freakish pitching staff that did not miss a single scheduled start, save one game of a double-header. And within that rotation we finally saw the grown-up and dedicated version of Homer Bailey, who tossed the first Reds' no-hitter in 24 years. We had a true ace in Johnny Cueto who won 19 games and stacked up the highest WAR and ERA+ for NL pitchers and will certainly be in consideration for the Cy Young award. Then there was young Mat Latos who elevated himself to ace number two for this team as he was untouchable from June until the end of the season. And Bronson Arroyo had his best season as a Red and was beautiful in his post-season start. Offensively, we lost the best hitter in baseball, Joey Votto, to injury while in the midst of the tightest of situations in the division and yet, for eight weeks we played the game better than any team in baseball and took home the best record after the All-Star break. And before Votto was injured he was on pace to set the all-time MLB record for doubles in a single season. We saw truly impeccable play from rookie Todd Frazier at both third and first base. Ryan Ludwick proved to be the biggest pickup in the offseason for any team as he batted .275 with 26 homers. Jay Bruce flirted with a 40 homer/100 RBI season and showed us just how good he can be when he is truly focused on the game. Ryan Hanigan caught pitchers for the lowest ERA in the league and also had a sky-high on-base percentage. Brandon Phillips continued doing "what he do" as he was again a major cog in the machine on both offense and defense. Xavier Paul was a late addition and was bigger than most give credit for as he was a tremendous left-handed bat off the bench. Then there was the bullpen. The absolute best in baseball. Hands-down. We had the most dominant force in pitching with Aroldis Chapman, who, for the majority of the year was having what was being considered the best statistical season for a reliever in history. Along with Chapman was Jonathan Broxton and Sean Marshall. The trio were being called the "New Nasty Boys" and they, along with the rest of the bullpen crew were able to shut the door repeatedly on opponents.
Alas, all those accomplishments are behind us now. In the past. We can only look forward to the 2013 season of baseball and what it might bring. I, for one look forward to 2013 very optimistically. Bob Castellini and Walt Jocketty have done a terrific job at spending the cash they needed to spend in order to shore up our key players. We will only buid on the position players we already have. Todd Frazier will get his deserved playing time at third base now. Cozart will be backed up and possibly even replaced by the emerging Didi Gregorius. Drew Stubbs may be on his way out the door now that superstar speedster Billy Hamilton is being trained to play center field rather than the middle infield where he had been playing during his minor league career. The Reds will most likely resign Ryan Ludwick and left field will not be a concern going into the new season. What we will be able to speculate thoroughly is the role of Aroldis Chapman. With Mike Leake being the only odd-man-out in the Reds' rotation, you have to wonder. Will the Reds continue to pursue the starting pitcher version of the Cuban Missile in 2013? In spring training of 2012, Chapman had better starts than the rest of the Reds regular rotation guys. According to the front office, the goal all along has been to harness his control and use him as a starting pitcher. Well, for all but a limited week of shoulder fatigue, Aroldis showed us that he could control his pitches. And before joining the Reds in 2010, he had done nothing but start ballgames. So with the disappointment in Leake and the anticipation of Chapman in the rotation, I can't help but wonder why they wouldn't give it a real shot in 2013. After all, the bullpen will still be sufficient even without the Missile. And it sure would be nice to see a left-hander finally throwing in the Reds rotation...especially Aroldis Chapman.
But for now we will wait. It's all we can do. We had a great team this year, and we will have a great team when next season begins. We just have to play the waiting game for a few months. Until then I will root hard against the Cardinals and the Yankees. Anybody else is okay by me. In December, the winter meetings will begin and baseball news will be at the ready once more. Then in February, spring training will be right around the corner and the we can start this whole thing all over again.
Until then: "Hey, it was a hell of a season, boys."
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