Reds Sign Renteria

I'm not sure I understand why the Reds signed Edgar Renteria. He is a very older player, but he does have great playoff experience and is probably a strong voice in the clubhouse. Those are really the only reasons I can see.

The Reds already have Miguel Cairo for backup and he can play pretty much every infield position. It says on their website that the Reds still expect Paul Janish to start at shortstop, but I'm not sure if that is what they are really thinking.

I think they are still worried that Janish isn't an everyday player, and I agree they should be worried since he hasn't really played that much consistently until late last season when Orlando Cabrera was injured for a couple weeks with a strained oblique. If I was Janish I wouldn't be too happy about this signing.

The Giants offered Renteria a one year deal with a base pay of one million dollars. Renteria said it wasn't enough money to persuade him to leave his family for another year. The Reds will be paying Renteria 2.1 million for one year and up to $900,000 in bonuses. They didn't mention what the bonuses were for but I'm assuming its if he plays a certain number of games.

This just sounds like the Reds are wasting their money. I would have liked to have seen that two million spent somewhere else.

Giants Win National League Pennant

The Reds were swept out of the first round of playoffs to the Phillies. Although the Reds looked like they were going to win game two of that series they had too many mental mistakes and gave away a four run lead.

The Phillies went on to play the Giants for the National League Pennant. The Giants won the series four to two. It was a fun series to watch, I watched games one and five, because Tim Lincecum and Roy Halladay were pitching against each other. Both of those games were great.

Lincecum won game one with a three to two victory, and Halladay won game five mostly because of a Giants error that allowed three runs to score in that inning. Both games were well pitched with the pitchers making adjustments to the hitters and getting out of tight jams. It amazes me that Lincecum is only twenty-six years old; he seemed to be really composed most of the time and didn't let an error or a bad call disturb him.

I'm really rooting for the Giants in the World Series. I hope they win it all; they made a great comeback over the Padres to take the Western division, and really showed the Phillies they can compete with the best. Although the Rangers will be tough; they seemed to handle the Yankees pretty easily.

Best Record in August

Wow what a comeback the Reds had in the month of August. They had nineteen wins and only eight losses. They only lost two series during the month. The first series loss was to the Cardinals and the second one was to the Giants.

In the beginning of the August the Reds were swept by the Cardinals, but after that the Reds seemed to kick it into high gear and went on a great winning streak. They had a West coast trip that in years past buried them in the standings but this year they had six wins and three losses on that West coast trip and cemented themselves in first place above the Cardinals.

It looks like the Reds are going to be rolling right along into September. I can really feel it this year I hope the Reds can win the division and make some noise in the playoffs. Right now they have an eight game lead in the central division.

Reds Need To Win Against Giants

So far the home stand has gone off to a rough start. After going 3-3 on the recent road trip, the Reds need to continue to win at home if they want to stay in first place.

I watched most of tonight's game and even though Sam LeCure was having command problems he wasn't really being hit that hard and I like how he kept battling. Unlike Jonny Cueto the other night how didn't seem like he really cares if he wins or loses he just chucks the baseball up there. I hope the Reds keep LeCure in the rotation and don't bring back Homer Baily.

This was probably a kind of test for LeCure to see if he is going to stay in the rotation or not, although I think he would do well in the bullpen so that might be an option especially since the Red's bullpen has been shaky lately.

Another thing I didn't like about this game was Joey Votto. It seemed like he hasn't been hitting that well the last couple games. I hope his neck isn't bothering him again. He missed seven straight games a couple weeks ago because of his neck.