[Big Hurt]

Originally Posted by _Sir_Charles_

It's a large combination of things. First off, I don't think we "suck". We're certainly not contenders, thats for sure.

Any team that begins a youth movement is going to be wildly inconsistant. We're seeing that with Jay, Joey, Johnny, and others.

We're also very poor defensively. Not just at a few positions...but all over. We've got one solid defensive player in Brandon Phillips and that's about it. If Dusty would keep some players in steady positions, they could develop into solid defensive players though IMO. Keppinger, Votto, Bruce and even Edwin.

While it looks like our pitching is horrible, you've got to factor in a couple of things. First, our launching-pad of a stadium is always going to make our pitchers look worse than they are. Second, our defense is hurting them tremendously. Third, our lack of offense seems to be forcing our pitchers to try to paint corners more than they should. They're trying to be perfect because they know that thier margin for error is so small. Overall, our pitching is much better than in recent years. Even the bullpen.

Our roster's lack of solid hitters for average is really hurting our production. We're either hitting Homeruns, or we're not scoring. We do not seem to have the ability to play small-ball. The lack of consistant mid-to-high batting average hitters in our lineup makes it very easy for opposing pitchers to work their way through our lineup virtually unscathed.

Lastly, Dusty's inability to construct the lineup in a way to accentuate our player's positives hampers our ability to produce runs. Dunn is far to low in the order. Junior is far to high. Getting Corey out of the leadoff spot is a beginning. These little things may not look like much, but over the long-haul, they have lasting effects on our production. Not to mention the fact that once they get it set up correctly, players will begin to get comfortable in those line-up positions and learn what's expected of them in those situations.

Fundamentals. For a manager who seemed to preach all about fundamentals in S.T. and before, we sure don't seem to see much fudamentals out there on the field. How many times have we seen a lead off man on first with no outs and we're not able to drive him in with small ball? The basic hitting fundamentals seem to be lost on this team. The ability is there though.

As long as we show improvement at the end of the year, I'll be satisfied. I thoroughly believe that we'll play much better in the second half of the season as our rook's get more experience and more comfortable.

This is the post of the year and should be stuck to the top of the page. It in fact is exactley, IMO, the problems we are having this year. Well done, Charles!