What will be considered success for this year?

[LawFive]

Definitely don't want to count the proverbial chickens, but a 7 game lead with 30 to go most likely means playoff time! For a team that had so much hope, yet uncertainty at the beginning of the year...what final outcome would you consider to be a success??

[CarolinaRedleg]

I'm not one to get greedy. Playoffs for the first time in 15 years -- and the foundation in place for a sustained run -- is plenty. More is just icing.

Hopefully 2010 is the appetizer.

[Edd Roush]

At the beginning of the season, I would have said a winning record is enough.

Now, I think I need to see the Reds make the playoffs. Looking at the BP playoff odds report, it would be pretty devastating to me to see the Reds miss the playoffs with a 97% chance of making it.

Anything else is just great, but I can't get mad at this team for even getting swept in the first round. A division crown would be enough for me.

[Tommyjohn25]

I'm not one to get greedy. Playoffs for the first time in 15 years -- and the foundation in place for a sustained run -- is plenty. More is just icing.

Hopefully 2010 is the appetizer.

This sums up my feelings exactly. Well said.

[Az Red]

Its been a great year of baseball. Never thought playoffs were possible. Winning season was a step in the right direction. Now, I'm hoping they at least get to NLCS.

[Ghosts of 1990]

I agree I feel like 2010 is the appetizer but there are many, many instances in sports where you say that about a team "this is only the beginning" and the appetizer year ends up being the main course or their best shot to win something. The truly great teams arrive a year or two ahead of schedule, I truly believe that.

[REDREAD]

I considered this year to be a success in June, so I picked "winning record"

Great job by Walt, Cast, Dusty, and the players.

[Cyclone792]

As the season progresses, "success" is a moving target for me.

Back in spring training, it was a winning record soundly with 83+ wins.

By the end of June, it was playoffs.

At this point, playoffs may not be enough for me. I see the pieces this team has assembled together, and I see so much more potential than an early playoff exit. I see a well-rounded, dynamic offense with the ability to score runs in a multitude of ways. Long balls, gap shots, walks, stolen bases, hit-and-run, first-to-third, you name it. I see a deep rotation, that while it lacks a top of the rotation hammer, is solid enough to hopefully keep the Reds in a lot of close playoff games to give themselves a chance. And I see one heck of a quartet bullpen hammer with Cordero-Masset-Rhodes-Chapman all hopefully being able to pitch well.

I put all that together, and I see so much more potential than merely winning the NL Central and playing a few LDS games. So long as the Reds keep playing well and holding off St. Louis, my measure of success for the playoffs may increase a bit beyond just being there.

[TRF]

I want it all.

And I want it now.

[edabbs44]

Barring a historic collapse, this season has already been a success.

[membengal]

Poll doesn't quite work for me. It's a success now. But that's not enough for me at this point, as a collapse to miss the playoffs would really hurt given where they sit in the standings at this point.

[Heath]

I want it all.

And I want it now.

I am not really in the mood for a Queen song to represent the Reds Season.



YouTube - I Want It All

[Roy Tucker]

Making the playoffs is plenty good for me. Anything else is gravy.

But I would like to see a good competitive showing. Seems to me that the Reds haven't really gotten much respect from the national press (and other ballclubs for that matter).

I'd like for them to see how well the Reds have played this year and appreciate how well they play the sport. I feel like the Reds are a baseball aficionados team in that they do many little things well that add up. They aren't a big splashy team.

[redsmetz]

Making the playoffs is plenty good for me. Anything else is gravy.

But I would like to see a good competitive showing. Seems to me that the Reds haven't really gotten much respect from the national press (and other ballclubs for that matter).

I'd like for them to see how well the Reds have played this year and appreciate how well they play the sport. I feel like the Reds are a baseball aficionados team in that they do many little things well that add up. They aren't a big splashy team.

I agree with Roy completely. The memory of 1995 still sits with me. We swept the Dodgers and then looked horrible against the Braves. No one remembers we beat the Dodgers in the first round. All folks remember is us losing to the Braves and poor Reggie Sanders striking out ten times in that series. It was an awful playoff season for Reggie, he struck out 19 times in 32 AB's. Ouch.

[macro]

Wow, I'm really in the minority on this one. I'm going to be honest: I will be disappointed with anything less than a NL championship and World Series appearance. Fans tend to remember who was in the World Series and the team gets to be on that year's World Series highlight film. I think most people forget from one year to the next who played in the Division Series.

They've come too far and had too much success to be satisfied with just showing up. That would be fun for a week or two but would not carry much historical significance a few years from now.

If you're saying that a playoff appearance is enough with the expectation that seasons like this will become the norm, then don't count on it. This may be one of the few chances we have to experience another World Series. I don't think it will be, but you never know. After 1981 and 1988, I thought the Bengals had the world by the tail, and I thought the same thing after the Reds won it in 1990 and again after the 1995 and 1999 seasons. We see how those stories played out.