Lil Red Machine

The names listed below have all performed a very specific duty at one point or another for the Reds since their last winning campaign in 2000:

-Chris Dickerson, Jerry Hairston Jr, Corey Patterson, Jay Bruce, Jolbert Cabrera, Danny Richar, Joey Votto, Ryan Freel, Jeff Keppinger, Scott Hatteberg, Josh Hamilton, Brandon Phillips, Quinton McCracken, Felipe Lopez, Chris Denorfia, Royce Clayton, Dewayne Wise, D’Angelo Jimenez, Jermaine Clark, Eric Valent, Ray Olmedo, Barry Larkin, Sean Casey, Aaron Boone, Reggie Taylor, Juan Castro, Todd Walker, Brady Clark, Juan Encarnacion, Wilton Guerrero, Donnie Sadler, Pokey Reese, Deion Sanders, Alex Ochoa, and Michael Tucker

Give up on what it is they did?

These men have had their various turns batting leadoff for the Reds during the current streak of eight consecutive losing seasons.  You have some Reds legends in here (Barry Larkin), some very good current players (Votto, Bruce, and Phillips), and others who  are/were servicable/moderately good players (Keppinger, Boone, Casey, Freel, Hatteberg, etc).  A lot of those guys on the list were fringe players, though.  And to think, they were being positioned in the most important spot in the batting lineup.

Even the guys whom I gave props to, though, how many of them make you think “man, this guy is a prototypical leadoff hitter”?  Outside of Larkin, none of them (and he had trouble staying healthy in his latter years).  Some good cleanup hitters, or bottom of the lineup guys certainly, but the ugly truth is that the Reds haven’t had a good, consistent leadoff hitter in almost a decade to set the table for these guys.  Too many players were being misused, or just had no business being on a big league roster in the first place.

Willy Tavares, come on down!  You’re the next contestant to be a Reds leadoff hitter!  There are a few things about this guy that remind me of Corey Patterson: He has been used primarily as a leadoff hitter, and plays a speedy centerfield (which is a bit of an overrated thing in the bandbox known as Great American Ballpark), but does NOT get on base.  Only reached at a .306 clip last year.  Tavares says he wants to steal over 100 bases, but unless he finds a way to steal first, perhaps he ought to think of how to improve his batting eye before anything else.

I personally think that they didn’t correctly judge the free agent market.  They are paying him $6.25 million for the next 2 years.  The market really dried out towards the end of the year, and guys like Bobby Abreu, and Pat Burrell were getting contracts that the Reds could’ve easily affored had they not already jumped on Tavares early on in the game.  I think that they could’ve moved Dickerson to centerfield, and opened up left field for one of these big name sluggers.  They didn’t, though.  Tavares will get over 500 plate appearances, and if he doesn’t boost that OBP, then he may become just another name in a long list of name to lead off games for Cincinnati.