Last year somebody on this site who was able to watch Cincinnati home games said the local announcers would say things along the line of “Dunn doesn’t run out to his position like a winner”.

I don’t think Dave would pull a Dusty either, but I wake up in cold sweats worrying that he might do something like that.

and meant to post, then figured someone more geared to stats could explain better that this idea was absolutely batshit insane.

Like I said, from what I understand batting order doesn’t have a huge impact on things at the end of the day, but Dusty should at least keep up appearances. Taking a quick look at the Reds lineup, I can understand why Keppinger, Phillips, maybe even Votto and Encarnacion might bat in front of Adam Dunn. Griffey no longer pulls his weight and Corey Patterson is worthless, as we all remember well.

The other thing I love that you hear coming out of Cincinnati is how the Reds have to get rid of Dunn so they can start rebuilding around youth. Dunn is 28, which makes him the same age as Jeff Keppinger, one year older than Brandon Phillips, and three and four years older than Edwin Encarnacion and Joey Votto respectively. Get out old man! You’re clogging up the bases with your rally killing home runs! Good call Reds, the guy is 28 with 249 career home runs, you don’t want to build around that.

I’ll give LaRussa (who I’m not nuts about as a manager) a pass for batting the pitcher eighth. I guess he figures he might as well make the last guy something other than a designated out so that the guys at the top of the order might have someone on base for them. That at least shows he’s remembering that you have to have more runs than the other team to win, which something not all managers do.

DO NOT deviate from the plan!

We’re in this to be competitive for YEARS ON END, not make a run at a wild-card and trade away young players to do that.

Think long-term. Every trade, in my opinion, must begin with this question – “Will this trade help the orioles win in 2010 and for a few years after that?” If the answer’s not yes, don’t make the trade.

So trading anything for them doesn’t make sense. Teixeira will be a hot commodity, so maybe he’d be worth trading for to assure getting him as long as the O’s could sign him to a long-term deal. Dunn less so, but he would still be popular. The dumbass Reds would probably part with him for somebody who knows how to play the game the right way tomorrow if you asked them.

It’s a total fantasy that isn’t going to happen, but a lineup of Roberts, Markakis, Teixeira, and Dunn suddenly becomes one the other teams in the AL East have to worry about.