Some teams light up the headlines every day either
making news about what they have done, what they are
about to do or what they are thinking of doing. Others
don't manufacture offseason news at the prodigious
rate of, say, the Yankees, but they get their names
out there with the occasional mid-level deal.
Then there are the Reds.
Had Cincinnati made the playoffs or even
finished over .500 in 2003, their offseason
somnambulence might be explainable. As it is,
however, this is a team that won 69 games and barely
beat Milwaukee out of last place. What is more, they
spent the last three months of the season playing
sub-.400 ball after some key injuries and the trades
of two of the biggest offensive threats (Jose
Guillen and Aaron Boone). Just what, exactly, have the
Reds done to change this situation? Here is the sum
total of their post-2003 activities: