For openers, the Bengals were putrid Sunday. They couldn't block and they couldn't tackle. Maybe they looked good getting off the team bus. This, I'm afraid, is going to be a long season.

Let’s get the obvious out of the way. The Bengals didn’t look so hot during the exhibition season. In fact, they looked bad. The line couldn’t keep the other guys off Carson Palmer’s nose. The defense still hasn’t figured out how to tackle. And a lot of Bengals were hurt. Indisputable facts, part of the fabric the Bengals brought with them to their opener against the Ravens.

For the record, the Ravens are hurt, didn’t score a whole lot of points in their exhibition games and they started a rookie quarterback today. Amazingly, well maybe not so, the Ravens managed over 350 yards of total offense, 229 of those yards were on the ground.

All of that is the obvious. Let’s get into this season a little deeper, put a little more thought into it. I like lists. You like lists? Check things off as you go? I do. It’s a fascinating study of the Irish: make a list, then worry about it the rest of your life. But that’s another story for another day.

Here are 10 things I need to see happen, this season. We’ll do it in David Letterman descending order…

10: Press coverage from the Bengals cornerbacks. If I see Leon Hall or Jonathan Joseph backing off the line of scrimmage like they did last year, I’m throwing a shoe through my television set. Remember, this Mike Zimmer guy, the new defensive coordinator, is supposed to be more aggressive than Chuck Bresnahan. And if you don’t press coverage the Ravens pedestrian wide receivers, who are you going to cover that way?

9: Tackle. End plays with the other guy on the ground. And I’ll call out the guy I want to see this from: Marvin White, the safety. Big hits are great. Shoulders into receivers are electrifying. Now try wrapping up the guy and not let him run by you. Remember the exhibition game against the Packers?

Me too.

8: I want to see Chris Perry carry the ball at least 20 times a game. If he’s carrying the ball that many times, the Bengals are winning. But more to the point: Perry appears to be the kind of back who has to carry the ball a lot to get into a rhythm. And don’t give me: he’s too fragile to carry it 20. If he is, why did you let Rudi walk?

7: I want to see Ocho Cinco get hit hard and get up. I want to see if his torn labrum can stand a hit. Because if it can’t, why didn’t you go out and sign a street free agent on cutdown day…like Ashley Leslie? I need to know Ocho’s shoulder will stand up from the abuse you know the Ravens are going to bring today.

6: I want to see Carson Palmer standing after every play. The offensive line was abysmal this exhibition season. It couldn’t stop tackle stunts, it couldn’t stop edge rushers and it allowed Palmer to be sacked, hit or pushed around on virtually every play this summer. This is a group that’s on the spot all year. And so are the smart guys in that Bengals front office. You know who you are. You let Eric Steinbach take a hike to Cleveland and you just cut Willie. OK smart guys, this group you got better start behaving like an NFL offensive line.

5: I want to see if TJ Houshmandzadeh’s leg problems are over. Because, I’ve got to tell you, without him, this team is out of business. If you’ve got them projected for six wins, it’ll be four without him. He’s the best receiver on the field and the double teams he draws opens up everything else. No TJ, no Ocho Cinco, no running attack, no good.

4: I want to see Jerome Simpson do something. It’s not his fault the Bengals spent a second round pick on him. But it’s his problem now. He got second round money and he’s had a largely unheralded summer. This is the guy who the Bengals think will be their #1 or #2 wide receiver in a couple of years. He’s a #3, at best now. He needs to get open and get up and catch the ball.

3: I want to see Ben Utecht catch the ball, five times, minimum per game. This has been a chronic problem with the Bengals offense since, oh Tony McGee ran out of gas? Utecht needs to show that he wasn’t a product of great players around him in Indianapolis. And Bengals offensive coordinator, Bob Bratkowski needs to show us that he knows what to do with a tight end, now that he’s got a legitimate one.

2: I want to see the interior of that Bengals defensive line shut down anybody’s running attack this season. John Thornton is still on the roster and Domata Peko got a hefty contract this winter. Great, now stop somebody. If the interior defensive line doesn’t play better against the run this season, we’ll all be talking about the Reds on November first.

1: I want to see this team begin behaving like it belongs in the NFL. I want to see discipline on the field, and off. I’ve had enough of false starts, off sides and delay of games. It’s the troika of bad football and we’ve had enough of that since 1990. Off the field? Build homes, go to schools and read to kids, take your kids to Skyline, call you parents, help your wife paint the house. Do anything but go trolling for the night life on your day off, or worse, the night before a game. We’ve had that, too.

I don’t think this is a particularly good football team right now. But it has a chance to be, as the season progresses. I’m willing to watch and give it a chance. I’ll bet you are too. Now let’s see if it’s worthy of our time and patience.

As promised the latest Bengals Report Podcast is now posted on my web site: www.kenbroo.com. And if you're ready for it now, it's here too. Good stuff with the executive editor of Bengals Report, Mark Hardin.

Sunday morning, I'm talking sports again on 700 WLW in Cincinnati. Bengals Sunday Morning Sports Talk will feature a number of good guests. At 9:30am, my guest will be former NFL lineman and current Sirius Radio host (don't tell him we'll also be on XM channel 173) Ross Tucker. He this to say about Chad Ocho Cinco in a posting on si.com

Also, my good buddy Mike Florio will join us from profootballtalk.com, around 10:05am.

Good Morning!

Just back from three days in Chicago. Nothing big, just a little R&R. Dented the car bumper, ate pizza and stone crabs (though not together or on a pizza) and had a rollicking good time in the 'Second City'

While I was gone, I hope you had a chance to latest to my latest Broo View Podcast. If you didn't get the chance, check it out here. My special guest is former NFL defensive back (Rams, Bills and others) Matt Bowen, from www.nationalfootballpost.com.

Sometime Friday, on my web site www.kenbroo.com, I'll have the latest edition of Bengals Report Podcast, as executive editor, Mark Hardin and I kick off the regular season.

Saw this when I arrived home Wednesday night from Chicago. Hmmmm. Well no Beanie may mean a better chance for my beloved Ohio Bobcats Saturday, right? No? Oh well...

Finally, for now at least, is there anyone out there who'll give the Bengals a little positive pub?
Not here, from si.com. They won't get any, until they start winning, on and off the field.

It would be so easy to sit here and say today, “this Bengals team is going nowhere and will be lucky to win six games this season”. Because, that’s what just about everyone in town is saying right now. Don’t lie, you’ve said it, you know you have. You’ve watched it under perform in the exhibition games. You’ve tallied up all of the injuries and you’ve looked at the schedule. Six wins, seven maybe, if the snow falls enough when the Chiefs come to town in late December.

The experts around the country, the guys who make their living writing for web sites and preview magazines are whistling the same tune. Just got my recent issue of Sports Illustrated last week. Bengals picked to finish dead last in the AFC North, behind the Ravens who you could quarterback right now.

I wouldn’t be so quick to join the chorus. After the next 17 weeks, we all may be singing “Hallelujah” when the seasons ends. But today, I’d at least think about a different tune.

As I’ve said, on WLW Radio, on WLWT channel 5, to the to the other interview requests I get from stations all over the country, the hardest thing about covering the NFL is predicting what teams will win from week to week. To correctly predict how a team is going to finish now, in August, is next to impossible.

Sure you know who the dogs are And you know who the power teams are. There are always five great teams, five really lousy teams and the 22-other teams in the league will finish anywhere from 10-6 to 6-10. The Bengals, I think, will be in that bunch.

Your Cincinnati Bengals are not a great football team. They’re not a ‘dog’ either. The Bengals are a pretty average football team that has to play extremely well each week to have a chance to win. The tackling on defense is chronically bad. The offensive line has gone ‘south’ in a hurry. And if TJ and Chad (or Ocho Javon Cinco or whatever he’s calling himself now), if they don’t play well, the Bengals don’t win.

We’re talking about all of this today because in less than one week, the games start to count, because the Bengals have looked inept this summer and because two veteran Bengals were among the cut down casualties Saturday.

Rudi Johnson was done last year. I think the Bengals only brought him back to hedge their bets on Chris Perry getting hurt again. Let’s face it. Perry is like crystal. He can snap, anywhere, at any moment. You knew it, I knew it every Bengals fans knew there was no way Rudi was going to get $3.2 million once Perry proved that he could stay healthy.

Willie Anderson? The man deserved better than what he got. That was no way to treat someone who gave a lot of good years, all but one of his seasons in the NFL, to some horrid Bengals teams. Anderson is the second best lineman in team history. End of discussion. Anthony Munoz got a royal on field send off. Tim Krumrie rode out of Riverfront Stadium on a Harley. Willie got thrown out of Paul Brown Stadium when he wouldn’t write the Bengals front office a check.

But honestly, who didn’t see something like this coming? This story wasn’t going to have a happy ending for Anderson, not after the Bengals dropped $7.5 million on his replacement.

More than what Anderson might have been able to contribute on the field this season, what he leaves behind is a gaping hole in Bengal morality. If you haven’t noticed, that’s not exactly in ample supply these days. Drop a two year 600-grand deal on Chris Henry. Let Willie go. Sounds like subtraction by addition.

You have any idea who the team leaders are now? Where is that in the Bengals locker room? Maybe this is a perverted twist on that old line about Ralph Kiner: we can get arrested with you Willie, we can get arrested without you. Kids, if you don’t know who Ralph Kiner is, wake up Dad and ask him.

Look, I’m not very encouraged about this season. I think the Browns will be good again. I think there’s a lot of Browns-hatin’ going on and its clouding some sensible thinking here in the ‘nati. The Steelers play the toughest schedule in the NFL this season. But you and I both know that team has the

Bengals number. Two words: Dick LeBeau. Don’t let the Cincinnati part of his resume fool you.

The Ravens appear to caught in a vortex. They’ve got an older defense and they’ve got quarterback issues. Willis Magahee may not be ready to start the season. But they’ve got a new head coach and one of the best offensive coordinators on the planet. That team will find a way….

And then, there are your Cincinnati Bengals. The haven’t been able to run block very well this summer. They allowed their quarterback to get hit in the mouth far too often Any team with an edge rusher (and name one that doesn’t have one) can beat their tackles. Their secondary has been blown up about as much as the Cincinnati sky will be along about nine tonight.

But with all of that said, the Bengals are 0-0 today, like every other team in the NFL. Everything that happened in training camp this summer was important. But none of it matters now.

There’ll be plenty of time to panic in a month. But today, keep your options open. Things aren’t always the way they appear. Despite their worst efforts, your Cincinnati Bengals might figure this thing out, inspite of themselves.

Random thoughts from a mind that thinks randomly on this random Wednesday night....the NCAA is jerking Ben Mauk around. It's one thing to deny his re-instatement bid. It's another to say no, then wait a minute not yet, and then ultimately no in three separate phone calls this week....that said, Mauk needs to move on with this life. It's over at UC....The Bengals are in no postion to trade Rudi Johnson. Chris Perry has been nothing but injured since he arrived in Cincinnati in 2004, this summer withstanding....If the Bengals are really trolling for another wide receiver by dangling Johnson as trade bait, what does that say about the quality of the receivers they drafted this spring, three in all? The Bengals worst problem, among a lot of them, is procurement of quality players, whether through the draft or free agency......I'm certain the Bengals will play their best this summer against the Colts Thursday night. But they'll prove nothing by doing that. The Colts aren't going to play any of their first teamers....Bengals tackles, Levi Jones and Stacy Andrews can't handle a good edge rusher. Watch and see if that's not where most teams blitz the Bengals this season...Can Corey Patterson do anything besides ground out to second? Oh wait, yes. Patterson can strike out....After tossing the first complete game by a Reds' starting pitcher this season, we have further proof why the Reds didn't dump Bronson Arroyo at the trade deadline. In ten of his last eleven starts, Arroyo has gone at least six innings....I still haven't given up on Homer Bailey becoming a decent starting pitcher. But I think the Reds have....Even if Brian Kelly coaches the UC football team to another 10 win season, I still think he's back in Clifton for a third season. Here are the jobs I think Kelly would leave UC for: Boston College, Notre Dame, Colorado, Michigan and Texas. I don't see any of those jobs opening up for awhile.....The problem with Olympians? They fade away immediately after the games for four years, impossible to keep track of them. Michael Phelps will be around, doing endorsements and the like for awhile. But after hosting the season premiere of Saturday Night Live, he'll fade too....

It's up...my latest Broo View Podcast. I have an indepth interview with the writer and editor from Bengals.com, Geoff Hobson, about the overall status of the team. You can find it on my web site, www.kenbroo.com or your can download it here.

Upcoming over night, my latest Broo View Podcast, available at http://www.kenbroo.com/. I'll have an indepth interview with the brains (ok, the brawn) behind http://www.bengals.com/, Geoff Hobson. It'll be on the front page of my web site and I'll also include a link to it on the blog as well.

Yikes, more and more bad press for you Cincinnati Bengals. Here's former NFL'er Matt Bowen with his take on the running Ocho Cinco sports opera.

ESPN.com is writing about what we all know here in the 'nati. Things are getting a little dicey for the Bengals.

I'm sure glad Walt Jocketty is somewhere talking about the future of the Cincinnati Reds. Apparently, it's in Knoxville, Tennessee, where he reveals the Reds are in fullfledged rebuilding.

Wait 'til 2010 isn't just the Olympic battle cry of NBC Sports. It's the cold, hard reality of baseball in Cincinnati.

He's one of our favorite guests on 700 WLW's Sunday Morning Sports Talk. Here's some more of profootballtalk.com's Mike Florio on the return of Chris Henry to the Bengals.

My over/under on Henry getting into legal trouble is November 15. I'm taking the under.

Just posted, my latest Broo View Podcast. Late Saturday night, after she won the gold with the USA women's 4x400m relay team, Mary Wineberg phoned from Beijing to talk about the highlight of her track and field career. You can find the Broo View Podcast on the front page of my web site: www.kenbroo.com or you can download it here.

And now, your Cincinnati Bengals....

I need some help here. I’m really struggling right now to find something good to say about your Cincinnati Bengals. They’re certainly not my Cincinnati Bengals today. They’re all yours.

Saturday night, I wasted three hours of my life watching their exhibition game against the Saints. Exhibitionists, your Bengals are not.

Up front, I admit I understand the ramifications of not having Chad and TJ in the line-up. I get that. But here’s what I don’t get: Carson Palmer getting hit on virtually every passing play. Not just last night, through three exhibition games this summer. Here’s the morning memo to the Bengals offensive linemen: you sent the most important player on your team to the locker room at halftime with blood streaming down his face. It’s OK to block the other guy. Really, it is.

The way this Bengals offense has performed so far this summer will be the biggest bargaining champ Houshmandzadeh will have this off season. And if the Bengals are sincere in re-visiting Johnson’s deal next winter, same thing for him.

The way the rest of the Bengals wide receivers played last night made me salivate for Chris Henry. It was that bad.

Chris Perry ran well. Guess what: other teams will give the Bengals that all day long. You know what he wound up with? 12-carries, 36-yards. Take out his one carry for 13, he averaged two yards a pop

Other teams will gladly let Perry run for a buck, if they don’t have to worry about pass coverage. Antonio Chatman caught a few nice passes Saturday night. Guess what: the Bengals were so impressed with Chatman’s play this summer, they went out and sold their souls, they signed Henry.

The Bengals calling card, their offense? 165-yards, total. 38-on the ground.
The Bengals defense allowd the Saints 458 yards. The Saints threw over the middle and deep. The Saints had more than seven more minutes of clock time than your Cincinnati Bengals.

Every single Bengals….you can’t call them drives…there were eleven possessions and three ended in negative yards….every single possession ended in a punt except the final possession. That ended with an interception.

For the first time in team history, it was shutout at home in an exhibition game. Do you know how hard you’ve got to try to get shutout, do you know how inept you have to play to get shutout in a National Football League game?

When Palmer and the first team offense was in the game Saturday night here were the numbers: 27 plays, 94-yards. The Bengals crossed he 50-yard line once last night, once, all the way to the Saints 49.

Does this sound like a team that’s ready to begin an NFL season?

So I’ll ask this question to get things rolling today: is there a chance that this Bengals team isn’t as good as we, or they, thought? We’ve had three exhibition games to see if this team is any better than last year’s, and the answer today is a resounding ‘no’. Do Houshmandzadeh and Chad mean that much to this offense, that without them it appears to be clueless?

Saturday night, after the game, offensive coordinator Bob Bratkowski said, in essense, that the protection problems weren’t all on the O-Line, but on the running backs (it was only Chris Perry for the first half) , the tight end (that would be Ben Utecht, one of the only bright spots) and the quarterback (that would be the guy who left with his DNA running into his mouth). If that’s the case, then Bratkowski’s side of the ball was total failure.

Is it all a lack of TJ and Chad? Or has this offense suddenly gone stale? Both are legitimate questions.

And now, if you’re Marvin Lewis, what do you do? You have your fourth and final pre season game coming up next Thursday night. The last thing any head coach wants to do is play his starters deep into the final exhibition game. The Colts certainly won’t do that. So if you’re number ones are going up against the Colts’ twos and threes, how much are you going to gain from that?

As for the other side of the ball, the secondary was again picked apart and the pass rush was, how can we put this, limited? The Bengals gave up 458-yards of offense. The first team was pretty much out of the mix two series into the second half, But listen to these numbers: 54 plays, 342 total yards.

OK, the high priced free agent lineman, Antwan Odom didn’t play. Neither did Chinedum, who’ll probably be a starter again when he’s healthy. Neither did Rashad Jeanty, who may be a starter when he’s healthy. But what else does that side of the ball offer up for an explanation.

The games start to count two weeks from today. The Bengals open in Baltimore. About the only good thing you can say about that today, is that the Ravens still have Kyle Boller as their quarterback. Other than that, I’m looking for answers. Help me, beause I’m fresh out of them.

Just how old is Chinese gold medal winning Olympic gymnast, He Kexin? The Chinese government insists she's 16, the minimum age to compete in the Olympics. But now, according to this International Times report, the USA has filed an official protest and a computer programming has provided the USA with the evidence.

Out in the desert, it seems as though they value Adam Dunn a lot more than we do around here.
According to the paper out there.

More on Dunn in the desert, from Yahoo Sports!

I still maintain, the Reds will rue the day they let Dunn walk. They've now sent a letter to their ticket holders telling them to be 'patient'. Isn't that what they've been, since about, oh, 1991?

Our friend Mike Florio is checking in with his preview of the NFC South.

I've got Tampa Bay in the South. If it's Atlanta, you've got the all time upset of this coming season. For the record, I'll take Dallas in the NFC East, Detroit in the North and Seattle in the West. In the AFC, I'll go with New England in the East, Indianapolis in the South, San Diego in the West and Pittsburgh in the North. Wild Card teams will be: Cleveland and Jacksonville in the AFC, Giants and Saints in the NFC. What do you think? Hit the comment icon.

I'm going to add a lot more as the day goes on but a couple of things to get you going. I have my latest Broo View Podcast posted on my web site: www.ken broo.com. But here's a quick link to the latest edition. As you might expect, the hot topic is Chris Henry's return to the Bengals. You'll hear comments from a lot of Bengals, including Henry.

Also, the latest edition of the Bengals Report Podcast is up and running. You can find that as well, on www.kenbroo.com. But if you'd like, you can download it here.

Olympic congratulations to former St. Ursula soccer star, Heather Mitts, who won the gold medal with Team USA today. And the same to former Wyoming High and UC track star, David Payne, who won the silver in the 110m hurdles.

Is Michael Phelps the great Olympian ever? If you listen to some of the commentators on NBC this week, there is no doubt, he is. But, I don't think so. Catch my thoughts here, in my latest Broo View Podcast. And while you're at it, check out my web site: www.kenbroo.com.

I'm absolutely astounded that the Bengals would consider bringing back Chris Henry. It's simply startling news tonight that this is happening. But, it is. Reports have Henry in Cincinnati, ready to sign with the team Tuesday morning.

His legal troubles are well documented. And Henry can't play for the Bengals until the fifth regular season game (he's sitting out yet another NFL suspension). Whether or not he's cleaned his act up, and I hope he has for his sake not any one elses, why on earth would the Bengals want to re-visted their troubled past? Why would an organization subject itself to the kind of ridicule and league scrutiny it will fall under? Do you mean to tell me the young wide receivers they drafted this spring aren't showing a scintilla of NFL hope? Is Antonio Chatman not capable of playing as a third down back? True, TJ Houshmandzadeh and Chad Johnson are both injured. Johnson may be out for an extended period. But are we to believe there are no other street free agents the Bengals can pursue now, instead of bringing back Henry? Will there not be a fairly large, if not talented, pool of receivers who'll be lopped from rosters in the next couple of weeks.

As late as last week, Marvin Lewis, for at least the third time in the last three months, said he didn't want Henry back. Maybe not in so many words, but he certainly left that impression. Now he's forced to take him back. This can't be his call. It smells of a front office maneuver.

If you're Marvin Lewis tonight, how do you save face. Do you even want to?

Let me know what you think. Comment away

Good Morning!

If you’ve read this blog over the last eight or nine months, you’ve heard me say this at least a hundred times. The reds need to keep Adam Dunn. I haven’t wavered in that. I looked at his age, his durability, his ability to hit for power, work the count, get on base, drive runs in. I tempered all of that with his fielding deficiencies and his infuriating amount of strike outs.

Obviously you listened to me. The Reds obviously did not.

There were a lot of you who would never consider the positives that Dunn brought to the game. And that’s fine. But you have to consider this.
You’re losing who holds 4th place all time in Reds home run hitting history
You’re losing a guy who hit a home run in less than every 14 at bats, who three times produced 100 rbi, 100 walks and 100 run scored seasons. Only one other Reds player has done that. Thanks to the Enquirer’s John Erardi for that. He’ll be joining us in a little bit.

Who does Adam Dunn compare to, statistically at this point in his career? How about Reggie Jackson, Harmon Killebrew, how about Barry Bonds? Not my opinion. That’s straight out of Baseball Reference.

And the Reds let him go. They got three players for Dunn, two we know about, one we think we know. One is a 23 year old pitcher in Single-A, coming off Tommy John surgery. The other is a 24 year old catcher who was stuck in triple-A when the Reds got him. We think pitcher Micah Owings is headed here. His arm trouble right now actually had some baseball experts suggesting the Reds may try converting him to an everyday player. For a guy who compares favorably to Reggie Jackson.

I’ve heard this a lot since the deal when down on Monday: well, the Reds couldn’t afford to pay Dunn the dollars he’ll be looking for this winter. I’ve never heard Bob Castellini says that. But if it’s true, then the Reds are playing a fool’s game. You want the numbers that Adam Dunn puts up, you want to run with the big dogs, it’s going to cost you.

If you were in the Dump Dunn camp, I’ll ask you the same question I ask every week, and never seem to get an answer: where are you going to get those 100-rbi he’s taking with him to Arizona?
Opening remarks pp.2

Where is the bat in the Reds line-up that will make the opposing pitcher work the count as well as Adam Dunn did? What bat in that Reds line-up strikes fear into any opposing pitcher’s heart?

It’s never been about Dunn. It’s always been about where the numbers come from. You think they’re in the Reds minor league system? Go look.

You think they Reds will be able to trade for those numbers this off season?
Who do they trade for that? You may get 100-rbi, but it’ll cost you Jay Bruce, or Joey Votto or Brandon Phillips or a combination there of. You can always ask Texas if they’ll send Josh Hamilton back. But my guess is the asking price begins with Edinson Volquez. You think they’ll find 100-rbi on the free agent market this year? Really?

And the last time they did that was when?

Here are the top two free agent outfielders this winter: Pat Burrell now with the Phillies and, Adam Dunn.

The Reds probably have a plan to address all of this. But I couldn’t tell you what it is right now. In the last seven months, they’ve dismissed a man who could win the American League MVP, paid the White Sox four million dollars to take Junior off their hands and they’re sending another four million to the Diamondbacks to be rid of Adam Dunn.

All the while, an entire generation of Reds fans bave grown up knowing nothing but losing.

The business of baseball is more than OPS, OBP, average with two out and runners in scoring position. It’s about selling tickets. Winning sells a lot of tickets. So do star players. Please tell me today, when does the winning begin, and where exactly are the star players.

Heads up! The latest edition of "Bengals Report" The Podcast is up and running and available for downloading on my web site: www.kenbroo.com. You can find it on my front page. And in the "Podcasts & More" section, you can find all the back episodes of "The Broo View" Podcast.

Just trying to help the product along!

The first week of the Olympics have offered us a boatload of highlights. Michael Phelps has been nothing short of sensational. But the highlight for me? This Olympic moment with Bela Karolyi, guesting as an analyst for NBC,

Karolyi has been a breath of fresh air, openly taking on the Chinese for allowing, what appear to be, under age kids competing for gymnastic medals.

In the aftermath of the Adam Dunn trade, foxsports.com's Ken Rosenthal doesn't offer a lot of hope for Reds fans in his latest post.

And as for Dunn, according to si.com Jon Heyman says he shouldn't buy that yacht just yet.

Sunday morning on 700 WLW, my guests will be Chick Ludwig of the Dayton Daily News.

We'll talk about the Bengals who tee it up that night against the Lions.

Chick is a little suspicious of this new found connection between Chad Johnson and the Ravens' Ray Lewis. Check the up to date Ludwig At Large.

And we'll also converse with Tim Dierkes, from mlbtraderumors.com. We're on from 9am-Noon, and available on XM channel 173.

Have a great weekend!

Well, here's a not so Olympics golden moment. Swedish wrestler, Ara Abrahamian obviously upset being DQ'd in the semi-finals and having to settle for the bronze. Check it out.

And being of Swedish heritage, I've always been told our greatest virtue is patience. Another diappointment in life!

I'm sure we'll be talking about this a lot when I settle in for my regular Sunday Morning Sports Talk show on Cincinnati's 700 WLW. But if you're in the 'goodbye Adam Dunn and good riddance camp, you need to read this posting by the savvy John Erardi, in his blog on cincinnati.com.

I actually heard a rather knowledgable baseball fan say the other day that he didn't care if Dunn left, that it hadn't worked with him and let's see if it worked without him. Frustration, I guess, is what brought that on, frustration over an under achieving team. It was completely misguided.

You want to sign a free agent this off season to replace him? You know who the top two free agent outfielders are in 2008? Pat Burrell and Adam Dunn. They will both command the same free agent money and Dunn is younger and has never been hurt.

You want to bring someone up from the minors to replace Dunn? Good, who? Chris Dickerson will get a shot, but he's an older AAA player. And you need two corner outfielders, right? If Jay Bruce moves to center, you'll need that. If he stays in right field, you'll need a center fielder. Please, don't get into Ryan Freel and Norris Hopper. Exactly where have they been this season?

You want to trade for an existing outfielder who hits for power? Great, who are you going to trade. Do you actually think you'll get any player of any value for anyone on the current Reds roster besides Brandon Phillips, Joey Votto, Bruce, Edinson Volquez or Aaron Harang? Do you want to trade any one of them?

Despite the blather you'll hear from the front office and ownership, this team is a long way from competing. Check back with me in 2010.

Michael Phelps is amazing, isn't he? So is his diet, as outlined by the NY Post. He consumes in one day what I consume in one week. But it'd take me a week to swim as far as Phelps has in Beijing.

Fox sports still think the Bengals are going to be something special this season. Alex Marvez is a former Bengals beat writer, years ago, for the Dayton Daily News.

Speaking of that, our pal Chick Ludwig has the sobering news that the Bengals may be considering Chris Henry Part II. I hear this is all Mike Brown. Marvin Lewis wants no part of this bad news guy.

Bummer about the US women gymnasts. Had a shot at the gold, until Alicia Sacramone fell a couple of times. Don't get on her for that. She'll liable to knock you out. Have you seen this video of her at a party at Brown University from about a year ago
? Ouch!

And folks, you know that's gotta hurt!

Let's just say this, Bob Castellini isn't getting a lot of love from at least one New York paper. Newsday isn't very kind to the Reds owner.

Castellini's biggest problem are the promises that he makes. He said the day he bought the team that we'd have a championship here in Cincinnati. Hasn't happened. He said after he fired Wayne Krivsky the team wasn't going to lose anymore. It has. And as late as two weeks ago, Castellini said his team was still in the pennant race. It wasn't then, it really isn't now.

The time for talking is over.

So let's see, in the last seven months the Reds have traded an odds on favorite to win the American League MVP award winner, one of the 50 greatest players of all time, the current MLB home run leader (and consistent 100 RBI a year man) and they've paid the White Sox and Diamondbacks a grand total of $6 million. Sounds like a plan to me.

And Bob Castellini now says that his team can win next year. After he fired general manager Wayne Krivsky in April Castellini said "We're just not going to lose anymore". As late as ten days ago, he told one of his TV announcers "We're not out of it". When he bought the team in 2006, he proclaimed that the Reds would contend for a championship. I don't doubt the man's sincerity. But the time for talking about things is over. It's long past the time for accomplishing things.

2009? They've got no shot.

Look, I had nothing against trading Dunn.....except the fact that he's taking 100 rbi a year with him. Look at the current Reds roster, then look in the minors, and tell me what player will deliver 100 next season. To get even close to that, you'll have to trade any one of these players, maybe a combination: Brandon Phillips, Edinson Volquez, Joey Votto or Jay Bruce. They're exactly the kind of players you need to win. You could always go the free agent route. Guess who's one of the top two free agent to be outfielders. You got it, Dunn. The other is Pat Burrell, who is Dunn from the other side of the plate and two years older.

2009? They got no shot.

The biggest problem the Reds have isn't personnel. The biggest problem they have is 'lack of buzz', in other words, no hype, no 'gotta see'. For the rest of this season, like most lately, they're reduced to an after thought in the sports world. Hello Bengals, see ya Reds. If a generation is defined as 25 years, then almost an entire generation of Cincinnati sports fans have grown up knowing nothing but losing baseball. You think that's not a big deal? Ask Mike Brown.

2009? They got no shot.

The Dunn deal is taking more shape tonight. It appears Arizona pitcher, Micah Owings is one of the 'players to be named later'. It'll be later than sooner, as the Arizona Republic is reporting.
Owings started the year 6-1, then developed arm trouble and has since been sent to AAA. He's also a very good pinch hitter. With the current Reds rotation, he'd be a 5th starter and maybe challenge for a 4th spot. He's better than Homer Bailey, period.

Out in Arizona, they seem happy to have Dunn, if only for another six weeks or so.

As for our Bengals, well not bad, not good in their exhibition opener. There will be plenty for the coaches to work on this week. Apparently, Chad Johnson has some things he's working on....like changing his name, according this in profootballtalk.com.

It's almost time for the nightly Phelps fix...gotta go. See you on News 5 tonight at 6p and after the Olympics.

A couple of things are bouncing around my head today….like a ping pong ball as Willie would say….

First, is a column that John Fay has in Sunday’s Enquirer. Apparently, Reds GM,Walt Jocketty believes the Reds are a team that can be fixed quickly. After watching this team play the last week and a half, my initial reaction was a loud guffaw. A bad Nationals team swept them, the Brewers toyed with them and for the last three nights, a very pedestrian Astros team has smacked them around. And to use the cable television news vernacular, the Reds offense has gone missing.

And Jocketty thinks all that he needs to do is a little tweeking.

You know what, I’m not sure he’s wrong. Look around the diamond. First base, young and solid. Second base, one of the top five at his position. Short stop, lots of options. Third base, lots of options there, too. In the outfield, questions, but not tottaly devoid of answers. Sign Adam Dunn and that corner is set for three to five years. Jay Bruce should be the right fielder for at least five years. Centerfield, you need to address that.

Starting rotation? Harang, Arroyo, Cueto, Volquez in some order or another,, solid. You can find a fifth starter somewhere in the land of Homer Bailey, Darryl Thompson, Matt Maloney, maybe Bobby Livingston come back.

Bullpen? Burton, Bray, Cordero for at least another year, maybe even Majewski and the new guy, Masset. You don’t need to add much. You say a team is close, when it’s 15 under 500 and you can come off as foolish. Walt Jocketty hasn’t gotten this far in his life by being foolish.

The other thing that’s bugged me since the news broke Friday, is what’s happened to Ben Mauk, now the former UC starting quarterback. If you haven’t heard, the NCAA has denied Mauk an extra year of eligibility. It would have been his sixth. You can make arguments on both sides, as to whether or not he deserved it. Personally, I’m old school, I think a student athlete gets four years and that’s it. I’m not a big fan of redshirting. It’s just a way for schools to stock rosters. And I’m also not a fan of a school making it tough on students, athletes or otherwise, from completing their education in four years. You get out of course sequence, and you’re locked into education hell. Or you’re parents are, depending on who’s paying for it. But that’s another topic for another genre of show.

Mauk appealed his initial appeal twice, going 0-3 against the NCAA. My problem is the how the NCAA toyed with Mauk, allowing him to practice, while it’s appeals committee took its sweet old time deciding his fate. Hope is great. But there is nothing crueler in life than false hope. Mauk will be OK. Seems like a strong kid. But the NCAA didn’t do him right.

And last but not least, your 2008 Cincinnati Bengals. Their exhibition opener….and let’s be clear here, these are exhibition not pre-season games. Please NFL God Roger Goodell , please, lop two games off this August madness….this exhibition opener is interesting for one reason; to see if the Bengals defense is any better this year than last. I don’t need to see Carson Palmer, TJ, Willie or anyone else on offense. I know what they can do. I know Palmer is one of the top five quarterbacks in the game. I know TJ is his go to guy. I even know there’s a 50-50 chance of some drama with Chad Monday night. Monday night, ESPN, Chad. What, you think this is NPR? He lives for this. No, what I want to see is whether or not the interior line can stop a sneeze this season. I want to see if the secondary can stop the track meets that teams have consistently thrown at them. I’ll watch for about a quarter, and then, it’s over the rhythmic gymnastics. NFL pre season games are about as interesting at that, particularly in week one.

Good Morning!

The Bengals Report Podcast is now available. It's on the front page of my web site: www.kenbroo.com. And you can also download it here. Mark Hardin, the executive editor of Bengals Report joins me twice a week, every week, this season to deliver to you the latest information on the Cincinnati Bengals. This time, we're talking about the battle for the #3 wide receiver on the team and a look at the Bengals defense.

The countdown is on! The first "Bengals Report" podcast of the 2008 season will be posted on my web site: www.kenbroo.com at 6am Friday. Each week, during the season, the executive editor of Bengals Report Magazine, Mark Hardin, and I review games and preview games with twice a week podcasts. Our first installment will get you up to date about what's been going on at training camp. You can listen on line or download it to your portable media device.

Speaking of the Bengals, it appears safety Chinedum Ndukwe avoided serious knee trouble, when he went down injured in Wednesday's practice. But, Ndukwe, we hear, may miss significant training camp time and is in danger of missing the season opener at Baltimore. Stay tuned on this one.

Good fodder on that, and other things Bengals, as always in Chick Ludwig's blog "Ludwig At Large!"

Whoops! Not good news in the Miami Herald today about the Reds first round pick this past June, Yonder Alonso.

I'm on the record with this: Alonso was a "safe pick". He was the most major league ready of all the available selections in this past draft. But is safe always best? Well, when the club fires it's general manager in April, the staff left behind understandably scrambles to remain employed. This is Wayne Krivsky's staff. Did the Reds scouting staff go 'safe' with it's pick of Alonso in order to look good for the new boss, Walt Jocketty? Just asking.

Good Morning!

The Bengals signed their number one pick while you were sleeping last night. Linebacker Keith Rivers ended his nine day holdout and will be on the practice field later today. One of my favorite things during a player-holdout is listening to the lavish praise directed at the player who's in camp taking the hold out's spot. We heard nothing but great things the past nine days about linebacker Brandon Johnson, signed this off season after two rather unspectacular years with the Arizona Cardinals. But to hear the coaches talk about him, you have thought Johnson was the second coming of Lawrence Taylor.

Now, with Rivers in the fold, watch for Brandon Johnson to fade into the world of second teamers. He had his '15 minutes of fame' and did well. But money talks, and Keith Rivers will be the starting outside linebacker come opening game against Baltimore.

Just how stupid are the Green Bay Packers? Do you mean to tell me, after coming within one bad pass of playing in the Super Bowl, they're going to dump Brett Favre for Aaron Rogers? Really? If that team tanks this season without Favre, there won't be a moving van big enough to get GM Ted Thompson and coach Mike McCarthy out of town.

Here's Kevin Seifert's take on the Favre Fiasco, on espn.com

Meantime, back to your Cincinnati Bengals, my buddy Chick got the first local interview with his Sigh-ness, Chadly. It's in the latest 'Ludwig At Large', courtesy of the Dayton Daily News.

And our good pal Mike Florio from profootballtalk.com has a look at what might be in store this year in the AFC West.

The Chiefs, a train wreck? Imagine that!

Good Morning!

There are other stories this week. The Bengals are still waiting to sign their number one draft pick, Brett Favre and the Packers have a Monday deadline to work out their differences or the commissioner will step in, the Olympics are about to begin. But around here, there has been no bigger story, than the trade of Ken Griffey, Junior.

As quickly as the deal fell together back in the winter of 2000, it fell apart at the same speed this week. I’m told Walt Jocketty was taken completely by surprise, when his counterpart with the White Sox inquired about Junior. I’m told, Ken Williams called Jocketty to inquire about a trade involving a Reds relief pitcher. When Williams casually inquired about Junior, Jocketty let it be known in no uncertain terms, Griffey was available. Then, all that was left to haggle over, was the price. And with that, the Griffey era was over.

It’s clear, the Reds wanted Junior out of here. They may tell you differently, but the facts don’t lie. They’re paying half of the eight million dollars that remain on Junior’s active contract. It may be more than that, because one report had the White Sox only paying the pro rate Major League minimum on the balance of Junior’s contract this season, not the two million that was reported. But whatever the dollar amount is, whenever a team pays another team to take a player, they don’t want that player anymore. The Reds didn’t want Junior anymore.

Maybe it was just a jump start on the inevitable. For sure, Griffey was out of here at the end of the season, regardless.

It left a lot of us in the media to wonder, where did it all go wrong? At the end of his Reds life, Junior was a shell of the player the Reds traded for in February of 2000. His swing was all arms, his speed had left his legs, his Gold Glove had turned to lead. The worst enemy any athlete has, is time. Time robs you of skills. Griffey was fleeced. But the point of where it went wrong wasn’t this week, or last or even last year. It was a long time before that. It really happened the night of that theatrical event the Reds called a news conference back in February of 2000….February 10th, actually.

On that night, the Reds committed to spend 119-million on Griffey, and little on anyone else. Look at who the Reds surrounded Griffey with. Sore armed pitchers like Pete Harnisch, Joey Hamilton, Jimmy Haynes. Chris Stynes, Alex Ochoa, DT Cromer. That wasn’t a team, it was a collection of spare parts.

And worse, we now told, then general manager Jim Bowden was ordered to dump salary after added Junior, not build around him.

Pick the greatest player in the history of the Big Red Machine. Now extract every one of the others who made up that terrific team, except ‘that’ guy. What do you think you’d have. We found out about that around here, didn’t we. You can ask Johnny Bench about it.

Yes, Griffey was injured, a lot during his time in Cincinnati. But how? Doing what? Did he throw his back out dancing? Cut himself with a knife slicing food? Or did he get hurt simply trying to make plays?

Look, I’m not here today to try and make a case for you changing your mind about Ken Griffey, Junior. You’ve made your mind up. If you’re happy to see him go and soured on him while he was here, nothing that I’m going to say today is going to change your mind. But as I’ve often said, on this show, on these air waves, nothing happens in sports, in life, in a vacuum.

Baseball may be a sport based on individual accomplishment. But it’s a team sport. If you bat third, you better have someone in front of and behind you who can hit, or you won’t see many good pitches. If you play center, you better have guys on either side of you who can help cut down on the amount of turf you have to cover. If you want to contend for championships, you better not change general managers like socks, or managers like t-shirts. For the record, Junior had five GM’s in his nine years here and six managers. Find me a teams with that kind of turnover that wins a pennant.

Ken Griffey Junior arrived here with great fanfare and great promise, one of the top 50 players in baseball, all time. He left town with no fanfare, just a press release from the Reds that he’d been traded. He arrived young, he left old. And in the middle not a whole lot happened to put the Reds on Major League Baseball’s championship radar. Blame him if you want, but at least examine the facts. In a lot of ways, the guy never had to a chance to be what you or he wanted.

Just posted and available for downloading is my latest "Broo View Podcast". You can find it here. In this episode, I'm joined by former Oakland Raiders General Manager, Mike Lombardi. We scope out the 2008 Cincinnati Bengals.

And there's a whole archive full of "Broo View Podcasts" on my web site www.kenbroo.com

24 hours ago from right now (full disclosure, I'm a night owl and don't sleep much) I was tracking down trade rumors about Adam Dunn. Several national reports and a number of my local sources were telling me that Dunn had a good chance of getting traded before Thursday's 4pm trading deadline.

My sources told me Dunn would be a 'fall back' option for the Tampa Bay Rays if the three way deal they were involved in with the Red Sox and Marlins fell through. Tampa was due to get Pirates outfielder, Jason Bay, in that scenario.

Well what do you know, that deal fell through. But by the time Manny Ramirez went to the Dodgers, the Pittsburgh Pirates wound up with prospects (suspects?) and Bay wound up in Boston, Dunn was off the market. Walt Jocketty wasn't satisfied with what Tampa was dangling in exchange for Dunn. And besides, down deep, I'm told, Reds owner Bob Castellini wants to exhaust all avenues between now and November in an attempt to sign Dunn to a long term deal. Many in the Reds front office don't want that, but have given their driven owner a concession: they'll wait to see how well Dunn reacts to Griffey, Junior's departure and whether or not Dunn can continue the torrid hitting streak he's been on.

My best guess, Dunn stays. I say this for two reasons. One, the departure of Junior (and Sean Casey, Aaron Boone, Austin Kearns and others) now has transformed Dunn into an elder statesman in the clubhouse. Crazy as that sounds for a not yet 29 year old, that's exactly what Adam Dunn is right now. For a team desperate for clubhouse leadership ever since the departure of Greg Vaughn nine years ago, Dunn has a chance to show he's got something in his game besides mammoth home runs and strike outs. Two, Dunn is a guy who gets comfortable in a hurry. He doesn't like change. Remember his little rant this spring about how bad it would be for the Reds to leave their Sarasota spring training headquarters. Dunn went on and on about how easy it was to navigate through that town, how he knew where everything was and didn't have to learn new streets, restaurants and things like that. It was a little window into the psyche of a guy who like predictability. Staying with the Reds is predictable. Mind you, the Reds will have to be competitive with the open market. But if the dollars come down to a three year deal worth $50 million in Cincinnati versus a four year deal worth $60 million, my guess is Dunn stays here.

But, his future status with the Cincinnati Reds is clearly on him now.

As for the Junior trade, I'd be lying if I said I saw it coming. To me, with his age and medical history, he seemed untradeable. But the White Sox are 'renting' him for about $4 million for the final two months of this season, cheap for that team if it leads to a pennant. They won't pick up Junior's 2009 $16.5 million option and they gave the Reds little in returnn (while making the Reds pay $4 million of their own money just to get ride of him) but it's a low risk move for that team. I'd be shocked if he becomes the everyday centerfielder. Griffey doesn't have that kind of range anymore. But I do think he'll contribute.

Reaction from around the country now, starting with espn.com. There's also some video linked with this story.

Meantime, cbssports.com columnist, Denny Knobler broke the story on what exactly the Reds were getting the the Junior trade (two mid 20's players, one of whom would have to buy a ticket to get into a MLB game), and now has this story on the trade deadline winners and losers.

And this is a terrific story from si.com's Steve Aschburner, who lays out a time line of just how a MLB trade is put together, leading up to the July 31 deadline. Good journalism.

In a way, Thursday defied the recent baseball paradigm: most big, blockbuster deals don't get done until the winter time. But the three way deal between Pittsburgh, Boston and the Dodgers brought some life back to the mid summer swap meet. And of course locally, so did the Griffey, Junior deal.

For the record, I will miss him. Like most of the members of the local Cincinnati media, he gave me a hard time, played me to use the vernacular. But it never lasted more than 10-15 seconds. Though a lot of fans in my town have a tough time understanding this, Junior is a good guy, who does a lot of terrific off the field work away from the cameras. He's a human being who makes mistakes, like the recent 'throat slash' gesture at broadcaster Jeff Brantley. But when you look at his whole body of work, Junior has done just fine. It just didn't work out here, too many injuries and not enough good players on Reds teams while he was in Cincinnati.

I wish him luck.

Finally, you have to see this. At the "X" Games, boarder Danny Way gave us a great, if inadvertent highlight.

Apparently, he was OK. Way came back for another three rounds and finished second in his event.

My frequent guest on 700 WLW Sunday Morning Sportstalk, Ken Rosenthal, says Josh Fogg could be moving. But then again, Rosenthal thinks Fogg might be the carrot in front of the proverbial stick

Now less than 24 hours until MLB trade deadline, and 'dead' would seem to be the activity expected from your Cincinnati Reds. Check out this entry today from the Newark (NJ) Star Ledger, in the "Mets Buzz" section.

Sounds like Adam Dunn will be around here at least until the leaves 'turn' this fall.

I can’t go anywhere in the last week without someone asking me…how do you think the Bengals will do this year. If you bleed orange and black, you probably get it too. And what I’ve come to discover, it took me awhile but then again, I’m not the fastest horse in the barn….what I’ve come to discover is that predicting what a professional football team will do next week, let alone three months from now, is down right impossible.

Think about this. On Wednesday of this past week, was there any one in the greater Cincinnati area who would have predicted that the front office would release running back Kenny Irons? Second round draft pick last season, tore his knee up in an exhibition game last summer, didn’t play a down of football since. The team flat out gave up on him, second round pick. And given Marvin’s drafts since arriving here, it’s not like they have the luxury to give up on high draft picks these days. David Pollack, gone, Odell Thurman, gone, Chris Henry gone, Madieu Williams Keiwan Ratliff, gone and gone. So to release Irons, whatever his injury situation is, whatever his affect on the 80-man roster is, not something you’d predict would happen. Miss Cleo didn’t even weigh in on that one.

So to sit here today and say definitively what your Cincinnati Bengals may do this season is just a guess. Injuries, injuries to players on teams they’ll face, weather conditions, sub par performances, out of the box performances, there are a lot of variables that affect how a team does from September until January.

That’s why, one of my favorite things to do, and I know this is revealing the geek in me, is to save the pre-season magazines and on-line prediction columns and go back a year later and see how right the experts were. They seldom are.

Nobody picked Cleveland to have the season they had last year. The closest anyone came to saying the Browns would be better was ESPN’s Chris Mortonsen, who said they’d go 3-3 inside the the AFC North. He was right.

Nobody picked the Buccaneers to win the NFC South, that was New Orleans’ division to win. The Saints finished 7-9. NFC North, the Packers? What are you nuts?….Bears all the way. You get the point.

To say the Bengals will go 10-6, 9-7, 5-11 at this point is just beer talk. It’s the kind of stuff you talk about while having a beer with your buddies. The guy who says they’ll go 10-6 has no earthly idea if the Bengals will be able to run the ball late in the year at Cleveland. Or handle Hines Ward in Pittsburgh before Thanksgiving, or go to Dallas and deal with TO in early October. If you’re running around saying this team is no better than 5-11 because of the schedule it has to play…and it is a killer schedule…well, who’s to say the Giants weren’t just a team on a roll late last season, or that Derek Anderson lived a lie last season and is about to be exposed, or that the Steelers won’t be able to block a doorway this year, let alone Ben Roethlisberger.

Professional football is the hardest game in the country to predict. That’s why the house, the bookie, wins every week.

So be wary of anyone who wants to tell you today, right now, the middle of the summer, exactly what the Bengals are going to do this year. They don’t know. When you pick up that magazine this week that promises the complete scoop on who is doing to do what in 2008, put it back on the rack and put the money back in your wallet. The guys who write the reports for the individual teams are a little too close to the teams they cover.

How good the Bengals will be this year will depend on a lot of things. They’ll have to run the ball better than they have since Lewis arrived. They’ll have to get off the field on third down better than they have since 2005. And they’ll have to have a very young secondary play like veterans.

But to sit here today, the day they report to camp, and say they’ll be any specific record, don’t listen to it. Don’t believe it. That’s why they play the games.

Yet another Broo View Podcast is up and running. You can download it off my web site, www.kenbroo.com. But if you're in a hurry, here's a link. It features ESPN's baseball insider, Jayson Stark, a guest of mine Sunday on 700 WLW. We're trying to figure out what the Reds may do, as the trade deadline approaches.

Just posted to my website, www.kenbroo.com is the latest Broo View Podcast. It's on the front page. But just in case you're 'on the fly', here's a link to the mp3. It's a look ahead to the upcoming Bengals training camp, complete with interviews with Marvin Lewis and Bengals defensive coordinator, Mike Zimmer.

WOW, did you catch this brawl Thursday night between the Dayton Dragons (Reds "A" affiliate) and the team from Peoria? Held up the game for and hour, multiple ejections and a fan had to be taken to the hospital

I don't know why the Peoria manager wanted to mess with Dayton manager, Donnie Scott. That's one tough hombre.

Just what should we expect from your Cincinnati Bengals this season? I've been doing a lot of thinking, as the team prepares for training camp. As a matter of fact, there just happened to be a camera in my family room, as 'happy hour' arrived today.

They could finish anywhere from 5-11 to 9-7. Depends on injuries...to them and the six teams they'll face from the AFC South and NFC North who made the playoffs in 2007. Comments? Let's hear 'em.

Well, there's always Al Davis and Wayne Weaver. yahoosports.com doesn't think too highly of Bengals owner, Mike Brown.

And then, there's everybody's favorite odd couple, Marvin and Chad. Our man Chick Ludwig checks in today with this, from the Dayton Daily News.

I give it five games....

Brett Favre rumors continue to boil. Now we hear the the commish is involved. Apparently, Roger Goodell is monitoring the situation closely. Where could Favre end up? For that, we turn to our pal Mike Florio, at profootballtalk.com.

I'd love to see him in Tampa. But if you're Baltimore and you've had trouble developing a quarterback since...oh, Johnny Unitas, why wouldn't you leap on this, for a season. Then, you've got Joe Flacco.

Just askin'.

Yeah, let's trade Adam Dunn now. Grand slam HR and 5 RBI vs the Padres today now give Dunn the HR lead in the National League with 29 and he now has 68 rbi. Please tell me how you build a championship team, a World Series contender, by chasing off a 28 year old who consistently plays 155 games a season and drives in an average of 100 rbi per season? What team, in the history of baseball has done that?

But when I get behind the microphone this Sunday morning on 700 WLW (XM channel 173 or http://www.700wlw.com/) I'm sure there will be someone who'll phone in to talk up getting rid of Dunn. Bad defense, doesn't hustle, strikes out too much, yada yada yada. Great, deal him or don't re-sign him after this season. Who are you going to get to replace him? Checked the Reds minor league system lately? Any player who's got a shot at playing in the majors is at least two years away. Outfielders? You really going to tell me Chris Dickerson is going to deliver 100 rbi? Ha!

The only 'fans' who don't want Dunn on this team fall into two categories: vintage fans who believe the true mark of a great player is someone whose feet fly around the field like Fred Flinstone's and get his uniform dirty. (Sorry, there was only one Pete Rose.) Or....fans who live in their parents' basement and bang away on a computer about sabermetrics.

There, I said it.

If Bob Castellini and his rear gunner Walt Jocketty want to trade Dunn, they'll spend the $14-15 million they'll save by doing that, trying to replace his numbers.

What say you?

Thank God! Marvin Lewis said today he has no interest in bringing Chris Henry back to the Bengals. Last week, Henry's agent said the Bengals were thinking about just that. Of course, Henry can't play anywhere these days, he's still under suspension from the NFL for his various run ins with the law. But to hear it from the coach's lips was, to put it mildly, soothing.

Henry is a coach killer. That's someone you count on during the week, put plays in for during the week and then get burned on Sunday's when the player doesn't show up, or can't play because he's suspended. Good riddance.

Lewis was speaking at the team's annual media luncheon. That was today, at Paul Brown Stadium. Some of the other headlines: Lewis vows his defense will cut down on explosive plays this season and that the team will run the ball better and more often than in seasons past.

Heard that before....

According to the NY Daily News, the Mets play by play announcers didn't care for Barry Larkin's speech Saturday night at his Reds Hall of Fame Induction ceremony.

You think maybe because Larkin turned down a trade to the Mets in 2000 (his contractual right given his "10-5" status), that has something to do with their ire?

Just askin'....

Getting close to training camp....several teams have already reported. But as our good pal, Mike Florio of profootballtalk.com reports below, three players in particular may have an interesting summer.

The latest "Broo View Podcast" is now posted on the front page of my web site: http://www.kenbroo.com/. I've got a piece of the interview I conducted Sunday on 700 WLW with Reds beat writer, John Fay. We get into what the Reds may, or may not, do leading up to the trade deadline.

The Bengals report to camp this Sunday and their first two workouts will be one week from today. Chris Henry remains suspended, by the NFL, and unemployed. But his agent hinted last week that the Bengals may be interested in bringing him back. Which led the immensely talented Peter King to deliver one of the all time great quotes in his Monday Morning Quarterback column on si.com. You'll have to scroll into a good story on how Jason Taylor wound up with the Redskins. But it's worth it.

Personally, I'd be in favor of eviction from a county financed stadium if they brought Henry back.

Chad Johnson said today in an espn.com chat that it was only 'business', when he went on several national radio rants this winter. Johnson vacillated between banishing team management, demanding a trade and throwing his quartrback 'under the bus'. Just business? Try doing that in your business and see if you collect another paycheck, let alone one for about $4 million dollars this year.

I've been a long proponent of the Reds re-signing Adam Dunn. Baseball Prospectus apparently is a tad more luke warm to the idea, but still suggests, like I, that Dunn's numbers would be difficult for a team like the Reds to replicate.

Well, this is pretty random. Guy runs out of the stands, half naked, at a soccer match in Moscow this past weekend. And the player who brings the dude to the 'authorities' gets a yellow card from the ref. Look at this!

Almost as good as the fight in the stands Sunday between fans of the Columbus Crew and some fans from an international club that the Crew was playing. Well, maybe even better than that!

See you tonight at 6 & 11p on WLWT Channel 5 in Cincinnati!

Today, a special treat. You get to have breakfast with me in my backyard, as I wax eloquently about the trials and tribulations of the Cincinnati Reds. I'll explain the shirt at a later date.

The second half (or so) of the baseball season kicks in tonight. And the Reds are apparently going into it with a lot of health issues. I'm hearing Aaron Harang may not be available at all on this ten game home stand. He's on the DL right now, eligible to come off it the middle of next week. But a sore forearm is nothing to take lightly, if you're a major league pitcher. That can lead to other things, like ligament trouble. So naturally, with a lot invested in their 'ace', the Reds are taking it precautiously.

As for Ryan Freel, his hamstring pull could eventually need surgery. And the prospect of not seeing him again this season, I'm told, is very real. Jerry Hairston, Jr. pulled a hamstring muscle in Sunday's game at Milwaukee. At the time, it was described as a 'mild strain'. But I'm hearing it may be more than that.

So, as the Reds embark on their longest home stand of the year, ten games that begin tonight with a 7:10pm match up with the Mets, health continues to be a team issue.

Well, at least someone other than Marvin Lewis believes the Bengals can make the playoffs this season. Here's Dennis Dillon in this posting from sportingnews.com.

Over at cbssports.com, Ray Ratto has some good ideas about how to 'fix' the various all star games professional sports foists upon us.

More as the day/night progresses.

Did you see the show Josh Hamilton put on at the annual Home Run Hitting contest Monday night? Mercy.

28 first round home runs? And some were simply the stuff legends are made of. Be careful equating what Hamilton did with what players do in actual games. But that aside, this was something. Deadspin had the video up this morning. But here is a piece of what Hamilton did in Yankee Stadium Monday night.

And the reviews from around the country are pouring in. Among the better takes on this is Jayson Stark's in his espn.com posting.

Even baseball lifer Peter Gammons was impressed enough to write this in his posting today.

And from si.com's Joe Sheehan, this piece of prose about Hamilton.

I've never, ever been a proponent of trading a player who has the potential to affect 162 games a season for a player (pitcher) who can only affect 25-30. And while I still disagree with the trade Wayne Krivsky pulled off with the Rangers last winter, it's hard to view it as anything but a 'win-win' for the two clubs. Edinson Volquez has a chance to be the 'ace' of the Reds staff for a long time. But think about this: how much better would the Reds have been if they had a pitcher in their system like Volquez, home grown, someone they didn't 'have' to trade for? Then, they would have had that guy, as well as Hamilton. Pie in the sky? Not really. If the Reds had drafted Tim Lincecum in 2006 instead of Drew Stubbs, they'd have had had exactly that situation. Lincecum has already won 10 game this season. Stubbs, an outfielder, is stuck in "AA"

Our pal Ryan Parker, the sports songwriter is at it again. Check out his latest video about the reluctant retiree, Brett Favre. Make sure you 'click' next to the speaker icon on the right so you can listen.

More videos from the "ryanparkersongs's channel" channel at Heavy.com

My guess? Favre is traded, the Packers don't make the playoffs and all hell breaks loose in dairy land.

Just back from doing a couple of stories on two Cincinnati Olympic rowers off to win the gold, we hope in Beijing.

Pat Todd and Brian Volpenheim will be the subjects of two stories in our Channel 5 O-Zone (Olympic Zone, come on!!!) specials next month.

But...I thought you'd like to see this piece of video of me, walking away from a rather embarrassing episode at the US Rowing center in Princeton, New Jersey last week.

I had just returned from being squired around a county Lake in New Jersey, watching Pat Todd practice with his Olympic team mates. I had one foot on the dock, one on the boat...and well, you probably know the rest of the story. I'm walking to get some dry clothes, trying to avoid eye contact with a bunch of snickering rowers. It was actually pretty funny...

One of the sincerest forms of flattery is to mimic or borrow something from a contemporary and use it as part of your act. Rip off is another way of putting it. But I prefer the word borrow.

Lance McAllister has his “I believe” bit…good stuff, puts a lot of work into it. Most of the time, what he says makes sense. Look forward to it each week on his show.

Peter King, the terrifically talented writer for Sports Illustrated and a commentator on NBC’s Football Night In America has a weekly column that he posts on si.com called “10 Things I Think”. Writes and posts it every Monday. Love it. One of the first things I read every Monday. King has a long and storied history in print journalism. Really began his career here in Cincinnati with the Enquirer over 20 years ago.

So with all that in mind, here are some things I think might happen around here in the next few months. I was out of town on Thursday and Friday doing some work for channel 5’s Olympic coverage, traveling around the country. So I’ve had some time to think. Always a dangerous prospect with me, but anyway not I Believe or 10 Things I Think but perhaps, the rantings of a sports lunatic…..or what I do when I’m sitting at home and the TV is broken.

Off the top of my head, but here goes….

Jerry Hairston, Junior is this year’s Jeff Keppinger. Like Keppinger last year, Hairston is hitting everything in sight. Fastballs look like beach balls to Hairston. But the question I have is…can Hairston do the same thing in 2009? And are the Reds convinced he can, convinced enough to give him the everyday short stop role from here on out. And how badly was he hurt Sunday in Milwaukee?

And if so, do you part with Keppinger or Encarnacion this winter?

I don’t think another starting pitcher, or cheaper outfielder is the number one target for the Reds this winter. It’s a catcher. There is no major league ready catcher in the farm system or on the horizon. Of the every day eight, it’s the weakest position on this team right now.

I think the second most important thing for this team this winter is to find better bench players. This is barely a Triple-A bench the Reds have this season.

I think the Reds have a real shot at making a run at the wild card this season.
The key in these final 65 games won’t Volquez, Junior or Phillips. The key will be how well Aaron Harang and Bronson Arroyo pitch. Volquez could win 20. But after him, Cueto is a 500 pitcher. Harang and Arroyo will need to put up nine wins each in their final 13 starts. Tall order? Yep. Do-able, Yep.

I think Sunday was a showcase event for Homer Bailey. I don’t think he’s in their long range plans. They’ll say otherwise. But if Bailey can win a couple or three before the trade deadline, he’s gone.

I think the Reds might be nipping at the heels of the Cubs right now, if they had drafted Tim Lincecum in the first round of the 2006 draft instead of Drew Stubbs. Stubbs has wheezed his way up to Double-A. Lincecum iis battling Edinson Volquez for the National League strike out lead. Could you imagine a Reds rotation of Volquez, Lincedum, Cueto, Harang and Arroyo?

Would the Reds have traded away Josh Hamilton if they had drafted Lincecum in 2006?

I don’t think the Reds are going to trade Adam Dunn or Ken Griffey, Junior. I think they re-sign Dunn and I think Junior takes it to the ranch after this year.

I think the Bengals can win the AFC North, with an 8-8 record. I don’t think any team in the North will be any better than 9-7. You’ve seen the schedule, right?

I don’t think the Bengals have upgraded their defense all that much.

But I think Keith Rivers is going to be a good player for a long time in the NFL

The biggest problem for the Bengals this season isn’t going to be Chad Johnson. It’s going to be running the ball. And the biggest problem is going to be an offensive line that has protected Carson Palmer well the last two years, but hasn’t shown lately that it can run block.

I think anyone who believes Marvin Lewis is on the ‘hot seat’ is delusional.

I think the Cleveland Browns will have one of the best offensive lines in football this season. And I don’t think they’ll make the playoffs.

I think the Colts will get caught by the Jags in the AFC South this season, I think the Patriots reign in the AFC is over. Watch out for the Titans. I don’t think the Ravens will suck.

I think Brett Favre will be the starting quarterback, of the Minnesota Vikings.

I don’t think Sean Miller has a chance to be the best coach in the history of Xavier. I think he already is.

Nothing will be easy for Brian Kelly and UC football this year. The Bearcats may be better than last year, but have a worse record.

I think Ohio State better take it easy on my Bobcats in week two of this season or I’m going to stop being a Jim Tressel fan.

I think Cincinnati would’ve been a helluva NHL town. The guys who owned the Stingers back in the day should’ve never taken the money and run. They should’ve given it a shot.

I think the Cyclones deserve another crowd of 12-thousand on opening night this fall.

I think the tennis tournament that comes to Mason every summer is a Cincinnati treasure. But I think unless you’re a hard core tennis fan, you’re not interested unless it’s Federer, Roddick or Nadal.

I think it’s a crime we don’t have a PGA tournament stop in greater Cincinnati.

I think I’m thinking too much. And if it’s giving me a headache, it’s probably giving you one too.

Are the Reds pretenders or contenders? Four games under .500 and eight off the wild card lead aren't insurmountable odds. But the Reds have lacked the consistency this season to make you believe they've actually got a championship run in them. They have six games before the All Star break, three in Chicago and then three in Milwaukee. If they can get within a couple of games of .500 before the break, it may make you at least consider the possibility of the Reds becoming a factor in the 2008 playoff race. If....

The love for Josh Hamilton continues. Tonight, we hear he's been invited to participate in the Home Run Derby next week at the All Star festivities in Yankee Stadium. Now, more props for Hamilton from the Dallas Morning News.

I'm glad Gary Majewski, the Reds periennely sore armed pitche is feeling better, but read this posting on mlb.com and you'll be surprise, perhaps, about what the Reds have done in their legal greivance against Jim Bowden and the Nationals.

As the Reds prepare to go for the sweep of the Reds alumni association, otherwise known as the Washington Nationals, who among this current group is marketable? We’re 25 days from the unofficial trading deadline. And realistically, who can the reds trade to get any value in return.

And we’ve got to be realistic here. Junior, his salary and his age and the season he’s having isn’t going to bring back all that much. The best strategy with Junior, I think, is to ride out this season, market the home run total and let him walk after this season. I still think there’s a place for him on this team past this season. But that’s in a perfect world, with no 16 million dollar option. Reality tells you that the team isn’t going to pay anything close to that, if they want him back and Junior isn’t going to take a pay cut to continue to play here. Less money in Tampa or Miami, maybe Atlanta or Seattle but not here.

We had Ken Rosenthal on this show last Sunday…Rosenthal, one of the better informed national guys in the biz. His take on Adam Dunn would be better to trade him and get some players with a professional track record than to let him walk at the end of the season. But he also said this…and it plays into what I’ve been preaching for all of this season. Better to sign Dunn, or at least attempt to. The theory? You’ll chase his stats with the money you save by not signing him. There is a dearth of power hitters in baseball to begin with, guys who can deliver in excess of 30 home runs and 100 rbi a year. There are damn few that get to free agency. Dunn is a consistent 40-100 guy who plays an average of 155-games a season.

I’ve heard it said that Adam Dunn is a luxury this team can’t afford. That the four years 60-million he’ll ask for this off season is too much. If it is too much of a luxury….and I doubt seriously that it is, then sell the team. You want to run with the big dogs, pay like the big dogs. The Reds have no one in their organization, who isn’t already at the major league level, who can pick up the slack with power numbers if Dunn leaves. My take, Rosenthal’s take.

But let’s say you want to let Dunn take a hike after this season, or trade him in the next three weeks. Who do you replace him with? What is your starting outfield in 2009? Because right now, if Dunn and Junior are gone here it is: Jay Bruce, Ryan Freel and….Norris Hopper? Lucky to be back in time for spring training. He’s due for Tommy John’s surgery Tuesday. Chris Dickerson? Appears to be the next 4-A player in the Reds system. You want to trade for a starting outfielder or a major league ready minor leaguer? Who would you trade? It would appear to me, the asking price is Ednison Volquez, since that’s what it took to get him away from Texas.

So if you want Adam Dunn off this team in 2009, then what is your solution to who plays outfield for the Reds in 2009?

Here’s who I think has trade value on this current Reds roster and it’s a short list: David Weathers, Jeremy Affeldt, Josh Fogg. What do they all have in common? Bull pen guys, even Fogg who pitched well starting last night.
Maybe David Ross, if you’re the Florida Marlins.

That’s it. You can put anyone else on this roster on the open market, and with the exception of Bruce, Joey Votto, Brandon Phillips, Aaron Harang and Volquez and the interest will be somewhere between mild to ice cold.

And why would you place any of the above on the block to begin with?

Any baseball general manager will tell you that trades are the sexy part of their business, they get the biggest headlines and the most scrutiny. But the real work, the stuff that separates contenders from pretenders is good home grown talent, players who grow up in your system, They cost less, your searching is done the day you sign them all you have to do, as an organization is help them get better. Make an occasional deal to fill in the blanks and, if you know what you’re doing, you’ve got a contender.

So the trade deadline is coming. I think the best course of action will be to hang onto Dunn and try to sign him. I think if you want to trade Fogg or Weathers or Ross, go ahead.

But I also think the best course for the Reds to take toward a potential world championship is for Bob Castellini to bring some stability to his front office. Walt Jocketty your guy, Bob? Good, give him at least five years. Because all that firing Dan O’Brien and Wayne Krivsky and Jim Bowden for that matter, all that did was create instability at all levels, from the GM’s chair right down to the lowest bird dog scout in the system.

Stability in the front office is how you find the kind of players who help you win. It creates stability on the field. You might want to consult the Atlanta Braves about that. They’ve done reasonably well since, oh the mid-90’s.

Create that kind of atmosphere…and hang onto Dunn. I think you’ll be all right if you do that.

You got to see this to believe it. An unbelievable catch by a ball girl in a minor league baseball game!

The most amazed person in the stadium is the left fielder!

We're waiting to see if Cincinnatian Mary Wineberg will run her way onto the US Olympic Track and Field team. The former Walnut Hills and UC star has an 11:05pm start time tonight. She was the fastest in the semi's with a time of 50.57 in the 400 meters and will start in the coveted fourth lane (reserved for the fastest semifinalist) in tonight's finals in Oregon.

Meantime, the Reds sputter along, dropping two of three to the Pirates this week. Today, they demoted pitcher Daryl Thompson, who pitched so promisingly in his two previous starts. But the Pirates torched Thompson for seven earned runs in 4.1 innings of work Wednesday night.

And if you think things are getting better with Homer Bailey in Louisville, well read this in the Courier Journal about Bailey's night last night.

Meantime, it sounds as though things weren't as rosy as we thought with Josh Hamilton here in Cincinnati last season. The ex-Red unloads a bit on USA Today's Bob Nightengale.

If you check out my web site http://www.kenbroo.com/ right now, you'll be able to download my lastest "Broo View Podcast". I've got an indepth interview with Bengals rookie wide receiver, Andre Caldwell from the University of Florida.

Meantime, if anyone thinks Marvin Lewis is really on the 'hot seat', as this guy at msnbc.com does, they're sadly mistaken. Mike Brown, unlike Reds owner Bob Castellini, has no appetite for paying someone not to work.

Well, just when you think you've seen it all.....actually, I have seen this before....back in the early 90's when Tom Browning fouled a pitch off his face. But Michael Barrett has done it again!

The difference between Barrett and Browning? Browning opened a gash on the bridge of his nose, lay at home plate while a doctor stitched him up, got up and continued his at bat.

Now that's guts!

I saw this on ESPN's morning show and thought at first it was a way to take a shot at a competing network. But the more I look at this, the more I realize that Skip Bayless has a strong point.

What do you think? Do you think Joe Buck was right to take a 'shot' at what puts food on his table? Are baseball games too long? Send along some comments. I'd really like to know what you think.

As the Reds play on, the speculation builds as to who stays and who goes. My guest this past Sunday on 700 WLW's Sports Talk was foxsports.com's Ken Rosenthal, who has an interesting angle on the Reds' ability to trade Adam Dunn.

Hate to say 'I told you so'...but...weeks ago, I said Ken Griffey, Jr wouldn't be going back to Seattle anytime soon. And today, in this Washington paper, further proof.

And the Bengals offensive line gets the spotlight today from our pal Chick Ludwig of the Dayton Daily News in this latest installment of "Ludwig At Large".

And our other pal, Mike Florio of profootballtalk.com, who also happens to moonlight for thesportingnews.com, says Marvin Lewis is #4 on the list of 'coaches on the hotseat' this season.
And the first three guys on the list are as good as gone right now.

We’re about where we were a week ago, same situation for the Reds, trade deadline approaching, same usual suspects on the block. Dunn, Junior, maybe Bronon Arroyo (which would send whoever is responsible for those wonderful JTM commericials into a cold sweat) and maybe, please God please, Corey Patterson. OK, who am I kidding with that one. Patterson is ours until further notice. Not a day goes back that some rumor doesn’t pop up about any of those players. The hot one today? Dunn to the Dodgers for Juan Pierre, talented young short stop Chin lun Hu. Pierre is signed through 2011, the Dodgers would throw in some money to buy down his deal. He plays center with Bruce moving to left. And Chin becomes the Reds short stop. Keppinger moves to third. Encarnacion could be dealt for more pitching. Makes a lot of sense. Which means, it’ll never happen.

Junior has been traded more than a bad stock on chat boards from here to California and now we’re hearing of teams with strong pitching coaches who might want to take on Arroyo. July 31st is coming, you’ll hear a lot more talk like this in the coming days.. Believe me, you’re sick of it now? You’ll be hurling by late July. But it seems to me, it’s not a bad time to take a look at one or two of the things that go down at this time of the year. Maybe one trade…

My son, who’s a live and die with the Reds, fan alerted me to something he saw on a web site this other. Someone had a discussion going about ‘the trade’. You know it’s a big trade when it’s referred to as ‘the trade’. Now for veteran Reds fans, ‘the trade’ apparently isn’t Frank Robinson to the Orioles for Milt Pappas and a half eaten bag of chips. It’s apparently not Paul O’Neill to the Yankees for Roberto Kelly. Apparently, it’s not the trade that brought Junior here. No, the trade is the one Wayne Krivsky pulled off with the Washington Nationals a couple of summers ago. You remember, the one where Jim Bowden supposedly fleeced him? In this discussion, the game was to evaluate whether or not Krivaky actually got fleeced or did the fleecing. Or if it was just a lose-lose. Felipe Lopez and Austin Kearns and Ryan Wagner to the Nationals. Bill Bray, Gary Majewski, Brendan Harris, Royce Clayton and Darryl Thompson to the Reds.

Remember when the Reds pulled that one off. The were actually in a pennant race. I know, tough to believe, they actually had a pulse. The bullpen was the weak link at the time. It needed help. Majewski and Bray were supposedly the answers. So Krivsky dealt two of his every day eight players to get a couple of guys who’d get them a flag. Didn’t happen, Reds bats went into a deep September freeze, St. Louis won the division and the Series. So now, here was are just about two years later. Who won? Well Kearns is on the DL…just had surgery was hitting something like ‘180’ before he got hurt. Kearns, who you remember was demoted before he was dealt, demoted to Louisville for being out of shape, Kearns is hitting ‘250’ so far in the Washington part of his career. Lopez, hitting about ‘250’. Wagner tore his shoulder up, had surgery might be back in late July, he’s won a grand total of three games for the Nationals since the trade. He’s another one of Jim Bowden’s celebrated misses with first round draft picks. If you’re sitting in our nation’s capital today, it’s hard to look at this trade and call it a win. But remember when Majewski showed up here with a bad shoulder Remember when we found out that he had a cortisone shot just days before the deal? Remember how we howled that Wayne Krivsky got fleeced? Well, we should’ve. Because of all the players the Reds got from the Nationals in that deal, Majewski was the center of the deal.

I think it’s fair to call Majewski’s life as a Cincinnati Red ineffective, at best. The mess he made on Friday night in Cleveland is pretty much what he’s done since arriving. Or when he wasn’t working out a demotion to Louisviille. Bray has been both good, bad and hurt. He was the second piece in that deal and was thought of, at one time, to be the Reds future closer. That’s not going to happen. But Bray may turn out to be a serviceable middle relief guy. Clayton, at last check is out of baseball. Bounced around after leaving here, wound up with the Red Sox last year, won a world series ring. Harris was released. Went to the Devil Rays, when they were still the Devil Rays….flirted with 300 there. He’s now the twins second baseman, hitting about ‘250’. On the surface, this would seem to be one of the least significant trades in the history of baseball. Not even a lose-lose, more of a who cares-who cares.

Except for Daryl Thompson, who again acquitted himself well on Friday night in Cleveland. Thompson has not had two solid starts, both on the road since his call up from triple-a. and Thompson only had three starts in Louisville before getting the call to come here. Thompson was a throw in, an after thought perhaps by the Nationals but someone, apparently, that Krivsky wanted. Once again, we see evidence that Krivksy may have known what he was doing and that Bowden still has no clue when it comes to evaluating pitching. Thompson was a single-a pitcher and not a very good one, statistically when the deal went down. And yet, he’s now become the central piece, the only ‘win’ in that deal, that in 2006 was the most talked about deal of that season. I think this good to keep in mind as we move closer to the trading deadline. With the Reds dead in the water and even a winning record a reach, trades are coming. It may not be the blockbuster kind. The one in 2006 wasn’t really that….and those kind of deals usually happen only in the off season. But you will see some players hit the proverbial bricks.

So be careful when you assess the work of Walt Jocketty. Be easier on him than you were on Krivsky. Surely, when and if Dunn or Junior or David Weathers or Paul Bako get the gate, surely there will be some names coming this way you won’t be all that familiar with. Or names that might look like complete busts on their way here. Remember, then the name Daryl Thompson. It can happen. It already did…..