THE BROO VIEW with Ken Broo

It's Tuesday!

Like who didn't see that coming, right?

The anemic Reds win again. And last night in Houston delivered their best offensive game of the young season. That's three of four they just took from the Astros. Remember, last season, they managed only three wins, total against Houston. The Reds got just enough decent pitching from Bronson Arroyo (who predicted he'd start the season 3-0. You're raising your hand right now and I'm calling your a liar, OK?). The bullpen was terrific again. Dusty Baker showed a lot of courage letting Arthur Rhodes pitch to a couple of right handed batters with the game on the line. Note to all baseball purists: it's OK sometimes to go against 'the book'. Rhodes has earned his reputation of not being a 'situational left hander'. If I'm running the Reds (and on this blog I am) I use nobody out of that bullpen unless they're named Rhodes, Weathers and Cordero, not if the game is on the line.

Now it's onto Chicago for three (unless the weather people are finally right and it rains like Noah-land on Tuesday night). At worst, the Reds will finish this marathon road trip with a break even record. The hitting is non-existant, except for Joey Votto. Alex Gonzalez has exactly two more hits than a dead man. Bruce, Encarnacion, Phillips, Hernandez and that left field platoon of Hairston and Dickerson are all below or just at the mythical Mendoza line (.200 avg for the normal people reading this, not the sabermetricians, of which I'm one). The NL Central is weak. We might be onto something here....or on something.

Big night of hockey Monday night here in the 'nati. Our defending Kelly Cup champs went to double overtime,before beating the Wheeling Nailers. Fun, exciting hockey. I'm a hockey freak. I played it in HS and a little bit at Ohio University. I had season tickets, back in the day for both the NY Rangers and the Cyclones, when they played at the Gardens. There is no better in arena experience than hockey. It's a different bunch of Cyclones from the team that won it all last season. But I think they have a chance to repeat, particularly after last night's thriller.

So, is this the guy the Bengals wind up with at #6 overall in this weekend's NFL draft?

I got no problem if it is. You can talk all you want about Andre Smith skipping out early at the Combine. You can talk all you want about his body shape. He can block and I've been told, he's the strongest man in the draft. A Bengal by sundown Saturday? No problem with that.