8 Days to Spring Training and the Rebirth of the Big Red Machine!!!

This is when Lee Corso would come in and say, "Not so fast, my friend." Yes, the future looks bright for the Reds, as they have a lot of young talent on the way...but I'm just not sure that they're going to contend in '08. It's not a given that Bruce will start the season in Cincy, nor that Votto will be given the everyday 1B job...or that Homer Bailey will start to live up to his lofty expectations in '08 -- not to mention whether or not Edwin Encarnacion has grown up from last season's shenanigans, if Griffey will duplicate his solid #'s from '07, and if the back end of their rotation will win some games. To me there are too many questions for this season's club. Sure, they could mesh together like last year's D-Backs and make a run, but it's really hard to mesh that many young players on the big league club and contend right away. I look for '09 to be closer to what you're expecting.

Thanks for your comments, cincysportsart!!! You have many excellent points and I will grant you that there are alot of questions to be answered with many variables and that our ultimate success is quite dependent on the maturation of several young studs within the organization. But take into consideration the two big moves made this offseason - Dusty Baker and Francisco Cordero. Baker is a proven manager who has come into organizations and won with with them. The 2003 Chicago Cubs were Central champs in his first year with them and the 1993 San Fran Giants, his first managerial year, went 103-59. Yes, I know San Fran had Bonds and Matt Williams, with two 20 game winners (Burkett and Swift) and Beck was a monster with almost 50 saves. But with a good closer behind him, Harang is a 20 game winner and Arroyo could log 16 or so himself. And the NL Central is definitely not as tough as the 1993 NL West was!!!
The addition of Cordero is huge. Let's assume that he could have preserved just half (14) of the blown saves (28) by Cincy's bullpen last year. A 14 game swing would have won the Central for the Reds last year! Granted, many of those save ops were lost in the 7th and 8th innings but with Cordero in the ninth, we now have Weathers and Burton available for the "Innings that Dare Not Be Mentioned" :P I fully expect a healthy Bill Bray and a slimmed down (contract year) Coffey to be much better this year, also.
Dunn is in his big payday year and can be counted on for 40+ HR and 90+ RBI based on his track record. Junior may not play 144 games as he did last year but there is no denying he can still hit. Even if Jay Bruce isn't quite ready to take over center, Norris Hopper is fully capable of continuing his torrid lead-off hitting and better than average defense. Votto showed us what he is capable of in August and September last year. Brandon Phillips is ranked 5th or higher in every fantasy poll for second basemen I have come across. Edwin Encarnacion also showed us that he has some all-star in his blood after returning from his short demotion to Louisville. We have two utilitymen in Ryan Freel and Jeff Keppinger that, between them, can play any other position on the field minus pitcher and catcher.
The rotation is the biggest concern. Can Arroyo rebound from his sub-par 2007? Can Beslisle get his better than average stuff together? Can Homer Bailey build on his experience from last year and become the stud everyone thinks he is? Will the Affeldt experiment garner positive results? Even if he doesn't make it as a starter, he has shown he can pitch well out of the pen. Volquez, Cueto, Maloney, Roenicke? It remains to be seen what we have there but there are certainly lots of things to like about all of them.
Whatever happens, even if '08 isn't the year, I truly believe that that it is going to be exciting to begin to see shades of the New Big Red Machine start to evolve :)

Yeah, don't get me wrong, there's reason to be optimistic for Reds fans, but I was just trying to temper some of those expecatations as there are way too questions to be answered before Opening Day gets rolling. The fact that the Reds only had one SP win more than 10 games last season describes their season in a nutshell for '07. I completely agree, the pieces are there to win, but I just don't know that they'll fall into place this season. Dusty Baker loves his veterans, which leads me to believe Hatteberg will see more time than he deserves at 1B to start the year, further stunting the growth of Votto -- who showed last season he should have been their Opening Day 1B starter in '07...not '08.

Brandon Phillips is a superstar, believe me, I know that. It's just too bad the Reds haven't been smart enough to lock him up long-term and pay him like he deserves...because if they don't "pay" him soon, he'll go somewhere that will.

Besides, your post kind of proves my point...a lot of question marks in there. (As a side note...I think the NL Central is in a trend resembling the way the NL West was a few years ago...everyone's not that great, but is really young -- and I think in 2-3 years the NL Central is going to be very competitive with the Cubs, Brewers, Reds, and Cardinals contending closely.)