Ok, so that happened.

You might have noticed that 18to88.com got hacked today.  We were advised that someone was after the site, but that security measures were in place.  Apparently, they still got in and well...they deleted everything.

Anyway, and I'm addressing you, Moronic Chineesee Cyber-Terrorists, you accomplished nothing other than screwing with my day.

Suffice it to say that 18to88.com is back on line.  I've sunk half a day into the site already, so you'll have to make do with some links today.  Tomorrow, I'll do a short post to wrap up FOA 2010 week.

Thanks for your patience.  I hope to see you all out at the signing Monday night.

Big news:

The first book signing for Blue Blood will be on Monday night (the 19th).

I'll be at Blue Crew Sports Grill at 7035 E 96th St from 6-8 PM Monday night.

Kids are welcome (mine will be there for at least a little while).  I'll have books for sale and will be happy to sign any copy you already have.

It's been a long time coming right?  Let's get together and have a good time at the mother of all Colts' themed restaurants.  I'll even have some name tags handy in case you want to put your screen name on your shirt.  I'll be the guy wearing the Argentina jersey, wearing a DZ tag and standing next to a pile of books.

If you can't make it out on Monday, please don't forget that On Friday, July 30 from noon-2 pm I'll be at Teapots N Treasures at 7 Market Street (almost right on the Circle).  The owner, Donna, has books on sale now, so if you are downtown, stop in and say hi.

Every year, the Football Outsiders publish their guide to the new season.  The Football Outsiders 2010 Almanac went on sale yesterday, and is the second most important book that a Colts fan can buy this summer.  Every serious football fan ought to give it a look.  All week, I'll be reviewing the book to share some of the great insights they have into the Colts.  Today:  the rest of the South.

2009 was another strong year from the South.  True, only the Colts made the playoffs, but the Jags, Titans, and Texans managed 7,8, and 9 wins respectively.  With no true 'weak sister' in the group, it makes it difficult for multiple teams to emerge from the division, because all three beat up on each other.  It is in vogue these days to project a major leap forward for the Texans, specifically, as they've finally found a quarterback capable of elite play, something the Titans and Jags sorely lack.

Surprisingly the Outsiders foresee the Colts dominating the South with little opposition from the other three teams.  They foresee major regression from the Texans.  They project Houston to finish with 5.6 wins, and give them a 70% of finishing with fewer than six.  I was stunned by the projection, but FOs reasoning is sound.  The Texans benefited from one of the easiest schedules in football in 2009 and had spectacular injury luck with their offensive line and quarterback.  Though they lost six close games in 2009, they also won five. In summary:

All told, there are too many question marks in Houston to expect a playoff berth. Schaub, Slaton, and Daniels can’t be counted on to stay healthy. The offensive line may not gel with the new group of running backs. Cushing’s absence may be too much to overcome. There may be other injuries along the front seven. The secondary may struggle as it did last year. And then there’s the brutal out-of-division schedule.

What of the Titans, then?  Will they challenge Indy for the top of the division?  The Outsiders say...no.  The Titans come out with just 7.4 projected wins and only a 31% chance of being a playoff team.  Essentially, they'll be what they were last year...but in a different way.  The Outsiders see a rebound for the Titans defense from terrible (in the first six games last year) to pretty average.  The real reason to expect the Titans to struggle contending is simply that Chris Johnson isn't going to run for 2,000 yards this year.  To counteract that, the Titans will need Vince Young to take yet another major leap forward.  He did take one last season, but assuming that Johnson has the natural regression, he'll need to play better than he ever has before to carry the slack.  They (and I) am betting that he can't.

And the Jags? FO sees them as exactly the same kind of team they were last year.  The projection is for 6.8 wins, but with almost no upside at all.  The Jags only have 21% chance of being a playoff contender (with a 41% chance of losing 10 games or more).  The Jags simply have too many holes on the field to be competitive.  They need help at wide receiver, safety, corner, and lack depth at end, OT, and quarterback.  The bottom line is that this team just doesn't have the horses to compete.  Oh, and they still have Mad Jack Del Rio, who FO blames for a lot of the problems in Jacksonville.

Blame for these poor performances has to fall primarily on coach Jack Del Rio. Del Rio returns for his eighth season as head coach, despite only making the playoffs twice during his first seven seasons. In the early years of his career, the Jaguars’ on-field results tended to fairly consistently track the team’s overall talent level; since then, though, the Jaguars have tended to play either inconsistently or poorly. 2007 was the best team Del Rio has had in Jacksonville, as the Jaguars were third in the league in DVOA. That year, though, they had the highest variance in the league.

So the good news for Colts fans is that it looks like it could be a rough ride for the rest of the division.  If the Outsiders are right about Houston, we could be looking at more "Painter-time" come late December.

Every year, the Football Outsiders publish their guide to the new season.  The Football Outsiders 2010 Almanac went on sale yesterday, and is the second most important book that a Colts fan can buy this summer.  Every serious football fan ought to give it a look.  All week, I'll be reviewing the book to share some of the great insights they have into the Colts.  Today: the defense.

The Outsiders did not think kindly of the Colts defense in 2009, especially the defensive tackles.  They said of Muir and Johnson:

By Week 10 of 2009, Antonio Johnson and Daniel Muir had settled in as the starting tackles, but the results left a lot to be desired. Johnson’s average play came further downfield than any other defensive tackle in the league, and Muir was hardly much better. The Colts are obviously looking for more push here.

The Outsiders also didn't like the move to resign Brackett, although in defense of the team, it was a move for "now" in a capless environment.  If Brackett plays well this year and/or next, then the move worked.  In two more seasons, Angerer should be ready sto step in.

If history is any indication, the Colts will regret that deal. We used the FO defensive similarity scores system to look for the ten players coming off three-year spans most similar to Brackett’s last three seasons. Out of the ten players most similar to Brackett, only Derek Smith was still starting three years later (although Keith Brooking could join him this season, as could Gerald Hayes in 2011). Three of the top ten — Al Wilson, Ian Gold, and Marvin Jones — never played again. Brackett weighs just 235 pounds, much less than Wilson or Jones, making him one of the smallest inside linebackers in the league. He’s also 30 years old. There are only so many times a body that small can withstand the violent collision of an NFL play.Despite his talent, the end for Brackett will likely come sooner rather than later.

FOA 2010 is loaded with more observations (like calling Lacey and Powers performances "amazing"), but I don't want to spoil the book for you.  FOA 2010 is 617 pages long.  It's chock full of informative and insightful writing, sprinkled with some humor as well.  I cover FOA each year for the following reasons:

1.  I love the analysis that FO does.  To be clear, there is another website called Pro Football Focus.  They do interesting, but highly suspect individual player rankings.  The Football Outsiders are different.

2.  FOA is the best preseason read available.

3.  It's July and I'm ready to talk football, and this is the only way to do it without feeling like I'm just recycling points we've already beat into the ground for months.

For the record, I get nothing for promoting this book.  I buy my copy just like everyone else.  I do have an interview pending on their site about Blue Blood (I'll be in the Walkthrough column in a couple of weeks-cue happiness for Bobman), but there has never been any quid pro quo.  I talk about FOA 2010 simply because I believe in the product.   So, do yourself a favor and pick FOA 2010 today.

Garrison sends us this report about how much Blue Blood there is out there:

Took a trip to Cedar Point amusement park in Sandusky, Ohio (bout 50 miles from Cleveland) last week and much to my surprise there was Colts gear all over the place. I saw more people with Colts stuff on than any other pro team- not just football, any of the big 4 sports. The only teams that had enough for me to even consider them on par with the Colts were Ohio State and Michigan. The Colts had by far and away the most NFL apparel out in force. It was awesome to see. Naturally we all traded the knowing glance when we caught each others eye- and when you didn't do that, a simple "GO COLTS!" from afar would suffice.

Ironically I had a funny moment happen at Cedar Point last summer as well- had spotted a dude in a Brady jersey who was walking ahead of my group of six or so. He eventually stopped to get food or something and as we passed we all shouted 'go colts' in unison.. it was beautiful :-D

Thanks man. It's great to hear that Colts' nation is taking over.  If you are a new fan of the Colts and want to catch up on the past 20+ years of history in Indianapolis, make sure to check out Blue Blood.

Every year, the Football Outsiders publish their guide to the new season.  The Football Outsiders 2010 Almanac went on sale yesterday, and is the second most important book that a Colts fan can buy this summer.  Every serious football fan ought to give it a look.  All week, I'll be reviewing the book to share some of the great insights they have into the Colts. Today:  The Indy Offense.

The Outsiders weigh in on one of the big controversies this offseason, namely Anthony Gonzalez's role in the offense.

The biggest “acquisition” for the Colts will likely be Anthony Gonzalez. The young wideout put up some of the best per-target numbers in the league in each of his first two seasons, but blew out his knee in Week 1 in 2009 and was lost for the year without a single catch. At the time of this writing, Gonzalez had not been cleared for training camp, and there was no guarantee that he would be ready for the start of the season. If he can go, however, even with any lingering effects he’ll likely still be the Colts’ second-best receiver. That means the third and fourth receivers will be Pierre Garcon and Austin Collie, a pair of backups better than the starters on some teams.

They also had two other interesting comments on Collie and Garcon:

On Collie: He’s almost certainly the best fourth receiver in the league. Still, it’s important not to set expectations for Collie too high. Yes, his numbers are pretty, but he was attacking defenses that were focusing on Wayne and Dallas Clark. Peyton Manning also has a knack for making his receivers look better than they really are. Finally, despite skipping his senior season at BYU, Collie is still old for a second-year player, his arrival into the NFL delayed by a two-year Mormon mission. There’s less room for development here than you may think, so don’t make him a priority in keeper leagues.

On Garcon:  Garçon stepped into the hole in the starting lineup left by Anthony Gonzalez’s injury. He played a little better than his DVOA suggests. While he was third on the team behind Reggie Wayne and Dallas Clark in targets (and only one pass ahead of Austin Collie), he was a distant fourth in short routes. That’s because he was always going deep, leading the team with 20 bomb attempts. That’s particularly interesting because it’s not how Gonzalez was used at all — he ran only five bomb routes in all of 2008. Garçon was also one of two wide receivers (the other being Atlanta’s Roddy White) to lead his team in penalties.

Now, the point of showing these quotes is to illustrate the way that FO thinks about players.  The numbers showed that Gonzo was an elite WR his first two years, clearly better than either Collie or Garcon.  They are assuming that both Collie and Garcon were made to look better than they really were.  However, they have found the one thing that makes Garcon intriguing, and why everyone (myself included) HOPES he can play at an elite level and win the #2 job.  He is a special kind of deep threat.  That makes him potentially quite important to the offense.  However, when they say they expect Gonzo to pass both Collie and Garcon they do so because the numbers show he's a vastly superior player to either of them.  Garcon's hands and penalty prone nature show that he still has a long way to go, and Collie is what he is, quite possibly entering the league at something close to peak ability without much capacity to better what he's already done.

I take the comment that Gonzo will vault back to number two with a grain of salt because it's not based on specific knowledge, but rather is a projection based on past performance. Personally, I expect him to open the season at number three, and will wind up with more targets than Garcon by the end of the year, simply because I'm convinced he's a more reliable player.

FOA 2010 also spends a lot of time talking about the offensive line struggles.  Note what they rightly say about Charlie Johnson.

If Tony Ugoh can finally live up to the potential that made him an early second-round pick in 2007, he’ll finally stake a permanent claim to the left tackle position — if not, he’ll be officially a bust and Charlie Johnson will re-take the job by default. This is not a case of a veteran earning a starting role with superior play. Our charters were often mortified by Johnson’s performance, but he is, apparently, still the best option the Colts have here. The one sure thing on the line: Jeff Saturday will be snapping the ball for the 11th season in a row. Jamey Richard will back him up — unless he wins the battle royal at the guard position.

The numbers indicate that this line struggles in run blocking, but makes up for it with superior pass protection. The game charting numbers are even stronger, counting only nine blown blocks on pass plays and ranking the Colts third in preventing hurries. This all speaks more to Peyton Manning, however, than to the quality of his individual blockers. With his pocket presence, ability to throw under pressure, and knowledge of which protection
scheme to call against any blitz, Manning makes his linemen look better than they really are.

I think we can all agree that the line simply has to play better in 2010.  I don't blame them for losing the Super Bowl, but they are not a strong unit as a whole, and merit most all of the criticism levied their way.

Remember, I'm just scratching the surface of what FOA 2010 has to offer.  Tomorrow, I'll discuss the defense.  Be sure to buy your copy today.

Oh, hey Cleveland.  Sorry about that big knife stuck in your back.  Let me help you with that!  Oh hey, did you know there are some other daggers already in there...

I come not to praise or bury LeBron James.  Let me be clear: I have no love for him.  I hate Cleveland.  I hate "straight to the NBA from high school" stars.  I don't much like the NBA.  I'm no fan of giant hour long press conferences, either.

What I can't stand, however, is scapegoating.

What happened to the people of Cleveland is too bad, but they should not direct all their rage at a 25 year old man.  LeBron had plenty of help.

Dan Gilbert:

This man has to be the biggest clown in the NBA.  He screwed this scenario up six ways to Sunday, and he'd better not get a free pass.  First, right after the Boston series news was leaked that he was going to fire Mike Brown.  It was the obvious decision.  Forget regular season wins, Brown was a mess.  He should have been canned 60 seconds after the Boston series.  I applauded Gilbert's decisiveness.  But oh!  He didn't actually fire Brown.  In a classic show of head-up-his-butt-itis, he let Brown dangle for a few more days, THEN fired him.  That was my first clue this guy was out to lunch.

Of course the fact that he had LeBron for SEVEN YEARS FIVE YEARS (note:  Gilbert bought the team two years into LeBron's career) and couldn't manage to put a decent coach/GM/team around him should have tipped me off.  The corpse of Shaq? Jamison?  Boobie Gibson? Seriously?  This owner got the break of a lifetime in winning the lottery to get James, and he couldn't manage to build a credible team around him.  Gilbert is the real villain of this story.  He's a joke.

If we had any doubt as to what kind of psycho this clown is, just read his insane screed written after James left.  NO WONDER James didn't stick with this guy!  He's completely unhinged.  I'm sorry, but as classy as James' press conference wasn't, Gilbert's rant was a million times worst.  On top of it all, he promises a championship?  HE IS DELUSIONAL. You need players, specifically stars to win titles there Gilly.  You aren't ever getting any to come to Cleveland.

Sorry Cleveland, but Gilbert had a knife in your back well before LeBron stabbed you.  But, oh...he had help.

The Media:

The basketball press has been peddling the insane notion that "the only thing that matters is championships" for years.  LeBron has heard nothing but "MVPs don't matter, only rings!" and "without a title, you are nothing".  Then he does the only thing he possibly can: he chases a ring.  How does the media respond:  outrage.

LeBron had two options:  Chicago or Miami.  He was never going to win crap in Cleveland.  The Cavs left him no choice.  If he goes back to Cleveland, they are no better than the fourth or fifth best team in the East.  Because the media refused to let him be a big fish in a dry small  pond, James could not go back there.

Now the media is hacking away at LeBron.  Several writers have said that this cheapens James' legacy.  We know he's not like Jordan or Bird or Magic.  Those guys would never have conspired to form a super team with other stars.

That's true, but do you know why?  THEY ALREADY HAD SUPER TEAMS!

Jordan played with Pippen (one of the best players of all time) and Rodman (who had HoF talent when he cared enough to play).  Magic had freaking Kareem and James Worthy.  Bird?  He had three other Hall of Famers in the starting lineup with him!  Do you know why Bird and Magic never joined forces?  Because they had amazing teams around them.  Don't even get me started on Bill "I played with 8 Hall of Famers" Russell.  No one ever won a title by himself!  LeBron isn't a lesser competitor for wanting to play with Wade and Bosh.  He's just smart enough to know he doesn't want to lug four losers around the court with him all year again.  I don't blame him a lick for that.

Kobe?  Don't even bring up that fraud.  6-24 in game seven of the Finals and THE LAKERS WON!  Kobe was not a one man show, not even close. Bashing LeBron for not staying in Cleveland and chasing a ring is insane.  The media told him he had to do it.  Now they are ripping him because it's popular, but the minute he scores 40 in a Finals game against the Lakers and wins a title, everyone will be back to riding his jock.  The whole thing is sickening. Don't tell me his legacy will never recover.  Kobe raped a girl.  Now look at him.  If we've learned anything about legacies in the NBA, it's that they recover (cough, Ron Artest, cough).

They created this monster, and now they want to kill it.  Good luck with that.  LeBron chased rings, not money.  He left cash on the table so he could win.  That's the mark of a competitor, not a loser.  Had he signed with Cleveland, the same people ripping him for not having the guts to stay would have written that he chose money and comfort over greatness and winning.  They would have said that he's scared of the limelight and doesn't have the will to be a champion. 

LeBron proved one thing on Thursday:  he has the will.  He turned down money and stabbed his community in the back for a ring.

Sounds positively Kobian.

Chris Bosh:

If he would have played in Cleveland, LeBron stays.  It's that simple.  LeBron had to have someone to play with.  Bosh, wisely, would rather winter in Miami than in the seventh circle of hell that sits on a frozen lake.  I don't blame him for that.  Clevelanders should though.

***

Again, I'm not excusing the way James made his exit.  That's been trashed enough by others.  I don't blame him at all for leaving.  Gilbert and the media made it so there was no way he could stay and be a winner. Bosh refused to bail out the Cavs.

Those are the real villians in this story.

Every year, the Football Outsiders publish their guide to the new season.  The Football Outsiders 2010 Almanac went on sale yesterday, and is the second most important book that a Colts fan can buy this summer.  Every serious football fan ought to give it a look.  All week, I'll be reviewing the book to share some of the great insights they have into the Colts.

If there is one word the Outsiders would use to describe the 2010 Colts it would be "consistency".  Quite frankly, they expect the 2010 Colts to look pretty much like every other Colts team we've seen for the past 5-8 years.  FOA 2010 projects the Colts as an 11.3 win team.  Top teams always project with slightly fewer wins than they actually get because most statistical models tend to pull teams back toward the 'mean'. This is actually a fantastic projection for the Colts who typically come out slightly lower by FO numbers.  They give the Colts a 91% chance of winning at least 9 games, and a 66% chance of being a playoff contender with at least 11 wins.  They foresee the Colts as dominating the AFC South. I'll cover what they think of our rivals next week, but let's just say that the numbers 'hate' the other three teams.

The Almanac is more than just number crunching, however.  It is also a great compendium of scouting insight about all 32 NFL teams. For instance, for all the talk about how much more the 2009 Colts blitzed, they still only brought five rushers 19.9% of the time (good for 25th in the NFL) and they rushed 6 or more just 4% of the time (31st). Both of those are higher than in 2008, when the Colts blitzed a league low 9.9% of the time.  So they blitzed about twice as often, but still ranked among the least blitzing teams in the NFL.

They also detected an anomaly in the run game that I think we all noticed:

The runners got little help from their blockers, or from a philosophy that didn’t seem to mesh with last year’s personnel. The Colts were actually very effective when running between the guards, but struggled when running off either tackle or to the outside. Because of their reliance on the stretch play to set up play-action, however, they ran up the middle less often than any team except Detroit. That’s somewhat normal for the Colts. While they ran up the gut a little less than the average team in 2008, they were much closer to the bottom in 2007.

The Colts couldn't run outside at all in 2009.  The tackle play just wasn't up to it.

Monday, I'll take a look at what the Outsiders say about the offense.  On Tuesday, we'll look at the defense.  On Wednesday, specific players.  On Thursday, we'll look at the rest of the AFC South.  Finally, we'll look at what they say about local colleges a week from today.  It's FOA week...one of the best weeks of the year!  Seriously go buy this book.  Actually, buy mine first.  Then go buy this one.

In summary, the Almanac foresees more of the same for the Colts:

You may have noticed that this chapter focuses almost entirely on the 2009 Colts, while most of the team chapters in Football Outsiders Almanac 2010 are focused on where teams are going in 2010. That’s because the 2010 Colts are the 2009 Colts. And the 2008 Colts, and the 2007 Colts, and the 2006 Colts. They have the same philosophy on both sides of the ball and another easy schedule, with none of their division rivals projected over 7.0 mean wins. Once again, there will be a lot of 31-24 wins, a division title, and a game full of backups in Week 17. The Colts will be good enough to win the Super Bowl if they play well, but not so good that they can afford to make mistakes in the playoffs. As long as Peyton Manning is under center and somebody named Polian is running the front office, there’s no reason to expect any change — or any losing seasons.

I'll take it.

Relax.

The Footballoutsiders 2010 Almanac comes up today (presumably).  The second most important book you can buy this offseason all always elicits a week long response from me. That means that very soon, I'll be switching back to all football all the time.  For today, however, I want to discuss the Cincinnati Reds, specifically why Indianapolis needs to get behind this team.

Why should Indy get behind the 2010 Reds?  Let me tell you...

1.  Scott Rolen is a Hoosier hero.

Rolen had long been one of my favorite non-Reds.  The Jasper, IN native is exactly the kind of gritty, play-the-game-the-right-way players that is easy to love.  His clubhouse presence (and All-Star offense) have altered the Reds dramatically in the past year.  Rolen is the kind of guy anyone can get behind.

2.  The Reds are the closest team to Indianapolis

You can be at a Reds game in two hours flat.  Think about that.  You can work until 5, bust tail down to Cincy and still catch the first pitch most nights.  The Reds don't require a day off of work.  Just hop in your car and go!

3.  Joey Votto

Have I mentioned that you should vote for him?  Votto is one of the best young hitters in baseball.  He's a home-grown MVP candidate, and on top of everything else, is a pretty brave guy.  Votto is one of the chief reasons you can know the Reds are legit.  To be a contender, a team needs a dynamic bat.  Votto is that, and has been almost from his first day in the big leagues.

4.  The Reds have a history in Indianapolis

I know that the Indians farm for the Pirates right now, but Indy has traditionally been the top farm club for the Reds.  In fact from 1968-1983, some of the best Reds ever came through Indy.  George Foster, Ken Griffey, Eric Davis, and Dave Concepcion all are Reds Hall of Famers who played in Indianapolis.

5.  Brandon Phillips is as good a defensive player as there is in baseball

Where are all the good young African-American players?  One of the best plays second base for the Reds.  Phillips has finally found a home at the top of the order for the Reds, but where he has never been in doubt is in the field.  Phillips is arguably the most electric defender in baseball right now (scroll down and check the Web Gems leaderboard). You never know what kind of spectacular play he is going to make.

6.  The Reds are buyers not sellers.

Cincinnati is actually one of the leading teams in the market for Cliff Lee.  That says it all right there.  This is a team looking to win now.  Management is desperate for the playoffs, and they will do what it takes.

7.  Have I mentioned they are in first place?

The Reds now have a season high three game lead over the Cardinals.  Jump on the bandwagon and back a winner, already.

8.  Arthur Rhodes is older than you are.

Seriously.  I don't care how old you are.  Rhodes is older.  He's your freaking grandpa.

Oh yeah, he also just made the All-Star team for the first time in his career.  The addition of Rhodes two years ago was brilliant.  It was exactly the kind of under the radar free-agent signing that smart teams make.  He's been the rock in the middle of the Reds bullpen.

9.  The Reds are never out of it.

Cincy leads the majors with 26 come from behind wins, many in their final at bat.  The Reds have power all over their line up, and it makes them a tough team to beat.  As opposed to rooting for a team with a crappy bull pen where no lead is safe, the Reds offer the promise of a dramatic comeback every night.

10.  Because you like to see offense.

The Reds have scored the 4th most runs in baseball (behind 3 DH ridden AL clubs).  If you like home runs and you like to see scoring, the Reds ought to be your team.  Great American Ball Park gives up the most homers in baseball so if you dig the long ball, you want to see games there.

11.  Because you like pitching.

The Reds rotation is anchored by Bronson Arroyo and Aaron Harang, but every other starter they have is under 25.  With budding stars like Cueto and Leake the Reds sport the deepest collection of young pitching talent in the big leagues.  They have so much good young pitching at the moment that former All-Star Edison Volquez might struggle to crack the rotation when he comes back from the DL soon.

12.  They left Chapman in the minors.

The fact that the Reds even bid for Chapman was amazing.  The fact that they WON that bid showed they were serious about winning.  The fact that they have let him season in AAA shows that they are serious about building for the long haul and not just trying for quick fixes.  This is a team on the rise, and they are going to be around for awhile.

13.  The games are always on the radio.

The Reds are on locally on XL 950, but for those who are out of range, you can always count on 700 WLW.  This is why I'm a Reds fan.  I grew up with my AM radio tuned to 700 every night.  To hear a Cubs game, you have to stand on your head with foil on the antennea.  The Reds come in crystal clear every summer evening.

14.  Reds fans have a kickin' blog.

Redlegnation.com is one of the best sports blogs out there.  If you wonder what kind of site I visit for fun, go no further.  Fans of 18to88 will feel very at home there.

15.  Because Marty won't lie to you.

Marty Brennaman is more than a Hall of Fame broadcaster.  He's a truth teller.  Acerbic and harsh?  Maybe, but you can count on Marty not to sugar coat anything.  He'll tell you who stinks, and when he starts getting excited, you know it's legit.  Guess what?  Marty's getting excited.

16. Their pitchers can hit.

Do you hate the DH like I do?  Then the Reds are your team.  Lead by Mike Leake's .344 average, the Reds have one of the best hitting staffs in baseball.

17.  Because Jay Bruce is legit.

I had my reservations about Bruce, but he has become a professional hitter. His batting average and on base percentage have both risen this year without sacrificing power.  He's working on becoming a complete player, which is something I questioned if he'd ever become.

18.  Because football season is still weeks away.

Sure, training camp starts soon, but then there is a month of unwatchable pre-season games.  Follow the Reds.  It will give you something to flip over to once Curtis Painter gets into the games.