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The Cincinnati Reds
organization was recently named organization of the year by Baseball
America. Photo courtesy of reds.com
Cincinatti Reds
2012
Organization Of The Year: Cincinnati Reds
The Reds aren't yet where they want to be.
The team that hatched the idea of professional baseball and brought
fans the Big Red Machine still hasn't won a playoff series this
century. But a decade spent largely in the catacombs of the National
League Central makes the Reds' present perch seem lofty.
After missing the playoffs for 14 straight seasons, Cincinnati has gone
to the playoffs in two of the past three years. What was once a team
that couldn't develop a homegrown pitcher now fields a lineup and
rotation filled largely with born-and-bred Reds. The NL's best hitter,
Joey Votto, has spent his entire career as a Red, and he'll likely
spend the rest of it in Cincinnati as well, after signing a contract
extension that keeps him locked up through 2023. Two homegrown Reds,
Johnny Cueto and Aroldis Chapman, received NL Cy Young Award votes this
year. A third, Homer Bailey, threw a no-hitter.
But most importantly, in a city that has been starved of winners (we're
looking at you, too, woeful Bengals organization), the Reds are once
again a team near the top.
Because of their ability to build a winner through scouting and player
development and the fact that they've built for sustainable success,
the Reds are the Baseball America Organization of the Year for 2012.
Until the middle of October, Reds fans could be excused for thinking
that 2012 really was going to be their year.
They watched their club win 97 games, the most by any Cincinnati club
since the Big Red Machine in 1975. Legendary Reds shortstop Barry
Larkin was inducted into the Hall of Fame. Even a knee injury for the
seemingly indispensable Votto couldn't slow down the Reds—they went
16-3 in the first 19 games after he went on the disabled list. And when
the playoffs began, they jumped out to a 2-0 lead at San Francisco,
returning to Cincinnati needing only one win to advance to the NL
Championship Series for the first time since 1995.
In Game One, however, staff ace Cueto left the game with a back injury
that forced the Reds to replace him on the roster. After a Scott Rolen
error cost the team in an extra-inning loss in Game Three, Cueto's
replacement, Mike Leake, was shelled in Game Four. In Game Five, the
Reds rallied from an early 6-0 deficit to bring the tying run to the
plate in the ninth, but Rolen struck out to end the season.
Read the rest of the article at the Bleacher Report
http://bleacherreport.com/tb/d95pQ?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=cincinnati-reds
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