Todd Frazier And The Amazing Reds

Jonah Keri:

Todd Frazier has reached base in 22 straight games. He's hitting .294/.354/.554, making him a top-25 hitter in his rookie season. In the past 30 days, only Buster Posey, Albert Pujols, Prince Fielder, and teammate Ryan Ludwick have put up bigger numbers. In that same 30-day stretch, the Reds have gone 19-11, blazing to the best record in baseball and giving themselves a shot at their first World Series in 22 years.
So what does the best team in baseball do with the guy who's been its best hitter for the past two months? Bat him cleanup? Give him a long-term deal? Throw him a parade?
Not quite. When Joey Votto comes off the disabled list on Saturday, Dusty Baker plans to look Frazier square in the eye, and give him the good news. Congratulations, you've just been benched.
This season, no team has been more exhilarating, and more maddening, than the Reds. The good news starts with one of baseball's most productive farm systems. Other teams get more credit for their scouting and player development, but the Reds have graduated a mother lode of talent to the big leagues over the past years, and those players are now hitting their stride. Five members of the current starting lineup — Zack Cozart, Drew Stubbs, Jay Bruce, Frazier, and Ryan Hanigan — were homegrown. So's three-fifths of the starting rotation — Cy Young candidate Johnny Cueto, Homer Bailey, and Mike Leake — as well as the team's nuclear bomb of a closer Aroldis Chapman, and Votto, the most valuable player in baseball over the past three seasons. That young core has delivered big results, in a very different way than Adam Dunn's Reds teams once did.

The Reds season has been amazing thus far.  Especially considering how well they've done while Joey Votto was out.  I don't want to get too fired up, but maybe the Reds could make a run for their first World Series title since 1990.  Ah, 1990.