Reitsma Lips

I hate to say I told you say I told you so, in the sense that I love to say it. The Reds' Chris Reitsma in his first start of the year pitched eight-innings of shutout ball and won, 3-0.

Go ahead and smile Chris. You earned it.

I have been saying all along that the Reds made a mistake sending Reitsma down (he was the last pitcher with options left in spring training). It wasn't pretty but two nicely turned double-plays by fellow replacement Juan Castro (plus a home run) sealed the Dodgers' fate.

Cincinnati manager Bob Boone was non-commital before the game as to whether Reitsma would get more than one start. He doesn't have a choice now: Reitsma now leads all Reds starters in ERA and is tied for the lead in wins.

Castro and Reitsma's night underscores how poor Boone's spring training decisions were. He dumped Reitsma because of his poor won-loss record in 2002, ignoring his good ERA. Boone also moved son Aaron to second in the offseason. Pere Boone has since moved back to third and Castro is filling in at second.

Don't worry though. There are still many Boone errors to fix. Reggie Taylor is filling in for Ken Griffey in center field, a questionable decision at best, but Taylor and his career .274 on-base percentage batted second tonight (for the first time this season). Taylor left the game batting .167 for the season. I know he has a lefty bat and you want the lefty-right matchup against the tough righty Dreifort, but Taylor for his career has an OBP of .292 vs. righties. Where's the advantage?

The bad thing with reversing all of Boone's mistakes is that it may end up saving his job. I guess that's a risk the Reds are willing to take.