Sean Casey is the first baseman for the Reds. When he’s in his groove, Casey is a startlingly good hitter, making adjustments even between pitches at the same at bat. Casey lacks grace in his running and is not the quickest guy you’re ever going to see, but he is quite flexible for a guy his size and is adept at getting his mitt on balls that are thrown pretty poorly his direction. He has saved his fellow infielders countless errors by coming up with great catches, and he makes it look so easy that he doesn’t really get the credit for it that he should.

For a while, it seemed like Casey was getting an unfair shake because first base is often where you put your old, fat guy who can’t be bothered to put down his jumbo pretzel long enough to do much fielding, but still hits a ton of homeruns, and Casey was hitting only a half ton. Last season, however, Casey was far-and-away the Reds’ most consistent hitter, mostly doubles, but more than his fair share of everything else as well, and I haven’t heard a peep of that kind of criticism since.

Sean Casey is the first baseman for the Reds. When he’s in his groove, Casey is a startlingly good hitter, making adjustments even between pitches at the same at bat. Casey lacks grace in his running and is not the quickest guy you’re ever going to see, but he is quite flexible for a guy his size and is adept at getting his mitt on balls that are thrown pretty poorly his direction. He has saved his fellow infielders countless errors by coming up with great catches, and he makes it look so easy that he doesn’t really get the credit for it that he should.

For a while, it seemed like Casey was getting an unfair shake because first base is often where you put your old, fat guy who can’t be bothered to put down his jumbo pretzel long enough to do much fielding, but still hits a ton of homeruns, and Casey was hitting only a half ton. Last season, however, Casey was far-and-away the Reds’ most consistent hitter, mostly doubles, but more than his fair share of everything else as well, and I haven’t heard a peep of that kind of criticism since.

I have to tell you something, because it's important to face the reality of a situation, and I know that none of the bloggers in Reds-land are going to want to be the ones to mention it: Rich Aurilia's error in the first inning lost tonight's game.

There. It's out. The elephant has been acknowledged. I know it was painful to hear, but now that's it's done, we can face it together and get on with life.

A quick announcement: today has been Red Hot Mama's most popular day, bringing in not quite half again as many hits compared to any other day to date. I'm gladdened and encouraged, and I'm sending you all a great big cyber-smooch by way of thanks, but I should warn you guys that if you keep on at this rate, it's likely to go to my head. And do you really want to inflate the ego of a woman who already goes by the moniker 'Red Hot Mama'?

Welcome to the very first player profile in the Human League. I should take this opportunity to make it absolutely clear that I know none of the Reds personally. I've never met a single one. My impressions are based on four years of observations and nothing else, so please feel free to put the smack down on me with your evidence to the contrary of my opinions.

Jason LaRue.

Introducing the Human League.