The Cincinnati Reds began their annual west coast trip tonight against the Seattle Mariners. The teams are in the 8th as I right this, with the Mariners leading 1-0. Hopefully, the Reds can start the road trip off with a win.

So many times the Reds have collapsed on the west coast. They’re actually 13-32 on the west coast over the last 4 years. But according to Scott Rolen, that’s not different from the good teams he’s played on.

“I think it’s more a matter of you play some pretty good teams out there,” Rolen said. “The Dodgers, the Giants. Oakland is usually pretty tough at home.”

Rolen should know, considering he’s played for Philadelphia, St. Louis, and Toronto.

Even if the team does lose more than it wins, the real test will be when they return. They’ve shown unprecedented resilience so far this year. This test might be the biggest one yet.

Tonight I take a break from encouraging you to Vote Votto and allow the Cincinnati Reds to do it for me:

The Reds need your votes!
June 15, 2010 – Major League Baseball has announced the next update of the leading vote getters in balloting for the 2010 All-Star Game. Joey Votto, Brandon Phillips, Orlando Cabrera and Scott Rolen are among the Top 5 at their respective positions! The voting is heating up and the Reds need your help. You can vote up to 25 times per e-mail address to help your Reds get to the Midsummer Classic in July.

You can’t vote at the ballpark anymore – so vote online at reds.com – voting ends for good at 11:59 PM ET on Thursday, July 1, 2010! Keep voting on reds.com!

Remember, you get 25 votes per email address. Yahoo!, Hotmail, and Gmail are your partners in making your voice heard.

Voting by proxy is a legitimate procedure in Parliment proceedings and homeowners’ association annual meetings, and you don’t have to give away any personal information to do it. Send me a message from your email address to give me permission to vote on your behalf, and I’ll vote by proxy for your email address.

I promise not to send you any unsolicited email–I can’t promise MLB won’t though.

Clubbing a seal isn’t an option.

Over the weekend, the Reds dropped 2 of 3 to the Kansas City Royals. That’s right, they lost a series to the Royal. It’s not exactly the pounding of crappy teams we’ve grown accustomed to so far in this 2010 campaign.

In both losses, much of the blame can be pointed directly at the struggling bullpen. The bullpen did okay in the first game, allowing only 1 run over 4 innings, but that 1 run broke the tie in extra innings. In the rubber-match of the series, Sam LeCure again kept the Reds in the game, until the bullpen entered and every reliever allowed a run.

What was a strength of the team last year has not been this year. The only Nasty Boy is Arthur Rhodes, and at 40, no one would mistake him for a boy.

Help is needed. Fast. The St. Louis Cardinals have struggled, but seem to be finding their winning ways again. This is no time to keep running the same relievers out there. Unfortunately, as John Fay writes, there isn’t much help in the minors. Bill Bray and Jared Burton continue rehabbing in the low minors, and despite some promising signs, aren’t ready yet.

That leaves the option of a trade or moving a starter to relief. With the plethora of good young starters available, the latter seems like a no-brainer to try first. Sam LeCure, at the very least, should be given a relief opportunity once Homer Bailey comes back.

Fay talked to Walt Jocketty, who confirmed that Travis Wood and Matt Maloney will be looked at as options for the bullpen. Don’t wait too long, Walt. As Reds fans have seen in years past, a bad bullpen can destroy the soul of a team. And I don’t want to get off this ride yet.