Greatest Hits

While the Reds have made plenty of bad trades over the years, historically they haven't gotten torched for signing the wrong free agents. But that doesn't mean there isn't five worthy candidates. Most of these players were around in the 2000s—which is also the time frame of nine straight losing seasons.

The following players have sucked money out of the Reds wallets like a vacuum while giving the team next to nothing on the field. High robbery indeed.

The Arizona Diamondbacks entered their first full decade as a team with the fifth highest payroll in the league. In 2001, just their fourth year in existence, they won one of the most emotional world series in the history of the game.

But after ten years of entertaining baseball fans everywhere, the D'Backs could not be a more different franchise from the one that came back and beat the Yankees in seven games.

From the fifth highest payroll in 2000 to the twentieth in 2009. From Jerry Colangelo to Ken Kendrick. From Joe Garagiola to Josh Byrnes. From Bob Brenly to A.J. Hinch.

Like Rome, a good baseball team can't be built in a day, but -- with the right trade -- the process can be reduced significantly with the right trade.

Let's not kid ourselves: we know what the best trade in Houston Astros history is. Despite that, there are four other deals that helped shape the franchise which deserve our consideration.

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Much has been made of the 2010 Red Sox and their defensive prowess, or potential.

JD Drew, Mike Cameron, and Jacoby Ellsbury comprise a formidable outfield.

Jason Varitek, Kevin Youkilis, Dustin Pedroia, and Adrian Beltre are all Gold Glove Award winners.

But how do these players match up, position-by-position, with the greatest Red Sox defenders of all time?

Since 1980, there have been 53 pitchers who mastered a no-hitter.

Many of these pitchers were top of the rotation throwers like Nolan Ryan, Jack Morris, Mike Witt, Dave Stewart, Mike Scott, Randy Johnson, and Dwight Gooden. 

Some were solid pitchers like Terry Mulholland, Wilson Alvarez, Mark Buehrle, Derek Lowe, and Kevin Millwood.

There were nine pitchers who surprised the world and accomplished this feat. Listed below we will rank these lucky fortunate throwers who made it to the record books.

The Braves franchise has had its up and downs since its inception in 1876. The Braves have won three World Series since then and at least one player from each of those teams is represented on this All-Defensive team. I wonder if that is a coincidence?

The Braves have had some great defensive players from Andruw Jones and Dale Murphy in the outfield to Glenn Hubbard, Felix Milan, and current shortstop Yunel Escobar in the infield.

Any attempt at creating a list of "the best" anything is very difficult. The good part is that no matter who you pick (most of the time), some will like it and some will think it sucks. That, my friend, is the nature of the beast.

For having the distinction as the longest standing professional sports franchise in one city spanning 128 years, it is somewhat amazing that a large concentration of the Philadelphia Phillies organization's postseason highlights have come in the most recent 30 years.

Certainly, some of this relates to Major League Baseball's format changes that first added a round of league playoffs with the initial formation of divisions and then expanded to the current four playoff participant approach in each league.

The 41-year history of the Kansas City Royals is a story of a meteoric rise to contention in the franchise's first 21 years, followed by a titanic fall to baseball's cellar in the last 20 years.

As an expansion team in 1969, the Royals became a winner after just two seasons and was a title contender for two decades. In fact, all seven of the team's playoff appearances occurred during a 10-year stretch from 1976 to 1988, making it to the World Series twice, winning it once in 1985.

The White Sox have had very limited postseason performances and really the only great ones came in 2005.

Besides for Dewayne Wise's three-run home run game against the Rays in the 2008 ALDS, which Javier Vazquez promptly gave right back, and...I can't even find a good performance in the 2000 ALDS (the White Sox batted .185), the White Sox haven't had any great performances except for 2005.

I'm not going back to the 1906 World Series winner where the White Sox batted .198 and the Chicago Cubs batted .196.