By The Enquirer

Before Saturday's game with the Blue Jays, a game that would see Jay Bruce hit his second home run in as many days, Enquirer Reds beat reporter C. Trent Rosecrans asked the Reds' 27-year-old outfielder if he felt like things were turning around for him. What followed was more than 10 minutes of soul-searching and reflection. Bruce talked and talked, without another question being asked. We decided to bring it to you almost word-for-word as it was uttered – Jay Bruce on the 2014 season in his own words:

I do a lot of thinking, just about everything, my game, how I need to progress, want to progress as a player – offensively, defensively, everything. I'm a pretty big self-analyzer. I like to think I'm a pretty fair critic of myself. I'm not rainbows and sunshine, excuse maker, but I honestly – right when I came back, it was I felt like there was a little rust I need to knock off. The injury wasn't an excuse of mine. Or a way to explain why I was doing poorly. I've felt good the whole time.

I remember back in '09, I had a really, really bad year. I broke my wrist, not a good year. I remember feeling lost. I remember not knowing what to do. ... It's the complete opposite right now. I know exactly how I feel, what I'm supposed to do, how I hold myself accountable, my routine, my work, my preparation. It's all there, it's all where it needs to be. It's just that the results aren't where I need them to be. That's something I have to continue to not worry about. I disconnect from the results as much as I can. At the end of the day, you have to produce, you have to add value to your team, especially someone in my position.

I want to contribute more – as much as anyone does. The expectations I hold for myself are much higher than anyone on the outside could hold on me. It's one of those things, it's frustrating, more frustrating now, because I do have a plan, I do work, I do hold myself accountable. I do think, 'Did I do everything I could today to be prepared for the game?' And I can answer that question every single day, 'Yes.' It's something that I just have to keep going forward. It's June. It's not early, but we've got a lot of season left. It's not late. I really have a lot of pride in my preparation, my work and my process of how I'm getting to places. I'm going to stick to that.

It's easy to see where you are and where you're trying to go, but the problem and the great thing about it to me is I used to think I'm going here (and at this point Bruce holds one hand up high). I've decided to stop that. I'm done with trying to get there, I'm just going to be here. Stay here all the time – there is no there. If you think about it, if I have a good year – last year I hit .262, 30 home runs, 109 RBIs – that wasn't enough for me. I wasn't like, 'That's awesome, I made it.' I don't think it's the way I'm wired, or anyone who expects excellence and wants to be better is ever there. Willie Mays, Mickey Mantle, Ken Griffey Jr., Barry Bonds, Joey Votto. These guys, the guys that are the elite players, they're never there. So, I decided there's no such thing. I just have to continue to go and be right here and take advantage of every advantage I have and really remember that everything I'm going through right now, I plan on using to get better.

One thing I wanted to do this year was walk more – and not in a sense that I'm trying to walk, but a sense of not swinging at bad pitches, thinking and analyzing about a lot of stuff. I've even gone to percentages to see balls out of the zone and seeing that I'm swinging at less than I ever have. I'm walking more. I'm swinging at fewer strikes, but the strikes I'm not swinging at – I'd rather be 0-1 than 0-for-1. Those are things that have happened that haven't added value to my game yet. You know me as well as anybody, I'm not Mr. Sabermetrics, but I do believe in value and efficiency.

My on-base percentage is more than .100 points higher than my average, and it's never been there. Ever. I'm hitting .218 or whatever it is right now, and I have a .320 on-base percentage. That's a positive, even though the whole, large number for me isn't positive yet, because that's a result, and I don't have results right now. Sept. 28, I wholeheartedly and truly believe the results are going to be different, because I do work and I prepare the way I need to. It's so frustrating man, because I'm trying to be better than I have been. A lot of ways for me, I've been mildly disappointed in my career. Not embarrassed, but I feel like I should be better than I have been. I still have the ability to do things that not a lot of guys have to do. I have the ability to play really good defense and hit for power, and that's a rare combo. Even though I've done some nice things, I'm trying to be better than I have been. It's not like 'I've hit .250 every year and hit 30 home runs and drive in 100 runs.' That's not good enough for me.

Right now, what's hard for me is that I'm so far behind where I usually am that it's hard to see above where that is. The thing is disconnecting from the results. I did miss three weeks, I was injured. Those aren't excuses, but those are things I have to realize. There is a process to this. The process changes and you have to adapt to the process. I wholeheartedly believe that the things I'm doing now are going to make me more successful than I have been, moving forward.

It's been a brutal year for me. It's definitely been the toughest year I've had in my career, but that doesn't mean anything, because it's June. Nobody feels sorry for me. I don't feel sorry for myself, I don't have any pity for myself, because there's no time for that. This is a game that the best people in the world play, the most talented and best baseball players in the world play. There's no time to sit back and say, 'Poor me.' Just continue to get better and hold yourself accountable and expect to be one of the best. I truly believe I'm getting there. It's not a fun ride right now, it hasn't been. I don't care about that. It's not supposed to be easy or a lot more people would do it.

You look now, I have six homers, 20-some RBI, that's not what I'm supposed to be doing, that's not the precedent I've set for myself. But, hey, this year's not nearly over. Like I've said, the things I'm doing, that I work on, that I focus on, I think they're going to come out in the wash and be a positive.

Everyone tends to think that they've got to get X amount of hits this day, or X amount of hits this month, or I've got to have a good season. Everyone's saying you have to be focused on every pitch, not worried about the big picture. But then at the same time, you have to say it's a long season. It's a juggling act.

You have to have this hard focus and soft focus at the same time. The way I used it as a positive, these 200 plate appearances of my season, it may be 1 percent of my plate appearances of my career and if this 1 percent of plate appearances ends up making me better, then in a way it's worth it – not in a sense that I don't care that I'm struggling, but there's a process, but I have to continue to say that I'm trying to be better, do better than just good enough. Because .255 and 30 (home runs) is good enough, but that's not what I'm going after.

It's a constant process, a constant equation that I'm trying to solve. I'm not just sitting back on the things I've done and thinking that's pretty good.

I take a lot of pride in that. That's something that people from the outside may not see and I don't expect them to see it, because that's not what they're looking for, they're looking for results on the field, and that's fine, I respect that. That's the reason this game's so great and that's the reason I get to play it for a living, because people come to watch results. That is more than acceptable. That's what they're supposed to do. But what I'm going to keep to myself and have the understanding that sustained results at the level I want to be at, take certain things consistently, and I'm getting better at those.

I refuse to give into the hardness of it, the struggle of it, the frustration – because this (stuff) is hard. Especially when you've had this career that you've done something every year that's pretty good, and then this year's, it's been a struggle – you have surgery, you come back, you're not doing well, you're not getting results. It gets hard to be like, keep going, who cares about right this second? You're going to be where you're going to be – you have to get better and get better and get better. That's what I've fallen back on. When I go to bed at night, I look in the mirror and say you did what you could today to get better. The results may not have been there today, but you worked towards where you're trying to go.