February, like many months before it, has been a tumultuous one for your friendly neighborhood Reds fan. With the organization in the midst of a massive rebuild/mentality shift, and the recent trade of one fan-favorite second baseman, the unease in the Queen City seems to have reached a rolling boil. Familiar faces of players like Frazier, Bruce, Phillips, Cueto, Leake and others that brought the city to its feet for multiple playoff runs in the 2010’s can now be seen on television wearing other colors. Not the “Reds red” we are used to, but Mets blue, Sox black, Giants orange, among others.

Buying into a small market ball club like Cincinnati is similar to jumping on a trampoline. It’s a cycle of gathering enough energy to reach the air, but knowing you will eventually succumb to Earth’s gravity. We may not have as nice of a trampoline as those kids in Boston or New York or L.A., but we love what we have. Its springs coil and uncoil, coil and uncoil as we jump. If everything is just right, we can suspend in the air, forgetting for a moment that we are reserved to this planet. It’s all about the apex. It’s that very small window of time where, despite natural limitations, you can fly.

The arrival at Game 3 of the 2012 National League Divisional Series was that apex for the most recent generation of Cincinnati Reds. On that chilly October night on the Ohio River, 43,492 people waived their towels as Homer Bailey’s pitches forced flames out of the center field steamboat stacks one after another. Had they reached the top of the jump yet? Not a chance, the fans thought. “This is Reds Country. This is our year,” fans would say.

As most can recall, that game did not end well, and neither did the next two. Gravity set in, and the Reds of the Queen City came tumbling back to Earth.

What has happened since that time, more or less, is damage control. If Cincinnati were a bigger market, the organization could have simply paid its core players to return and had another go at it. The reality of its market does not allow for such activity and the Reds have instead been forced to trade the familiar faces in an effort to get very young, very fast, in preparation for the next run.

(If you were robbed of a childhood and have trouble with the bounce house analogy, think “slash-and-burn” agriculture, which is where a farmer cuts down and burns plants in order to create a swidden. This method clears the land and creates a healthy environment for future cultivation.)

Notable Cincinnati Reds transactions, since 2013 C Ryan Hanigan to Tampa Bay for David Holmberg RHP Jonathan Broxton to Milwaukee for Kevin Shackelford, Barrett Astin RHP Mat Latos to Miami for Anthony DeSclafani, Chad Wallach RHP Alfredo Simon to Detroit for Eugenio Suarez, Jonathon Crawford RHP Johnny Cueto to Kansas City for Brandon Finnegan, John Lamb, Cody Reed RHP Mike Leake to San Francisco for Adam Duvall, Keury Mella 3B Todd Frazier to CWS for Jose Peraza, Scott Schebler, Brandon Dixon LHP Aroldis Chapman to NYY for Caleb Cotham, Rookie Davis, Tony Tenda, Eric Jagielo RF Jay Bruce to NYM for Dilson Herrera, Max Wotell 2B Brandon Phillips to Atlanta for Andrew McKirahan, Carlos Portuon

This trajectory and make-up of a modern, small-market strategy is not all the more different than that of the 2006 Tampa Bay Rays or the 2013 Cubs. Both were in some ways a brainchild of current Cubs skipper, Joe Maddon, and both tested the resolve of their fan bases. After all, a handful of losing seasons is often part of the plan. (Note: both would also eventually result in World Series rings).

Many writers and forward-thinking fans who have bought into this school of thought have not only supported this youth movement, but have been wondering what took Cincinnati so long. In a recent Twitter poll, a large group of Reds fans were asked to share their feelings about the current state of baseball in the former land of the Big Red Machine.

Exactly half of the participants said they liked “some of the moves” conducted by the organization, with another 21 percent stating they either disagree or don’t understand the trajectory.

Regardless of any philosophical differences fans may have with the modern mindset, one cannot argue with the positive effects on the organization’s farm system.

According to Baseball America, the Cincinnati Reds currently have the 14th best farm system in Major League Baseball, highlighted by the overall number nine prospect in Nick Senzel. By all accounts, the future is bright, and it appears the Reds are primed to compete in 2019, or possibly 2020.

Cincinnati is a baseball town, and one can only hope that its loyal fans will hold on long enough to see the next jump.

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