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Some teams light up the headlines every day either making news about what they have done, what they are about to do or what they are thinking of doing. Others don't manufacture offseason news at the prodigious rate of, say, the Yankees, but they get their names out there with the occasional mid-level deal.

Then there are the Reds.

Had Cincinnati made the playoffs or even finished over .500 in 2003, their offseason somnambulence might be explainable. As it is, however, this is a team that won 69 games and barely beat Milwaukee out of last place. What is more, they spent the last three months of the season playing sub-.400 ball after some key injuries and the trades of two of the biggest offensive threats (Jose Guillen and Aaron Boone). Just what, exactly, have the Reds done to change this situation? Here is the sum total of their post-2003 activities:

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