The wild card? The Reds are seven games behind with six teams to jump over. A pipe dream at best.

The Reds, who open a three-game series today at Great American Ball Park with the Los Angeles Dodgers, have 51 games to play.

That's a little more than one-third of the season. They should get Ken Griffey Jr. and Barry Larkin back in the lineup today. So there's a chance they'll make a run at the wild card, but there's a better chance it's time to turn the page toward next year.

That's because there's a great deal of work to be done for the Reds to be as competitive in 2005 as they were in 2004.

Here is a look at the biggest questions the team is facing:

QUESTIONS FOR 2005

Here is a list of the big questions the Reds have to answer for 2005: • Who is the manager? Will the Reds pick up Miley's option? • Who is the third baseman? Another chance for Larson? Is the kid Encarnacion ready? Switch to Kearns? • Who is the shortstop? Will Larkin return? Can Lopez step up? • Who is going to anchor the rotation? Will Paul Wilson be brought back? • What can be done to fix the bullpen? What players can help this bad situation?

MANAGER

Dave Miley should be the manager. But the Reds have yet to pick up his option. General manager Dan O'Brien says he'll wait until the end of the season.

For a team that is clearly building for the future that doesn't make sense. If Miley's coming back and the players know he's coming back, it gives him authority to start addressing the other questions. With the left side of infield in flux, he could, for example, go to Felipe Lopez or D'Angelo Jimenez and say, "Start taking balls at third base. We're going to consider playing you there next year."

Miley can do that now, but it gives him more authority if the players know he'll back next year.

THIRD BASE

It seems pretty clear that it won't be Brandon Larson. Given his injuries and his lack of production and age, it would seem like it's time for the Reds to cut ties.

If not Larson, who? Edwin Encarnacion is the best prospect the Reds have in the minors. His numbers at Double-A - .291, 11 homers, 63 RBI, 15 steals - indicate he is close. To that end, the Reds should call him up in September to give his a taste of the big leagues.

It's also worth having outfielder Austin Kearns take some balls over there. The Reds need to figure out a way to get Kearns and Wily Mo Pena's bat in the lineup at the same time.

SHORTSTOP

Lopez has gone a long way toward proving he's the guy. He has pop in his bat that the other candidates - Ray Olmedo and Anderson Machado - don't have.

The shortstop situation depends a lot on whether Larkin is coming back. This latest injury, which has kept him out of the lineup for two weeks, has to factor into the decision about next season.

Another factor: Do you re-sign Juan Castro? It makes sense because he is a reliable backup at third and shortstop.

ROTATION

Getting a rotation anchor is as simple as re-signing Paul Wilson. Again, O'Brien says he will wait until the end of the season.

Why do it now? The signal it would send. Wilson works as hard as anyone on the club. He leaves his heart, soul and about 10 pounds of sweat on the mound every time he pitches.

BULLPEN

This won't be easy. The relief corps struggled before the Todd Jones trade.

Right now, they have no one they can count on in the set-up role. The bullpen has a collective ERA of 5.10 and has blown 24 saves. By trading away power arms such as Scott Williamson and Chris Reitsma, the Reds have weakened what used to be a strength of the organization.

The Reds have a handful of live arms in the upper levels of the minors. Todd Coffey, Chris Booker and Luke Hudson all tore it up at Double-A. The Reds should get an indication of whether they can help next year. It's also worth seeing if Jose Acevedo can be an effective reliever.

If these guys can't do the job, the bullpen is going to have to be fixed through free agency.

Reds statistics

(Through Sunday's game)

BATTERS	AVG	OBA	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB	SO	SB	CS	E
Casey	.342	.399	380	72	130	36	1	16	70	33	23	1	0	6
Larkin	.300	.352	293	53	88	13	3	7	40	25	34	2	0	4
Dunn	.279	.412	383	74	107	21	0	34	71	81	134	4	1	4
Freel	.279	.382	359	45	100	12	5	1	20	51	63	22	8	12
Pena	.268	.326	246	32	66	8	1	18	50	17	79	3	1	6
Lopez	.265	.315	83	13	22	8	0	4	13	6	23	0	0	7
Jimenez	.258	.358	388	51	100	17	2	7	40	61	66	9	6	6
Griffey	.253	.351	300	49	76	18	0	20	60	44	67	1	0	1
LaRue	.246	.332	280	35	69	14	1	12	39	21	74	0	2	8
Cruz	.241	.322	108	18	26	5	0	3	21	10	31	0	0	0
Castro	.239	.273	209	24	50	17	1	1	14	10	35	0	0	6
Hummel	.226	.278	106	10	24	4	0	1	7	7	17	1	0	4
Valentin	.215	.268	144	14	31	7	1	5	15	10	23	0	0	4
Larson	.212	.304	118	13	25	6	0	3	14	14	35	1	0	5
Kearns	.195	.327	87	10	17	2	1	3	13	16	30	1	1	1
Vander Wal	.188	.212	32	2	6	2	0	2	4	1	11	0	0	0
Romano	.154	.214	26	3	4	0	0	1	3	2	10	0	0	0
Team Totals	.254	.337	3785	529	963	196	16	138	503	427	878	46	19	77

PITCHERS	W	L	ERA	G	GS	SV	IP	H	R	ER	HR	BB	SO
Graves	1	4	3.16	56	0	35	57.0	59	25	20	10	8	32
Wilson	9	3	4.14	22	22	0	141.1	149	69	65	20	48	92
Harang	7	3	4.31	18	18	0	102.1	114	50	49	9	37	80
Riedling	4	3	4.37	51	0	0	57.2	61	36	28	5	26	32
Norton	1	3	4.89	49	0	0	46.0	48	29	25	4	24	32
Claussen	1	2	4.98	4	4	0	21.2	22	15	12	3	10	11
Lidle	7	10	5.32	24	24	0	149.0	170	95	88	24	44	93
Van Poppel	3	5	5.32	28	10	0	86.1	94	51	51	13	15	56
Acevedo	4	10	6.36	23	22	0	120.1	146	87	85	23	38	96
Wagner	2	1	6.59	30	0	0	28.2	43	25	21	4	19	17
White	0	1	8.10	21	0	0	23.1	27	21	21	11	4	17
Hancock	2	1	8.49	7	2	0	11.2	18	11	11	4	5	6
Matthews	2	1	8.84	22	0	0	18.1	23	19	18	6	10	8
Team Totals	54	57	5.22	111	111	36	986.2	1108	619	572	154	362	658

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