Neyer is becoming my favorite baseball writer.  Very digestible information with tons of cool articles and he isn’t overly stat/sabermetric heavy, although there is some of that too.  If you don’t have an Insiders subscription yet, it is almost worth it to read Neyer.

From his July 18th blog post on ESPN.com [Insiders Subscription Required]

As for Jared Burton … Well, let’s just say that among the 200-plus relievers employed in the major leagues at any one moment, I have little or no awareness of a significant percentage of them. If you’d asked me last week, “Does a guy named Jared Burton pitch for the Reds”? I might have said, “Now that you mention it, yeah.” But when I saw Burton’s name on the list of players the A’s drafted in 2008, it didn’t jump out at me, at all. Which really is inexcusable, considering how well Burton’s actually pitched. Last year he was good, if a bit hit-lucky. This year he’s been outstanding: 2.23 ERA, 50 strikeouts and 17 walks in 48 innings. And hats off to the Reds for choosing Burton in the Rule 5 draft prior to 2006.

I love Jared Burton and hope he returns soon because my heart cannot take any more of David Weathers trying to be the set-up man. Especially if Dusty thinks that it is a good idea to pitch him three days in a row and two innings on the third day.

You Know What Grinds My Gears? In a critical situation, Mike Lincoln makes a terrific stand on the mound versus David Wright and Carlos Beltran and gets no help from the crowd.  Cincinnati fans can be passionate about wanting to run Adam Dunn out of town, but they can’t get behind thier pitchers (or hitters) in critical situations.  Not one person in the crowd on Saturday night got up to cheer on Lincoln during the two crucial at-bats.  Are Cincinnati fans really that great?

Jeff Brantley, please stop: How much hyperbole does this guy speak?  The plays by Brandon Phillips and Jeff Keppinger are amazing, but their is no reason to go on and on about how they are the best at what they do.  Brantley is starting to grate on me a bit.  It is almost as if he is projecting himself onto the field as a player.   Jeff makes Chris Welch seem tame in this regard.  There is homerism and then there is Jeff Brantley.

Triple A All-Star game: This was a lot of fun.  It was a great game that was supported very well by the Louisville fans (reportedly sold out), despite the Pacific Coast League pulling out the win in the ninth.  There were even pockets of PCL fans (mostly displaced St. Louis Cardinal fans rooting for the Memphis All-Stars) that traveled to Louisville to see the game.  Did anyone see this on ESPN?  I was curious as to how well Louisville Slugger Field looked on television and what they said about Louisville during the broadcast since I don’t have access to a recording device.

Triple A Home Run Derby: This was not fun.  Again, it was well attended but definitely was not worth the $14 spent.  Even with the microphone problems they had with the MC, it was a pretty boring event due to the lack of power these supposed power hitters seemed to have.  Apparently the PCL guys were having trouble with the thick humidity that was present that night and the fact that Slugger Field is one of the largest parks in both leagues.  Fortuntely I got home in time to see the big boys (including Hobbs) do it right at Yankee Stadium.

Reds on Radio Problems, sorta: Apparently the 93.9 “The Ticket” website has been marked as a harmful website.  As I told you before, the Louisville Reds on Radio affiliate is run by about 5 people and they are pretty horrbile.  Only one Reds game has not aired on the station or its sister station since the move from WKRD, but if they want to be around, they need to get their act together.  I really wouldn’t be surprised if they folded.  Everyday I hear them begging asking for advertising, despite being the ESPN affiliate in town.

David Ross Interview On Country Fastball.  A program that is webcast and blends country music with interviews of baseball players and musicians from the country music scene is featuring the Reds catcher this week.  Hopefully they will have some sort of archive since I posted about this too late.

Still Staying Positive: About the Reds season.  They dropped two games versus the Mets and thus lost 2 games in the wild card which puts the deficit at 9 games behind the Cardinals.  From here on out, they don’t have any more west coast games (going to Arizona but not the coast) so that is a positive thing.  With games against the Padres and Rockies at home and then going on the road to Houston and Washington, this should be a time for the team to pick up several wins without having to suffer too many losses.  We shall see.

After Marty Brennamans’ episode on April 16 when the Reds were in Chicago, someone decided that it would be best for the long-time Reds broadcaster to be assigned a security detail during the current three game stand in the Windy City.  Mark Sheldon, the MLB.com beat writer for the Reds said that Marty, so far, hasn’t encountered any problems.

At Navy Pier with his family, a ride worker told Brennaman’s daughter he had a bone to pick with “Thom Brennaman,” who is Marty’s son and broadcast partner.

“That would be me you’re talking about,” Marty told the gentleman. He said that they chatted pleasantly for 15 minutes, and all was good.

As with Adam Dunn’s dust-up with Blue Jay’s G.M. J.P. Riccardi, I support Marty when he (tells the truth) calls out the Cubs fans for being idiots.  Marty even says, in reference to throwing the ball onto the field after a home run, “It is a Chicago Cubs tradition that other people have copied throughout Major League Baseball and I’m fine with that.” Here are the original comments from the broadcast:

With all the focus on the environment these days, why not try and reduce waste in the dugout, clubhouse, and the seating areas by going green. Chris Dickerson, Reds prospect at Triple-A Louisville wants to do just that.  He has asked for and received water bottles for all the Bats on the team.  By using these, he and the Bats hope to reduce the tremendous amount of waste left behind by the players and coaches.  C.L. Brown, Bats beat writer for the Louisville Courier Journal wrote an article about the change in today’s paper.  Dickerson also hopes to spread the word to other teams and their members when they come into town next week for the Triple-A All-Star game here in Louisville.

“The All-Star Game is supposed to be a go-green event,” Dickerson said. “It’s not necessarily the exposure from the game, but word of mouth. Maybe this viral episode of action can happen where people start to pay more attention to the issue and do more stuff around their own homes and be more aware of what’s going on.”

Kudos to Dickerson and Bats management for taking the first step in reducing waste and trying to change the culture of the clubhouse for the good of the environment.  I have seen recycling bins around Great American Ballpark, but they aren’t very convenient to find.  Hopefully the Reds, as a total organization, take the initiative and make changes to be a more “green” franchise.

The Reds complete the home stand at 5-2 (should have been 6-1 had Weathers not blown the second game versus the Pirates) and have chopped two games off the wild card lead, which is now down to seven.  They will now head out onto the road before the All-Star Break going to division leading Chicago and Milwaukee.  Do I even need to say that this is a big road trip? Going 4-2 would be awesome and a sweep of the Cubs could make it super sweet.   The division lead is still 10.5 but that is better than having no chance.

The Brewers have apparently landed C.C. Sabathia in a deal with the Indians, as of Sunday night.  Hopefully he is not on the schedule to pitch, but something tells me that he will be. Matt LaPorta and two mid-level prospects are thought to be in the deal from the Brewers.  In his last start against the Reds on June 27th, Sabathia pitched 8 innings, allowed 4 hits, no runs, and struck out 11 Reds en route to a 6-0 Cleveland win.

Redleg Nation has put up an interesting article about a radio delay in the broadcast so it would better sync up with the TV broadcast.  As you know, I am very passionate about the radio broadcast and this move is nice, but I haven’t seen a lot of improvement.  Generally I have the radio on and the TV muted but it would be nice if they were at least a little closer.  On the old affiliate, they were close without any tinkering by Reds on Radio.  Werid.  Anything is better than George Grand wax poetic about Griffey’s 600+ home runs and the “Crafty Lefthander”.

Congradulations to Edinson Volquez being named to the All-Star team.  Although he certianly deserves to start and I will probably be mad if he doesn’t, I have a feeling that he won’t be selected by NL manager Clint Hurdle.  Brandon Webb, Dan Haren, Ryan Depster, and Tim Lincecum among others were named.

Speaking of Tim Lincecum, Tom Verducci wrote an amazing article for this past weeks Sports Illustrated on the Giants ace.  Most of the article was dedicated to Lincecum’s unortodox pitching style and the mechanics behind it.  The article also had a lot of intersting facts and discussion about how new technology is being developed by former Mets pitching coach Rick Peterson that is being used to teach young pitchers how to pitch, with maximum output, without doing any unncessary damage to their arms.  This is a subject that will be coming up more and more as pitchers have reached their max load and clubs that are now trying to preserve thier multi-million dollar investements through scientifically measruable biomechanics rather than the old method of “eyeballing” a prospect.  A must read for any baseball fan.

I have been very slow in updating the site recently and I apoligize for that.

So here is a round-up of some recent thoughts about the team I’ve been having.

• The Reds are 2-0 in the “new season” after the halfway point. Hopefully they can expolde after having their first successful, winning road trip in a long time.  Also they were against three very tough AL teams.
• The Reds are only 11 games behind the Cubs for the division and 9 games behind the Cardinals for the Wild Card.  Difficult but not impossible.
• Who is the Reds’ natural rival?  I don’t feel the hate towards the Indians like other interleague series foes feel about their rival.  The Yankees and Mets and the Cubs/White Sox rivalries are heated because they reside in the same city, but I don’t feel that way about Cleveland.  The Reds and Dodgers used to be rivals, but they don’t play enough now.  I want their to be hate between the Reds and somebody so fans have something to look forward to multiple times during the year.
• Kudos to Red-Hot-Mama and Crack Technical Staff for getting on the big board at the GABP.
• I love Daryl Thompson.  The kid battles so hard and has done himself very well in his two starts.  He has had some very nice early success (shutting out the Yankees at “The Stadium” in his first ML start) and is the best thing that has happend for the fifth spot in the rotation.  He is someone I can easily root for because of his “never say die” attitude.
• Dusty Baker does not know how to manage a bullpen.  That is all.
• For as bad as this team can look at times, just hang in there. It will get better.

Jay Bruce, Paul Janish, and Saturday’s starting pitcher Daryl Thompson almost didn’t make it on time to Yankee Stadium. The trio decided to take the subway to Yankee Stadium only to head the wrong direction, winding up in Brooklyn instead of the Bronx.

The story from Joe Lapointe of the NY Times:

Actually, Thompson had bigger trouble earlier, hours before the game. He and two other rookies, Jay Bruce and Paul Janish, left their Midtown hotel and decided to take the subway to Yankee Stadium. But they got on the wrong train and ended up in Brooklyn instead of the Bronx.

“I had a big old bag and I was going to ride the bus,” Thompson said, “but they said I could ride with them. They said, ‘We’re rookies, let’s take the subway and get there ahead of the bus.’ ”

After about 30 minutes, they realized they were going the wrong way.

“Janish was in charge at first,” Thompson said. “Bruce ended up asking a lady, and she told him which way we needed to go. He got us back on the right track.”

They arrived at the stadium shortly before 11 a.m. for a game that began at 1:08 p.m. “The guys in the clubhouse gave me stuff for trying to follow those guys because they didn’t know what they were doing,” Thompson said. “Bad impression.”

Good thing all three made it there.  Thompson was nothing short of outstanding facing the pressures of Yankee Stadium in his major league debut, shutting out the Yankees in five innings pitched.  He also managed to dig deep in two key situations during the game and get himself out of trouble.

Janish made a spectacular play on a hard hit ball by Alex Rodriguez to shut the door on a Yankee rally late in the game.

There is a really good article in this week’s Sports Illustrated (Tiger Woods on the cover) written by Albert Chen talking about Jay Bruce entitled “There’s a New Kid in Town.”

Basically the article recaps all of the awesomeness that is Jay Bruce.  It talks about how humble he is and how he is coming into his own as a major leaguer.  The article also talks about how Bruce idolized Ken Griffey Jr. and how much it means to have him as a mentor.

Again, I am totally psyched about the Reds and the young crop of talent that is finally making it to the club along with the national attention that they are receiving.  They also include pictures of Votto, Volquez, and Cueto in the article.

It is a very cool read if you get the chance.

The only thing that bothered me about the article was a quote by Marty Brennman saying, “I wouldn’t say Reds fans are the best in the country, but I think they’re the most knowledgable when it comes to playing the game the right way.  You really have to do something to impress them.”

Ok, Mr. Negativity.

Here we go again. The Reds get slapped around by the Red Sox today 9-0 and lose another series. Poor pitching again by Homer Bailey who looks nothing like the promising young prospect we all hoped that he would be.

How come Dick Pole and/or Dusty don’t get into his face and light him up like they did to Matt Belisle earlier this season?

Where is the post-game meltdown by Dusty? I am tired of hearing about how good it was in the Haight-Ashbury scene back in the 60’s and 70’s in California. Its nice to hear that he is laid back, but is Baker too laid back to light a fire underneath the team’s individual and collective ass, especially the younger players? I didn’t think old-school types would appreciate the lack of effort and the constant rolling over that this team seems to do on a rather consistent basis.

Why do I love Brandon Phillips? Because of this:

Nice “Sandlot” reference.

Some rumors after the jump…

Rumors

Dayton Daily News beat writer Hal McCoy reported today in the radio booth that AAA pitching prospects Josh Roenike and Daryl Thompson could see time in the majors sooner rather than later. McCoy implied that Dusty wants to see what he has in the minors since he isn’t happy with Homer’s performance. If this is true, it may be a way of showcasing talent for trade bait later on down the road. Given Jocketty and Dusty’s propensity to favor “veteran presence”, this could be one of the first moves of the new regime.

Marty Brennaman brought up an article written by Joel Sherman of the NY Post who recently wrote that Jocketty and the Reds are rumored to be interested in not re-singing Dunn, moving Griffey, Freel and perhaps Bronson Arroyo.

New Reds GM Walt Jocketty has told counterparts he wants to clean house, notably of free-agent-to-be outfielders Ken Griffey Jr. and Adam Dunn, plus Ryan Freel and - in the right deal -starter Bronson Arroyo.

I am not familiar with Sherman’s work or if he is just blowing smoke like the NY Post tends to do.

After Marty read the article, Bob Castellini visited the booth in an effort to give fans some hope.  Marty asked Bob directly about the article and Bob said “This is news to me”. Bob C. quickly changed the subject and tried to stay positive as the Red Sox continued to pile on runs as he was speaking.  Either he does know and doesn’t want to show his hand or he really doesn’t know anything about it and Sherman is wrong.

As everyone knows by now, NBC “Meet the Press” moderator, journalist, and a member of the National Baseball Hall of Fame Board of Directors, Tim Russert has passed of an apparent heart attack in Washington, D.C. today.

You can view the statement by the Baseball Hall here.

Russert was a Yankees and a Washington Nationals fan as well as being a huge supporter of the Buffalo Bills, the team from his hometown.

This was a huge loss for the political and sporting communities.