I got this press release from FSO. Thought I'd pass it on...

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FOX Sports Ohio is ready to "March to Opening Day" with Reds Classic Rewinds & Reds Spring Training Coverage

Including a NEW 30-minute show every weeknight March 12-30 at 6:30pm

· CINCINNATI, OHIO - Cincinnati Reds fans won't have to wait until Opening Day to enjoy Cincinnati Reds baseball. In a "March to Opening Day," presented by Tri-State Chevy Dealers, FOX Sports Ohio is excited for the return of Reds Classic Rewinds throughout February. As we head into March, the network will continue to feature coverage of the Reds with the live production of a Reds Spring Training game on March 5thand an all-new nightly show, Reds Live - Spring Training 2012, beginning March 12th.

FOX Sports Ohio will televise four (4) Reds Classic Rewind games, including three games from the 2011 season as well as a game from 1999 in honor of Barry Larkin's recent election into the Baseball Hall of Fame.

The Rewind series, hosted by Jim Day, will feature thrilling games such as Opening Day 2011 v. Milwaukee - the Reds notched a walk off win after Ramon Hernandez' slammed an opposite-field three-run homer. Other 2011 games include the game from July 15th when the Reds claimed a 6-5 win against St. Louis in front of a sellout crowd at Great American Ball Park, and the game from August 13th, the Reds-San Diego win that marked several Reds' season-highs and the largest winning margin of the season. Fans will also enjoy the Barry Larkin replay from May, 7 1999, in which Larkin went 3-for-4 with 2 RBI, including a walk-off double.

FOX Sports Ohio debuts the return of this entertaining series Monday, February 6th at 7pm, with a new game every Monday. The complete schedule is below.

As the Cincinnati Reds enter into their third Spring Training at Goodyear Ballpark in Goodyear, Arizona, FOX Sports Ohio will televise the Reds Spring Training game on March 5that 3pm EST in Goodyear when the Reds take on the Cleveland Indians. Thom Brennaman will call the game alongside Chris Welsh.

Finally, FOX Sports Ohio is excited to announce a NEW nightly show, Reds Live - Spring Training 2012, that will air Monday thru Friday from March 12th to the 30th. Each weeknight starting at 6:30pm, Reds fans will get 30 minutes of Reds Spring Training news, notes, interviews and features. Jim Day, Chris Welsh, and Jeff Piecoro will host the show from the Reds Spring Training complex with appearances by Jeff Brantley, Jim Kelch, and Thom Brennaman. Various features of the show will also be available on FOXSportsOhio.com.

Following each new show every evening, the show will replay later that night at 10pm or following a FOX Sports Ohio live event. The show will also replay the following morning at 8:30am.

You've heard quite a bit around these parts about the upcoming Reds preview that we put together this winter with the help of Maple Street Press. I know you've been waiting in great anticipation to finally get your hands on a copy too. Well, your wait is almost over as Maple Street Press is finally taking pre-orders for what should be the greatest and best Reds annual ever put together by a set of bloggers for the 2011 season.

The Annual is packed with some of the best Reds writing I've seen in a long time. The variety of authors involved, many from Red Reporter, really brought their A-game on this project. I'm not saying this just because I want you to buy the magazine. I'm saying this because you NEED to buy the magazine. It truly is an interesting collection of great Reds writing. And it all looks great too with some outstanding photography provided by Getty Images.

So go place your order today! If you live in the Cincinnati area, you'll find the magazine in your local grocery or book store once it hits newstands in March. That will be a great opportunity to buy six more copies for friends and your future grandchildren.

After the jump, I'll have a little preview of each article so you know what you are getting.

Continue reading this post »

This may or may not be a regular feature. You'll have to tune in Monday to find out.

This article that Scrabbles linked to the other day got me thinking about homegrown pitching talent. Today's graph shows the number of innings accumulated by pitchers that were originally drafted (and signed) or signed as an amateur free agent by the Reds for the last 40 seasons. As you can see, there was a day when the Reds depended greatly on their farm system to develop pitching. The peak season in 1980 featured seven homegrown pitchers who threw at least 100 innings that year, including Mario Soto, Frank Pastore, Charlie Leibrandt, Mike LaCoss, Paul Moskau, Tom Hume, and Joe Price. From 1980-1984, the team averaged over 1000 innings a year from homegrown pitchers. Then again, those teams mostly sucked, so maybe that's not the best strategy.

Last season, the Reds got 728.2 IP from homegrown pitchers. It was the most since Tom Browning, Jack Armstrong, and Scott Scudder were toeing the rubber for the Reds in 1991 (another team that sucked). With as many as eight homegrown pitchers possibly on the staff on Opening Day, the team could easily push the 1000 inning mark this season. Hopefully the talent on this team proves more reliable than what we saw in the early 80s.

I hope you brought your big monitor to work today because you're going to need it. After looking yesterday at the longest running current trade chain for the Reds (it's in the fanshots, so you probably haven't seen it), I decided to take a stab at mapping how and when every player on the 40-man roster joined the organization. My starting point with each player is the first person in their chain who was either drafted or signed by the Reds and then I went from there. Hopefully it is self-explanatory.

If you'd like to view a larger version, click here.

Let me know if you have any questions or see any issues in the comments.

Nearly six years ago, when JD Arney started Red Reporter, I was the 41st person to register for an account. I'm not certain, but I think there are only two current regulars - Caleb and Brian B - who signed up before I did. We've seen a lot on this site in those 5+ years, which is why I'm a little sad to be writing this post today. After 3 seasons of JD's reign of terror, we've had two years of relative peace and prosperity under my watchful eye, but now it is time for me to step down.

This shouldn't come as much of a surprise. I haven't exactly been turning out the original content around here since the season ended. The main reason for that is that a large portion of my time has been spent watching my daughter while my wife works. You'd think that a 4-month-old wouldn't require much attention, but you'd be wrong. When I do get on the site, it's usually via my phone. I don't know how many of you use the mobile site, but it isn't exactly conducive to long pieces of writing. In fact, posts like this one are impossible to write on the mobile site. So, while I'm still around occasionally, I don't have a lot of "writing time" per se.

The other big reason that I am stepping down is because I'm more interested in other projects than blogging right now. The fact is that I don't have the mindset for turning out daily content at this point, or even weekly content for that matter. I'd like to someday write another book and to do that I feel like I need to keep working on longer form writing that isn't really conducive to the blog format.

The good news is that the site will be put into some very capable hands. RijoSaboCaseyWKRP will be taking over immediately, and I am quite confident that he'll be able to make the site even better than what it is today. Heck, he's been the primary content producer on this site so far this off-season already. So, welcome RSCWKRP with open arms. No groping!

As for me, I don't think I'll disappear completely. And even if I do, you'll be okay, I'm sure. The good news is that you'll be able to pay for my (and the other RR writers') work in print form in the spring. For the first time ever, we're putting together a pre-season annual for the Cincinnati Reds through Maple Street Press. We've already got a lot of great stuff put together from many of the writers from Red Reporter that you know and love, along with the assistance of some of the guys from Redleg Nation as well as a couple of non-Reds bloggers. I'm really excited about this project and I can't wait until it is out next spring. I think you all will enjoy it immensely.

Until then, enjoy the winter. Just think, the next time I ban someone, I could be arrested. (RIP, Leslie)

Go Reds!

The Reds' season has been over for less than 48-hours and we've already talked a lot about the future in the comments section. I figured, since this is what you all are chomping at the bit to talk about, let's give it its own space. John Erardi has a nice piece up in the Enquirer today about what moves the Reds might need to make to continue to improve. What caught my eye was a question that he asked:

Do the Reds value their young starting pitching sufficiently that they wouldn't trade any of it to get help at, say, shortstop or left field?

As you know, the Reds have some depth at starting pitching, and most of it is young. Johnny Cueto, Edinson Volquez, Homer Bailey, Travis Wood, Mike Leake, and Aroldis Chapman all have legitimate shots to be in the rotation next year, and all are age 27 or younger (heck, Volquez is the only one over 25). This is probably the deepest crop of young pitching the Reds have had since 1970, and while there may only be one or two "ace" quality starters in there, they are all solid building blocks for the rotation.

But the thing about that 1970 crop of pitchers is that the Reds burned through them very quickly. Granted those Reds weren't exactly worried about taking care of their young players, but it's still good to remember that it only takes a couple of injuries for pitching depth to turn into a dearth.

So, we'll see what the Reds front office thinks of this pitching depth this off-season. It is clearly the most valuable chip they have for trading, but do they value it more than upgrades on the offensive side? That remains to be seen.

How about you? Are you willing to part with some of the starting pitching depth to get a quality starting option in left field or at shortstop? If so, which pitchers are you most likely to part with? Would you trade Wood or Leake? How about Bailey or Cueto or Volquez? I'm assuming that Chapman is off the table at this point. If he's not, you might want to get checked for head trauma.

I don't have much to say. If this is the last game of the season, I'm going to enjoy it. If not, I'm going to enjoy it even more. I've been proud of these guys this season. I want them to show everybody in the country that they aren't the team we've seen the last two games. They're much better than that!

Keep the season alive! Go Reds!

I don't know what's going to happen tonight. There are reasons to be optimistic. There are reasons to be pessimistic. In my mind, this is the most winnable game for the Reds. Not that they can't win any of the other games, but I don't view Roy Oswalt with the air of invincibility that I did two or three years ago. Yes, his numbers in Philadelphia were in impressive, but of his 12 starts, 8 were against four of the six lowest scoring teams in the NL.  If the Reds are going to get criticized for only winning against bad teams, I think the shoe fits Oswalt too.

Unfortunately, the same can be said of Bronson Arroyo too, who was at his best against the weakest offenses in the league.That could be a problem, but then no one is coming into this game expecting Arroyo to throw a complete game, no hit, shutout and impregnate a row of sterile women in section 318. All we're looking for is 5 solid innings. Keep the lead that the Reds will inevitably get and hand it over to the bullpen to do the dirty work. What I don't want to see is Arroyo letting Victorino and Polanco get on base in front of those deadly lefties. If he can face Utley with the bases empty every time, things might just work out for him.

I haven't had the nervous energy today that I had on Wednesday. I'm simply ready to go for this one. Hopefully the Reds players feel the same way.

Go Reds!

I'm not going to get into a lot of analysis of these matchups. We've all been thinking and reading about this game for days. We all know what's at stake and who is involved. Numbers don't matter anymore. Our sample size is so small at this point that there is very little we can predict about the next week. It's awesome!

Win or lose, be sure to take some time to enjoy the moment. Let yourself have a holy shit moment every once in a while. Unless you are a Yankees fan, the playoffs are rare. Don't let them pass by with the assumption that we'll be there next year. Soak it in. Enjoy it.

And then wherever you are, cheer your asses off! Just because we're happy to be here now doesn't mean we won't be even happier to be in the NLCS. So, come on, Reds! Make us proud and bring home a win today! Besides, I've got ticket to games 3 and 4 and would really like to use both of them!

Go Reds!

Rumors of the Reds playoff demise have been greatly exaggerated. It turns out, they haven't even played a game yet. Who knew?

Let's be honest though, the road through Philly is tough one. The Phillies didn't end up with the best record in baseball for nothing. It would be foolish to deny that they are a very good team, even if many of their fans don't hold the same respect for the Reds. That doesn't mean that the Reds can't or won't win this series. Here are some of the things that need to happen for the Reds to topple the Phils.

1. Get men on base for Joey Votto.

It goes without saying that Joey Votto is the most important player on the Reds. The team can battle through if he struggles, but if he's not getting hits, the mountain they are climbing gets much bigger. Votto's job will get easier if Brandon Phillips and Orlando Cabrera can get on base consistently for him. If the Reds put men on for Votto, this forces the Phillies pitchers to challenge him rather than just pitching around him. Then again, if Brandon Phillips gets on in the first inning and Dusty Baker has Cabrera bunt him over to second, I'm going to flip my lid. The last thing we want is for the Reds to be intentionally opening first base with Votto at the plate. Please don't do that. It's not a sound strategy.

2. Play good defense.

The Reds have done it all year. Now it is more important than ever. The Reds starting pitching doesn't match up to the Phillies, but if the Reds play good defense behind their pitchers, they can narrow the gap. And in a tight game, things like cutting down a ball in the gap or hitting cutting man can make all the difference. Doing that will keep the game close and give the offense a shot at squeaking out a win.

3. Keep the ball in the park.

Then again, the best defense in the world doesn't matter if the pitchers are giving up long balls all day. This series will be played in two homer friendly parks, so it's probably too much to ask for zero home runs from the competition, but keeping those dingers to a minimum will give the Reds a shot to play good defense and make a difference that way. Of course, if the Reds pitchers are giving up bombs regularly, this will be a short series and a long winter.

4. Stay aggressive on the bases.

When you are an underdog, the game is all about making and taking advantage of opportunities. When the Reds were going great this year, they were very opportunistic. In much the same way that the defense can keep them in games by shutting down aggressiveness from the opposition, taking the extra base while on offense both puts pressure on the defense and put the Reds in better position to capitalize.

Of course, they sure as heck better not be running into outs all day. Aggressiveness is great. Stupidity? Not so much.

5. Dusty needs to have a quick hook.

During the season, Dusty plays a lot of loyalty games. He likes to let his guys work through issues and reach milestones. That's great during the regular season. At this point, all that matters is winning. If a pitcher looks like he's slipping even the slightest, go to the bullpen. There are plenty of good, reliable pitchers out in the bullpen, and you have lots of off days. Use them.

This also applies on defense. If the Reds are winning in the 7th inning or later and Jonny Gomes is still in left field, I'm going to be very annoyed. The fact is, there isn't a lot of offensive drop-off from Gomes to Laynce Nix or Chris Heisey, but their defense is clearly superior. Use them. And you know what, it might be a good idea to put Paul Janish in the game in those situations too. Pull out all of the stops, Dusty!

As Reds fans, we're playing with house money at this point. It's been an amazing season so far, but I don't believe for a second that winning doesn't matter. You take the opportunities when they are presented to you. Success next year isn't guaranteed. I want to see the Reds win this thing. Who knows when we'll get another shot?

To give us a little preview of the upcoming LDS, I traded questions and answers with Whole Camels of The Good Phight. His answers are below. My answers will be up on their site at some point - unless they are too scared to hear my truth!

1. During the off-season, Ruben Amaro traded for Roy Halladay. During the regular season he traded for Roy Oswalt. Did he not realize that Jonathan Broxton's middle name is Roy? What were your initial thoughts on giving up Cliff Lee and then replacing him with Halladay? What do you think of it now (if your feelings have changed)?

The Good Phight: There are so many moving parts that it's hard to give an overall "good" or "bad" evaluation.  I think trading Cliff Lee away was a mistake, and I'm not sure I buy that Ruben Amaro, Jr. is The Amazing Kreskin of baseball, making that trade knowing that Roy Oswalt would be available mid-season, and knowing that he'd pitch to a sub-2.00 ERA over the last two months of the year.  Amaro was under fire from all sides back in late July when the team was 48-46 and in third place, and Cliff Lee was owning the American League. Which brings us to question 2... (also, Broxton is a fat, gutless turd and the Phillies broke him).

TGP: Huge, absolutely huge, not just for the regular season in 2010 and 2011, but the playoffs as well, where rotation depth takes a back seat to top of the rotation quality.

Oswalt is susceptible to bulldozer-based playoff payouts.  Do with this information what you will.

Continue reading this post »

Well, another season comes to an end. Time to pack it all up and start watching football, I suppose.

OH WAIT! This year is different! I forgot! We get to watch more baseball!!!!

The story of today's game will be a farewell to Aaron Harang. I know there are some Reds fans who don't particularly like Harang anymore, but I hope that since this game doesn't matter, and since he's still likely to get shellacked, people will just forget what he did the last three seasons and remember how good he was from 2005 to May 25, 2008. Much like Mario Soto, Harang's best years were spent on bad teams. And much like Soto, when the team finally became successful, he was spent. I once thought that Harang would be starting game one the next time the Reds went to the playoffs. Now I can't see any justifiable reason why he'd be on the playoff roster.

By all accounts, Harang is a great guy and a hard worker. His best years were overshadowed by complaints about hitter strikeouts and terrible pitching and defense from the rest of the team. It amazes me that Harang, who is a flyball pitcher, had his two best seasons with Adam Dunn in LF and Ken Griffey Jr. in CF. I wonder how much better his numbers could have looked if he was on his game with the current outfield defense behind him. We'll never know.

So, farewell, Aaron. I hope that you find a way to make yourself back into a serviceable pitcher. Even if you don't, thanks for making the mid-aughts somewhat bearable.

Go Reds!

It's looking more and more to me like Homer Bailey will be the odd man out in the rotation. He's been pitching well - 3.13 ERA over his last 4 starts - but then so has everyone else. The Reds have had quality starts from their starters in 16 of their last 20 starts (In case you are wondering, the 4 non-QS are from Arroyo, Cueto, Bailey, and Wood). That's somewhat good news as teams that get quality starts from their starters are 152-67 in the Divisional Series. Then again, not all quality starts are created equal, right?

As you know, the Reds won't be playing at home for the first game of the playoffs. Any changes in their playoff situation are now completely out of their hands. In fact, at this point, you are better off watching and rooting for the Padres than the Reds (assuming you don't want to face the Phillies in the first round). The only way the Reds can play someone other than Philly is by the Padres sweeping the Giants and the Braves losing at least one more game. And if there is a 3-way tie, then it gets crazy.

Go Reds!

I've been preparing for my weekend gig all day today and I nearly forgot to put together a game thread. Here you go!

The Reds have won 13 of their last 15 against the Brewers. I'd like to make that 16 of 18 and walk away with some home field advantage in the playoffs. Go Reds! Go Padres!

This will be Bronson Arroyo's last start before the playoffs, when he will likely be the starter in game one, six or seven days from now. I imagine that Arroyo will be going full bore tonight since he'll be on extra rest for the playoffs. No need for him to conserve himself and I'm sure he'll want to have everything clicking for next week. Also, Arroyo has already stated a lack of interest in playing the Phillies in the playoffs, and the best way to guarantee that is to get the 2nd seed.

For that to happen, the Reds will need some help. Specifically, they'll need the Giants to lose at least 3 of their remaining 4 games (they are beating Diamondbacks 2-1 as I write this). If that happens, and the Reds can win out, Cincinnati will take the 2nd seed, and then it won't matter who gets the wild card.

Then again, the Reds could just face the Phillies, beat them 3 out of 5 games, and move on. That'd be fun too.

Brett Myers has gone six innings or more in every start this season. The last pitcher to do that in every start in a season (with more than 30 starts) was Curt Schilling in 2002. In fact, this is only the third time a pitcher has gone at least 6 innings in more than 30 consecutive starts to begin a season since 1980 (Steve Carlton did it in 1980 with 38 straight). I dislike Brett Myers, but that's still a somewhat impressive feat. I hope it ends tonight.

I would love to see the Reds close out the season with 4-straight wins. Even if they don't get the second seed, it will feel good going to the playoffs having won 6 of their last 7. Plus, they'd get to 92 wins for only the second time since 1978.

Go Reds!

It finally hit me at about 2:30 this afternoon. I had only slept about 2 hours the night before. I crashed. Of course, I only got about 2 hours of sleep this afternoon, but now I feel zonked. Much like most of the Reds starters apparently.

I know some of you are worried about tonight's lineup. Not a single normal starter among them. I'm not surprised one bit, and I also don't think that the Reds are mailing in the rest of the season. I'm certain Dusty told his starters to blow off some steam last night. They earned it. It's pretty common for a triple-a lineup to be on the field the day after clinching. Let them have their night, and then let them rest if off the next day. After that, I expect we'll see most of the regulars out there in at least 3 of the last 4 games. Yes they need rest, but hopefully Dusty remembers that they'll also get at least two days off next week before the playoffs start, and they could use home field advantage as much as rest.

So, enjoy the ragtag lineup. It could be a fun game. Who knows, maybe they might even win! Go Reds!

It's hard to believe that we've only got 6 more of these bad boys left. Where has the time gone?

I haven't done squat today. Some of that is because I've been taking care of a 2-month old, but part of it is also because I am terribly excited about tonight's game. I don't know for sure if the Reds will win - Wandy Rodriguez is a tough pitcher to beat - but for some reason, I feel very confident that we'll be celebrating tonight. It just feels like the right time, you know.

There may be some power issues at the ball park tonight because Edinson Volquez has been lights out since returning from the minor leagues at the beginning of the month. In his 3 starts since going down "to work on some things," Volquez has pitched 21.2 innings, struck out 23, walked 7, and allowed just 10 hits and 4 runs. If the Reds get a performance like that out of him tonight, Dusty Baker should be fired for letting him pitch 21 innings in one game!

If you are at the game, come over to sections 144-145 for the Reds TweetUp. If there happens to be a reason to party after the game, I hope to see you there. It's a night we've been looking forward to for 15 years. Hopefully the Reds will come through for us!

Go Reds!

Even with the Reds having an off night tonight, there is still some drama. That's right, something crazy is going to happen on Two and a Half Men, I just know it. Use this thread to talk about that, or you know, basebally stuff.

By the way, rumor has it that there could be a party down at Fountain Square tonight if the Cardinals lose. If you go, please take lots of pictures as those of us who live WAY out in the suburbs are too wimpy to travel downtown in the rain at 11 o'clock at night.