I know the big league club has not performed well during the first 20% of season, but I feel like every time I drop in to read discussions on RR this season, the front page is taken up with Minor League reports.

I admire Rick House's work at getting all the minor league recaps posted to RR daily, but if I want to find out how many hits Brandon Menchaca had in the Dayton-Quad Cities game, there are many sites I can find that information on besides RR.

Now I know lots of the RR crew love all the Farm System news, but wouldn't a weekly summary post be better?  I miss out on Cincinnati news and discussion posts on the main page because they get drowned out and knocked off by the Minor League reports. 

That's just my opinion, anyone else agree?

This may not be a pressing issue while Freel is on the DL, but it seems like Norris Hopper is going to get the short end of the stick again when Freel is back.  

All Hopper has done since he was called up last season with the Reds is hit for a line of:

AVG .339 OBP .387 OPS .818

Freel's line this year:
AVG .251 OBP .313 OPS .676      

Hamilton's line:
AVG .261 OBP .336 OPS .857

I don't think he deserves to be sent down, where I think he has already proven himself.  

Should he only be the 4th or 5th outfielder on the Reds roster?  Just be a pinch-hitter?  He deserves a fair shake, just like the Reds gave Hamilton at the beginning of the season.  

The Red's roster is too crowded.  I think they keep expecting Griffey to get hurt, but all that waiting will just waste good talent like Hopper from showing us what its like have a .320 hitter leading off every night.    

I say, play him or trade him.

John Vukovich, the longest-serving coach in Philadelphia Phillies history and a member of their only World Series championship team in 1980, died Thursday. He was 59.

Vukovich, who had been suffering from complications caused by an inoperable brain tumor, died in a Philadelphia-area hospital, the team said in a statement.

He also won a World Series ring with the Cincinnati Reds in 1975.  -FOX SPORTS
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Vukovich amazingly played at the major league level for 10 seasons with a career batting average of .161 !!  (1975 with the Reds was actually his best season at the plate when he batted .211).  Obviously this kind of career would never happen in today's game, would it?  I think its a sign of the increasing skill level of players today, largely thanks to the increased global talent pool.

Anyone catch the first episode this season of Baseball Tonight? Peter Gammons picked the Reds to be his surprise team in the NL Central.  That made me think he really is recovered from  his brain surgery.

But then he said Jerry Narron is a great manager.  So, maybe Gammons' mind is in Spring Training shape.  

I guess we should just be happy he knew that there were other teams in MLB besides the Yankees and Red Sox.

The rumors floating around tonight are that the Braves are going to non-tender Marcus Giles.  That would make him a free agent by Wednesday.

http://www.ajc.com/blogs/content/shared-blogs/ajc/braves/entries/2006/12/11/braves_face_tue.html

His salary would have been about $6 million.  And the article speculates that he may get less than that on the open market.  

I know the Pads just locked up Walker, but should they go ahead and try to get Giles?  Seems like he may take a home-town discount to play with Brian.  

One thing that is discouraging is that this article  shows his production is on the decline.  I think he would be an upgrade over Walker for 2007, but maybe only for a season or two at most.

Reports say that the Pirates are thinking about Dunn.  The Orioles just signed former closer Danys Baez to 6 mill over the next 3 years.

So, does anyone else out there think Krivsky could put Dunn on the market to create a bidding war for Mike Gonzales and Chris Ray?

I'd be happy to have either of those young closers in the 9th for the next 3 or 4 years.  Anyone disagree?  

If you were Krivsky, would you pull off a one-for-one deal (excluding minor-league players), or would you hold out for veteran players to be included? Or would you hang on to Dunn?

Hey, I think there are a few NorCal Reds fans in RR Land besides me.  

Anyone going to one of the weekend games at AT&T park?  We need to be representing our 1st place team!    

I hoping to catch one game(despite the inflated ticket prices).  It would be great to meet up with some West Coast RedReporter regulars.  

Here is a thought that I haven't heard thrown around in all the trade talk...Why not trade Eric Milton?  Here's my reasoning:

1. His salary: At over $9 mill/yr (and and ERA to match)we may be able to dump him on a rich team.
2. His lack of consistency:  Luckily, he has flashes of being a top-of-the-rotation pitcher, which may make some teams willing to take him on.
3. Play-off Rotation:  If we make the play-offs, we can win it all with 3 solid starters.  I believe our #3 would be Ramirez right now, and also at the end of the season. So that makes Milton at best a #4 game starter in we made it past the first round, and at worst a $9 mill benchwarmer.
4. Lefties in the rotation:  If Classen continues to suck when he comes back, Gosling could still take the spot as the rotation's lefty.  He couldn't be much worse then Classen or Milton.
5. Germano:  If he has a good outing on Saturday, let's just go ahead a take a chance on him the rest of the season.

For me, this all adds up to getting rid of Milton.  Would anybody take his salary?  There are deep pockets like the Yankees out there.  Who cares if we don't get anything back?  Who cares if we even have to pay some of the salary!  

His signing was a mistake.  This was O'Brien's coup d'etat, signing a flyball pitcher for GABP, wasting all of our luxury tax money.  

It's time to fix O'Brien's mistake.  Everyone is saying this pitching market is so tight right now, so let's use this to our advantage while the window is still open.  Please Krivsky, it's time to dump Milton.    

Check out this interesting site to see how MLB teams compare to each other on record vs. team salary:
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http://benfry.com/salaryper/
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It's interesting to see that it's about a 50-50 split of teams playing above/below their team salary rank.

They did this today!  MLB did this 6 months ago.  

You know what I hate about all this "steroid scandal" is that the other sports, especially the media-darling NFL has skated through this without a scratch.

Sure we can look at McGwire and Bonds and see some muscle, but has anyone looked at NFL linemen?  These guys are biblically proportiioned giants.  Men 6-6, 350, 4% body fat, and can run 4.4 40's never existed in world history (outside of the WWF).  

If the world wants to take away HR records, let's revoke some NFL and NBA records too.  Or let's just say ALL sports have had dirty players (both offensive and defensive) and there is no conceivable way to subtract records.  Let's just throw out the bums that are still around and move on...

Now nobody get mad...
This is just some fantasy baseball thoughts here...
I like Dunn/Kearns, but if you were to trade them now before the deadline who would you like to see Krivsky put a (realistic) trade package together for?

We need pitching (and in particular a closer), so here are two thoughts I had:

TWINS (because of obvious connections)
Kearns for Nathan and Boof Bosner

ANGELS (because they need power)
Dunn for Shields and Kendry Morales

Can someone explain to me why TV commentary is sooooooooo boring?  

Everywhere you go, diehard fans will always say that they prefer to listen to the commentators on the radio.  

In many cities, fans will actually mute the TV commentators and turn on the radio.

It seems to me that TV commentators have inherited the idea that TV watchers just want to see the game, so they say as little as possible (and often when they do its mindless stuff about one of the fans in the audience that the cameraman is shooting).  They often don't even call balls and strikes!  

Does anyone else miss the days of NBC's Game of the Week with Vin Scully and Joe Garagiola?  Now those guys could keep you interested in a game on TV.  

This generation of TV "commentators" often sound bored doing their job, just trying to put in their hours at the park to get a paycheck.  

I say radio commentators are better in general and become more beloved by the fans than TV commentators because they walk the fan through the game pitch by pitch.  They build expectation and energy and want to invest the listener in the game.  A radio commentator can make the game experience 100 times more interesting.  

I wish TV commentators would learn a lesson from their radio counterparts.  But that's my opinion, what do you think?