I hope everyone had fun with this last year, and I'm hoping to get more involvement in it this year. In case you're new or want a look back at memory lane, here are the final results from last year.

For those who participated last year, the rules are basically the same that we finally agreed on last year. There are no cash prizes or fancy memorabilia (unless Jeremy is willing to donate a special prize for the cause), just bragging rights during the off season.

And now for the rules and stuff ...

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As everyone is well aware, 2011 is over and 2012 has begun. Nothing brings in more pomp in my office than revealing this year's brand new calendar. For the past couple of years I've received a really generic IU Hoosiers calender with a player nobody remembers and incorrect or missing stats. This year I took it upon myself to search for a really bitchin' wall calender.

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First of all, I want to thank everybody who participated at least once this year. It was a close and exciting race all year. Because it was the first go around, there we a number of rule adjustments, but in the end i think we all agreed on a formula that works.

I'm not a big "stats" guy, so this was my was of contributing to the community. I had a great time and hope those who tried did too. I'll be here all winter and look forward to heading the 2012 Red Reporter Predictions.

Here are the results from the last series against the Mets and the final standings after the jump. The final standings were a lot closer than i thought they were going to be after last Sunday.

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first the standings ...

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Games 16-21 are in the book and the Reds went 2-4. During this past week we had two games where nobody guessed correctly and one exact prediction.

We welcome 3 Fast 3 Furious and ManBearPig to the board this week. In addition, Wishfuldrifter has moved up to 4th, and I jumped straight up to the top with a correct pick and an additional closest pick.

Remember, a correct pick earns you two points, so put your thinking caps on when making your picks.

As a non pick related question, is there any way of posting this as a FanShot without having to post a video or picture link? Getting to 150 words is getting to be awfully difficult.

Without further ado, the standings after the jump.

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This past week we saw the Cincinnati Reds play .500 losing three out of six against the Padres and the Pirates. On both of the Piratre occasions, nobody predicted that the Reds would lose.  The big winner this week was Crolfer, picking up two points and jumping into a tie for first place. Added to the board this week were Wishfuldrifter, Vottomatic, and Ritalin.

I also noticed more people participating this week. That's awesome. There's still plenty of time for those to jump in and still catch up to the leaders. If there is anything that you feel can be tweeked or added let me know either in the comments section below (a bit of RWJ =3 there) or in the game threads once the predictions have been made.

Damn, getting to 150 is rough ...

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The Cincinnati Reds started off on a hot streak and so did one of our prognosticators. I'm still looking for more input good or bad, and still want to see many of the other regulars jump in and add some of their best guesses. What I am going to do starting tonight (4/11) ... sorry crolfer ... is give 2 points to anyone who nails the score head on. I want to weight a correct pick a bit, and think doing so is only fair.

I plan on updating this every week on monday to include the picks from the week prior. In doing so i'll probably just post as a fanshot since i'm already struggling to reach the required word count for a fanpost.

So without further ado, the results after the jump ...

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who would be up for a season long game prediction contest like the ones seen on other sites in years past? If enough people are up for it, i'd be willing to track and run the thing. I know this is kind of a short notice, but it has been something i've been mulling over for the past few weeks. More info after the jump ...

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As we all know by now, the Bankees have eliminated the Twins, thus pushing our game to 8 pm. The most important thing for me is that the Reds show up and display to the world the team we saw all year long. That hasn't happened the first two games.

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This is a few days early thanks to andro spoiling it ... it's all good though. Time to let us all know your first celebrity crush. The rules:

They must be a celebrity ... Bubba Fan is awesome, but she doesn't count

A lot of us were young when we had our first crush, so don't freak out if they post a pic of a 12 year old

Let's not turn this into a total chick fest .... ladies, post your pics of guys too .... however ...

.. the first one to post  a picture of Joey Lawrence gets flagged

Have at it!

The Reds agreed to sign Russ Springer to an $850K deal, according to Bob Tompkins of the Alexandria Daily Town Talk. The 41-year-old right-hander threw for five teams and received offers from all of them, but he couldn’t turn away the team he rooted for as a boy.

“All of a sudden I went from being not really excited to looking at it as a kid again when I was pulling for [the Reds] during the Johnny Bench, Pete Rose, George Foster days,” Springer said.

He will report to Triple A Louisville and pitch for ten days to two weeks before joining the major league team. Springer, who pitched for the A’s and Rays last year, will make a pro-rated portion of $850K.

Springer has posted a 4.52 ERA with 8.2 K/9 and 3.7 BB/9 over the course of a 17-year career that began on the 1992 Yankees. His deal with the Reds is not a surprise, since they were known to be in the market for right-handed relievers.

This was takes directly from MLBTradeRumors.com. I'd rather had signed Weathers since we knew what we were getting ... your takes? Yay, nay?

So the talk around Reds country lately has been the need to find a good, dependable right handed hurler for our bullpen. The player I've come up with is a leader, has plenty of big league experience, has a history with the team, has playoff experience, and is easily available. May I present to you, David Weathers. He has said that he is willing to come to a team half way through the season, and I'm sure the price tag would be low. So what say you Reds fans? Do you take a shot? I say, why not? If this bullpen continues to struggle or get injured, Weathers may just be the spark plug needed to get us to the finish.

So on Friday my wife and I were joined at GABP by my father and stepmother, as well as my mother (they still remain good friends). It was just my father and stepmothers second time there, and this would be my mother's first visit (lives in Tucson, Arizona).

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per Sheldon:

The Reds previously said they were done making moves because of being at their payroll limit. But they might not be finished after all.

Bench depth is still a need and a source told MLB.com that the Reds are interested in veteran outfielder Luis Gonzalez. In recent weeks, Gonzalez and his agent also made strong overtures that he would like to play for Cincinnati.

"We're still looking to improve our bench and find the right guys. He's a guy we like," Reds general manager Walt Jocketty said when asked about Gonzalez. "We're exploring every option and if the right fit comes around, we'll take a look at it."

If he's cheap, the go for it. Gonzalez was hands down my favorite player when i lived in Arizona. He's a great guy and a good clubhouse guy. However, I don't know how much he has left in him.

Per MLBTradeRumors.com, Sean Casey has called it quis ....

Rob Bradford of WEEI.com has reported that Sean Casey has signed on with the MLB Network, making his retirement official.

Casey, 34, hit .322/.381/.392 in 218 plate appearances for the Red Sox in 2008. Casey finishes his career with a .302 lifetime batting average.

While it was depressing to see him go to first the pirates, then the tigers, then the red sox, at least he got some playoff fun. the bonus is that now i get to see him on the MLB Network.

Per MLBTradeRumors.com ... Assuming he'd even think about coming here, would you bite on that. i'd say that's one hell of a deal .... Fire up the heated debate ... would you bite on this deal. I would say yes. To get what we got from Arizona and still get Dunn at that price seems to put it over the top for me. The big bat market has just been horrible this year. So, what do you think?

link

per baseballsimccentral .... they seem surprised. reactions? a large part of me wants to see him stay here for next year. while he does have his frustrating moments, he still has a rock solid ERA and provides a leadership presence in the bullpen. plus, according to the site, he's only owed $610 K. unless we can get someething outstanding, why not keep him here.

he's a free agent after this year though. do you think he will be resigned if we do keep him?

link

TEAM TARGETS REDS CATCHER DAVID ROSS

Although the catching market is thin, the Marlins are looking at Cincinnati Reds catcher David Ross as a trade possibility.

Ross, who primarily has been a backup for most of his seven major-league seasons, is hitting .247 with one home run in 89 at-bats this season.

But Ross, 31, a former University of Florida player, is serviceable and relatively inexpensive ($2.52 million this season with a club option in 2009 for $3.5 million).

He is a career .224 hitter, but hit 21 home runs in 2006 and 17 last year in the cozy confines of Great American Ball Park. Over his career, Ross has a 38 percent rate throwing out runners trying to steal.

The Marlins are less interested in Colorado's Yorvit Torrealba, Washington's Paul Lo Duca and Kansas City's Miguel Olivo.

saw this at mlbtraderumors.com ...

we don't really have anyone waiting in the wings, so i'd rather keep ross.