This could be interesting... If Bailey, Volquez, Cueto and Maloney fail to make the rotation out of camp, might Dusty Baker take them north in the bullpen? Sounds like he is in favor of such a plan but then what to do with the old guys in the pen that the Reds owe money too? Eat it? Move them somehow before ST ends? Stay tuned, this could raise some eyebrows!

John Fay of the Enquirer gives a mini play by play blog of today's action. Too early to say who has a hot stick of course but a few position players got kudos from MGR Baker (D. Anderson, P. Janish, and J. Gil). There is some interesting commentary on several of the pitchers as well. Each pitcher got a half inning to throw in. Sounds like Cueto got the gold star today and Rule 5 pickup Sergio Valenzuela got the big raspberry. Several errors, wild pitches, misplays in the field (6 at last count), several strikeouts, a couple of DPs.

Bailey, Volquez, the bullpen, Griffey, Dunn and Gonzalez sat out this action. Didn't see Affeldt or Fogg's name in the lists either but I believe I read somewhere that Affeldt will start Wednesday against the Phils.

Anyways, the action is underway!!!!

One does not get the impression that the writer of this article believes the Reds are ready to contend. We shall see! Perhaps they are a long shot, but our two biggest stars (Dunn and Griffey) are in contract years, and our starters now have a bit of relief in knowing that our BP should be strong enough not to blow so many leads in the 7th and 8th. My fearless prediction despite what I read here:

The Reds go 3 games over .500, Harang wins 20 games, Dunn jacks 50, Phillips goes 30/30 again and Bruce shows us all why he was last year's MiLB player of the year!

Picked up in last season's trade of Kyle Lohse to the Phillies, this young man has apparently caught Manager Baker's eye. Given that the Reds currently have no lefties in the starting rotation, that Maloney and Jeremy Affeldt are the only lefties vying for a spot in the rotation and word that Baker would really like to have a lefty in the rotation, Maloney's odds of making the team out of ST look much better. Time will tell!

Nice article on Norris Hopper by Hal McCoy. This young man plays hard and does what he has too to help the team get a W. Great mentality. Can he beat out Freel and Bruce for the starting CF job? He already has my vote over Freel and $5 says Bruce starts in Louisville unless he has an OUTSTANDING spring.

Alot of people are very high on Edinson Volquez. Apparently the young man throws some serious heat and mixes in a good change and decent curve. If he can deliver on just half of his potential, it will go a long way in justifying letting go last year's feel good story, Josh Hamilton.

More Volquez from DDN:

http://www.daytondailynews.com/s/content/oh/story/sports/pro/reds/2008/02/24/ddn 022508redsnotes.html

Kudos go to GM Wayne Krivsky for not trading away our young arms...

Quote of the day

" Matt Belisle looks like Paul Bunyan or Jack Johnson â€" a big, strong guy who won nine games last year for a not-very-good team and there is no reason for him not to win 15 this year." â€" Manager Dusty Baker.

Take notice fantasy pundits!!! Pencil RHP Matt Beslisle into your sleeper draft list!!!

John Fay from the Cincy Enquirer posted some good stuff from Sarasota... One reader's comment regarding RHP Todd Coffey throwing BP was pretty funny...

""Live Batting Practice" - how is this different from what Coffey does during the regular season?"

I like Coffey and hope he can exorcise last years demons. He definitely looks to have slimmed down some...

Let us hope that the whole Woods and Prior scenario is not repeated with Bailey, Cueto and Volquez. I imagine that if it does, there will be much hell to pay in Cincy!!!

As for not warming to the youngsters, I am certain Dusty realizes that the Reds are a YOUNG team and getting younger all the time. Votto, Bruce, Bailey, Cueto, Maloney, Volquez, McBeth, Valenzuela and all the other young talent waiting in the wings... Even some of our *OLD* guys aren't that old (Phillips 26, Beslisle 27, Bray 24, Encarnacion 24, Keppinger 27)... THOSE are the guys we have to move forward with as a mid-market team... Cincy doesn't have the ability to go out and pay the big bucks for the Santana's and the other OLDER established over-priced guys.

By way of refuting the notion that he favors veterans over rookies, Dusty had this to say, as reported by Mark Sheldon:

"I think the only thing I haven't had as a manager, so far as players are concerned, is a Rookie of the Year, because I haven't had any," Baker said. "They got traded and I got the credit for not playing them, which was bull. There were a lot of rookies we traded because of the need to win now. It seemed like the philosophy."

http://cincinnati.reds.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20080221&content_id=2382967& vkey=spt2008news&fext=.jsp&c_id=cin

Apparently Mr. Wilson is no longer at the Sarasota complex with the Reds... Maybe this will open up a shot for Keppinger to get some ABs as a RH firstbaseman...

UPDATE - --Outfielder/first baseman Craig Wilson was released. Wilson didn't take the field after his physical. He spent most of last year on the DL with shoulder problems.

http://frontier.cincinnati.com/blogs/redsinsider/2008/02/dusty-there-are-things- ive-got-to.asp

$1M / 1Year... Does this move mean Affeldt goes to the pen? It certainly gives the Reds more options to play with in the rotation and for $1M, this looks like a decent move. Fogg is a fly ball pitcher however, and in the launching pad that is Great American Ballpark, that could be a bad thing... Only time will tell...

Another link regarding this rumor

http://www.daytondailynews.com/o/content/shared-gen/blogs/dayton/cincinnatireds/ entries/2008/02/20/fogg_coming_to_reds.html

From Rosenthal: http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/7821566/Reds-among-suitors-for-righty-Fogg?CM P=OTC-K9B140813162&ATT=49

Ok, I understand that there are alot of folks that like the Red Sox but I have to get on my soap-box... Why did this story have to have a paragraph explaining that Boston is not interested in picking up Fogg as well as going on to address the fact that Odalis Perez got snaked out from under them? Grrrrrrr! Everything is Red Sox and Yankees with the good people at Fox Sports and ESPN! Anger... subsiding. Blood pressure... lowering. Rage... Almost gone!

This fellow can't seem to catch a break!!! I take that back, he did catch a break last spring in a finger on his pitching hand :P Now a year later, after an appendectomy a few weeks ago, it appears his shoulder is jacked up from overcorrecting for his broken finger in his mechanics... Sigh

The man got more than 80,000 of the 120,000+ fan votes cast for candidates of the Ford C. Frick Award for broadcasting but apparently the awarding panel did not find that compelling enough to pick the old lefthander... I'd sure like to find out how each member on the judging panel voted in this affair. We love you, Joe!!! Your day will come!!!

Alot of potential to get excited about in the Reds spring training camp besides Wunder-Kind Jay Bruce... Bailey, Volquez, Cueto, Roenicke...