FanHouse ChrisDickerson

Two good things happened to the Cincinnati Reds on Sunday. They beat the Pittsburgh Pirates and emerged from their one-day stay in last place in the NL Central. That coincided with Scott Rolen's return from the disabled list. Unfortunately with the Reds, their two pieces of good news were balanced with two more players hitting the disabled list. Aaron Harang will miss the rest of 2009 after an appendectomy on Saturday night and Chris Dickerson badly sprained his ankle during a pick-off attempt during Sunday's game.

The list of Reds' injuries this year is staggering. John Fay at the Cincy Enquirer has a good run down of all of them; every opening day starter except Brandon Phillips has spent time on the DL while Harang joins Edinson Volquez and Johnny Cueto there, making up 3/5ths of their opening day starting rotation. It's an incredible run of bad luck that's certainly part of the reason the Reds are battling the Pirates for last place. I also think it's creating an easy excuse for a team that has deeper running problems.

From the Windup is Matt Snyder's extended look at some aspect of America's pastime each Thursday. It appears Saturday because of the A-Rod and Manny Ramirez news.

Heading into Saturday's action, the Cincinnati Reds have played pretty good baseball. They've taken some lumps, but overall it's been a good start for a team that finished 14 games under .500 in 2008. They've gotten good pitching, but their offense leaves something to be desired. Only the Diamondbacks and Giants have scored less runs in the NL.

Boy, they could really use Adam Dunn.

Dan Haren has been awful this spring. Adam Jones is raking, as is Chris Shelton. Michael Bourn has been a completely worthless hitter. Of the above players, two have stat-lines that matter, and two have ones that don't.

You see, judging spring training stat-lines in fantasy baseball can be helpful, but you don't want to get too caught up in it. After all, the games are meaningless. Most established veterans are just going through the motions in attempt to get their body ready for the real season. For them, the stat-lines are meaningless. Thus, I don't care that Haren has sucked thus far. I'd still draft him with confidence.

Let's take a deeper look at a when they matter, when they don't, and why.

FanHouse continues its 2009 MLB Preview with a look at the Cincinnati Reds.

Once one of the most admired franchises in professional sports, the Reds have now suffered through nearly a decade of futility. The last time they finished above .500 was in 2000, when they won 85 games. The last trip to the postseason was in 1995. Even their gorgeous ballpark is barren for much of the summer, as the Reds finished 23rd in attendance last season. It's safe to say that the days of the Big Red Machine are a distant memory.

From now until the regular season begins, Fantasy Flings is where you'll find interesting story lines about your favorite teams from Spring Training. If there is a position battle, a nagging injury, a comeback story or a youngster making a surge for the "big club" we'll let you know the fantasy implications.

Chicago Cubs
Sean Marshall is the favorite to win the job as the Cubs 5th starter in the rotation, but he's going to have to fight off a slew of others including Chad Gaudin, Ken Kadokura and Jeff Samardzija. Marshall went a long way towards proving he's the right choice on Tuesday as he threw three perfect innings. In five spring innings he's given up one run, four hits, struck out two and walked none. With the addition of Milton Bradley, Kosuke Fukudome only has one option in the outfield; center field. He'll be competing with Reed Johnson for that job. Johnson is the only one in camp as Fukudome is participating in the World Baseball Classic.

Fantasy baseball draft season is coming, so you best be prepared by delving through every major player on each team. Fantasy FanHouse is here to help with a quick once-over.

Meet the ...
Team who definitely won't be clogging up the bases. That joke never gets old, but, seriously, this is a team who has the potential to make some noise. Their lineup and rotation are both good, and there are several solid fantasy players here. If you want stars, though, keep on moving. There are lots of really good players here, just no great ones.

Footprints in the Snow is FanHouse's look at the paths to be forged by MLB teams this winter as they look ahead to 2009.

How many teams in baseball can match a young core of Jay Bruce, Joey Votto, Edinson Volquez, and Johnny Cueto? The Reds have four young players to build around right now that would make every other team in the league jealous. The problem they currently have is that none of the older guys around those young players, namely Brandon Phillips, Aaron Harang, Edwin Encarnacion, and Bronson Arroyo, have performed up to expectations recently.

The question that Cincy now must answer is when their team is going to be ready to contend. They weren't last year, and Adam Dunn and Ken Griffey Jr. were shipped off as a result. They're still a ways away right now, though if players like Cueto and Bruce can take steps forward this year, they might be closer to contending then people realize. So should they try to arm up for a run to the top of the Central this year? Or should they sit back and wait.

Isn't it infuriating watching a player do something stupid? There's not much that drives fans crazier than a player getting picked off while not paying attention or forgetting how many outs there are or throwing to the wrong base. This afternoon, Chris Dickerson got picked off of first while walking back to the bag with his head down. When asked about it after the game, he had a simple explanation:

"I was being lazy," he said. "I dropped my head. It was lackadaisical, lazy on my part. It's so basic, so fundamental: Know where the ball is at all times. I lost sight of that."

I guess it's easy to get upset over a player being lazy, but isn't that honesty refreshing? It's a long season, the Reds suck, Dickerson's mind wandered off for a couple of seconds, and he doesn't make excuses for it. I think, "I was being lazy," is way better than, "The lights flashed off of a fan's watch and I got distracted for a second."