Footprints in the Snow is FanHouse's look at the paths to be forged by MLB teams this winter as they look ahead to 2010.
The Reds are at a crossroads. They've compiled some nice young talent at the major league level with guys like Jay Bruce, Joey Votto, and Johnny Cueto (plus the injured Edinson Volquez) and they have some prospects close to the big leagues in Drew Stubbs and Yonder Alonso, but that might not be enough to get them quite over the top in 2010.
This winter the Reds have to decide what to do with their roster. Should they keep some of their older, more expensive players and gun for what might be a weak division, or should they sell off on the veterans and try to rebuild a core around the younger guys before they leave town?
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.
The Cincinnati Reds are finally getting some good injury news, as the team is saying that Joey Votto's blurred vision last night was unrelated to his anxiety issues from earlier this season. He saw an eye doctor Thursday for what's being called a "retinal migrane" and he's back in the lineup.
The official line from Dusty Baker and the Reds is that this issue is unrelated to Votto's previous anxiety problems, but when asked directly about it Votto didn't rule that out. Doctors have told him it's a stress-related issue and Votto admitted that it could be indirectly related to the anxiety issues stemming from his father's death last August. The fact that he's back in the lineup so quickly is a good sign for both him and for the Reds, though, so it seems unlikely there's much to worry about right now.
Poppin' out the box scores and right into your cubicle, the Roto Rush is your double espresso shot of fantasy baseball advice every weekday.
Jon Garland has a 6-10 record on the season with a 4.26 ERA and I'm about to tell you that he's been the victim of poor run support. Well, that's at least part of the reason for his double digit loss column.
We've heard it before from the Diamondbacks and their pitchers. Dan Haren started the season with three straight losses even though he gave up only four total earned runs in those three games. But Haren is an ace and it was believable when we played the run support card with him. Garland, on the other hand, just doesn't have the track record.
Poppin' out the box scores and right into your cubicle, the Roto Rush is your double espresso shot of fantasy baseball advice every weekday.
Sure, he gave up a home run to Joey Votto on Sunday, but that's about all the Cincinnati Reds got facing the Cubs' Rich Harden.
For Harden this was his third consecutive start where he showed the potential of being a front-line ace. He struck out eight in only six innings and that home run was the only hit and only run he allowed the Reds in route to earning his seventh win.
Over his last three starts Harden has struck out 21 while walking only two batters in 19 innings. His ERA over this time is 0.47 and he has two wins to show for great pitching.
This is the first time in 2009 Harden has put together this kind of run. He's been able, on a number of occasions, to put two good starts together, but never three as he seems to get shelled every time he's about to take that next step towards becoming the solid number one guy the Cubs desperately need him to be.
On Monday night things started out well enough for the Cincinnati Reds in their game against the Los Angeles Dodgers. The first three batters of the night all reached base and the Reds took a 2-0 lead before Brandon Phillips came to the plate with Joey Votto on third and nobody out.
Phillips then lifted a fly ball into right field that seemed to be an easy out, but at least would allow Votto to score from third. The problem was that Andre Ethier misplayed the ball and it dropped in front of him. He was able to throw Phillips out at second because Brandon didn't exactly hustle out of the box. After the game Phillips apologized for his lack of effort.
Every Sunday, MLB FanHouse empties out its notebook in Baseball Brunch.
The most remarkable thing about this season as we hit the not-halfway halfway point of the All-Star break isn't Albert Pujols' RBI total. Or Zack Greinke's ERA. Or the PED suspension of one of the game's biggest stars.
It's the standings. And they not only reflect the season so far, they give us a clue as to the weeks head leading up to the non-waiver trade deadline.
The Phillies and Dodgers are the only first-place team with a lead of more than 2 1/2 games. And 21 of the 30 teams are within 7 1/2 games of a playoff spot: nine of 14 in the AL and 12 of 16 in the NL.
With the introduction of the 2009 All-Star teams, the next step for fans is to complain about their favorite players not making the squad. Thus, we'll get a head start and go through each position in the National League.
The rosters, which will be complete once the fan vote for the final player in each league concludes, were announced during a selection show on TBS Sunday. Remember, this season baseball added yet another pitcher to the roster, in hopes that the game doesn't end in a tie like the 2002 debacle. The concern once again came to the forefront last season as the game went deep into extra innings and the pitching depth began to run out.
Poppin' out the box scores and right into your cubicle, the Roto Rush is your double espresso shot of fantasy baseball advice every weekday.
No, I didn't lose a bet to Matt Snyder (although he is running roughshod over our fantasy league right now) and he hasn't stolen my log in information to write favorable posts about the Chicago Cubs. I feel it's just necessary to expound a bit about what's been happening on the north side lately.
The Cubs won their second game in a row and made it back to .500 on Thursday. They did so with a scoring barrage led by Derrek Lee. If Lee's two home runs on Thursday weren't enough foreshadowing for a breakout, imagine that we're only two games into July and Lee already has three homers and nine RBI. He had six homers and 20 RBI in June. Is Lee a 30-home run player again?
One of the more interesting injury-related developments this season has been the spate of anxiety, stress and other emotional/mental issues cited as reasons for sending players to the disabled list. Dontrelle Willis, Joey Votto and Khalil Greene, who missed two games after a previous stint on the DL, have all been struck with these ailments, which has generated two general schools of response.
The first is sympathetic. Many people in this country have suffered from such problems, or have close friends or family members who have suffered, and they know that being a talented athlete doesn't make you immune. The other camp feels that these are just excuses for teams to stash away players performing poorly.
Footprints in the Snow is FanHouse's look at the paths to be forged by MLB teams this winter as they look ahead to 2010.
Two good things happened to the 
The Cincinnati Reds are finally getting some good injury news, as the team is saying that 
Poppin' out the box scores and right into your cubicle, the 
Poppin' out the box scores and right into your cubicle, the 
On Monday night things started out well enough for the Cincinnati Reds in their game against the Los Angeles Dodgers. The first three batters of the night all reached base and the Reds took a 2-0 lead before 
With the introduction of the 2009 All-Star teams, the next step for fans is to complain about their favorite players not making the squad. Thus, we'll get a head start and go through each position in the National League. 
Poppin' out the box scores and right into your cubicle, the 
One of the more interesting injury-related developments this season has been the spate of anxiety, stress and other emotional/mental issues cited as reasons for sending players to the disabled list. 
