my people we don't know defeat we crush the strong and
percolate the weak daily (everyday) we make our moves to
improve our groove because we love to rule where we
lay yo!..(Yo!) work and play we started at the bottom and
now we're leading the way and yea!..(yea!) I'm havin a fit kickin it
at the top because I'm too legit to quit…sang!…

Man, I've missed a lot of shit. Not as much as Hammer, but an intimidating amount. But hell, let's go back and hit a bunch of it anyway. In no particular order:

D'Angelo Jimenez to the Rangers
The Texas Rangers have signed D'Angelo Jimenez to a minor-league contract with an invitation to spring training. So I guess the Pirates aren't getting him after all.

I'm not usually one of the people harping on Dan O'Brien for not selling players at their peak. If you always get rid of everyone who's good now to gamble on people who might be good in the future, the future never comes. But in the case of D'Lo….damn.

Reds Offer Aurilia Arbitration
The Reds bought themselves some more time to negotiate with Rich Aurilia by offering him arbitration. JD links to Ken Rosenthal saying that the Reds offered arbitration on the condition that he would decline. The rationale here being that the Reds would expect someone else to sign him and then receive a draft pick in return.

That doesn't make sense to me. I can understand the Reds offering arbitration with the expectation that Aurilia would decline, but on the condition that he would and not continue negotiating? Why would Aurilia agree to that? He gets no benefit.

Also, manager Jerry Narron's in love with Aurilia. If he has anything to say about it, Aurilia will be a Red in 2006. I wouldn't hate it either.

Griffey Will Wear #3 Next Season
Yay.

The Need for Speed
Joel wrote a genuinely funny fake news story about Tony Womack's cinematic inspiration. I highly recommend it.

It's What's on the Inside That Counts
I don't know if it's just how it displays on my Mac or whether Shawn's blog really is oddly formatted, but he always does have some very interesting things to say if you know to scroll down far enough to read them. This time, he's talking about what he learned from The Hardball Times Annual. A lot of the conclusions he's sharing are sort of unexpected.

Still Bored?
Bellyscratcher is playing Scrabble.

Jacob Cruz Returning to Reds Organization
Jacob Cruz was giving the impression that he wasn't going to come back to the Reds without a major league contract, but backed down at the last minute and signed a minor league contract.

I don't think that the Reds have gotten the credit they deserve for correctly handling this situation. It's not a huge deal, I guess, but they've made smaller bad decisions that people have jumped all over them for. They were prepared to let one hell of a guy walk away, with genuine regret it seemed, but prepared nonetheless. And it all worked out OK in the end.

Randy Keisler Released
You kinda think maybe he'll be back anyway?

Red Hot Mama Mentioned on the Wastecast
Funnyball was promoted on the most recent Dro Kulix's Wastecast. Sure, it was pretty much a postscript, but he's pretty cool, so I'm lucky to be there at all. He's so cool, in fact, that he thinks inexplicable things, like that Mink Car sucked.

Casey Wears His Heart on his Tongue
If you haven't been over to Marc's blog to read the soliloquy from Sean Casey about how he felt about Cincinnati and leaving it, I think it's worth a look. I cried.

Felipe Lopez is Real Boring
Shadows of Anthony Castrovince, former MLB writer for The Official Reds Site and current MLB writer for The Official Indians Site, remain on the Reds site in the form of an interview with Felipe Lopez. It's a snooze-fest. Check it out.

Speaking of MLB writers, I'm very excited to say that Mark Sheldon, our new MLB writer at the official site, says that someone mentioned my blog to him before I sent a link-whoring email message. It was probably just Castrovince, and probably in the context of “watch out for that link-whoring, Bat-Girl wannabe,” but I'll take it!

'Cause it makes me legit, right?