The Associated Press annual salary survey is now available. Thanks to GROTA for pointing it out.

I don't really know enough about salaries to say anything too intelligent, but it's pretty interesting to look at. For instance, Ken Griffey, Jr. is the highest paid player on the Reds, but do you know who is the second?

Eric Milton with $9,833,333 is the answer. Most everyone would be glad for Milton to be average this year, but how awesome would he have to be to be worth almost $10 million?

Also intriguing that the Reds' overall payroll is down about a million dollars from last season. Assuming no change in the payroll, as Bob Castellini said when he first rolled into town, the Reds still have a million to play with.

Ooh! Maybe they'll use it to sign another second baseman!

The phrase has lost all meaning.

Per Marc:

Old news by now, I know (been away from the computer for a while), but the Reds have acquired infielder Brandon Phillips from the Indians for a player to be named or cash.

Phillips, 24, was long considered one of the top prospects around, and thought to be the key to the Bartolo Colon deal a few years ago. Grady Sizemore and Cliff Lee ended up providing quite a bit more return for the Tribe.

He'll be on the Reds' active roster, though a corresponding move won't be made until Sunday. Matt Kata was designated for assignment to make room for Phillips on the 40-man.

Another interesting pickup. I keep waiting for a really big domino to fall somewhere here, considering all the catchers, second basemen and outfielders floating around. Stay tuned, I guess.

OK, so Marc thinks we're going to see the huge corresponding move to this one. But we've been waiting for that shoe to fall since they signed Womack back in December.

KC2HMZ, who by now ought to be listed as an official writer for RHM, had this to say about the deal in the comments:

Pssst! Don't look now, but the Reds just obtained Brandon Phillips from the Indians for a player to be named later or cash.

Phillips was part of the booty in the same trade that got the Indians Grady Sizemore and sent Bartolo Colon to the Expos.

Phillips' problem has been that he can't hit a lick. He actually won the Tribe's 2B job in the psring of 2003, but hit like .210 in 88 games and got sent down to Buffalo. He's played here in Buffalo for the last three years, where I've been able to see with my own eyes that he's a dynamite fielder at both 2B and SS who would be an all-star in the majors if he'd quit trying to hit every pitch 600 feet and learn to be a contact hitter.

That, and LaRue comes off the DL on, like, Monday. I still think there's going to be a major trade here, the Reds have too many catchers and too many middle infielders.

To give this move an even more sinister shade, Marc says in his subsequent post that general manager Wayne Krivsky felt the need to point out Phillips' service time at short stop on multiple occasions.

Would the Reds stockpile a zillion second basemen just to trade their one really good shortstop? The idea makes me slightly ill.

Let's finish up recapping off-season stuff that you probably missed. March was a big month.

We've already talked September/October, November/December, and January/February.

• We did a serious, thorough, and fair comparison of Griffey and Barry Bonds.
• I started picking fights with Cubs.
• The Race for Second Base was on!
• Those Cardinals fans really love their signs.
• The family took off for Sarasota.
• I met baseball celebrities including the Latin Love Machine!
• Andy Furman accused me of looking like Madonna on WLW.
• My hubby got the coolest autographs ever for me.
• I reviewed Tom Browning's Tales from the Dugout. Incidentally, check out BrowningBook.com to buy your own copy, even an autographed one if you're so inclined.
• I also reviewed Bronson Arroyo's album Covering the Bases. Reading books and listening to music? You'd think I was on vacation or something.

Now you're all caught up and ready to hang out at RHM every day this season. Glad to have ya.

The Reds' POV
At Church of Baseball, Daedalus notes that winning is fun. Amen, sister. In the previous post, beyond the long poem, she asks why the heck Womack is playing over Freel. Again: hallelujah!

JD of Red Reporter fame thinks he might be a bad person for disliking the Pirate version of Sean Casey. I think it's just a coping mechanism, like how much I hate David Eckstein.

Shawn at Cincinnati Reds Blog titles his entry “Reds Beat Pirates.” Now what's he going to title all the rest of the game wraps against Pittsburgh?

Girlfriend at We Heart the Reds is dancing a happy jig. I'm feeling like dancing myself.

The Pirates' POV
Over at Bucco Blog, Joliet Jake considers the line-up construction. It was all a little detail-heavy for me, but I was in total agreement with the last sentence.

Charlie at Bucs Dugout was updating a game thread up to the point where Ryan Doumit hit a two-run home run off Rick White to tie the score at fives. He missed the best part!

Mike Boyko at Buried Treasure bemoans Pittsburgh's now 0-4 record. He also points out that the Pirates are too dependant on home runs for scoring. Gosh, it seems like I've heard that someplace before.

At Where Have You Gone Andy Van Slyke?, Pat thinks things might have been different if Ian Snell could have gotten Tony Womack out in the second inning. According to FSN, though, Tony Womack was the last left-handed hitter to lead the Pirates in hits, so Snell should have known to beware. Womack is certainly the force to be reckoned win in this line-up.

Also check out the first comment on this post: it says that Denorfia shouldn't have been allowed to score because the umps couldn't have known that Duffy wouldn't have thrown him out at home. It's true: the umps couldn't have known whether Hell might have froze over with Denorfia running. But they gotta play the odds.

The Reds extended the losing streak of the Pirates to 4 with a 5-6 victory before a tiny, tiny crowd in a soggy Great American Ball Park yesterday.

Brandon Claussen took the mound and went five innings, allowing three runs (all earned) on five hits. He struck out five and set a good example for the relievers by walking none, though his did plunk three.

Mike Burns took over in the sixth and held the Pirates scoreless on two hits through his inning. Rick White worked the seventh and eighth and gave up two earned runs on two hits to tie up the game. The offense chose his shift to get the lead back, so he also ended up with the undeserved win. David Weathers was a bad-ass in the ninth and struck out two of the three he faced to finish off the Buccos for the deserved save.

The Reds got the scoring started right away in the bottom of the first when Felipe Lopez doubled and Ken Griffey Jr knocked him in with a ground ball single. Score 0-1.

They struck again in the second after Scott Hatteberg and Javier Valentín singled. Claussen laid down the sacrifice bunt to get the runners on second and third, and Tony Womack knocked them in with a single to center field. The Reds would go on to load up the bases with two outs, just in time for Adam Dunn to strike out. It's OK, though, he'd be the star later. Score: 0-3.

One freaking swing of the bat in the top of the fourth tied the game up when Joe Randa hit a home run to left field to score Sean Casey (who got on when a pitch hit him) and Jason Bay (who got on when he hit a pitch). Claussen hit his third batter of the night in Ryan Doumit before striking out Duffy and stranding two Pirates runners. Score: 3-3.

Little Edwin Encarnación knocked in Hatteberg in the fifth to regain the lead. Score 3-4. Dunn hit his second home run of the season, a monster right between the power stacks, in the sixth to add some insurance. The ball reportedly hit a car on Mehring Way, the occupant of which hopped out, picked up the ball, and drove away. No kidding. Score: 3-5.

Another stupid swing of the bat in the top of the eighth tied the score again when Doumit hit a home run to right field after Jose Castillo singled to right field. Score: 5-5.

In the bottom of the eighth, Chris Denorfia pinch hit for the pitcher, and boy did he look good. He's had two pinch hits this season, and he's impressed in both. This time it was a single to left field. After Womack struck out failing to get down the bunt, Lopez singled to right. Griffey popped out.

And then the biggest story of the night: the contested call in center field. Dunn came up with Denorfia and Lopez on base and two outs. But instead of striking out, Dunn lofted one to center field. Duffy ran like Hell and made a slide for it, but the ball hit the ground before bouncing into his mitt. Unfortunately, instead of getting up and throwing the damn ball in, he sold the play as a catch and the ump initially bought it.

Every single other person in the stadium, heck, in the world, knew this was not a catch. The crowd was raging, Jerry Narron was on the field, the Reds were actually hopping mad. The umps conferred and finally did overturn the play, requiring Lopez to go back to third, apparently where he was on his way to when the bad call was made. You can guess my opinion on that crap.

Anyway, after Jim Tracy was ejected for getting a little too hopping mad himself, Rich Aurilia grounded out to strand two and end the threat. But that was OK because, as I mentioned before, Weathers was a bad-ass in the ninth to end the game. Score: 5-6.

The win brings the Reds' record to 2-1. Tonight they take on the Pirates again in Great American at 7:10 p.m. Eric Milton takes on Paul Maholm for the Pirates.