You may remember a couple times during spring training this year when I talked about a gift I was hand-crafting for Jerry Narron. One that I invested my heart, soul, and actual blood in. Nothing creepy; I'm just kind of clumsy with a needle sometimes.

Well, this is it. I mailed it in to Great American Ball Park to be our good luck charm this second half. It's a cross-stitch that I designed and sewed myself. I had someone else frame it. You've got to draw the line somewhere.

So, tomorrow we've got an infielder and a couple of pitchers joining up with the team. According to a story on Reds.com titled Notes: Denorfia to play more in outfield, it doesn't look like Chris Denorfia will be going back down soon. On the other hand, I'm not sure how much to trust a story with the most ridiculously obvious headline since Newborn set to breathe more.

Still, no one coming in the trade fills in for Austin Kearns, so The Hearthrob is probably safe for a while. Royce Clayton presumably works into the middle infield better than William Bergolla, so we probably won't be seeing Bergolla much longer.

Traditional wisdom says that David Weathers and Esteban Yan would be the losers out of the bullpen, but I think it's important not to overlook the suckitude of Joe Mays.

“But who would be our fifth starter?” you might ask. Who's our fifth starter now? I ask in response.

Tonight the Reds seem to be throwing the entire pitching staff up against the wall to see what sticks. Everyone's doing OK under the scrutiny other than Jason Standridge, and it's certainly not out of the question that he could be on the losing end of a roster-clearing move tomorrow.

And now I hear that the game is over, with a win! That good luck charm is working already.

You might be interested to know that Wayne Krivsky pulled the trigger on an eight-player deal today with Jim Bowden and the Washington Nationals:

Cincinnati completed an eight-player trade with the Nationals on Thursday afternoon, sending starting shortstop Felipe Lopez and right fielder Austin Kearns, as well as Minor League pitcher Ryan Wagner, to Washington in exchange for relievers Gary Majewski and Bill Bray, shortstop Royce Clayton, infielder Brendan Harris and pitcher Darryl Thompson.

Kriv-dawg likes to emphasize the defense, so dealing Lopez isn't much of a surprise. Personally I didn't think Felipe was doing so bad this year, but maybe I was just comparing him to last year. Such a deal makes you wonder about the prospects of Edwin Encarnación should someone come a callin' for his services.

That doesn't explain trading Kearns, though. And it doesn't heal my broken heart to see him go, either.

Looks like HMZ has some hard facts share, as always:

The Reds get:

* Gary Majewski (righthander who is 3-2 with a 3.58 ERA in 46 games this year after 79 relief appearances with a 2.93 ERA last year)

* Bill Bray (a rookie lefty who's 1-1 with a 3.91 ERA in 19 relief appearances this season)

* Royce Clayton, a shortstop who started this season ranked 2nd among active shortstops in games, starts, innings, total chances, putouts, assists and double plays, trailing only 10-time Gold Glover Omar Vizquel in every category; whose career fielding percentage of .974 entering this year ranked seventh among all Major League shortstops; and who on top of playing much better defense at short than Lopez is hitting .269 with 22 doubles and eight stolen bases in 87 games)

* Brendan Harris, a major-league ready glove at 3B, SS and 2B who has shown signs of being able to hit for average and being a good situational hitter, plus

* Daryl Thompson, a 20-year old pitcher with a fastball in the low 90's and a solid curve and change (in other words, a good pitching prospect if they can get him healthy…20-year old pitchers with three solid pitches aren't easy to find).

I'm afraid my glasses aren't so rose-colored. Sure, there's a lot here, but worth Lopez AND Kearns (and Wagner)?

Krivsky bought himself a lot of benefit of the doubt with Bronson Arroyo, David Ross, and Brandon Phillips. He's already used up some of it with Quinton McCracken and Joe Mays, but he's got enough left for me to reserve judgement for a little while longer, especially since this move means that William Bergolla and--even more important to me--Chris Denorfia come back.

Still, I'm baffled. Does this mean that the Reds have accepted a seller role this off season? I'd love for another shoe to fall to bring someone bona fide with a little name recognition and make this make more sense.

Ooh, what a great break. And after a long day at work and dinner out with the family, I'm ready to get back into the swing of things.

Let's see…I couldn't have missed much…

Wha- Wha- WHAAA?

Useless assbag. Give me back O'Brien.

Welcome to part 8 of the Reds Roundtable discussion. I'll update links to the other parts as they appear:
Part 1 on Shawn's Cincinnati Reds Blog
Part 2 on Church of Baseball
Part 3 on Reds (and Blues)
Part 4 on …and this one belongs to the Reds!
Part 5 on Red Reporter
Part 6 on We Heart the Reds
Part 7 on On Baseball and the Reds
Part 8 - You're looking at it.

Shawn: OK, any questions from the floor?
Red Hot Mama: How's the blogging treating everyone this year?
Shawn: It's been a good year for me.
JinAZ: My traffic died when I had the baby for some reason. 🙂
Doc Scott: counting down the days until I can get away from my cruddy website
Ashlee: It's easier when the Reds are winning. 😉
Red Hot Mama: Counting the days? Are you in a contract or something?
Jacci: Markedly better than last year, aside from the fact that I can't find enough time for it right now
Daedalus: my traffic has been halved in the last two weeks
JinAZ: Probably 'cause I stopped posting for a while…
Shawn: That'll do it
JinAZ: 🙂
Doc Scott: Rock Star is eating all of our lunches
Doc Scott: and he's not even here now
Shawn: We're thick with the girls tonight. Lotsa chicks in here!
Doc Scott: it's as if I'm at my own house
Red Hot Mama: Shawn, that's so insensitive
Shawn: Yeah, so?
Red Hot Mama: We prefer “dames”
Doc Scott: RHM: no, I just don't want to uproot in the middle of the season
JinAZ: Ok, well, I better go make dinner… I owe the wife for an hour now…
Shawn: Anything else for the official write-up?
Doc Scott: once the claws are sunk in… 🙂
Red Hot Mama: Nice to have you, J. Have a good one.
Jacci: Enjoy ze dinner
Doc Scott: it is quite neat to see the Reds blogosphere expanding
JinAZ: Thanks for the invite. Was a lot of fun!
Doc Scott: heck, now there are like three of 'em just focusing on the minors
Red Hot Mama: Good to see everyone again. Thanks y'all.
Shawn: Good night, John-Boy