A few days ago the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported that the Reds had interviewed former Milwaukee hitting coach Butch Wynegar to fill the vacancy left by former Cincinnati hitting coach Chris Chambliss.

Today they report that the Brewers are interviewing Chambliss to fill the vacancy left by Wynegar:

Milwaukee Brewers general manager Doug Melvin said manager Ned Yost had interviewed Chris Chambliss for the club's vacant hitting coach position. Chambliss, dismissed by the Cincinnati Reds after the 2006 season, was the first candidate interviewed from outside of the organization.

I can hardly wait to see who we'll trade pitching coaches with. That probably depends on which team currently has a pitching coach from Minnesota.

I don't know which I'm more sick of talking about: my disappointment in the Reds' choice of radio broadcasters or my disappointment that Rich Aurilia is almost certainly headed someplace else for 2007.

But I've got to talk about one of them, because that's all that's going on. I'll flip a coin to see which one I go with.

In a shocking twist, the Reds have hired an old reliever to fill out their broadcast booth. Marc Lancaster of the Cincinnati Post reports that Jeff Brantley is next in line to take a place next to Marty:

All indications are the Reds are poised to hire ESPN analyst Jeff Brantley as the final member of an expanded set of broadcasters, though an announcement won't come until after the World Series. The former major league pitcher will join Thom Brennaman, a longtime presence on national television, in rounding out a five-member radio and TV crew that also will feature holdovers Marty Brennaman, George Grande and Chris Welsh.

Sure, you might complain that this is just another middle-aged white guy, but there's something about Brantley that you wouldn't expect from yet another aging reliever brought into the Reds' organization…

He's right-handed.

Foul Fly Bawl in the New York Post.

The Yankees Victory Plane ornament is now available for your holiday decorating enjoyment. It depicts Santa clause in a plane that bears the New York Yankees logo. This, less than a month after Yankee's pitcher Cory Lidle was killed in a plane crash.

Presumably they're going after the market of people who buy horrifyingly inappropriate products. This may be just the first in a series. Next month: bobbleheads for Parkinson's Disease awareness.

GM wants Yount back, a story in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on Monday, mentioned in passing that Butch Wynegar is in the running for the Reds' hitting coach job.

In search of a hitting coach to replace Wynegar, who apparently is in the running for the vacancy in Cincinnati, Melvin interviewed Jim Skaalen, the Brewers' minor-league hitting coordinator for the last seven seasons.

Of course, he'd be the obvious choice, given how the Brewers performed better than the Reds last year. Or, rather, how the Brewers did more to exceed pre-season expectations than the Reds did. Or, most importantly, because he was drafted by the Twins in 1974, and it is our destiny to have in the Reds organization every person who ever had anything to do with the Twins.

The good news is that, if he's hired, FSN could start filing a pre-game feature with him and the bench coach called Bucky and Butch, which would spawn a cult following and bring in millions in revenues.

I think the Cards leading the series might be making me a little loopy.

This week on the podcast, the Crack Technical Staff and I start to get a taste of how difficult it's going to be to find material in the off-season. But we're the kind of positive thinkers who see this challenge as an opportunity. An opportunity to complain about there not being any Reds news to talk about.

But for now, there is some Reds news to talk about. Or at least some news to talk about.

• The most recent Reds blogger roundtable took place last night. Be on the lookout for that as soon as Shawn gets it cut up into pieces.
• Who-the-Hell-is-Brad-Salmon moved to the 40-man
• Snax versus Casey as former Reds battle it out in the World Series
• Dunn to the Red Sox to pair with Pena to make the most feared outfield defense in the league. But the question is: feared by whom?
• Ranting about not needing a closer
• Continuing to bask in the glow of The Rich Aurilia Interview
• Lou Piniella hired by the Cubs to proudly lead them to 5th place!
• Kenny Rogers, gambling with a hand full of crap
• Steve Lyons and racially insensitive remarks
• The 25th Birthday of the Wave
• Youth Coach Sentenced to Prison

Episode 28: Snax vs. Casey and Other Stuff (13.8 MB, 20:09)

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