Now that Rich Aurilia is all pinned up in San Fransisco and David Weathers is safely in the fold of Cincinnati, it's time for the media to turn their attention to the next-most-talked-about Red this off-season, Adam Dunn.

In this story in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Dejan Kovacevic counts the Pirates out of the chase for Dunn:

Still, it is known that some candidates already have been scratched off. The Cincinnati Reds' Adam Dunn has topped 40 home runs the past three years, but some in the Pirates' management are turned off by his gaudy strikeout total.

How smart of the Pirates! All that stood between them and the pennant last season was a few dozen strike-outs, so they'll want to avoid anyone with any power if they expect to contend in 2007.

But Pirates' beat writers aren't done counting Dunn out yet. In a story in the Beaver County Times and Allegheny Times, John Perrotto, points out that Dunn is also expensive:

Yet, the two young hitters who could be traded this week that would most fit the Pirates' needs, outfielders Carl Crawford of Tampa Bay and Adam Dunn of Cincinnati, also seem to be out of reach.
…
The Pirates could get Dunn straight-up for Duke. The idea of having a 6-foot-6, 275-pound left-handed hitter who has averaged 42 homers over the past three seasons aiming for the Allegheny River is enough to make your mouth water.

Yet, the 27-year-old's on base and slugging percentages have fallen in each of the past two years. He has also posted the two highest season strikeout totals in major-league history with 195 in 2004 and 194 this year.

Dunn has a $10.5-million salary in 2007 and can become a free agent following the season if a $13-million club option is bought out for $500,000. That is excessive for a player whose positive doesn't outweigh his negatives.

So, in case you were worried that the Pirates might threaten (not threaten the Reds--threaten to leave the cellar), you can now sleep sound.

Meanwhile, the Baltimore Sun is somewhat less down on Mr. Dunn:

The Orioles have had discussions with the Cincinnati Reds about Adam Dunn and with the Seattle Mariners about Richie Sexson, but other clubs' insistence on making Erik Bedard part of the deals essentially ended the talks.

And the Boston Herald hasn't got a bad thing to say about him:

Other teams in the hunt for big offensive talent include many mentioned as possible destinations for Ramirez - the Dodgers, Padres, Mariners, Angels and Rangers. With the best free agent hitters, Alfonso Soriano and Carlos Lee, already signed, trade talks for big boppers such as Adam Dunn, Richie Sexson and Vernon Wells will keep coming up.

It's nice to hear that the Orioles and Red Sox writers haven't dismissed Dunn out-of-hand, but still--those comments from Pittsburgh have got to sting.

The Crack Technical Staff and I had just settled in to record the Reds press conference at the main stage at Redsfest 2006. We had our seats, our $7 soda, and plans to stay off our feet for a half hour while I decided whether I was brave enough to raise my hand for one of the microphones to ask Wayne Krivksky, “I can't make any sense of the moves you've made so far; could you please explain your vision for the team?” when the phone rang.

It was Joel. He and OBC were going to be contestants in the trivia contest in the Reds Hall of Fame exhibit, and we needed to get down there right away.

So we missed Kriv-dawg telling the world that he'd be filing a grievance about his vicious hornswaggling at the hands of Jim Bowden, and instead recorded the trivia contest. I also ended up taking several photos with Joel's camera, in case you're wondering why Joel's usually excellent photos pretty much suck for this particular occasion.

Anyway, here it is. I titled this post “Joel Cheats at Reds Trivia,” because Joel didn't make any secret of the fact that he'd heard the majority of the questions the previous time they played the game. That's the privilege of the person who hangs out in the Reds HOF exhibit, I guess. At the end of the event, though, he hooked me up with George Grande to get the excellent “Hi, Hello, and Welcome to the Red Hot Broadcast” sound byte for me to use on the podcast, so really, we're all winners.

Episode 36: Joel Cheats at Reds Trivia (19.3 MB, 28:07)

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Reliever David Weathers and the Reds have agreed to a (reportedly) two-year, $5 million contract, pending a physical he was supposed to have taken today.

Among the many features of Redsfest 2006 was the indoor wiffleball field, where real-live grown-ups played real-live wiffleball on a real-live indoor/outdoor carpet.

I didn't watch much of the wiffleball tournament, but when I caught glimpses, I noticed a striking difference in skill. One team seemed to just keep batting around, another seemed like they just couldn't get the hang of a hollow plastic bat and ball with holes in it.

I'm not sure which would be more embarrassing.

The best part is that, after the tournament was complete, the program actually showed general access to the wiffleball diamond for even us non-homemade-team-shirt-wearing plebeians.

Thankfully for everyone involved, the wiffleball diamond featured a device you probably didn't know existed, and will soon discover you cannot live without: a wiffleball pitching machine. Just think of it: gone are the days of lobbing a wiffleball 15 feet in the air to make the vertical distance of eight feet between you and the batter, only to have the wind pick it up halfway there and send it into the neighbor's yard! Finally, a wiffleball moving in a more-or-less straight line!

What will they think of next??

Hanging high above the wiffleball diamond were enormous jerseys to demonstrate the new team look if Ray King were on the team. The CTS took these photos well before the fashion show, so if I'd been on my game, we could have been showing off the new threads a whole hour earlier than we did.


But it's probably better that we didn't. There's got to be some privilege for the people who skip work to go to Redsfest.

As we all know, the Reds recently signed Alex Gonzalez to a free agent deal, reportedly $14 million for three years. The move essentially means Gonzalez replaces Felipe Lopez as the Reds' regular shortstop.

This deal has been slammed pretty hard in some circles. The people who are upset with this, though, all seem to think guys like Barry Larkin, or for that matter Alex Rodriguez, grow on trees.

I look at it this way: For a little less than $5 million a year, the Reds have a guy who committed just 7 errors in 111 games at short last year. That's important when you play in a launching pad like GABP, where every guy who reaches base because of a Cinci error could end up being an extra run scored by the other team when a ball that would have been caught for an out in another city flies into the seats at GABP.

The Reds not only got the youngest free agent shortstop on the market (Gonzo is 29), they got a guy who fills a real need at the most important defensive position on the team with the possible exception of catcher. One of the Red Sox bloggers wrote that “Gonzalez was the best defensive shortstop I've ever seen play in a Red Sox uniform and it was a treat to see him play everyday. At least once a game he'd do something that seemed impossible.” Consider that in light of the fact that in recent years the BoSox have run Nomar Garciaparra, Pokey Reese, and Orlando Cabrera out there.

Another Boston blogger wrote, “You can quote all the defensive statistics you want to. The truth is, I watched every game this guy played last year and he is by far the best in baseball at shortstop…if the ball was anywhere to the left side of the infield it was an out…the DPs you will see him make will make you forget the contract.”

Oh, yeah, the contract: Look at what teams are signing players for this year. $5 Million this year is $3 million last year. If Gonzalez is even among the top five defensive shortstops in the game, that's a bargain in GABP where you try to get pitchers to induce grounders, and need to have guys who can actually catch those grounders to make the pitchers more effective. For the Red Sox, maybe his glove didn't offset his poor hitting, but this isn't Boston, it's Cinci. Shortstop isn't as much of an offensive-minded position in the NL as it is in the AL. He's certain to be an improvement over Lopez and Clayton.

Bottom line here: The Reds were not about to go win the World Series the way they were. They may have a light-hitting shortstop, but does anyone need to be reminded that the Cardinals just won the World Series with a light-hitting shortstop? And the Marlins won the World Series in 2003 running the guy Kriv-Dawg just signed out there as their everyday shortstop. He hit .256 with 18 homers in 2003 - numbers that aren't at all out of reach for him in 2007 playing his home games at GABP).

So, my take on the deal is that this makes two pretty good additions to the Reds that Krivsky's stolen from the Red Sox. He better cut that out, or Theo's not going to send him a Christmas card.

HMZ