The player page for Josh Hamilton on Reds.com is an odd one. No stats, no splits, no fantasy comparison. It’s a blank page.

Hamilton is a 6′ 4″, 205-pound, left-handed outfielder. As a player, he’s hard to characterize beyond that, due to his utter lack of major league experience. Nevertheless, he must stay on the Reds active roster because he was acquired through the Rule V draft. At one time, Hamilton carried the dreaded “Can’t Miss Prospect” label. He was drafted out of high school by the Tampa Bay Devil Rays.

A back injury suffered in a car accident followed by years of alcohol and drug abuse took Hamilton out of professional baseball for years. Manager Jerry Narron has some previous experience with Hamilton which certainly played a part in the Reds’ willingness to take a chance on the guy.

Hamilton was only given permission to even participate in extended spring training with the Rays as recently as June of 2006. Prior to that, he’d been suspended since February 2004. After a few weeks working out, he got permission to appear in minor league games and appeared in 15 games for the Rays’ class A team. That was the first time he’d played professional baseball since July 2007.

The player page for Josh Hamilton on Reds.com is an odd one. No stats, no splits, no fantasy comparison. It's a blank page.

Hamilton is a 6' 4″, 205-pound, left-handed outfielder. As a player, he's hard to characterize beyond that, due to his utter lack of major league experience. Nevertheless, he must stay on the Reds active roster because he was acquired through the Rule V draft. At one time, Hamilton carried the dreaded “Can't Miss Prospect” label. He was drafted out of high school by the Tampa Bay Devil Rays.

A back injury suffered in a car accident followed by years of alcohol and drug abuse took Hamilton out of professional baseball for years. Manager Jerry Narron has some previous experience with Hamilton which certainly played a part in the Reds' willingness to take a chance on the guy.

Hamilton was only given permission to even participate in extended spring training with the Rays as recently as June of 2006. Prior to that, he'd been suspended since February 2004. After a few weeks working out, he got permission to appear in minor league games and appeared in 15 games for the Rays' class A team. That was the first time he'd played professional baseball since July 2007.

Here on Red Hot Mama, we've done our share of talking about things we think the Reds are doing wrong *cough*three catchers*cough, but this morning I was pleased to see evidence that the Reds are doing some things right.

It started with a diary at Bleed Cubbie Blue (HT) that talked about an experience an Angels blogger recently had when trying to get an interview with his team:

Cupie, a friend who helps with Halos Heaven, does interviews, etc., he has been trying to nail down an interview with some Angels players or team personnel.

He was told today by Angels assistant media relations man Larry Babcock that MLBAM has instructed his office (and the office of other teams) to have NO contact or relations with non-accredited internet sites - especially bloggers.

Cupie did not debate him, and maybe this was just the brush off, but Babcock asured us that “they all read your site here” but that his hands were tied.

But here in Redsland, we've had plenty of access to players, front office types, and other members of the organization. To list a few that come immediately to mind:

• Redleg Nation has talked to up-and-coming prospect Jay Bruce, “crafty lefty” and color guy for FSN Chris Welch, and general manager Wayne Krivsky
• Red Reporter has chatted up Reds Hall of Famer Tom Browning, Reds Creative Services Guy Dann Stupp, Reds.com writer Mark Sheldon, minor league catcher Brian Peterson, and major league reliever and Jell-o-loving Trekkie Todd Coffey.
• Even the jokers at RHM have managed to interview outfield hopeful Bubba Crosby, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer John Allen, veteran presence extraordinaire Rich Aurilia, scoreboard operator and Reds Community Fund benefactor Dave Storm, omnipresent former Red Tom Browning. Later today you'll also hear from Director of Scoreboard Operations Russ Jenisch about some news segments his team will be putting together during spring training for area news broadcasts to include in their sports segments.

All of these interviews went down in a genial manner as bloggers provided one more media outlet for the ball club, and for free at that. See, that's the thing that I don't get: why would any team lock out their bloggers? Allowing bloggers access benefits everyone. Teams get an informal, personal outlet for news about their projects, team visions, or whatever they want to talk about. Bloggers get some compelling content. And the die-hard fans that just can't get enough baseball news get the kind of detail that the newspapers just can't find room for.

Not to say that the Reds couldn't do even more *cough*Blogger Day*cough*, but they're on the right track.

Why do the Reds take so long? Pitchers and catchers report for the Yankees today!

This is a brutal time of year. The Super Bowl, even the Pro Bowl, are in the rear-view mirror, and spring training has not yet started. Arrghhh.

Some teeny bits of news….

According to this Reds press release, RHP Matt Belisle, LHP Bill Bray, RHP Jared Burton, RHP Todd Coffey, LHP Jon Coutlangus, OF Bubba Crosby, OF Chris Denorfia, OF Chris Dickerson, IF/OF Ryan Freel, OF Josh Hamilton, RHP Gary Majewski, LHP Eric Milton, LHP Brian Shackelford and 1B Joey Votto are already in Sarasota, working out on their own.

Krivsky is there already, too.

The Cincinnati Enquirer has posted a projected 25-man roster and lineup. I don't like it. And not just because they don't see Bubba making the cut. Hamilton and Conine as the only reserve OFers? And about that three catchers thing…

If Bubba is already down in Florida, he must have just arrived. He's been training in Arizona the past few weeks. He returned to Houston this weekend for his brother's wedding.

Bubba Crosby highlights

Here's hoping for lots more highlights this season….