The Cubs have spent a zillion dollars this off-season, and armed with a multitude of overpaid free-agents, they're ready to go into Opening Day battle with our Reds. Now you can do your part to help knock the Cubs down. Whack Carlos Zambrano as many times as you can for a higher score! But don't hit the Reds--they've already got eight guys on the DL for crying out loud!

Whack a Cub

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Active Roster
Pitchers

• Bronson Arroyo
• Matt Belisle
• Jared Burton
• Todd Coffey
• Rheal Cormier
• Jon Coutlangus
• Aaron Harang
• Kyle Lohse
• Kirk Saarloos
• Mike Stanton
• David Weathers

Infielders

• Juan Castro
• Jeff Conine
• Edwin Encarnación
• Alex Gonzalez
• Scott Hatteberg
• Brandon Phillips

Outfielders

• Adam Dunn
• Ryan Freel
• Ken Griffey Jr.
• Josh Hamilton

Catchers

• Chad Moeller
• David Ross
• Javier Valentín

Odd, you may think, that there are only 24 guys on the roster. There's some mystery surrounding that, as BubbaFan goes into in this comment. The 25th guy will be announced before game time tomorrow.

C. Trent also provides the list of guys on the DL:

• Bill Bray
• Chris Denorfia
• Jerry Gil
• Eddie Guardado
• Norris Hopper
• Jeff Keppinger
• Eric Milton
• Elizardo Ramirez

Eight guys on the DL? Yikes, though Guardado hardly counts since we knew he was out from the get-go. That Denorfia injury could haunt the team: with Griffey in the starting line-up, four outfielders is not enough.

In not-so-surprising news, Eric Milton was scratched from his start in Dayton yesterday with lower back stiffness. He may go on the DL. Like so many reasons in the past why Milton has been unable to perform, I hope that when this one is resolved, he's back to the adequacy that he's got stowed somewhere deep down. In the meantime, it sounds like the CTS and I were on to something when we declared Milton the fifth starter. From C. Trent:

The rotation for the next couple of days is Harang, Arroyo, Lohse, Belisle and then back to Harang. So it looks like Belisle is officially the fifth starter, or maybe the fourth and we'll see who the fifth is. However, that rotation, Narron said, isn't “set in cement”

In much more surprising news, in the same post C. Trent reports that the Reds released Dustin Hermanson after he refused assignment to Louisville. When did the party line change from “Hermanson is our closer” to “he's not even on the team”? Was it those four runs he gave up in a third of an inning against the Marlins yesterday?

But Wayne Krivsky sounds like he has something else up his sleeve as these mysterious comments indicate:

And another thing, Wayne was kind of on edge about the whole 25-man roster and the talk of it. He also dropped something about how he may be at 24 today at 3 p.m. when they must turn in their roster, but there will be 25 tomorrow.

I haven't found any corroborating sources for this news, BTW, but I'm assuming that C. Trent's got the early scoop and not a great April Fool's Day gag.

Given the lively discussion generated by the short conversation I had with Reds Director of Media Relations Rob Butcher on Thursday, you may enjoy this two-part discussion of the relationships among bloggers, MLB, and the mainstream media (MSM).

The first part is an interview with several members of the MSM on their opinions of blogs and bloggers and the level of access that would be appropriate to grant to bloggers.

The second part is an interview with several bloggers asking similar questions and giving them an opportunity to respond to what the MSM had to say.

Several of the responders from both groups seemed to think that there wasn't much that blogs could offer to baseball, and by that reckoning, MLB has no incentive to recognize blogs at all. For what it's worth, I think that there's a lot that a blog can do to help MLB market its product for very little investment on baseball's part.

For example, you would be surprised (at least I am) at the number of hits Red-Hot-Mama.com gets from people searching for things like “Is Adam Dunn married?” and “What is Josh Hamilton's shoe size?” Information like this doesn't currently have a home at Reds.com or in the newspapers, but it fits in perfectly in the Human League entries for these players.

Since people are clearly interested in this kind of information, and since I'm providing a place to put it, why not set me up with the opportunity to ask Josh Hamilton about his footwear? RHM gets content. Readers get the personal (if slightly creepy) details that they're looking for. MLB gets free exposure, a great place to put a link to buy tickets, and a reprise from their reputation for treating their fans like the crusty old grandmother that they only kiss because she gives them money. Everybody wins.