Staff Writer Todd Zolecki of The Philadelphia Inquirer suggests the Phillies bringing on Kyle Lohse to fortify their rotation:

But the Phillies don't seem to have enough pieces to land somebody such as Dontrelle Willis or Matt Morris. (It would be incorrect to assume that free-agent-to-be Aaron Rowand would be enough to land a pitcher like that.)

Kyle Lohse, anybody?

Lohse, who will be a free agent after the season, is with the Cincinnati Reds. He is 5-11 with a 4.68 ERA, which would make him the No. 4 starter on this staff.

“It depends on the starter,” Gillick said. “I don't know if there are any impact pitchers out there. But I'd say it'd be questionable if we had enough to get an impact pitcher. We hope to find somebody to do a credible job in the rotation, but we don't have a lot of those bullets to use.”

Gillick has two more weeks to try.

Interesting. I would hope that Krivsky would have some solid ideas about what to get in return. As entertaining as I would find a fight between the Phanatic and Gapper, it wouldn't be enough in exchange for our third starter. No, cheesesteaks wouldn't be enough either.

Bugs and Cranks (via Deadspin) gives us this video of major world achievements since the Pirates' last winning season. Not World Series win. Not postseason appearance. Winning season.

You can really tell a Pirates fan put it together by the final panel that says “This is getting ridiculous.” It's been ridiculous for a couple presidential terms by now.

It's July 17 and massively boring here in Redsland. You cruise the Reds blogs and don't see much besides the in-game conversations. It's nice that we have each other to talk to, since the Reds aren't giving us much to say, despite the non-waiver trade deadline being just around the corner.

So, what *is* going on?

• I got a job! In case any of you were worried about me. 🙂
• C. Trent isn't so lucky, as the Post will be closing its doors at the end of the year. That's a shame, but not a surprise. I have faith that C. Trent will move on to bigger and better things.
• Keppinger is playing SS tonight as Gonzalez remains on the bereavement list. We here at RHM are thinking good thoughts for the Gonzalez family, even while making jokes that perhaps Livingston should be the one at SS (not that we don't also have love for Keppinger). Good thing the Reds have Castro signed through next year.
• Josh Hamilton (and even now, I almost type “Scott Hamilton” every time I type his name) will stay on the DL for another 10 days with that sprained wrist. We've certainly seen this before, and I don't think anyone will be too surprised if he's out until September.

Good news is that the Reds have taken the 2-0 lead in the time it took me to write that. Yay something interesting!