Lots of interesting things going on today:

• The Reds optioned to Louisville Gary Majewski. I did not see that one coming, but it's nice that he won't be taking up a spot on the active roster to begin the season. Here's hoping he can get his game together with the Bats.
• Bobby Livingston will be joining Majewski in Louisville.
• Jerry Narron says it looks like it will be Matt Belisle or Kirk Saarloos in the role of fourth starter. He said fifth starter, but we already know that's really Eric Milton.
• The final bullpen spot is down to Victor Santos, Jared Burton, and Jon Coutlangus. I'm crossing my fingers for Coutlangus, personally.
• Jeff Keppinger, Bill Bray, Elizardo Ramirez, Jerry Gil, and Eddie Guardado are DL-bound. So, if you're keeping count, we won't be seeing ANY of the players we got in The Trade on Opening Day. Way to improve the team.
• Chris Denorfia, who seemed on the brink of making the Opening Day roster, will be out for six months recovering from Tommy John surgery. Dammit! With The Heartthrob out of the picture for the moment, the final roster spot appears to be between Norris Hopper and Chad Moeller. I bet I'm not the only one who thinks that Wayne Krivsky was premature in sending down Bubba Crosby.

This week on the podcast, the Crack Technical Staff and I broadcast from our vacation condo in Sarasota, Florida, the home base of our wacky spring training adventures. We talk about the rotations, the line-up, our favorite away park, Red Hot Mama’s mention in Sports Illustrated (don’t forget to vote! For RHM, of course!), and the fancy schmancy car owned by someone affiliated with MLB that we saw at the Cody Roadhouse in Bradenton last night.Episode 51: Live! from Sarasota! (27.2 MB, 39:41)

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It was Aaron Harang and the Reds over the Pirates in Sarasota yesterday afternoon.

Harang did not have an excellent outing, giving up three earned runs on 10 hits in five innings. Harang has hardly had an outstanding spring, but it's really nothing to worry about. Not only does he appear to be limiting the pitches he's showing the opposition, but there are also the last two years of goodness to take into consideration. And now that Harang's been declared the Opening Day starter for the second year in a row, maybe this low-key pre-season will set him up not to get thrashed by the Cubs again.

Also getting chances on the mound were Victor Santos, Gary Majewski, and Jared Burton. Santos followed Harang with two scoreless innings on one hit. Majewski also had a good, hitless inning. Burton gave up one run on two hits in the ninth.

Section 113 is the place to be if you want to hang with the general manager. Both times I've seen Wayne Krivsky at Ed Smith Stadium, he's been sitting right here. This photo looks strikingly like the photo we took last year.

Section 113 is also the section right in front of the press box, where you can get intermittent Internet connection on your PDA if you sit up in the last row, which we did. Speaking of the press box, I said “hi” to John Fay in the concourse before the game, but neglected to explain who I was, so he just waved blankly, clearly not knowing whom he was waving at.

We finally got a good look at this Adam LaRoche, the guy that Pirates fans seem to think is going to single-handedly pull them out of the cellar. Nevermind that he's Craig Wilson junior. LaRoche went 0-3 on the afternoon, but he makes some mean conversation at first base.

On the Reds' side, Adam Dunn and Edwin Encarnación hit back-to-back solo shots to lead off the sixth inning, and you get the feeling that we could be seeing a bit of that in the middle of this line-up. Dunn was hitting third in this game, but he's been hitting second in most of them.

Ken Griffey, Jr. and Dewayne Wise had an RBI apiece, and Chad Moeller his a two-RBI double in the seventh to give the Reds the lead for good.

The win brought the Reds' spring training record to 17-9. Tonight they host the Twins in Sarasota at 7:05 pm.

Two years ago when we first set foot inside Bright House Networks Field in Clearwater, my son was 3 years old, and not particularly interested in baseball. The CTS and I used to entertain him by taking turns going for walks around the stadium while the other tried to catch a few innings of the game. That's how I stumbled across the Kids' Zone: a playground, inflatable jumping house, and kid-centric concession area that we didn't get to leave from until the park was actually closing well after the game was over.

Every year since then (and even when going to regular season games) Winter would ask if we were going to the place with the playground. Last year we made a special trip out there when the Reds weren't even in town. This year, we went last night.

And Winter got bored before the game even started. We were back in our seats with Dippin' Dots before the first pitch. They grow up so fast, don't they?

Well, maybe not everyone. After a caught-stealing in the first inning, Ryan Freel just couldn't hold back his enthusiasm in the bottom of the first with a headlong dive into the wall. Adam Dunn was waving for help before the dust had even cleared from Freel hitting the ground.

After not moving very much for a distressingly long period of time, Freel did stay in the game to finish the inning. However, Josh Hamilton replaced him in the second inning. Drew Stubbs replaced Hamilton in center a little while later, and you could definitely tell that it wasn't Freel out there.

On the other hand, Ken Griffey, Jr., showed quite a bit of maturity. With the shift on for him leading off the second inning, he didn't try to blast one over their heads just to spite them. No, he laid down a nice easy bunt for a base hit. Barry Larkin did that in the very first Reds' at-bat of the very first major league game I ever attended, so I have a certain respect for the maneuver.

And a good thing Jr. got on, too, since little Edwin Encarnación smacked a big ol' home run to give the Reds their score.

Kyle Lohse got the start, and was not as good as I'd like him to be now that I've dubbed him the third starter. He gave up two earned runs (solo shots) on five hits in his four and a quarter innings. Jon Coutlangus was much better as he finished out the fifth inning, and his continued adequacy makes me irritated that we've got Rheal Cormier on the roster, especially after nights like last night. He surrendered three earned runs on three hits in the seventh, prompting me to yell, “You're on our team now, Cormier!”

Todd Coffey and Dustin Hermanson also got turns. Coffey pitched a scoreless sixth. Hermanson gave up one in the eighth.

It was an unfortunate showing from the Reds that brought their spring training record to 16-9. They continued their campaign today when they hosted the Pittsburgh Pirates at Ed Smith Stadium.

Josh Katzowitz, the guy who does the work at C. Trent's blog, has the line-ups for us today:

Reds
Josh Hamilton CF
Alex Gonzalez SS
Adam Dunn LF
Edwin Encarnación 3B
Ken Griffey RF
Jeff Conine 1B
David Ross C
Juan Castro 2B
Aaron Harang P

Pirates
Duffy CF
Wilson SS
Bay LF
LaRoche 1B
Nady RF
Castillo 3B
Don Kelly 2B
Cota C
Duke P

No Ryan Freel today, which is hardly surprising after the face-plant into the wall yesterday.