This week on the podcast we talk with Joel Luckhaupt, former blogger, frequent contributor to Red Reporter, and guy quoted in Cincinnati-area papers for his expertise on baseball statistics in general and the Reds in particular.

We discuss the regular team stuff: additions since last year, rotation, bullpen, offense, and defense. Since it’s the Reds, we also talk about the likelihood of a third catcher breaking camp with the team, the folly of leading off the order with Corey Patterson and Juan Castro, and the wit and wisdom of Thom Brennaman.

We also discuss the benefits of changing the name of On Base Percentage (OBP) to Not Out Percentage (NOP). Not only is the acronym a convenient single syllable, but people would have a harder time being taken seriously when they say stupid thing about it. For example:

I don’t care about Dunn’s OBP. It’s not his job to get on base.

Sounds like the sort of quote that would end up in a newspaper article in a serious discussion of defending the plate. Versus:

I don’t care about Dunn’s NOP. It’s not his job to not get out.

Sounds like the mad rant of a raving lunatic.

Something to think about as you ponder the Reds inevitable fourth place finish.

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Milwaukee LHP Chris Capuano tore the ulnar collateral ligament in his pitching elbow during the Brewers’ spring training game against the Seattle Mariners a week ago, and was told yesterday that he will probably need Tommy John surgery.

Whether he has the surgery or not, Capuano is unlikely to pitch at all this season. Capuano previously had Tommy John surgery in 2002 while he was a Diamondbacks farmhand, and it took him 11 months to return from that one. However, considering that Capuano lost his last 12 decisions last season and pitched in 18 consecutive Brewers losses before being demoted to the bullpen, this may not be as serious a loss for the Brew Crew as it sounds.

Currently, right-handers Ben Sheets and Jeff Suppan are locks for the rotation, with right-handers Dave Bush, Claudio Vargas, and Carlos Villanueva competing with southpaw Manny Parra for the remaining three spots. Yovani Gallardo, also a right-hander, had been in the mix earlier in the spring, but was lost to a knee injury that required arthroscopic surgery and is not expected back until April. That injury could have opened the door for Capuano to return to the rotation, but now, of course, that’s out of the question.

Boxscore

The Cubs marched to spring training victory today, beating the Padres 7-3 in Peoria, AZ.

The Cubs were led in their effort by Jason Marquis, the sucky ex-Cardinal who’s having a surprisingly good spring with the Cubs. Marquis is rocking a 1-1 record and a 2.95 ERA this spring. Kerry Wood made his second-consecutive appearance, allowing one hit and striking out two in his one inning of work.

On the other side of the mound was the excellent (in an aggregate sense) ex-Cub who’s having an equally surprising good spring, considering he’s almost 42 and working on season number 22 in the majors, Greg Maddux. Alas, he didn’t have a surprisingly good game, allowing seven runs (two earned) on seven hits and two walks in four innings.

Patterson (Eric, not Corey) led things off for the Cubs going 1-for-5 with an RBI. Aramiz Ramirez contributed two RBI. Ryan Theriot brought in three runs, and Marquis himself knocked in a run to bring the total to 7.

Adrian Gonzalez hit in all of the San Diego runs and was the only Padre with more than one hit on the game, going 2-for-3 with a run scored.

The win brings the Cubs’ Cactus League record to 11-14. Tomorrow the Cubs go up against Jonathan Sanchez and the Giants at 3:05 p.m.

News broke Saturday concerning Pirates 2nd baseman Freddy Sanchez that brings dread to any fans heart. Sanchez will be flying to Alabama to be examined by Dr. James Andrews.

Sanchez had shoulder surgery in September 2007, and this is supposedly unrelated. But judging by these quotes that Pat rounded up, it doesn’t sound good.

Perhaps the Pirates DFAed Ray Olmedo too early.

Didja hear about all those Cubs trashing their manager’s car as a “prank”? It was nearly Cartman-esque, but they did get him a new one to replace it, so it’s all good. While doing a cursory search for a photo, I found this shot of Cubs manager Lou Piniella and wanted to share.

So, now this post is officially NLC-related, which is my security blanket because I don’t know whether people care about these “crap going on in the blogger’s life” posts. I feel like I’ve got to hedge my bets.

The Google Page Rank here on RHM has been all over the place the last few days. If you don’t have the Google toolbar installed with the PageRank displayed, you might not be familiar, but it’s just a rank of a page based on a proprietary set of factors, such as inbound links. We’d been happily hanging around at a 6 for the last few months, which had me overjoyed. So you can imagine how the bottom fell out of my stomach when I loaded the site on Thursday to see that number cut in half.

The CTS and I did some research to show that this happens to people all the time as Google updates their indexes to discount sites that are trying to game them, and that the ranks usually come back over time. The research also told us that we ought to clean up broken links in our archives, which we have a lot of thanks to a less-than-perfectly-smooth conversion to WordPress a couple months ago.

Since then I’ve loaded the site to see the PageRank at every number between 3 and 6 inclusive. It’s still disconcerting, but at least I’m not someone who depends on their PageRank for their livelihood. It’s just a matter of arrogance, really, and an indication of our effectiveness in actually making “Javier Valentí­n” a household name.

Meanwhile, I’m hitting some information sessions about MBAs at nearby schools. If I were to go that route, I wouldn’t even be starting until the end of the year, but it’s still sorta exciting to think what a very executive tone the posts on RHM could take before too long.

On the horizon are Opening Day, our big spring-break trip to Houston, and Red Hot Mama’s third blog day. Lots to look forward to, but its keeping me busy too. Which is why you’re subjected to a post about a stupid Cubs prank and the distractions in my life written as I watch a rerun of Saturday Night Live and nudged a little, time-wise, to prevent the site from having two consecutive days without posts.

Thanks for hanging in there, and enjoy the photo.