Welcome to the semifinals of the Jason Romano Commemorative NLC’s hottest baller contest. 15 of the best-looking players on NLC (plus the newest ex-Mariner) face off in a single-elimination tournament.

Two rounds of fierce competition have made the players glisten with effort and anxious to take it all home. In my imagination anyway. In real life, they almost certainly don’t know they’re even in the NLC’s Hottest Baller tournament, but that’s OK. My imagination is very good.

Jason LaRue, backing up the plate in St. Louis, may not be the top catcher these days, but he’s still the hottest backstop in town. He took down Rick Ankiel in the second round to advance to the semifinals.

Brandon Phillips, enjoying a long-term contract in the Queen City has the moves to go with the smile. He’s already hot this spring, and not just on the field.

Jason LaRue
ht: 5-11 wt: 205 dob: 03/19/1974

Brandon Phillips
ht: 6-0 wt: 195 dob: 6/28/1981

[poll=24]

DoublePlay TV sent a few videos the other day, wanting to know if this is the kind of content that baseball fans are looking for in original baseball video. Most are promising. Some feel a little like listening to my first few podcasts. All buffer like crazy.

This one wasn’t bad at all, but I think it’s funny that Fukudome’s C is backward on his helmet.

I thought this one had promise, too. What do you think?

Spring Training in baseball is always exciting, filled with the naive optimism that “We can win it this year.” It always seems the players feel that way, too, so I wonder how the marginal players deal with the cuts. It’s one thing if you’re young and a touted prospect, but to be older and hanging on for one more shot has to be hard.

No major moves have been made yet, but here’s a rundown of the cuts that the National League Central clubs have made in the past few days.

• The Astros are letting go pitchers Paul Estrada, Sammy Gervacio, Brad James, Josh Muecke, Fernando Nieve, and Chad Reineke, infielders Tommy Manzella and Lance Niekro, and outfielder Yordany Ramirez. Most of those guys appear to be younger with need of more seasoning.
• The Cubs have trimmed their roster to 42. Pitchers Juan Mateo and Jeff Samardzija and outfielder Jake Fox were optioned to minor league teams, while pitcher Ed Campusano, infielder Luis Figueroa, and catcher JD Closser, all non-roster invitees, were reassigned to minor league camp. Pitcher Shingo Takatsu was released.
• The Pirates got in on the act, chopping 12 players off their roster. I imagine that has to hurt: not being good enough for the Pirates.
• The Reds have yet to start trimming their roster. Their first round involved cutting two pitchers.Rule V pick Sergio Valenzuela was sent back to the Braves, ending a Rule V pick that everyone except apparently Wayne Krivsky knew was doomed to fail, and Ramon Ramirez was optioned to the minors.

 Just two and a half weeks until Opening Day, and most teams have rosters that are well over the 25 man limit. It seems that teams are taking longer to decide on which 25 to take this year. I find the hand-wringing over all of it a little amusing. I mean, the vast majority of the final 35 or so players all make it to the big leagues at some point. Someone always gets injured.

Until then, keep enjoying the starting rotation battles for the Reds, the closer battle for the Cubs, the 25-man battle for the Pirates, and the Cardinals ongoing search for a Scott Spiezio replacement.

Boxscore

The Reds won over the Rays on Sunday, 6-4, in St. Petersburg. Our trips to this stadium are invariably wonky. There was the year we thought it was a day game only to find we’d arrived four hours early. There’s been shivering under blankets in the stands. And this year, it was arriving at a tiny little sports complex around 80th street. The CTS thought something was off from the beginning, but we thought maybe they’d just moved where they had the spring training games. However, as we pulled into a half-full parking lot that accommodated 50 cars, max, we were sure something was up. The Rays might not pull in the crowds that some teams do, but they didn’t practice at the softball field.

We did make it back downtown and found the stadium from memory and were in our seats with time to spare before the first pitch.

Guest instructor Eric Davis was in attendance, showing off his swing before the game. Woo, he’s trim for an ex-player. I wonder if he’s ever considered pitching.

Dusty Baker hands the line-up card over to a throng of umps.

A spring training treat: seeing a real-live starter go three innings with one unearned run on two hits and three walks. Belisle’s a little wild yet, but not as wild as the first inning foul-ball…

…that went right through one of the panes of glass in the press room window. Stuff like that really makes you think about how fragile your skull would be.

Chris Dickerson was among those who didn’t get to skip the road trip. He was 0-1 with a walk.

Ah, the Cowbell Kid, his cow bell and foot-tall blue hair entertaining the masses wherever he went. I actually made my way over to interview him, only to find later that the iRiver had been set to “line-in” instead of “mic” causing nothing to be recorded. If there’s any stupider feeling than talking into your own hand as you walk around the stadium, it’s learning later that your hand had not been recording the conversation.

In any event, he told me that he’s just a fan and pays for tickets for the honor of providing the service he provides. He senses something different about the team this year, which undoubtedly has something to do with the team doubling the payroll. And he gave me an appreciative “I can see that,” when I told him the name of my blog, so he’s got my approval. Oh, and he’s got a grill.

You can read more about him at his mySpace page.

The game finally wrapped up, the final score showing a closer outcome than it really was. And after an important and hard-fought battle, the Reds congratulated each other.