They’re singing about the plight of Aaron Harang over at View from the Bleachers:

Harang received the worst run support in baseball last year as the Reds only scored an average of 3.2 runs per nine innings while he was on the mound. Basically, the Reds’ offense hit opposing starters like they were facing Cliff Lee or CC Sabathia every time out.

Well, the rest of the team generally was facing up against some pretty good pitching when Harang was on the mound, seeing as teams are on pretty close to the same rotation schedule, but they certainly could have done better. I wonder how much self-fulfilling prophesy comes into it, which would throw this part into some doubt:

With persistent rumors about a trade to a contending team, Harang’s resolution is likely to come true in 2010. But even if he stays with the Reds, his run support should improve anyway. While the Reds’ team scoring rate of 4.13 runs per nine innings is poor, it is still well above the 3.22 runs they averaged for Harang.

Sure, if the team were actually a bunch of random number generators. Unfortunately for order-loving people everywhere, players are human and seem even more chaotic than random numbers, even in aggregate. I hope that it doesn’t actually take a change of venue for Harang to get some run support. Maybe just a new short stop would do the trick.

Jason Bay is headed back to the NL. He signed a 4-year deal for $66 million with the Mets on Tuesday.

From a rather tortured article on Mets.com:

The pinpointed upgrade won’t come cheaply. The four-year deal is to cost the Mets at least $66 million, according to a person familiar with the negotiations that began in earnest on the final day of Winter Meetings, Dec. 11. Then again, the Mets have addressed their greatest need — albeit for four years — for less than they paid Mike Piazza ($93 million for seven seasons), Carlos Beltran ($119 million for seven) and Johan Santana ($137.5 million for seven).

Must be nice to have that kind of cash to throw around.

Thanks to the post on Redleg Nation, I discovered that C. Trent is ringing a bell next to a black kettle painted to look like a baseball to fund his trip to spring training in Arizona, where he’ll report on the Reds on behalf of his independent sports network, CNATI.

You can check out his request here, though the mechanism for actually contributing looks like it won’t be available until later today.

Personally, I’m planning to go to spring training myself this year, if we’ve recovered from selling our house by then. I may be putting out a black kettle myself with as expensive as it’s turning out to be.

So, I’ve been doing the Florida Christmas vacation thing since Sunday…what did I miss?

Surely Aaron Harang has been sent to the Dodgers for a third catcher or something by now. Or packaged up with Joey Votto for Albert Pujols, yeah?

No? Nothing. Oh well.

(That’s Pujols thing is my coworker’s stupid idea, by the way.)

You might have expected this after my last headline, but it’s really here now:

REDS EXTEND ROLEN THROUGH 2012
The Reds have restructured third baseman Scott Rolen’s contract for 2010 and extended him through the 2012 season, the club announced Saturday. Rolen, 34, will receive $23.625 million over the next three seasons. Originally set to earn $11 million in 2010, he will now make $6 million instead and then receive $6.5 million per season in both 2011 and 2012. Also included is a $5 million signing bonus that is deferred over the length of the contract.

I’ve thought Rolen looked 38 since he was 28, so I’m not sure how spry he’ll be in three seasons, but it’s nice that the Reds have saved up a little money for the coming season.