If you’re looking for a nice place to stay during your Reds spring training trip to Arizona, Hilton’s Homewood Suites in Avondale is a winner. These multi-room suites make an extended stay in a hotel less cabin-fever-y by giving you more of the amenities of home, like a refrigerator and a place to sit other than your bed. If you’re traveling with kids, you can even get two bedroom suites so you don’t have to listen to them jumping on the bed and yelling at their Gameboys all the time.

Personally, I loved having breakfast provided each day. I like to get out and try the local fooderies, but sometimes you don’t want to have to be ready to face the day before you have your waffle. And, even though Homewood’s pool was way too cold for a wimp like me to enjoy, their Garden Inn partner property across the street keeps their pool nice and toasty and doesn’t mind if you walk over to make use of it.

Reds fans won’t want to miss the company at the pool, since every night we were there, it was populated with aspiring major leaguers who were, like us, taking a dip to relax after a long day at the field. It was an immersive experience in more ways than one.

First, the disabled list came for Adam Wainwright of the St. Louis Cardinals. Then it came for Zach Greinke of the Milwaukee Brewers. And now it might be the Cincinnati Reds and Johnny Cueto’s turn.

Cueto left his start Saturday after just one inning, with biceps stiffness. Cueto flew from Arizona back to Cincinnati today, and will have his arm examined Monday by Reds medical director Dr. Tim Kremchek.

Well, that doesn’t exactly fill me with confidence. Kremchek is one of the best at Tommy John surgery, but he’s shown time and again over the years that he’s horrible at diagnosing Reds players. We can only hope he gets this one right.

Baker said it was premature to speculate that Cueto might need Tommy John elbow surgery.

“It’s in the bicep,” Baker said. “Johnny says his elbow feels good. His shoulder feels good. It seems like it’s in a spot in the muscle, he told me. … We won’t know until he goes back to see Dr. Kremchek.”

Cueto has now left early in his last two starts, which means he’s unlikely to be ready for his third spot in the rotation when the season starts. I do hope everyone is correct and that the issue is minor. It would be nice for Cueto to start at least one game this year.

Here are all–well, the best–of the photos I took last weekend when we visited the Cincinnati Reds’ Spring Training home, Goodyear Ballpark. (I posted a panorama of the park earlier.)

Each thumbnail links to a larger image.

Sitting at Salt River Fields at Talking Stick–spring training home of the Colorado Rockies and the Arizona Diamondbacks–you hear something that I have never heard at another ballpark: the mournful wail of the wandering concession worker offering to sell you cheesecake on a stick.

OK, it’s not really all that mournful, but it is unlike anything I’ve ever heard.

We didn’t try the cheesecake; our purchased kabob contained strawberries and pieces of banana, with chocolate drizzled over them. It tasted pretty good and was a relatively healthy snack, but with the strawberry leaves left on, it was less than convenient to eat, and at $6 the margins were huge. Plus the stand had a sign asking you not to take pictures because there is a “patent pending.”

I’m not sure what’s patentable about fruit on a stick, or how they think taking a picture will give you more info than shelling out $6 to just buy one, but I took a picture anyway. Hopefully if someone launches a competing product, they’ll hull the darn berries.