Poor Tony LaRussa. Just look how mean the news media is being to him and his team:

(HT Cincinnati Reds Blog)

I mean, how unfair: to ask how the team that contains Albert Pujols, a guy many people still think is the best player in baseball despite the evidence of Joey Votto, in his contract year, has scored only 15 runs in 6 games and sports a 2-4 record. Just because it’s the most important question facing this team doesn’t give them any right to actually ask it. Don’t people have any respect?

As of this writing, LaRussa had not shared his opinion of what the media should be asking, but when he does, it’s sure to revolutionize baseball reporting as we know it. But until then, I recommend questions such as:

• Let’s talk about Chris Carpenter’s six Ks
• Tell us about the Lance Berkman RBI and how run production like that complements his superior ability in right field.
• Where did you get those awesome sunglasses?

Really, it’s the least guys who’s won 5 Pennants and 2 World Series titles in just 33 years can demand of the objective media.

So, how about those Reds?

They’re off to a 5-0 start, and the only other time they did that was 1990. They have already scored 43 runs this season, second only to the 1976 team. They brought Sean Casey into the booth, raising the general level of awesomeness to levels unseen since 2006.

The start of baseball this year lifted a weight that I hadn’t realized had settled on my spirit, and such a crazy good beginning has been sort of surreal. The minor league season hasn’t even started yet, and I’m already swept up in a tide of enthusiasm at the major league level.

I think maybe I say that every year, but this time I don’t feel the need to say, “it might all change tomorrow, but they can’t take away what’s happened so far.” That’s nice for a change.

Meanwhile, what the hell is happening to the Cards? You know the kerfluffle that comes up every year when some player actually tries to make a hit when the team is up by 8 or something and old school ballers get all pissy about how that’s not sportsmanship? It feels a little like it’s not fansmanship to root against the Cards so far this year. I’ll have to bust out some new material to poke at the Pirates, who are cruising in second place at 4-2.

But that’s cool; I’ve got to have some parrot jokes around here somewhere. In the meantime, the answer to the question is “sooooo good.”

The USA Today released the opening day payrolls for all major league baseball clubs today. The Cincinnati Reds’ payroll of $75,947,134 sits comfortably at 19th (out of 32), one spot up from 20th last year.

As John Fay notes, the Reds have set a club record this year.

The Reds’ overall payroll is $75.9 million, the most in club history. The previous high was $74.1 million in 2008.

The Reds place in their own division is also in the bottom half at 4th. The Chicago Cubs are first with $125,047,329, while the Pittsburgh Pirates are last with $45,047,000.

The NL Central table is below.

A new season means new at-bat music for many of the player on the Cincinnati Reds (except Scott Rolen, who’s been walking up to that same Coldplay song since 2008). There’s a list of the songs each of the players requests here, but this is more a grab bag of songs I’ve mostly never heard of instead of the songs that actually come to my mind when the player comes to the plate.

If it were up to me, these would be the songs that would accompany *my* Cincinnati Reds as they took the stage.

Jay Bruce

Jared Burton

Miguel Cairo

Jonny Gomes

Sam LeCure

Brandon Phillips

Scott Rolen

Drew Stubbs

Joey Votto