I’ve been out of the state all week, and am now catching up on some old stuff, which is why you’re seeing this old news here now. Even half a week late, though, I think it’s worth pointing out.

The Reds had been scheduled to open the season on Friday, April 6. But thanks to some special finagling, they’ll now be playing the day before (Thursday, April 5) at 4:10 p.m. They’ll be taking on the Marlins after the big Opening Day Parade:

“We want to thank Major League Baseball, the MLB Players Association and the Reds and Marlins players for agreeing to move Opening Day to Thursday, April 5,” said Bob Castellini, Reds President and CEO. “Opening Day is a long-standing tradition for this team, our fans and the City of Cincinnati and we are pleased that parade and game will now be on Thursday.”

It’ll be here before you know it.

The St. Louis Cardinals won the race among baseball teams to pick their new field manager, deciding on former catcher Mike Matheny to replace Tony La Russa. They beat the Chicago Cubs to the punch, although they had quite a head-start since La Russa told the GM back before the season was up.

It’s a departure for the Cardinals. General Manager John Mozeliak is going against what has proved successful for St. Louis for the last three decades.

Each of the team’s past three full-time managers, La Russa, Joe Torre and Whitey Herzog, had previously made the playoffs as a manager before being hired. The last man who didn’t fit that profile was another former Gold Glover in St. Louis, Ken Boyer, who managed from 1978-80 after winning five Gold Gloves as a third baseman with the Cardinals.

Matheny is a former catcher, which is so often a prerequisite for managers these days. And he’s one the Cardinals thought highly of, despite his lack of any offensive ability. Matheny was a good defensive catcher, though, and spent some time mentoring and teaching Yadier Molina as he broke into the majors for the Cardinals.

Since retiring, Matheny has served as a catching instructor and a special assistant for St. Louis. This considerable promotion will be announced in a press conference on Monday.

While there’s still Chris Heisey’s Breakout Player of the Year award still to talk about, today, I’m looking outside the sphere of Reds-ness and checking out the happenings in the parallel universe of all the other teams.

I know it’s old news by now, but dammit, the Cubs are interviewing Pete Mackanin for their general manager position, and wouldn’t it just be fitting for them to hire him. Then the Reds would be sporting an old Cubs manager and the Cubs would be sporting an old Reds (interim) manager. I don’t know whether Mackanin would be a winning coach in Chicago–there’s an awful lot of suckinertia to overcome there–but wouldn’t that just be typical.

In news that puts that last news into stark perspective, the Washington Nationals have had a player kidnapped in his home country of Venezuela:

Wilson Ramos, one of the Washington Nationals’ most promising young baseball players, was kidnapped at gunpoint Wednesday night from his family’s home in Venezuela, leaving the team in a state of shock and raising questions about the safety of playing in a country ravaged in recent years by kidnappings and street crime.

Last night word came out that Ramos was returned safely. Happy! Hopefully this will be a warning to other players to be on their guard and prevent anything worse from happening in the future.

And finally, back to more typical news of baseball, Albert Pujols is in Florida this weekend talking with the Marlins and touring their baseball facilities. I suppose that shouldn’t be a surprise–seeing as this is the *only* time of the year Prince Albert is willing to talk contracts and all–it’s just funny to think of the Marlins organization coming out in force to woo one player. It’s not like he’s enough to win the WS by himse–actually, maybe it’s not that funny after all.

In a similar award to the one received by Joey Votto’s, MLB.com awarded Johnny Cueto as the Cincinnati Reds’ Pitcher of the Year.

This might have been hard to believe at the beginning of the year, given that Cueto missed the first month of the season with shoulder inflammation. But he really was the Reds’ best pitcher, and missed winning the National League’s ERA title by just 6 innings.

Instead, Cueto settled for a 9-5 record with a 2.31 ERA in 156 innings. He pitched three of the Reds’ four complete games (Bronson Arroyo had the other), and his 1.090 WHIP was best in their starting rotation.

“Hopefully, next year, he can be a 200-innings guy,” Reds manager Dusty Baker said. “It’s a good feeling when you have Johnny Cueto every fifth day. The team feels confident. I can manage a little differently the day before knowing he’s going to go deep in games and I probably won’t use my bullpen. That’s huge.”

Congratulations, Mr. Cueto. I’d love to see you put up 200 inning at a level close to what you did in 2010.

At the beginning of October, the Cincinnati Reds announced they would be using this off-season to convert Aroldis Chapman to a starter.

Originally, the plan was to have Chapman build up arm-strength in Goodyear, AZ before sending him to Puerto Rico for winter baseball. After two appearances in the Arizona Fall League, that plan has changed.

“We’ve decided against sending him to Puerto Rico,” GM Walt Jocketty said. “He’s on a strength-and-conditioning program in Arizona. He’ll go to Florida after that and continue to work out.”

Of course, the immediate concern is that Chapman is injured, but Jocketty denied that. Instead, the Reds simply decided the risk of winter ball was too high for the reward. “Unlike the [Arizona Fall League], Winter Ball is not a controlled situation and it is very competitive.”

Given Chapman’s tender status, I can’t argue with being more cautious. It’s only November. There should be plenty of time to get in shape to start by next season.