Yesterday before the Cincinnati Reds lost to the Boston Red Sox in extra innings, Mark Sheldon interviewed so-called General Manager Walt Jocketty about Billy Hamilton.

Team doctor Tim Kremcheck had checked on Hamilton earlier.

“He looked at him and he’s shown some improvement but he’s still the proverbial day-to-day,” Reds GM Walt Jocketty said.

Hamilton had failed in an attempt to swing a bat earlier in the day, having it drop from his hands due to the pain from his swollen knuckles. Sounds like a guy who should be on the disabled list, right?

“Not yet,” Jocketty said. “I don’t know who we’d replace him with.”

Really? The GM of the Reds has no ideas on who to replace an injured player with. This quote is so ridiculous that I can’t even. Jocketty’s job is such that he should always be ready. This shows that he’s either unprepared or incompetent.

Or perhaps he’s simply given up on the Reds entirely. That would explain Jocketty’s inaction for the last year.

The Cincinnati Reds took the 4-game series from the Milwaukee Brewers over the weekend, thanks to more excellent pitching. Or maybe, since it was Star Wars weekend in Cincinnati, it was the Force.

The lineup on the stadium’s scoreboard showed each of the players in Star Wars regalia. I didn’t catch one for so-called General Manager Walt Jocketty. I imagine that image to the right is the one that would have been used.

Despite any lack of effort from Jocketty, though, the team took the series and found themselves one game below .500 again. Homer Bailey, Mike Leake, Johnny Cueto, and Alfredo Simon, along with the bullpen, limited the Brewers to just 10 runs over the 4 games.

The offense even showed up with some timely hitting, most notable in Sunday’s walk-off extra inning win that was won on Todd Frazier’s 10th inning double. It was a good weekend to be a Reds fan.

At least until this morning, when the news reported that Jay Bruce will be out for a month or two because of an injured knee. The injuries keep coming. If only the Reds had a real general manager instead of a so-called one in times like these.

This has not been a lucky year so far for the Cincinnati Reds. Not in terms of wins or in terms of health. And another one went down today.

Tony Cingrani was sent to the disabled list following his four-inning start against the Chicago Cubs on Wednesday. He wasn’t happy about it.

“I don’t know why they do a lot of things. I don’t agree with it,” he said. “But if they don’t want me to injure myself, I understand. I think I can keep throwing, but they’re exercising caution.”

I can’t say that I’m happy about him being disabled either, although it’s for different reasons.

There is one good spot of news for the Reds. Aroldis Chapman made his first rehab appearance today. And he did well.

Guessing that will be it. 18 pitches, 11 strikes. 2 K and a line out for Chapman. #Reds #Chapman #Dragons

— ctrent (@ctrent) May 1, 2014

Chapman’s expected back in less than two weeks. Hopefully, no more Reds fall before then.

Duane Rhodes, more commonly known to Cincinnati Reds fans as “The Woo Guy” has recorded a song about his favorite baseball team to celebrate the beginning of the season.

Unlike his song about shouting, “Woo!”, there’s no fire crackling in the background this time.

The Cincinnati Reds are 25 games into the 2014 season, and what they’ve shown fans is not terrifically surprising to me. They sit in third place, behind the Milwaukee Brewers and the St. Louis Cardinals, with a record of 11-14. The team has shown excellent starting pitching, above-average defense, and an embarrassing lack of offense.

The pitching has allowed an average of 3.3 runs per game. If they keep that up for the whole year, that’s going to make for some mighty fine pitching stats. As a point of comparison, that would be just a little better than the Atlanta Braves’ staff was last season. It’s certainly good enough pitching to win plenty of games, so long as the team scores some runs.

Unfortunately, the Reds aren’t. The team is averaging 3.8 runs per game which is down from 4.3 runs per game last year. No one who realized the offensive impact of Shin-Soo Choo should be surprised by that. Considering his disappearance since signing Choo, I’m guessing the Reds’ ineffective General Manager Walt Jocketty is one of those surprised.

Even with that anemic offense, the Reds can still be expected to contend. A difference of 0.5 between runs scored and runs allowed over the course of 162 games should have the Reds with a record around 89-73. That run differential adds up to 81, which in general averages out to a record eight games above .500.

I’m not sure the pitching can keep up its pace, but considering it’s doing it so far without Mat Latos and Aroldis Chapman, maybe it can. It will make for a different kind of season as a fan. The Reds are historically a high scoring team. I’m not sure I know how to watch a team that doesn’t.