As July winds down, talk in baseball always turns to the non-waiver trade deadline. After that date, trades, although not impossible, become trickier to accomplish. With the Reds sitting in third place, 5 games behind the St. Louis Cardinals, there’s certainly room for improvements, right?

Only if the front office believes in the team’s ability to win. And it doesn’t sound like general manager Walt Jocketty’s sold on that.

Jocketty doesn’t see the need for a shakeup.

“We’ve got a solid club,” he said. “The difference this year is our division is stronger. We hit a little tough spell before the All-Star break, but we’re playing well now.”

You know, except for losing three of four games to the Los Angeles Dodgers because the offense couldn’t score any runs. Other than that, the team’s been doing great since the break.

Jocketty does profess to realize the need for a right-handed bat. But his own arguments against it are odd.

“If we do acquire a right-handed bat, what do we do with Ludwick when he gets back?” Reds general manager Walt Jocketty said. “If there is somebody available that can definitely help the club, we’ll certainly take a look. To this point, we haven’t had any conversations with a club that indicated that.”

Yes, Ludwick is supposed to be coming back from the disabled list sooner than later–he’s on a rehab assignment now. But if there’s an upgrade better than the guys currently filling in for Ludwick, finding a space on the roster for him doesn’t sound difficult. Certainly not so difficult that it should prevent you from making the trade. Not unless you have a feeling that the 2013 Reds aren’t good enough to go all the way and might not be worth the investment.

“There’s not too much we can do. We’ve got four guys on the disabled list and when we get them back, it strengthens our club even more,” Jocketty said. “I don’t want to trade prospects to improve the club.”

That doesn’t strike me as the vote of confidence Jocketty might have meant it to be. He’s a GM who always keeps deals secret until the end, but this sounds a bit like this year’s team isn’t worth the effort.

The only reinforcements are the guys on the disabled list. Which could be enough, but you’re assuming that they’ll be ready to go right off the DL and that no one else will get injured for the rest of the season. Those are a couple very large assumptions to make. But they do make sense if you’re not confident in the team’s chances and prefer to wait until next year to try again.

Everybody’s writing about the recent success that Cincinnati Reds catcher Devin Mesoraco has been having this month.

First, Red Reporter talks about how Mesoraco, kind of forgotten, may well become the right-handed impact bat the Reds have sorely needed.

[T]he 2013 Reds lack an offensive player who is outperforming expectations. They’re like a tech company, twelve years after going public, whose stock takes a hit when they meet their revenue numbers for a quarter but decline to raise targets by 8%….In truth, there wasn’t a single player expected to contribute who you could truly point to and say “yeah, he might really blow our expectations out the of the water.”

It’s a good point. Joey Votto, Jay Bruce, and Brandon Phillips aren’t likely to be better than they’ve been the last few years. What they already are is pretty great. We know what they’re going to do. Todd Frazier and Zach Cozart are early enough in their careers that they could surprise, but they’re performing in line with what was predicted at the beginning of the season.

Which leaves Devin Mesoraco, a guy who’s getting his first taste of regular playing time with Ryan Hanigan on the disabled list for an extended period of time.

The #15 overall draft pick in the 2007 draft has caught fire, and it’s likely no coincidence that the most productive month of his career is coinciding with the month where he’s on pace to have his most consistent playing time. He’s currently .354/.396/.552 tear through 53 PA in July, and with 7 games left in the month (and Ryan Hanigan still on the DL), he looks poised to surpass his previous career high of 60 PA in a month despite the fact that the All-Star break took 4 days off the schedule.

Obviously, that’s a small sample size, but it’s encouraging. Mesoraco has never hit this well in the majors. He has a history of taking time to adjust to new levels of competition. Plus, as a catcher, he has more to learn than any other position player.

John Fay of the Cincinnati Enquirer noticed Mesoraco’s recent surge, too.

He went into Thursday’s game against the Los Angeles Dodgers with 12 hits in his last 27 at-bats. Among those hits were three doubles and two home runs. He entered the game hitting .262 with a .327 on-base percentage and .407 slugging percentage. Those numbers are comparable to Brandon Phillips.

Of course, the one potential roadblock to Mesoraco becoming the Reds’ surprise bat of the season is Dusty Baker.

“Hanigan is still going to get in there,” Baker said. “There are certain teams that don’t run when Hanigan’s in there. There are certain guys that throw well to him. I’m fortunate to have a veteran guy and a guy that’s on the way and learning.

“Someday, the job is going to be Meso’s. It’s just not now.”

Not that I expect Baker to anoint Mesoraco after one good month, but the feeling I get from this quote is that it’s almost an impossibility for Mesoraco to become the primary catcher this year, no matter what he does. I know Baker likes to protect his players–in this case Hanigan–but this is one of those times it makes him come across as an inflexible manager in a game that requires constant adjustment.

If Mesoraco continues hitting like he has in July and Hanigan struggles after he’s activated, I am confident the playing time will resolve itself, though.

Huey Lewis, of Huey Lewis and the News fame, wrote a piece for The Talkhouse this week where he voiced his desire to ban all pre-recorded music at sporting events.

[A]s a sports fan who knows a little about music, I have to get something off my chest: Can we all agree it’s time to ban most, if not all, pre-recorded music from sporting events?

That’s a bold question. Anyone who’s been to any baseball game within the last decades is familiar with the music that’s played, and it’s always a combination of recent pop hits and old rock standards. Not to mention each player’s at-bat music. What’s Lewis got against all that?

He lists 5 reasons.

1. The murmur of tens of thousands of people in a baseball park, vendors hollering about beer and hot dogs, along with the thrilling crack of a bat hitting a ball, an umpire’s throaty call, and the occasional player’s whistle or cry of “I got it!” is a wonderful symphony of sounds that we almost never get to hear anymore.

It is true that the music during the inning breaks often impedes enjoyment of the game’s sounds. But Lewis’ complaint about the music being played too loudly does remind me of a certain scene from Back to the Future.

Lewis continues to criticize the speaker systems in stadiums, noting that oftentimes speakers interfere with each other, reducing the song to just the beat. He also criticizes the over-use of common songs and laments the lack of live bands and organists in parks.

And I gotta say, I can’t help but agree with him on many of his points. I mean, we have heard the boom-boom-clap portion of Queen’s “We Will Rock You” too many times now. Plus, the idea of roving live bands in each stadium, reflecting a part of the city’s musical heritage, is very appealing.

But banning plate music? That seems a step too far. That’s where some of my recent, fondest baseball memories lie. Now whenever I hear Coldplay, I envision Scott Rolen somewhere walking to the plate. Or Adam Dunn always using Night Ranger’s “Sister Christian.” And of course, Joey Votto and the Rolling Stones’ “Paint it Black.” No, the plate music I want to keep. But the rest? That I can live without.

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
REds (53-42)	0	0	4	0	1	0	0	0	3	8	11	1
Braves (54-41)	0	1	1	0	0	0	0	1	1	4	9	0

Boxscore

After the way the Cincinnati Reds have been playing of late, it sure was nice to see them end the unofficial first half of the season with a win. The win over the Atlanta Braves also earned them a split in the series against one of the major’s best teams.

It wasn’t always a sure thing, though. Tony Cingrani started and pitched fairly well, but his defense let him down and cost him the win. Thanks to Todd Frazier losing a pop-up in the sun in the second, Cingrani ended up throwing 24 more pitches to end the inning. What should’ve been the final out to the inning resulted in a run scoring and Cingrani blowing his pitch count. He was removed after the fourth.

The bullpen held the lead. They allowed a few runs, but the lead was never in jeopardy. Speaking of, it sure was nice to see the offense create a lead and then add to it as the game continued. So often they’ve scored early and then never again. But not Sunday.

After the fiasco with Frazier allowed the Braves the early lead in the second, the Reds came right back in the third. Joey Votto doubled in Cingrani, who’d reached on a bunt. Brandon Phillips grounded out, scoring Shin-Soo Choo. And then Jay Bruce brought Votto home with his 19th home run.

Later in the game, Choo provided needed insurance runs with his 13th home run. Also, Phillips and Frazier each drove in runs in the 9th.

All in all, it was a nice last game before the All Star break. Hopefully, the offense that showed up yesterday won’t get lost driving around during the break. It’d be nice to see that Reds team from May again.

In case you missed it last night, Homer Bailey threw the second no-hitter of his career.

The last time, it was against the Pittsburgh Pirates last year on September 28. This time, it was against the World Series defending champions San Francisco Giants.

This time, Bailey was slightly more effective, needing only 109 pitches–6 fewer than last year–to dispatch the Giants. In his 9 innings, he struck out 9, walked one, and allowed no hits and no runs.

Now that he has two no-hitters, Bailey joins some prestigious company. There are only 5 pitchers in Major League history with more than 2 no-hitters.

• Nolan Ryan (7)
• Sandy Koufax (4)
• Bob Feller (3)
• Cy Young (3)
• Larry Corcooran (3)

Bailey’s got some opportunity to join them. Until then, he’ll have to console himself with being the equal of guys such as Justin Verlander, Roy Halladay, and Randy Johnson. Tough company to keep.