Welcome to round 2 of the Jason Romano Commemorative NLC’s hottest baller contest. 15 of the best-looking players on NLC (plus the newest Mariner) face off in a single-elimination tournament.

Our final match of the quarterfinal round is going to be a doozy. Matt Belisle, hottie starting rotation candidate for the Reds goes up against cult hero Bubba Crosby. Belisle has been a fan favorite at Red Hot Mama since he came up, but Crosby brought down 78% of the vote in the first round against Bronson Arroyo is the most heavily voted-in contest of the tournament so far.


Bubba Crosby
ht: 5-11 wt: 195 dob: 08/11/1976

Matt Belisle
ht: 6-3 wt: 230 dob: 06/06/1980
[poll=23]

Welcome to round 2 of the Jason Romano Commemorative NLC’s hottest baller contest. 15 of the best-looking players on NLC (plus the newest Mariner) face off in a single-elimination tournament.

Today’s match is a showdown of a couple of Reds, second-baseman Brandon Phillips and barely-more-than-prospect Joey Votto. An NLC’s Hottest Baller award and a breakout season would do wonders for keeping Votto out of a 5-player trade, but it would also go very nicely with Phillips’ shiny new 4-year, $27 million contract.

Joey Votto
ht: 6-3 wt: 220 dob: 09/10/1983

Brandon Phillips
ht: 6-0 wt: 195 dob: 6/28/1981

[poll=20]

Welcome to round 2 of the Jason Romano Commemorative NLC’s hottest baller contest. 15 of the best-looking players on NLC (plus one fella in limbo) face off in a single-elimination tournament.

The first match in our second round features two players from the town of Budweiser. Recent Cardinal Jason LaRue took down Brewers prospect Manny Parra to make it to this second round. Always Cardinal Rick Ankiel survived Cubs prospect Sam Fuld and illegal substance allegations to make it to this round.

Jason LaRue
ht: 5-11 wt: 205 dob: 03/19/1974

Rick Ankiel
ht: 6-1 wt: 210 dob: 7/19/1979

[poll=19]

Welcome to round 1 of the Jason Romano Commemorative NLC’s hottest blogger contest. 15 of the best-looking players on NLC (plus one fella in limbo) face off in a single-elimination tournament.

It’s been a while since I’ve gotten off my booty to put up one of these match-ups, but I’ve got to get one the ball if I want to wrap up this tournament before the All-Star Break.

Today’s match-up pits the Pirates’ Chris Duffy against Cubs’ cutie prospect Billy Petrick.

Chris Duffy
ht: 5-9 wt: 180 dob: 04/20/1980
Duffy only spent 70 games with the Pirates last season, spending many of the rest of them in Indianapolis. The CTS says its because “that boy ain’t right.” Nevertheless, he takes a couple good pictures.

Billy Petrick
ht: 6-6 wt: 240 dob: 04/29/1984
Petrick has only had the pleasure of a cup of coffee with the Cubs, pitching 9.2 innings in 8 games and racking up a 7.45 ERA. Nice smile, though.
[poll=14]

Welcome to round 1 of the Jason Romano Commemorative NLC’s hottest blogger contest. 15 of the best-looking players on NLC (plus one fella in limbo) face off in a single-elimination tournament.

Today’s match-up pits Sean Burnett of the Pittsburgh Pirates against Brad Ausmus of the Houston Astros. This is an interesting match-up for many reasons. First is that neither player has a tie to the Reds, which has been the kiss of death in the tournament so far. The first contest was won by long-time Red, Jason LaRue, the second by Rick Ankiel (who is an honorary Red due to his strong outfield but poor pitching performance), the third by Brandon Phillips, and Joey Votto has pulled ahead into a comfortable lead in the fourth pairing.

Also ought to be interesting because, though Ausmus is among the older players in our bracket, it was a Google search of Burnett that made me think I’d accidentally written down the wrong name when choosing competitors. Just keep in mind that I was looking at the slightly askew cap and half-smile of his MLB profile photo, not these highlights, when I made the choice.

Sean Burnett
ht: 6-1 wt: 195 dob: 09/17/1982

On his bio page on Pirates.com, this bit of minutia is the first thing you see.

Is a 2000 graduate of Wellington (FL) High School, the same school that produced Bobby Bradley, the Pirates’ 1st-round selection in 1999 (marking the first time in draft history that a major league club has used consecutive first-round selections on players from the same high school)

Maybe a good showing in the RHM hottest baller contest will help him define himself in terms of something other than his high school.

Brad Ausmus
ht: 5-11 wt: 190 dob: 04/14/1969

Ausmus is going to turn 39 a couple of weeks into the season, so it makes sense that he’s going to be playing the role of the backup (even on the Astros). Honestly, I’m pretty new to this blogging-about-anyone-except-the-Reds thing, so I can’t say much. Except that he photographs well.

[poll=13]