Apparently, the Cincinnati Reds’ flame-throwing reliever who should be a starter Aroldis Chapman is being sued.

The suit, filed Friday in federal court in Miami, alleges that when Chapman was back in Cuba, he and his father worked with Cuban security forces and helped organize the arrest, imprisonment, and torture of another Cuban who lives in Florida. Chapman’s alleged motive for cooperating: to be restored to the Cuban national team after a defection attempt. The suit charges that Chapman met with Cuban president Raul Castro to win quick reinstatement to the Cuban team and they concocted the plan that resulted in the arrest of the Florida man on a visit to Cuba in 2009.

When I first read this, I was confused. I am not a lawyer and I don’t play one on TV, but the allegations aren’t over things that were illegal in the country in which Chapman allegedly did them. I don’t think an American can sue a Cuban for working with the Cuban president. Then I noticed it was not a criminal suit, but a civil one. And you can sue anyone for anything in civil court.

So Chapman apparently had a failed defection attempt before the successful one that saw him end up with the Reds. After that failed attempt, the suit alleges that Chapman ratted out Curbelo Danilo Garcia to get back onto the Cuban national baseball team. Garcia is in Cuba serving a 10-year prison sentence.

I’ve never seen this kind of accusation against a player before. So far, the Reds have no comment. We’ll see if it affects Chapman’s stellar pitching.

You can read a little more about the suit on the already linked Enquirer article and on NBC Sports Hardball Talk, which broke the story nationally.

Joey Votto made history yesterday, and Cooperstown took notice. Though his three-homer performance against the Washington Nationals wasn’t a first (heck, Votto has done it before himself), it was the first time one of those three home runs was a walk-off grand slam.

The Hall of Fame has requested the bat that so punished all those balls:

“It’s an honor for the Hall of Fame to be interested in something of mine,” Votto said. “It’s a first for me, and I’m happy about it.”

Though it was Mother’s Day, it was a black bat that’s going to the Hall, according to the story on Reds.com. On the pre-game show tonight, Votto was saying that it was a bat he was sad to part ways with, it being particularly well made, even among all the well-made bats Louisville Slugger provides.

In fact, Votto did go hitless tonight without that bat, though he was lacking many opportunities. The Braves walked him twice.

The Cincinnati Reds are reporting that Jay Bruce has been named the National League’s player of the week. Little wonder with the week he’s had. From the tweet:

@JayABruce named NL Player of the Week 4 4th time in career. Hit .476, 1.143slg, .542obp, 2 2b, 4hr, 10rbi, 2sb. HR in his last 4g

Let’s make it the fifth time in his career next week, eh?

Looks like there might be a good reason that LHP Bill Bray has been less-than-awesome so far this season, and it’s not that lingering curse from having been part of The Trade. The Reds have just put Bray on the 15-day DL retroactive to last Thursday with a left groin strain that’s been bugging him since spring training.

To take his place, the team has called up J.J. Hoover from AAA Louisville. With the Bats, young Hoover is throwing up a 2.00 ERA and 17 Ks over 9 IP. It’ll be Hoover’s first appearance in the majors, whenever Dusty Baker gets around to using him. If it takes as long for Hoover to get into a game as it took Frazier when he finally came up, we’ll see Hoover sometime this weekend.

I saw this Sporting News article today on Redleg Nation, who are starting to beat the drum to make Joey Votto the next captain of the Cincinnati Reds. While I think it might yet be too early to bestow such an honor–the last one was Barry Larkin–it does strike me as an inevitabile choice at this point. Of course, that’s not what this little post is about. This post is about other ways Votto demonstrates his extraordinary awesomeness.

“I was getting tired of running into situations when I couldn’t communicate with my teammates,” he says. “I’d like to befriend some of my teammates and become a better teammate in general. I think speaking the same language and understanding their perspective would help a lot.”

Votto hired a private instructor this past offseason and took up to five hour-long classes a week during the winter He hasn’t had time for all the classes since the season started, but he still spends part of nearly every day studying Spanish. He conjugates verbs, works with the Rosetta Stone program and recently has made a point of hanging with Latin teammates during pregame stretches.

That is just so awesome. For most people outside of the US, learning another language isn’t an uncommon thing. Here, it often feels like an almost impossible accomplishment. Of course, that could be because the only place to practice in much of the US is in schools and classrooms.

But Votto has the perfect immersive environment. And he’s taking advantage of it, much like a certain other career Red did.

Votto isn’t the first North American in the Reds’ family to learn Spanish. Hall of Famer Barry Larkin grew up in Cincinnati but learned the language so he could get along better with all of his teammates. And as Votto says about Larkin, “He’s a good guy to emulate.”

Damn straight. This also means that someone on the team besides the trainer or Dusty Baker will be able to talk to the Spanish-speaking pitchers, including Johnny Cueto and Aroldis Chapman. Votto is so intent on improving all areas of his game that it’s even extending to learning Spanish.

Just when I thought I couldn’t like him any more. I certainly hope Jay Bruce is paying attention.