The Cincinnati Reds activated catcher Ryan Hanigan from the disabled list before Friday’s game, and he was in the lineup to catch Tony Cingrani. And he showed that he’s healthy.

Before heading to the DL, Hanigan was miserable at the plate. In 38 at bats, he had 3 hits with a terrible .079 average. With his 5 walks, his on-base percentage was at .182, half of his career percentage.

But in his return to the lineup tonight, Hanigan went 2 for 4, nearly doubling his total number of hits on the season. And one of the balls he hit was the hardest ball I’ve seen him hit all year.

Of course, bringing Hanigan back means it’s time to say goodbye to lovable mustachioed mascot Corky Miller. Miller’s an entertaining, larger-than-life personality who just isn’t quite good enough to be a major league backup. It’s too bad, but I do hope to see him coaching some day.

Until then, the Reds are one step closer to full strength, with pitcher Johnny Cueto and outfielder Chris Heisey both a few weeks away.

It’s been almost a month since Cincinnati Reds ace pitcher Johnny Cueto last was on a pitching mound in a professional baseball game. But today, while the Reds have a scheduled day off, Cueto will be making a start for the class A Dayton Dragons.

“I feel pretty good, but we’ll see tomorrow how I feel for the game,” Cueto said after the Reds’ loss to the Braves on Wednesday. “It’s a lot different in the bullpen than it is in the game. I need to throw in a game.”

The current plan is for Cueto to make two rehab appearances, building up his pitch count and arm strength before returning to the majors. That, of course, requires no further setbacks, which feels like a big if considering Cueto’s rehab was delayed once already due to oblique soreness.

It won’t be Cueto’s first time pitching for the Dragons. Back in 2006, when he was working his way through the Reds’ minor league system, he made 14 starts, going 8-1. Hopefully, he won’t be in Dayton that long for this go-around.

The game starts at 7:00pm. If you’re in the area, tickets are still available.

Just as Johnny Cueto was set to begin a rehab outing in the minors, he suffered a setback.

Cueto, who is on the DL for a strained right lat, felt soreness in his oblique muscle.

“He had a good bullpen [Monday] and he didn’t experience anything in his arm but he experienced soreness in that oblique that he hurt last year in the playoffs,” Reds manager Dusty Baker said. “So, we’ll wait and see.”

Ugh. I know Tony Cingrani is dominating the majors right now, but filling in for a pitcher like Cueto is too much pressure for a rookie, no matter how talented.

Cueto’s not shown himself to be the most durable pitcher over his career, with last year being the only one of his five where he topped 200 innings pitched. Hopefully, this soreness will be nothing too serious and the healing time will serve to make Cueto healthy and ready to finish the season strong.

Hire Joe Morgan’s House

When I first saw this article about Cincinnati Reds Hall of Fame second baseman putting his California mansion up for sale, I was primarily interested in the slideshow of images showing the home the athlete and broadcaster had lived in over the years.

Then I read the article. Apparently, if you’re a celebrity and choose to use a Realtor to sell your house, they will mock you and treat you like you’re an out-of-touch joke.

The Cincinnati Reds legend and integral cog in the Big Red Machine tabbed Frank Lloyd Wright associate Aaron Green to design the curvy, stone-hewn dwelling in 1980 – and, as one might surmise from the listing photos, not much has changed since that time.

Yes, exactly what you want from the real estate company you hired to sell your house: snark about how everything is old and needs to be updated. I’ve sold a house before and dealt with an agent who didn’t do a good job, but they never publicly made fun of the listing.

The article continues the snarkery, leveling one of the bathrooms.

And let’s not overlook the FernGully bathroom that has some of the most impressive green tile and leaf accents this scribe has ever seen.

The house is listed at $2.9 million, but I bet you could offer $1.5 million, citing all the problems that the website points out. Recommend that they take the difference out of the agent’s commission; I bet Morgan would be happy to work with you.

Yes, the Cincinnati Reds lost an excellent pitchers’ duel between Bronson Arroyo and Jaime Garcia last night, but you undoubtedly stayed up to watch that whole thing. What you may have missed was Jay Bruce reaching his limit of twitter abuse around midnight after the game.

Bruce has started the season slowly and has yet to go on one of his signature player of the week tears. Not to mention he ended the game last night by striking out. But lashing out on social media?

The Enquirer does a great job rounding up the response.

I appreciate all the tweets, good and bad, actually. You guys are what drive the game. I’m obviously not hitting as well as I’d like to, yet I actually feel sorry for the people on here who feel that it’s necessary to try and put me down on twitter. It really just explains [f]urther who you are, and there are obviously things in your life that you’re unhappy about and you take it out on me via twitter. I suggest you look into talking with a life coach or something to help you get over whatever you have going on in your life. There is obviously a lack of something going on, and I hope you guys get it straightened out, because you all sound like idiots Everyone have a good night. Haha

[View the story “Jay Bruce takes to Twitter after game” on Storify]

I think Enquirer reporter John Fay has the best response.

My advice when I saw Bruce looking at Twitter: “You don’t want to do that.” It[‘s] not [a] pleasant place for a struggling athlete to be.

That’s very true. I can’t imagine the grief he must receive on a daily basis. People on the internet are assholes. Sports fans on the internet are even worse, as the twitter account showcasing the self-proclaimed best fans in baseball of the Cardinals has shown.

I can’t see much good coming from Bruce’s outburst. The more knowledgeable fans already realize that one month doesn’t equal a whole season. The sky-is-falling set will just brush it off as another entitled, rich athlete making excuses for not performing up to his paycheck.

With more and more athletes engaging in social media from a younger age, this type of thing is something I can see happening more often in the future. And the only real solution to it is for the player to not engage with his fans and cancel his social media accounts. That would be a shame, considering some of the entertainment and goodwill that’s come from them, such as from Brandon Phillips’.

At the end of the day, though, I’d much rather Bruce be focusing on improving his baseball-playing ability than paying attention to idiot criticism. If the trade-off is fewer athlete twitter accounts, that’s something I can live with.