There aren’t many things in life that make me so angry I feel my blood pressure rise and my emotions take over until I can take a temper check. Someone changing my code into a worse, less correct form without any good reason? Sure. also, this news about Aroldis Chapman.

Bill Bray’s groin injury could lead to Aroldis Chapman being shifted back to the bullpen.

Pardon the language, but for fuck’s sake. The Cincinnati Reds have committed millions of dollars to Chapman because their scouts believed he had the potential to become an ace, a number 1 starter in their rotation. And now, there’s an injury to a middle reliever and the team is ready to throw that investment away again?

“We’ve got the luxury of three lefties in the bullpen — or potentially three lefties,” Dusty Baker said.

That includes Chapman.

“That’s a pretty good back-up plan,” Baker said. “As it is, we’ve got six starters anyway.”

Last year was nothing but a complete waste of a year for Chapman. He spent the whole year in the bullpen and the team learned nothing–absolutely nothing!–about the guy’s ability to be a starter. And now there’s a chance of throwing another year down the toilet just so he can fill in in the 6th or 7th innings? That’s a colossally stupid idea.

This team has done much better at evaluating talent and making prudent decisions over the last few years. But when it comes to Chapman, they’ve had their heads so far up their asses they can count the polyps. I hope this amounts to nothing because the mere thought of another year of not learning what Chapman can offer from the rotation has me seeing red. And not the baseball kind.

I’ve made my fair share of fun of Cubs fans for their naive optimism, but this made even me say, “aw” at the end. *tear*

After last year’s career-worst performance, Bronson Arroyo changed up his off-season workouts and reported to Spring Training feeling “as healthy and flexible as I’ve been in a lot of years.”

Of course, everyone shows up to Spring Training in the best shape of their lives*. But the first real test is not Arroyo’s self-reporting, but some game action. Arroyo started today. How’s he lookin’?

“I felt like the ball was coming out of my hand better than it was in couple of years,” he said. “I’m interested in the velocity. Then it gets down to pitching.”

Arroyo was told he was hitting 88, 89 mph on the radar gun.

“There you go,” he said. “I feel like if I can throw 90 miles an hour when I want to, I feel good about what I can do out there. Last year, I was humping it up there at 86 a lot of times with everything I had.”

Arroyo went the longest of any Reds starter so far this Spring, pitching three innings. Over the course of that, he allowed one run, two hits, and one walk. And while the speed increase of 2-3 miles per hour on his fastball is a promising sign, the fact that he struck out nobody during his outing has me a little concerned.

The Reds have a chance to be good this year, but Arroyo, even with his large salary, cannot be given too long of a leash. Another year like last year would likely sink this club.

* Juan Francisco is not included in the definition of “everyone.”