Line-up per C. trent

Ryan Freel CF
Brandon Phillips 2B
Adam Dunn LF
Jeff Conine 1B
Ken Griffey RF
Edwin Encarnacion 3B
Juan Castro SS
David Ross C
Kyle Lohse P

Lets hope the Reds can improve on yesterdays Goose Egg

The Professional Cheerleader blog has a nice write-up about the Reds cheerleaders on Opening Day this year.

And there's a picture of Gapper. I know, not as scintillating as the cheerleaders, but I hadn't seen him in a while and was beginning to worry that furry mascot hunting season had been declared.

Don't get me wrong i like chris welsh & george grande but thom brennaman & jeff brantley sounded like they had been working together for as long welsh & grande i don't think i've ever heard anybody do a better job of breaking down pitching like brantley did and thom brennaman is worth every cent the reds pay him ( unlike eric milton)

On the even of baseball's Opening Night on Sunday - here are some last-minute tidbits from around the rest of the division.

The Pirates start the year with reliever John Grabow on the 15-day DL, and as of Friday it wasn't known whether 2006 NL batting champ Freddie Sanchez will start the season on the DL or not. Even if he plays, he had only seven ABs during ST so he might show some rust. Also, their closer, Salomon Torres, had a brutal ST with a 14.21 ERA over 6-1/3 innings.

In St. Louis, it looks like Edmonds will avoid starting the year on the DL. But the Cardinals have replaced three of their five starters since the end of last season. Two of the new starters have never started a game in the majors. The third hasn't won in double figures or posted an ERA lower than 4.55 since 2003. One of the two returning starters has yet to pitch his 100th Major League inning. Their right-handed setup man was shut down for the year due to elbow surgery. And the guy who was expected to start in RF will open the year on the DL. So LaRussa must not only battle the bottle and the pitching problems, but juggle a RF-by-committee situation as well.

In Milwaukee, Corey Koskie's return from post-concussion syndrome continues at a brutally slow pace. Several Brewers relievers struggled in ST. Still, the Brew Crew starts the year mostly healthy and could get off to a fast start in the division race.

The Astros are also healthy for the most part, although Brandon Backe is probably through for the year. The main question marks in Houston are in the back end of the rotation after the loss of Pettitte and, probably, Clemens.

That leaves the Cubs. For 99 years that's been the ultimate goal of almost everyone who has played for them - to leave the Cubs. In case you haven't noticed, I do love to pick on the Cubs. Popular Communications Magazine, April 2007 issue, page 76, last paragraph on the page, in a discussion about the chronology of disasters, part of an article dealing with radio communications during disasters:

“Not all disasters are of the 'natural disaster' genre, of course. We humans have time and again proven that we can conjure up some pretty serious disasters on our own, and I'm not just talking about FEMA's response to Katrina, or the last 99 years of Chicago Cubs history.”

This year, things were going to be different, they said. So now, with the Cubs presumably already on their way to Cinci for Opening Day, Prior starts the year at AAA. Wood starts the year on the DL. Oh, wait, this is supposed to be about news. Sorry. Oh, how I do love to pick on the Cubs.

HMZ

With reports of Mark Prior's fastball reaching the mid-80's on a good day, I thought it would be a good time to check out the current Cubs news.

And here's what I found. Apparently, Prior is performing so poorly that there's talk of him spending time in minor league camp to bolster his confidence. Ouch.

Goatriders had a great take on that:

Hey, I'm just surprised they didn't try this sooner. I know that whenever my confidence is shaky, going to the local middle school and beating up on some 13-year-olds always helps me feel better about myself.

So Mark Prior again won't help the Cubs this year.

The team is better than last year, but I don't see them being in the competition for the Central title. Nope. It's Spring enough that I'm expecting that to be a bitter fight between Cincinnati, Houston, and St. Louis.