Boxscore

In a what’s clearly a harbinger of the year to come, the Reds completely bit the big one during an exhibition game against their double-A minor league club, the Carolina Mudcats.

Bronson Arroyo and Francisco Cordero both continued to suck, heading into the season opener Monday. Arroyo allowed 6 runs in 3 innings, while Cordero allowed 3 runs in 1 inning.

Although the present Reds managed 4 runs in 9 innings, the future Reds absolutely crushed them in offensive production.

At least Reds fans have something to look forward to. Sure, the present Reds are nothing good, but look at what’s coming in a few years! Dusty Baker won’t be the manager!

The Pirates seem to be leading the charge in the central to get their 25-man roster set. Hey, it’s nice to be first in something, even when there isn’t a trophy or a gaudy ring.

Relievers Sean Burnett, Craig Hansen, and Donnie Veal have made the club. Donnie Veal is a Rule 5 pick from the Cubs, I believe, and he’s been good enough not to be offered back.

The Pirates have one spot left, and it’s down to a match between Evan Meek and Jesse Chavez to see who will be in the dugout when Paul Maholm starts opening day.

Sure, it took a 7-game winning streak to get their win percentage into the 300s, but the Astros do seem to be functioning a lot better heading into the final week of Spring Training.

Of course, if you delve a little deeper, you see a lot of offense being supplied by players with no hopes of making the team, but isn’t that always the way? Players with nothing to lose tend to be much looser.

Despite the blow-up of Mike Hampton yesterday, the Astros are feeling pretty confident in their rotation. Heck, even one sports writer wrote an article about not being able to find any faults with the team. I still can’t tell if it’s serious or not. I mean, I know it’s Spring Training, but this is a team that lost 11 games in a row already this year. That doesn’t sound like a perfect team to me.

Also, in case you missed it, former Red Danny Graves didn’t make the team. Yeah, I thought he’d pitched his way out of baseball, too.

In case you hadn’t heard, this year is the Reds last year Spring Training in Sarasota, Florida. Cincinnati has been in Sarasota for more than a decade, and in Florida for even longer than that, so you know this change will bring out the maudlin, melodramatic articles decrying the change.

Yup, here’s one now.

[T]here was a tinge of sadness as I walked out through the gates of what Marty Brennaman likes to call “tired old Ed Smith Stadium.” I knew, as did many of the others there that day, that it would be my last Reds spring training game in Florida.

I don’t know why, but this doesn’t strike emotional chord with me that the writer, Howard Wilkinson, probably intended. My response is, “Good. Ed Smith is a terrible place to watch baseball games.” It would be terrible for the Reds to have a *nice* place to play games at.

To be fair, Wilkinson isn’t entirely against the move. He mentions how it was necessary. The complex is old and hasn’t been being maintained in recent years. And when the Reds asked the local government for help giving them a better facility, the answer was no. There’s nothing to do but leave then, and the deal from Arizona is awesome.

However, Wilkinson finishes his article describing a family of 5 who had driven from Indiana to watch a few games. Goodyear, Arizona is almost twice as far away from Cincinnati as Sarasota. And Sarasota is in close proximity to Disney World and beautiful beaches.

Can you picture that family buying five plane tickets and hauling three kids and a week’s worth of luggage to an Arizona suburb where there’s no trace of Mickey, much less Minnie, and the nearest beach is in California?

Don’t count on it.

And that, Reds fans, is reason enough to be sad.

The opportunity to watch major league baseball in a much more intimate setting in a world-class ballpark is reason to be sad? I don’t see it. I’m excited about the new facility next year and plan on catching some games there, if for no other reason than the terrible specter of Dusty Baker’s contract will be that much closer to being killed.

In somewhat of a surprise, the Reds included power bat Daryle Ward in their latest round of cuts. This is actually a good thing, as Ward had been absolutely terrible with the Cubs the last couple of years, and the Reds already have plenty of terrible Cubs screwing up their team.

The cut of Ward and 5 others gets the roster down to 36 players. Just 9 more to go before Opening Day. John Fay runs down who he thinks is in and where the decisions lie.

Shockingly, Fay thinks only 2 catchers will make the team. Surely the apocalypse isn’t far behind.