Hall o' Famer Hal "doubly salutes" Joey Votto for the way he's handled himself
Last night at the game, Votto had his two youngest brothers with him in the dugout, 9-year-old twins Ryan and Paul. It is fully evident now why Votto had such a tough time dealing with the death of his father. At this point, I really dont care at all that he had 4 hits and led the Reds to a win last night, you know?

Votto helps Reds avoid sweep against Jays
"I always want to play well, definitely in front of family and friends, but had I had this big game and we had lost I’d have been very disappointed," he added. "The beautiful thing about baseball, is there is always a new day and it parallels life sometimes. You always get a new day. It was nice feeling good without thinking about the problems I’ve been having."

Im sure you've heard the news by now
but in case you hadnt, Homer Bailey will get the start on Saturday against the Indians in place of the injured Edinson Volquez. Volquez looks to be out for a while too, so hopefully Bailey will get a good long look in the majors and make the most of it.

Also, Dusty talked about how Edwin Encarnacion is doing on his rehab stint. EdE has 2 homers and 6 RBIs in five games so far, but is only hitting .214. "That’s what we need: Him to be an RBI man," Baker said. "The .214 part doesn’t worry me too much. He must be turning his concentration up with runners on base." Whatever, but Baker also says we likely wont see Edwin back with the Reds when they return home after the weekend. "He might be. That’s only three or four more games. We don’t want him to come back and struggle.

Josh Roenicke had a nice outing the other night in relief of Bronson Arroyo
but he didnt do it by throwing his 98 mph heater. He struck out Alex Rios in the 4th on 4 straight sliders. "I threw that pitch in 2007 a little, but called it a cutter but it had that slide action," Roenicke said. "Then I got away from it because I was having arm problems after an appendectomy. I thought it was because I was throwing those along with a knuckle curve. I brought it back this spring. It's been effective and really working well. [Catcher Ramon Hernandez] kept putting that three down and I kept throwing it. It helped me get out of some jams."

Jayson Stark runs through the biggest mysteries in baseball thus far
like why the Phillies cant win at home and what's wrong with the Cubs offense. Toward the bottom though he mentions that he spoke to a scout that says the Reds have the best minor league talent in the NL Central and should be poised to make the big move that the other teams cant.

FanGraphs looks at the criminal ways the Rockies are handling their outfield situation
arguing that Seth Smith is disgustingly underutilized. He has been sitting the majority of the time in favor of Ryan Spilborghs, who isnt having half the season that Smith is having. The Rockies will likely be looking to clear this logjam sometime soon, so my question is should the Reds be looking at either of these guys, and if so, who?

MLBTradeRumors says AndyFan is headed to Japan
He signed a deal worth 400K to play for the Hiroshima Carp. Good luck Andy!

The WPA Inquirer from THT
I kind of understand WPA and how it works and why it's good, but I think this article will further illuminate this darkened corner of my cortex. I hope so, I havent read it yet. It's kinda long and there's a lot of charts and stuff.

Geovany Soto failed a drug test during World Baseball Classic
I didnt know baseball tested for marijuana. Should they even bother? Anyway, Soto has apologized and said it was "an isolated incident" (riiiiight). But DAYUM!! dude will be banned from international competition for two years.  HT to ShysterBall.

Here's another one via ShysterBall
This is from Sons of Steve Garvey, who offers you a transcript of a conversation between Eric Collins and Steve Lyons from a Dodgers game recently. Here's a taste:
Collins: I'm telling you, we're going to be head-to-head on this (debating the merit of stats analysis) all season long. There is a place —
Lyons: There is a place, a very small place, for the computer geeks that are now taking over the game of baseball. There is a place, but it's a small place. We're seeing way too much of it.
Collins: Now I'm going to fight that battle.
Lyons: None of those numbers — that UZR-mum thing that rates defense —
Collins: UZR. Ultimate Zone Rating.
Lyons: UZR. And your WHIPs and your OPSes. They don't show me what kind of heart the guy has. BABIP?
Collins: Batting Average on Balls in Play?
Lyons: Stupid. Doesn't tell me if the guy is a player. Doesn't tell me if the guy can play. Is he a gamer? Does he get dirty? Does he go out there and play hard? Is he a good teammate? None of that stuff tells me any of that. That's the guy I want.
Collins: That would be your Derek Jeter, we were talking about an inning ago.
Lyons: I'll take your computer and I'll toss it right off this balcony here.

You can imagine what happens next.