Ok, I know Joey isn't back yet, but I'm quite certain he's gonna be back on Tuesday.  He wants to play, he's been fine in two rehab stints (three I guess - I don't know what happened today), and it is his hometown.  So let's watch together (and Gray's in town so we'll want to treat him to a good old fashioned DC gathering of Reds fans.)

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I'm sure this will be discussed at length in the game thread tonight, but anyway: 

Shortstop Alex Gonzalez was put on the disabled list with an elbow problem. He has four loose bodies floating in the area. He'll have surgery. They're hoping he'll be back in four weeks. He hurt on a swing in the final game with the Braves.

Wilkin Castillo and Danny Richar are being added to the roster. A couple of more moves are coming. Richar has to be added to 40-man. The moves won't be announced until the tell the players affected.

This lineup is slowly becoming Dusty proofed.  Now maybe Cozart can get up to AAA to see what he can do.  Maybe Frazier too?

Kinda felt bad posting this.  You never like to see a guy get hurt, but hopefully some younger guys get a chance now.

BP takes alot of crap for hitting into alot of DP's, but I gotta say, he's da man. When everyone is struggling, he's carrying the offense. I think people forget he's picking up the power drought with Dunn gone, Votto out, and Bruce struggling. Props to BP. 11 HR's so far. He's on pace for 25 HR's and over 100 rbi.

And defensively, he is probably one of the most underrated players in baseball. 3 rbi's yesterday.

So I was watching ASU vs. Texas last night, and our first round pick was pitching.  He's doing pretty well for awhile, and then he gets in a little trouble--one man on, then he hangs a curve which gets pounded to drive the runner home.

And then the color guy and the sideline reporter start talking about how he's clearly shortening his delivery on his curveball to avoid the pain.  WTF?

And then talking about the triceps tendonitis he's been dealing with this season.   FTH?

And then speculating that it wasn't that big a deal because the coaches were watching him closely to make sure his delivery didn't change at all.  Why wasn't Uncle Walt in there with a helicopter to airlift Leake to an undisclosed location?  Or put another way, why did we draft a guy who has a boo-boo?

Turtle, make me feel better on this...

One of my favorite websites has compiled and ranked the worst 15 fathers in sports.  here

I could go into very much detail on the odds my own father overcame to provide a good life for his family but this probably isnt the time or the place.  He had to work incredibly long and hard hours back in the day but i always knew the motivation behind that.  I'd say one of my favorite memories was the pregame ritual of packing a bag of sandwiches and snacks and making a big jug of iced tea to take to Riverfront.  It kept the food cost down and allowed for more money to be spent on souvenirs. 

He didnt, and doesnt to this day, much care for sports but he always found a way to get down to the stadium with me a couple times a summer. There was nothing funner as a  young boy that seeing the Reds and yelling CHAAAAAARRRRRRGGGGGE at the top of my lungs.  

If you are so inclined feel free to post  your favorite memories of your father below.   

So I'm in Saint Louis for a couple of days looking for apartments for the next few years as I make like Eddie Johnson and become a Grown-Ass Man. Well, not really because it's just grad school, but still. I'm moving to Saint Louis. And I figured I would take the opportunity to go to Cardinals-Tigers tonight because, well, its baseball. I didn't bring a camera, though, but it's ok because you're not missing much.

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I havent put one of these up for a while but Im getting tired of banging the same drum beat for the Reds and their lack of offense. I need a bit of a tension breaker.  I noticed in USA Today a little piece on Sequels that wound up being better than the original film. I remember seeing The Empire Strikes Back and not being impressed with it immediately afterwards (hey, i was like 10) but now its easy to judge it superior to the original Star Wars, imho.   I have a few others that I could make cases for but im going to leave the heavy lifting to RR Nation.

What say you, which other sequels are better? 

I'm going to have to nominate The Neverending Story II: The Next Chapter ESPECIALLY considering it was paired with the supremely underrated Bugs Bunny short "Box Office Bunny".

The excitement over the MLB draft prompted me to examine the Jim Bowden draft history.

Jim was responsible for 11 drafts.  The total WAR value of the players he drafted was 96.7.

His best draft was 1998: Kearns(16.0) Dunn (20.8) BJ Ryan(11.4) Coffey(1.4)- total WAR wa 49.6.

2nd best was 1995: Tomko(9.3) Jason Lareu(9.4) Ray King( 1.1) Rob Malkowiak(5.3) Buddy Caryle(.5)- total WAR 25.1. 

3rd best 1994 CJ Nitkowski(.2) A. Boone(5.3) J Reidling(.6)- total WAR 6.1.

The bad years 2001 - no players made the MLB(Sowers was unsigned).  2000- Dustin Mosely and Schroder generated .2 WAR so far.  1996 Buddy Carlyle produced .5 WAR.  1993 Bako(.3) Sullivan(.3) for .6 total.  2003 Wagner (.2) Dickerson(2.1).   Needless to say Jim had alot of real bad drafts.  

The players drafted by Bowden that had positive WAR: 

1.  Dunn(20.8)  2.  Kearns(16.0)  3.  BJ Ryan(11.4)  4. Jason Lareu(9.4) 5. Brett Tomko(9.3)  6.  Joey Votto(5.3)  7.  Aaron Boone(5.3)  8.  Rob Mackowiak(5.3)  9. S. Williamson(3.2) 10. Broussard(3.1) 11.  Dickerson(2.1)  12.  T. Coffey(1.4)  13.  Ray King(1.1)  14.  Denofria(.7)  15.  J. Reidling(.6) 16. Buddy Caryle.  17.  Scott Sullivan(.3) 18.  Scott Bako(.3)  19.  CJ Nitkowski(.2)  20.  Ryan Wagner(.2) 21.  Schroder(.1) 22. Mosely(.1).     

To put into perspective: the As top 12 players drafted from that period produces 165 WAR and all the players from that period would be around 180 WAR.   The Expos/Nats from the same period- top 12 players produced 176 WAR.  But the Nats squandered much of that value by trading Sizemore, Lee, Phillips for Barton Colon and trading Jason Bay for Lou Collier.  

So the bright spot for the Reds is they didnt get alot of value in the draft but they also didnt give much value to the league.  I would guess the Reds are the only organization that for this period only have 3 players at career plus 10 WAR. 

This is a different kind of post. This is not a rant or vent. This is a question for the posters on this site.

How patient are you? Would you rather stand pat, with Votto and EE coming back in the next 2 weeks, and avoid trading any of the farm system..........OR.........are you saying we are so close let's make a trade and go for it?

I get impatient, but I have followed the farm system closer the last 2 years than I ever have. I would hate to trade anyone named Heisey, Frazier, Wood, Stewart, Soto, Stubbs, Bailey, Maloney, Fairel, Alonso, Cozart, and others..............and even the current draft has me excited to see Leake and others.

It's been a long time, but I say stand pat. This could just be a bad stretch, and things could get better soon. Maybe Bruce makes adjustments. Votto returns and gives the team a shot in the arm offensively. Hopefully the team-wide slumps are the worse they get all season. The rest of June will say alot. We do play most of our games on the road this month.

I'm visiting this weekend to see the reds with a group a big drinkers, and we are not familiar with the area. Where is the best spot to be, so that we are as close as possbile to great bars and late-night eating, specifically sports bars and pubs, not dance clubs. We are considering downtown in Cincinnati or perhaps accross the river in  the Convington or Newport areas.

Also, is there any place we absolutely should go to? I see a lot of mentions of Hooters in Newport and caddillac ranch in Cincy. Any help os greatly appreciated.