- This probably won't surprise many people, but Fox is changing the postseason significantly for their own benefit. They are taking a page out of the NBA playbook and adding tons and tons of off days this year. Nothing says excitement like having to wait a couple of days for the next game. The previously linked article quotes on GM as saying:
"You might see somebody get by with three starting pitchers and two or three relievers," one GM said.
Pitchers going on short rest are a given in the playoffs, but this new schedule will probably make that a thing of the past:
The biggest beneficiary of the new format might be the Padres, given a healthy Jake Peavy and Chris Young, one of the best 1-2 combinations in the game. In one scenario, Young and Peavy could start 10 times in a 15-game postseason (four-game DS, six-game LCS, five-game World Series) -- including Games 1 and 2 of every round -- while making only one start on short rest.
That is absolutely ridiculous. I really hope baseball eventually heads back to one of the other major networks because Fox is butchering everything they touch.
- Nice article from a Winnipeg newspaper on Joey Votto.
- The Reds have a mosquito to thank (partially at least) for their 11-4 win over the Brewers last week.
- Apparently we're going to get drug users names slowly, and not all at once.
- The USS Mariner has an interesting post up about the value of Adrian Beltre, a guy who has played a little better than I had realized. The point of the article is that Beltre is worth the big contract the Mariners gave him, which I think has some relevance to the Reds with Adam Dunn's option. Which they should just go ahead and pick up, why they haven't already dont it I have no idea. They could have picked it up months ago and ended all the speculation from the genuises in the Cincinnati media.
- Athletics Nation has gotten to sit down with Billy Beane again. Always a good read, and part one is here while part two is here. It must be nice to have a GM so open to the fans. I have no illusions that Krivsky would ever submit to a Red Reporter interview (I've done way too much bashing I'm sure), which is fine, but it would be nice if he talked to one of the other great Reds blogs out there in a format similar to Athletics Nation.