Red Reposter - Did the Injuries Really Break This Team?

Now that the regular season is over, the Reposter will be scaled back a bit. There is no shortage of things to talk about during the season, but now that our favorite baseball team has shut it down for the winter few people out there on the mainframes are not talking about them. So I get a nice respite. I'll still try to keep the Reposter going a few times a week, but mostly I'll be catching up on the work that has been piling up for my real job over the past 6 months. Anyway, here's your stories for the day:

• The over-arching narrative of this season we are hearing from the Reds and the media
  is that injuries derailed an otherwise promising team. What do you think? Answer in the poll below!

• Greg over at RLN takes a glance at a list of possible non-tender candidates
  MLBtraderumors talked about the other day. Greg sees a few guys who could help the Reds, just like the non-tendered Jonny Gomes did last year. Kelly Shoppach and Noah Lowry are a couple of guys I wouldnt mind taking a look at if they were let go by their respective teams.

• The Fay thanks those of you who read his blog for your patronage
  so I'll take the opportunity to reciprocate and thank John for all of his hard work this year. This was the first season for the Reposter and without looking it up I'm pretty sure I linked to the Fay more than any other blog. The Reposter would be a ridiculous enterprise without him. Thanks John! He also says the biggest topics of the offseason will be the search for a new pitching coach, the search for George Grande's replacement on the tv (I'm crossing my fingers for Jim Kelch), and the decisions to be made on arb-eligible players like Jonny Gomes and Laynce Nix. Fay again says the budget may not stretch enough to fit Gomes and he could be non-tendered.

• The Fay is not permitted to disclose his votes, but he all but says he voted Albert Pujols as your NL MVP (he'd be crazy not to, right?)
  But he also says Joey Votto has a good shot at earning one of his own one of these days. Votto was 3rd in the league in OPS with a .981 mark, behind only Pujols and Prince Fielder. His 4.6 WAR is nothing to sneeze at, but it puts him well behind guys like Hanley Ramirez, Chase Utley, and Ryan Zimmerman. But of course, Votto did miss a month. In Batting Runs, he ranks 7th. He is something special.

• Doug continues his State of the Farm series
  by looking at 3rd base. Todd Frazier heads the list, despite playing only 4 games at the hot corner all season. Doug says the Reds already know he can play 3B, so they are trying him at other positions on the diamond to see if he can handle it. He split the season between LF and 2B and hit no matter which glove he wore. He also profiles El Nino Destructor Juan Francisco and Neftali Soto, who also made the pre-season Red Reporter top prospects list. In Centerfield, it's Yorman Rodriguez and In the corner outfield, Todd Frazier and Juan Francisco split the bill.

• Dave Cameron at FanGraphs ran the numbers to see how well WAR correlates with actual wins and losses
  and it turns out that it does a pretty darn good job. Good enough for me to keep it as my standard go-to stat. I think the most exciting thing is that WAR is still evolving, as it does not yet include such nebulous things as base running and catcher defense. So we arent all the way there, but I think we're on the right track.