Red Reposter - Is Jay Bruce the New Adam Dunn?

Illya Harrell at Bleacher Report has a feature on Juan Francisco
It's an interesting read, as he says the non-tendering of Jonny Gomes is because the Reds want to see Joey Votto and Yonder Alonso in the lineup together. He also says Francisco's biggest malfunction (other than being blocked positionally) is "a major case of Jay Bruce syndrome, striking out way too much." He ALSO calls Bruce "tremendously overrated". It's definitely worth reading.

The majority of folks 'round here love The Boss, so this kind of criticism of him comes somewhat as a surprise to me.  But it just now strikes me that he could potentially be the lightning rod that Adam Dunn was (and Edwin Encarnacion should have been *sniff) due to his power + strikeouts + good-natured Texas demeanor dynamic.  Of course, it's worth noting that Bruce's defense is about 3 wins better than Dunn's, and he doesn't walk as much, but superficiality never stopped anyone from a good ol'-fashioned effigy burnin'. 

You know it's a slow Hot Stove Season when...
"Reds come up short in Counsell stakes" is the headline of a story. Frankly, I think the Brewers did us a favor here. Yeesh. I suppose we are left to hope Paul Janish dramatically improves his hitting, or that Miguel Tejada will play SS here in exchange for a coney and a chance to marshal the Opening Day parade.

Jonny Gomes says he willing to come back to Cincy
No hard feelings, bro. Fay quotes $1.5 mil as Gomes' estimated number had he gone to arbitration, and frankly it's hard to begrudge the man for that. The only thing I can think is that the Reds want to spend that money on a SS and are confident that guys like Wladimir Balentien, Chris Dickerson, and Chris Heisey can get the job done. And now is the time when I remind you of the 2nd guaranteed years to Mike Lincoln and Willy Taveras.

Chris Pummer and Howard Megdal at The Perpetual Post judge teams for their performances at the Winter Meetings
Here's what they say about the Reds:

"CHRIS PUMMER: Lose. The Reds will probably have to dump payroll this offseason, and Winter Meetings would have been the best time to do it. Now, who knows what the return for Aaron Harang, Bronson Arroyo or Brandon Phillips will be with a glut of players on the free agent market?
HOWARD MEGDAL: Bigger lose comes if they deal Phillips at all."

It's looking more and more like the Reds will not dump any significant players for payroll reasons. As Pummer says, the Winter Meetings are the place to do that, and the Reds didn't.

Fay says Micah Owings would likely have been non-tendered as well
had he not lost the coin flip with Mike Fontenot for Super-Two status. I like Owings, and I think he'll pitch better this year than last.

The Fay thinks Alfredo Amezega could fit as the UT guy the Reds are looking for
I'll pass, unless it's a minor league deal.

Doug Gray asks you to take a look at 7th round pick Josh Fellhauer
He's a CF from Cal State Fullerton and was one of my favorite picks of this year's draft.

FanGraphs unveiled their newest statty toy
wRC+ is pretty much a better, more precise stat than OPS+.

Jim Misudek at the Reds Internal Affairs blog wrote his last post
He's taken a job as the Media Relations Coordinator for the Braves. Good luck Jim!