Red Reposter - Dusty Baker Continues His Defiance of the Rules of Logic

44 years ago Sandy Koufax refused to pitch in Game 1 of the World Series in observance of this day, Yom Kippur. This infuriated Dodger fans, who insisted that Koufax reschedule the Day of Atonement later during football season like all good Christian holidays.  The Dodgers would go on to win the series in 7 games with Koufax starting games 2, 5, and the clinching game 7 (on two days rest), and all Jewish boys would grow up wishing they were left-handed.  So today the Reposter wishes for your forgiveness for any wrongs we may have knowingly or unknowingly done against you this past year.  And Mike Jacobs says, "Happy Monday everyone!".

• Big Surprise: Dusty wants to keep Brook Jacoby and Dick Pole
  "Why not?" he said. "We’ve operated almost the entire year without the team that we expected to have...And offense was a bit of a question coming in." This is getting out of hand. It's like Dusty is the Emperor, but there is no one inside or outside the organization with balls enough to tell him he is stark-ass naked. Or there are plenty of people telling him everyday, but he simply rejects the definition of the word "naked". I am not at all surprised though. I refuse to allow myself to be surprised by anything Dusty says or does anymore.

• Jay Bruce is hitting .370 with 2 dingers and 11 RBIs since his return from the DL
  But of course, he's only started 6 of the 12 games. There is absolutely no acceptable defense for this decision. Bruce belongs in RF everyday and Darnell McDonald belongs on the side of the road selling tomatoes.

• Sounds to me like Dusty is in love with El Nino Destructor
  Here's what he had to say about Juan Francisco, who has started his major league career hitting a blistering .444: "He's very aggressive as a hitter, and he hits the ball exceptionally hard. He can get to balls that most guys won't even swing at."

• Biz of Baseball has a good discussion on the possible future of revenue sharing
  The Pirates dismal season this year has once again brought the merits of revenue sharing into question. There is also question as to whether the parity that was supposed to happen because of revenue sharing is actually more evident because of the Wild Card. Could MLB be considering an expansion of the playoffs?

• The Reds may have clinched their 9th straight losing season,
  but that's not the goal:

  "The magic number is 75 wins, and while that may not seem like much, it is one more win than we had last year and you always need to have a goal." —Manager Dusty Baker.

• Axe Hal
  Q: What’s your call on Drew Stubbs for the 2010 season, keeper or not? — Roger, Riverside.
  A: This is not just some fish you throw back. To me, Drew Stubbs is a whale, or at least a Great White Shark. Not only will he be on next year’s team, he’ll be the starting center fielder. I don’t care how much they owe Willy Taveras in 2010 or how much they think he can bounce back and provide; if Stubbs isn’t the starting center fielder next year then the Reds aren’t trying to win.
  
  Sing it Hal.

• FanGraphs has an interesting read on how the best pitchers in baseball ended up with their current team
  long story short, dont pay big money to a free agent starter.