Red Reporter Reference Desk: Offseason info

With three games left on the schedule, it's almost time to enter our third month of thinking about the offseason. There are many helpful resources for getting a handle on the Hot Stove. MLB Trade Rumors does yeoman's work tracking offseason maneuvers and providing handy reference materials like the 2012 Free Agent list, while Cot's Contracts has detailed information on team financial outlays. Both are invaluable for any armchair GM who enjoys imagining all the moves their favorite baseball team isn't going to make this winter.

But some of the information is inadequate, too infrequently updated or does not address some of the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs, if you're short on time) that keep us up at night. In an effort to put together an easily accessible repository of up-to-date Reds information that is not duplicative of stuff you can find elsewhere, I've started a section on the sidebar titled "RR Reference Desk." The first of these pages will contain mostly annotated lists related to the current 40-man roster and will be updated as players come and go. I'm starting off by addressing things that tend to crop up in the offseason, but I could see this section digging into the historical record to provide quick access to past Community Prospect Rankings, timelines for different events in Reds' history and other information you'd prefer to keep in the prosthetic memory of the internet, rather than your actual brain.

As with anything on the site, these pages aren't locked and are made more accurate and timely by your comments. Even the comments that go: "Heyye idi0t, Yonger Alonzo quflifies a rare fourth opition year!" That well-informed guy, who understands the Collective Baragaining Agreement so well and know show to use the word "qualify" properly, is a really poor speller.

Here's what we've got so far:

2012 "Out of Options"

Essentially, a 2012 version of what MLBTR offers periodically. Reds currently on the 40-man roster or 60-day Disabled List and "out of options" in 2012. These players also have less than five years of MLB service time entering 2012. (Players with multi-year deals, like Ryan Hanigan, are excluded.)

It surprised me when I realized both Juan Francisco and Edinson Volquez are out of options next year. But it would not surprise me if this list is not 100% accurate yet. It will also be subject to change as the 40-man does.

2012 Contract Status

A snapshot of where every player on the 40-man (+ Fred Lewis, for kicks) stands with their contracts in 2012. The Reds have a good number of arbitration eligibles for next year, but none that will require anything close to the financial commitments made to Votto, Bruce or Cueto post-2010 - especially if they aren't even given a contract.