Red Reposter: 9th Circle of Hall

This Wednesday, January 9th, the Hall of Fame vote comes down. One Cincinnati-area BBWAA badge-holder will be disenfranchising himself - a phenomena FanGraphs wrote about recently. While I can't necessarily blame Fay for calling attention to how much of circus the whole thing has become, I also can't wait to dispose of the post-steroid era. And move on to the era where we just put really good baseball players in the Hall of Fame. And if everyone wants to do a few steroids for old times' sake, well OK.

John Fay, activist, also wrote about the Reds' accounting acrobatics
At some point, kicking million dollar cans down the road will catch up with you. But with increased revenues and salary inflation, it makes more sense to take out a second mortgage in order to win now. The hope is that winning now will keep revenue rising to make the deferrals seem insignificant. Or at least pad the blow of a few salary-dumping trades later.

In 2015, Broxton makes $9M, Arroyo will still be on the payroll and Ludwick will make $4.5M (even if he's playing for another team). That's not fantastic, but it's mostly just one bad contract year to Broxton on a payroll that should be around $100M, if not more.

Blog Red Machine thanks the Texas Rangers for removing Lance Berkman from the NL
A tear-jerking perspective on Berkman's ownage of the Reds.

C-ing Red: Counting Down The Days To Reds Baseball
I'm going to fudge things slightly to tell you that pitchers and catchers report is basically 1 month away (Feb. 11).

Cubs sign Dontrelle Willis to minor-league deal
I won't believe it until I see it published in MLB Trade Rumors. The Cubs were the team that drafted Willis in 2000. Willis may not have much of anything to offer a contending team at this point, but I'm a little surprised by how many possible 'pen lefties the Reds have passed on this offseason.

Mark Sheldon reports on uniform numbers for new Reds
"Here they are: OF Shin-Soo Choo will wear No. 17. INF Jack Hannahan was assigned No. 9. Utility player Jason Donald has No. 16. Ass’t hitting coach Ronnie Ortegon has No. 62." The Reds have an assistant hitting coach. Enter the Ortegon.

Construction at Crosley Terrace (Better Off Red)
If you've driven by GABP recently, you may have seen construction equipment outside the main entrance. According to Jamie Ramsey," Workers are currently in the process of removing one of the five berms that has been in place at the ballpark’s main entrance since the facility’s opening in 2003." There's some kind of something being constructed between there and the Reds' team store. Maybe one of our moles inside the organization could feed us some intel.

Fangraphs bids farewell to Phil Dumatrait (the "Anti-Deceiver")
Remember Phil Dumatrait? He came to Cincinnati in the Scott Williamson trade and made his MLB debut with the Reds in 2007. His name has the word "dum" in it.