Red Reposter: Just Close This Window and Read the Cormac Preview

All's quiet in Goodyear so far. Latos' ankle hurts and Arroyo's a bit sick, but since they haven' been mentioned in a couple days, I think everything is pretty minor. There is nothing happening. Just read the Cormac McCarthy Kansas City Royals preview instead.

BUT if you insist...

• Dusty says that Heisey isn't a Late-Inning Defensive Replacement for Choo. This isn't too shocking. Heisey's going to be getting starts for Ludwick and will likely remain the top pinch-hitter on the bench, depending on what you think of Hannahan. He's too valuable to keep locked into the "9th inning centerfielder role." Once games begin, we'll get a better idea of what's going to happen in CF. I think Heisey will play a part, but all Dusty's saying is that he'll play many parts.
• Jack Hannahan is one of Ludwick's "favorite Minor League teammates". That's damning with faint praise if I've ever heard it. There's a heartwarming story in there of Hannahan's Indians teammates raising money for him to take a charter flight back to support his wife during the birth of his three-month premature son that you should read. And buried in there, as andromache noted, is the fact that Jack's real name is John Joseph Hannahan the fourth.
• The Reds have a Reds Futures High School Showcase that sounds neat. It brings 32 high school teams from all over the tri-state together for a tournament at the end of March/early April. Seems like the sort of thing this audience would be interested in.
• Mister Baseball interviews Donald Lutz. I'm assuming this was an e-mail interview, because Brown Hulk uses lots of exclamation marks, and I doubt he talks like that. All that said, it's an interesting interview from someone who seems to be a really neat-o guy. "You just need self-confidence otherwise you have lost already. I tell myself that I’m the s***. Hahaha, not sure if you can write that." Lutz explains. We also will tell you that you're the shit, young Donald.
• Baseball Tonight Went to Goodyear. Bossman Kray made me break my ESPN embargo to watch this. And for what? To see heavily made-up white men try to gin up controversey about what are probably settled issues. At 8:30 there's an interview with Brandon Phillips that's worth listening to. He sounds even angrier than Votto about how last season ended. Gracious. I would not have wanted to be in that clubhouse that night.
• Craig Fehrman wrote a nice, long, piece about Aroldis Chapman in Cincinnati Magazine. It's something we've discussed here a bit. I've said enough of my piece on that, erm, piece. But it's important to note that we're all going to be much more defensive of our beloved Mr. Pitchy where it's sort of Mr. Fehrman's job to try to search for an angle. I know I can get very grumpy about what's perceived as a negative attitude towards the Reds from Cincinnati, but Fehrman isn't WLW or FOX sports, he's just Craig Fehrman. He doesn't owe the Reds diddly. He's certainly done his research and has a fascinating annotated bibliography here. That all said, he's also the guy who wrote the familiar "What's wrong with Reds fans?" article, so he either needs a smile or a better editor. I can't do anything about the latter, but you should totally come hang out Craig! Let's hang out and talk Reds! They're my favorite team!

"We received about 60 text messages from people complaining about the stacking in the program," said Lars Mytting, whose best-selling book "Solid Wood: All About Chopping, Drying and Stacking Wood — and the Soul of Wood-Burning" inspired the broadcast. "Fifty percent complained that the bark was facing up, and the rest complained that the bark was facing down."