Red Reposter - Fighting Words Edition

C. Trent asked some questions and gave his take on how things went down. Basically, it details that Nick Swisher and Jason Giambi were concerned about what could have happened much more so than what actually happened. Translation: they weren't angry about intent, they were angry about Swisher almost being knocked out. Fair enough, I think, and hopefully it will end there. Think of it as trying to eat your sandwich while driving and rear-ending the person in front of you; the other driver will probably understand that you didn't mean to hit them, but they'll also yell at you for doing something that's not too wise.

The Cleveland Plain Dealer gave the 'story' a bit of run from the Indians perspective. Notice how there wasn't much more made of it there than there was in the Enquirer? That's because it's really not that big of a deal. Next game, please!

FanGraphs' Bradley Woodrum took a look at how much the variations in teams' performances can be attributed to luck. It gets a bit technical at the end, but the initial graph comparing home BABIP vs. road BABIP is quite interesting, especially since the Reds' is above average in both and also nearly identical regardless of where they play. Check, for instance, the disparity in the Rockies home/road split, and you'll begin to understand more about the so-called Coors effect.

Dusty Baker's quotes about settling fights a-la the NHL made the rounds on all the major news sources yesterday, including Yahoo. This, of course, was in response to Matt Garza sounding like an uninformed idiot after the Cubs/Reds game on Sunday. For a guy who's had numerous arm issues over the last few years, you'd think the last thing he'd want to do as he heads for Free Agency is put his foot in his mouth, too, but that seems to be what happened. Whatever. The whole thing just reminds me of this. It's always funny to me when the media reacts to these things like it's the first time it's ever happened. NOPE.

Somewhat swept aside in the wake of non-HBP-almost-HBP-gate is the story of Drew Stubbs and Shin-Soo Choo squaring off against their former teams. Zack Meisel of mlb.com sat down with Stubbs and got some candid quotes about his time in Cincy and how his move to Cleveland has gone so far. It's nice to know that the Reds organization was as gracious to Stubbs as they were on his way out of town, and it's also nice to know the feelings were mutual. It's even nicer to know that immediately following this interview, Choo hit a leadoff HR for the Reds.