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Cincinnati Reds links - Eugenio Suarez, or Zack Cozart at SS next year?

Monday links!

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I swear John Fay announced at some point over a month ago that he was taking early retirement from The Enquirer, but a week after the end of the 2015 Cincinnati Reds season he's still cranking out articles for them.  Before the weekend, he took a look at the potential SS conundrum the Reds may face next year with a healthy Zack Cozart returning and Eugenio Suarez's impressive emergence, and Fay's take is an interesting one.  In essence, he says that these things historically have ways of working themselves out, and that the Reds shouldn't waste too much time or effort trying to reinvent the wheel to get them both playing time.  Fay also cites Todd Frazier's versatile 2012 performance as somewhat of a model of what Suarez could provide, and while that makes a solid amount of sense, I'm actually of the opinion that adding versatility to Cozart's game is the direction in which the Reds should head.  Suarez is some six years Cozart's junior, and he is clearly the longer term option under team control, and in seasons where the team doesn't look like they're competing for post-season play, I'd like to see him get the bulk of the SS duties in hopes that his glove continues to evolve there.  Cozart, in said scenario, could ease back into form following his debilitating knee injury, and his plus glove would help at both 3B and 2B.

However, much like C. Trent Rosecrans, IDMTL.

Over at Reds.com, Mark Sheldon put together this look at what the Reds have in their coffers heading into the 2016 season.  You can click on that link, or you can just look at a similar roster breakdown we put together two days earlier.

Joey Votto had a remarkably resilient resurgent Renaissance in 2015, and Red Reporter requests you read Redleg Nation's review of his reign's return.  I once read that 4 out of 5 dentists agreed that alliteration makes your favorite baseball team better by up to 27%.

This isn't definitively basebally - at least not by design - but a quick perusal through each state's most instagrammed location does seem to have a very basebally feel to it.  Not in Ohio, though, thanks in large part to Homer Bailey's elbow, Devin Mesoraco's hip, the stupid Cardinals and Pirates, and a world class zoo.

Finally, Jesse Spector of the Sporting News penned an open letter to New York Mets pitcher Matt Harvey, since it will be Harvey on the mound when the Mets take on the Los Angeles Dodgers tonight in their first contest since Chase Utley leg-whipped Ruben Tejada in the key play of LA's Game 2 victory.  Tejada broke his leg when Utley tackled him while "sliding" into 2B, and the New York based replay crew somehow awarded Utley 2B despite him never having touched the base to begin with.  After Utley later scored to put the Dodgers ahead for good (and found out today that he won't have to serve a suspension immediately) the entire affair has reached a bubbling boil.  Perhaps it's just the vintage LA vs. NY hype machine at play, but there is a solid chance that there will be some serious fireworks when the two teams clash later Monday night.  There's a wave of folks asking that Harvey heave one of his 100 mph fastballs at one or more Dodgers hitters as retaliation, but at least Spector's one of the sane folks who realize that while retribution may satiate the masses, there's no better way for Harvey to stick up for Tejada than ace-ing through the Dodgers lineup en route to a post season series victory.  "Getting even" can happen at any time, but as the Reds and Washington Nationals can attest to, there's no guarantee that the playoffs will be on the Mets' plate again next season.  Wasting a game in the name of meatheadedness could be one of the dumber decisions in Mets history.