Cincinnati Reds Links for July 29, 2015

The trade deadline is fast approaching (it's Friday at 4pm EDT, for those of you who still wear watches). So that's pretty much all of the news surrounding your team today. I'll try to run down all the rumors and such here.

Silliest rumor: The Diamondbacks are interested in Aroldis Chapman. Yes, those Diamondbacks. Thom Brennaman's Diamondbacks. They are hovering around .500, 6.5 games behind in the race for the Pepsi Max National League Second Wild Card Slot brought to you by Mountain Dew Code Red. It's pretty safe to say that they are a long shot right now, and it's really safe to say that a frontline closer should not be their first priority. But when you are selling, it really doesn't matter who is buying as long as they are willing to pay the price. And Dave Stewart seems like a weird dude, so whatever man.

Speaking of Chapman, the Reds seem to be in the review stage. Who knows how many actual offers they have in hand, but I'm sure Walt has fixed up a nice tall glass of sweet tea and put on his cheaters. This is the Hottest Rumor right now, so keep an eye out. The word is that the Reds are asking a ton for him, which they probably should. So we'll see what happens.

Also worth looking out for: the Toronto Blue Jays. Yesterday, they traded for Best Shortstop in Baseball Troy Tulowitzki. Holy crap, dat lineup. They already score the most runs in baseball and now they are even better. Alex Anthopoulos seems like a highly motivated guy, so they could be aggressive enough to match the Reds steep demands for Chapman.

I gotta say, AA is one of my favorite GMs in baseball. Recall a few years back when he was able to unload that dreadful Vernon Wells contract. I still don't even know, man. He was also aggressive in swooping in and cleaning up the useful refuse of the last Marlins tear down a few years back. AA gets a decent A- in my book.

Speaking of closers, the Nationals went out and got them a new one yesterday in consummate annoying TBS sitcom neighbor Jonathan Papelbon. Trouble is, he probably ain't as good as their old one, Drew Storen. And because the save statistic and the closer role are both weird and dumb, Storen ain't happy about the whole thing. He might even request a trade. Which would be kinda awesome from a baseball-as-soap-opera standpoint, but it likely complicates the trade market for Chapman. Stay tuned on this one, too.

With his superlative performance last night, Mike Leake (probably) put a nice exclamation point on his Reds career. It probably didn't move the needle on his trade value (I mean, come on. One start isn't gonna change much of anything no matter how good.), but it certainly didn't hurt anything. It was really cool to witness his quiet, understated brilliance one last time. He's probably the most likely Red to be traded in the next few days, with just about every team that needs pitching help looking at him. Bob Nightengale ranks him in the top five pitchers on the market right now.

Old friend Mat Latos looks to be on his way to the Dodgers, which has friend o' the blog and future Spink Award winner Grant Brisbee in labor with kittens. (He hates Latos and the Dodgers.) This will be fun.

Now it is time for Fun Baseball Time. Baseball is fun, sometimes.

Even more Fun Baseball Time. We don't deserve him.