Cincinnati Reds links - Homer Bailey on the mend

John Fay is working his final handful of games as the beat reporter for the Cincinnati Enquirer, and he's getting great bits of information just like he always has.  He caught up Bryan Price over the weekend to talk about Homer Bailey, and it appears that the man tasked with being the anchor of the Cincinnati Reds rotation for the next five years is recovering nicely from the Tommy John surgery that ended his season in early May.  Price spoke of Bailey being tasked with a leadership position on the Reds staff next year, and that makes sense given the bevy of now rookies that will still be quite raw in next year's rotation.

I spent the first 4/5ths of that paragraph being excited about Homer's return before I realized the Reds are still going to be pretty awful in 2016.  I'll have the usual, barkeep.

Jay Bruce has hit .199 since the All Star break.  He told John Fay over the weekend that it's been "a pretty embarassing season for me."   Jay hit 13 dingers with 42 ribbies before the All Star break, and he's hit 13 dingers with 42 ribbies after the All Star break.  Look, it's Jay Bruce being consistent instead of streaky!

RR regular bringbackthemayor noticed this observation from Bob Nightengale on twitter this morning:

Marlon Byrd could have a nice payday if he remains in #SFGiants lineup. He is 18 plate appearances shy of $8 million option vesting in 2016.

— Bob Nightengale (@BNightengale) September 29, 2015

It looks as if Marlon Byrd may well be the everyday LF for the San Francisco Giants when they win another even year World Series next season.

A Paul Janish article!  David Laurila spoke with the former slick-fielding Reds shortstop about...well, they spoke about how he's been stereotyped as "slick-fielding" and not as a well rounded baseball player.  Sorry about that, Paul.

Speaking of middle infielders that sometimes get pegged as "all glove, no bat" meat, Ivan De Jesus has probably shown enough of both so far this season to earn a utility spot on the 2016 roster.  Redleg Nation's Nick Carrington explored that idea with the fresh memory of Kris Negron's seemingly similar situation from a year ago as a comparison, and he echoes what we've pretty much concluded here (which is that De Jesus has a much more impressive prospect and MiLB pedigree that suggests that his 2015 isn't nearly the outlier that Negron's 2014 was).  This article also brings back up the age-old confusion of whether it's "De Jesus" or "DeJesus," which this google search doesn't help solve at all.  Thanks for nothin', Wikipedia.

The NL OBP race is still in the balance, as Joey Votto sits just behind Bryce Harper's .467 mark at .464 with six games remaining in the regular season.  I'd link to something for that, but that seems somewhat unnecessary.  Instead, I'll just mention that Harper has 96 ribbies on the season, and if he doesn't cobble together four or more in his team's final games (or if he keeps getting choked by his own teammates), he'll become the second consecutive position player NL MVP to win the award without reaching 100.

Finally, I'll be yapping about the Reds' dumpster fire season on Lexington's ESPN 1300 again today at 6:30 ET.  You can either stick an antenna on your roof and catch it on AM in the area, or you can listen here.  Or you can do literally any other thing on the planet instead.