Cincinnati Reds News and Rumors for Wednesday

The Reds have announced the details of their yearly caravan around the Midwest. It is a fun time if you haven't attended one before. At the very least, it is an opportunity to congregate in fellowship with other winter-suffering Reds fans in strange venues like shopping malls and auto dealerships. Attendance is free and open to the public.

Softball star Jessica Mendoza will be a regular fixture on ESPN's Sunday Night Baseball in the coming season, which is super totes for more than one reason. I didn't get a chance to catch any of the games she called last season, but most thought she did well. She will be the first female to be a regular fixture in the booth for national telecasts of a major men's sport, which is not nothing. But, in my opinion, it is way more important to understand that this means Curt Schilling is out on his ass*, which is all kinds of fantastic. He is a braying moron, which Mendoza surely will not be. And if she is, I'm sure she won't be given the kind of slack and privilege guys like Schilling enjoy.

And here I am, turning around this affirmative story about a minority woman and making it about the white man. Typical.

Also, Aaron Boone is in there somewhere, if that matters to you.

*(after re-reading the piece, it looks like Schilling is just moving to Monday Night Baseball which goddammit just banish him to Greenland please)

Steve Mancuso over on The Dark Side says the Reds needn't and shouldn't trade Jay Bruce this winter. The dim-witted patrolman argues that given Bruce's struggles at the end of last season, the gaping maw of talent in the Reds' outfield, the glut of free agent outfielders still on the market, and the no-longer-relevant payroll question are all pushing the currents against a Bruce deal.

I ain't gonna front on any of that. Bruce is certainly a tradeable commodity, but it is very likely he will  be much moreso this summer. He is not blocking anyone and he is Affable af.

Speaking of, Da Brizzz runs down the most pressing needs of every American League squad as of right now. The Reds still have Brandon Phillips and that whole complicated ABC Family teen drama situation going on**, as well as a few other moveable pieces, so it's worth running down the list. The Angels seem like a logical fit, as they tend to always make win-now moves and BP would likely dig the hell out of Disney's Hollywood Baseball Experience™. But my guess is that he isn't going anywhere now.

**(did you see that ABC Family is changing focus and calling themselves FreeForm now? I don't even know what life is about anymore.)

Also on the trade market front, the Rockies signed Gerardo Parra to a reasonable deal, likely to better position themselves to trade one of the three OFs they already had.

The St. Louis Rams are St. Louis no longer, as they are packing up their jockstraps and wiener cups and moving to Los Angeles. There is much ink to be spilled on the subject of professional sports franchises, stadium funding, relocation, and all that crap, but I won't really go about it here. It just sucks big fat honky apples for the football fans of St. Louis, and I don't mean that sarcastically. There is certainly no love lost between our respective fanbases, but I know I'd be feeling pretty low if my Redlegs held my emotions hostage in order to squeeze more money out of me and then bolted for greener pastures. It sucks.

I'm just worried about how Chris Carpenter is going to explain this to his son.

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