Cincinnati Reds

The Reds beat up the Diamondbacks today, 13-7, while collecting 14 hits. Drew Stubbs, Jay Bruce, and Miguel Cairo had two hits each, while Bruce and Paul Janish each contributed his second homer of the spring.

The Good

The Reds have Scott Rolen locked in at third base which is the normal position for power-hitting youngster Juan Francisco .

Francisco gets a crack at joining the overcrowded group battling for left field on Tuesday. He has played third base and left field in his four-year minor league career.

The man can hit home runs, that is for certain. He hit two homers on Saturday against the Cubs and is batting .267 after wearing a size-three collar today against the Oakland A's.

Some already have given the Reds center field job to Drew Stubbs . Caesar Cliffius is not a part of that crowd.

No sir, as I write this article, Stubbs has done very little to fortify his claim to that piece of land.

In games through Sunday (March 14), Stubbs has struck out seven times in 20 AB. That, friends is a 35 percent rate, and if he would do that through a full season, he would break Mark Reynolds MLB strikeout record. 

When Richard Henry "Dick" Pole was sacked from his post as the Cincinnati Reds' pitching coach and Bryan Price was brought in to replace him, it easily ranked as the team's biggest offseason move—well, maybe besides that signing of some 6'4" lefty kid from Cuba. 

It's a fine trait to be loyal.  But Reds' manager Dusty Baker has proven more than a few times of being loyal to a fault. 

Mike Lincoln is not a starting pitcher. Did you hear (er...read) me?

The closest Lincoln should come to starting a game is as a long reliever. He hasn't started a game since 2000.

He came up to the big leagues in 1999 with the Minnesota Twins. He started 15 games in '99 and had a 3-10 record with a 6.84 ERA.

The next year he started four games and was 0-3 with a 10.89 ERA. Those numbers are troubling, baseball fans. To send a man on the hill thinking you have to score 11 runs to win is not in anybody's playbook.

While the Reds have made plenty of bad trades over the years, historically they haven't gotten torched for signing the wrong free agents. But that doesn't mean there isn't five worthy candidates. Most of these players were around in the 2000s—which is also the time frame of nine straight losing seasons.

The following players have sucked money out of the Reds wallets like a vacuum while giving the team next to nothing on the field. High robbery indeed.

By Todd Farino, www.thecloserreport.com

This is not a Top 10 list of home run hitters in Cincinnati history, nor is it a list of the RBI leaders.

I chose five categories to sort through to obtain the best power hitters in Reds history.

The categories used are based on 162 game season averages. To qualify, a player had to be with the Reds for a minimum of five years.

I selected HR, RBI, total bases, slugging pct., and OPS. Only numbers accrued while with the Reds are used.

Let's take a look at them now.

There's a smoldering question in Reds' country.  Who will be the No. 5 guy in the rotation? 

Coming back from Goodyear to the Queen City, the first four are set.  We've got Bronson Arroyo, Homer Bailey, Johnny Cueto, and Aaron Harang.  

Sorry traditionalists, but modern ball dictates that teams need a fifth.  Check the rule book. It's just under the "keep all pitch counts under 100" section.

Cincinnati Reds' manager Dusty Baker has announced that Aaron Harang will once again take the ball for the first game of the regular season in 2010.

He has been has starter the opener every year since 2006.  Harang's fifth consecutive Opening Day ties the team record set by Pete Donohue (1923-27) and Mario Soto (1982-87).

You really have to pitch well the previous year to receive this honor right? 

Wrong.