–It got moved down the page pretty quickly yesterday, so go check out my attempted defense of Willy Taveras if you missed it.
–C. Trent talked to GM Walt Jocketty about a bunch of different topics including Homer Bailey and Alex Gonzalez. Most interesting was this excerpt about the Jeff Keppinger trade:
“Kepp wasn’t going to get much playing time and we like the way (Paul) Janish and (Adam) Rosales were playing,” Jocketty said. “It was best for him and in turn we?ll get a minor league player we like. It’s win-win for everybody. Keppinger is going to get a chance to play a lot more than he would with us.”
Jocketty said the team has identified a couple of minor league players they like and have until May 1 to finalize the deal.
“We’ve got some guys we’ve looked at it, but with the end of camp we thought it was best to get it done,” he said.
–A NL Central preview over at Baseball Musings. It’s worth a read.
—OMGreds plays a little “Where Are They Now?” with some former Reds.
–The Hardball Times’ projections are out, and now they have 29 players who they think will outperform or underperform their projection. One Red is expected to outperform his projection — Edinson Volquez:
Our system is designed to be more sensitive to changes in performance for younger pitchers, but I still think it’s overweighting Volquez’s less-impressive record prior to 2008. If it only knew how nasty his stuff is, I think Volquez would be projected for a sub-4.00 ERA.