A lot of news from the Reds on their off day yesterday.
— First off was this captain obvious story: Jocketty wants to re-sign Choo next season. The article takes the angle of Choo’s enthusiasm in playing for a playoff contender and Jocketty definitely wanting to retain the Reds excellent leadoff hitter.
At 31, Choo is hitting free agency for the first time in his career this offseason. As a third-year arbitration eligible player, he made $7.38 million this season — $3.5 million of that paid by the Indians. He will make much more than that next season and beyond. That could be in Cincinnati, it could be elsewhere.
Surely, Scott Boras is looking at an eight figure, at least 4-year contract for his client. It’s going to boil down to whether the Reds have the bananas to pay Choo’s salary. Would they trade Ludwick to make room for Choo and Hamilton or is Hamilton destined to start 2014 in AAA?
— How tough is it to throw out Billy Hamilton? J.J. Cooper of Baseball America broke it down yesterday, complete with stopwatch times between bases and animated GIF’s. Of course, all I had to say was “Billy Hamilton animated GIF’s.”
— Marty Brennaman signed a 3-year contract extension, which keeps him in the radio booth through 2016. I still love listening to the radio broadcast when Marty is disseminating the accounts and descriptions of this game. Unfortunately, too much of what Richard wrote on the subject is true, and it is difficult to listen to Marty’s negativity, especially when he unfairly rails on the team’s best players.
— The Reds have announced a couple of exhibition games next year against their minor league affiliates. First, they’ll play the Pensacola Blue Wahoos on March 28th. On March 29th, the Reds will move up to Louisville to face the Bats.
— The Reds start the weekend one game behind the Pittsburgh Pirates and two games behind the St. Louis Cardinals in the standings. There are nine games remaining on the Reds schedule and six of those are against the Pirates. So, when the Reds win the division next week, does anyone have a swimming pool they can jump into?