Felipe Lopez plays at the Reds' middle infield. He joined the Reds in 2003 from the Toronto Blue Jays as part of a 4-way trade that sent Elmer Dessens to Arizona. Despite the fact that Lopez played only 79 games the at the major-league level during 2004, he was proclaimed to be the heir to the shortstop throne by 19-year veteran Barry Larkin.

Despite the proclamation, Lopez was expected to compete for (and win) the starting shortstop job against Anderson Machado out of spring training this year. A knee injury in the off-season took Machado out of the picture, but the club still came up with someone for Lopez to compete against by signing veteran Rich Aurilia to a minor league contract. Aurilia won the starting job out of spring training, leaving Lopez with spot starts at short and second. Now that Aurilia is on the DL, Lopez is seeing a lot more time on the field.

Lopez has good range in the infield. He can wow the crowd with shockingly good stops to make fantastic plays. On the routine plays, though, he can just as easily wildly over-throw first base. Basically it looks like Lopez is a defensive stud so long as there isn't time for his brain to get in the way.

At the plate, Lopez provides more power than you'd think he would. Compared to the rest of the Reds' line-up this season, Lopez is looking particularly hot at the plate, but that's hardly a fair comparison. On the basepaths, Lopez brings better speed than instincts, but again, compared to the rest of the Reds' line-up, he looks pretty good.

Felipe Lopez has been added to the Human League.

Yahoo! Reds win!

There's an important lesson to be learned from today's game: make an enormous pitcher of piña coladas before every game.

No, wait. That's not the lesson. The lesson is BENCH CASEY. Like everyone, I love Casey, and not always in an entirely appropriate way, but he is pulling the team down at the moment and needs to spend a few games on the bench to be the head cheerleader. (And I believe I've said that before.)

Quick, let's hit the high points before the Reds have a chance to play again:
- Aaron Harang demonstrated that, not only would he be a totally wicked goth, but he's also a bad-ass on the mound. Actually, he wasn't as much a bad-ass on the mound as he has been, but he did demonstrate that the Reds' offense will rally behind a starter whom they believe in. It's time for the Reds to institute a policy by which they trade for pitching only from the As.
- Jason LaRue built on last night's hit to mark a decisive end to his incredibly long slump. I always knew that he could do it. No really, I did.
- Shoutout to David Weathers. He was sucking muchly for quite a while there, and I'd like to see him get some credit for turning it around and keeping it turned. Even if he starts sucking it up again tomorrow, no one can take today's 1-2-3 ninth away now.

Wow. I feel good and happy. And I'm pretty sure that's not just the piña coladas talking.

If you haven't been out to see the New Reds Products over at Reds and Blues, definitely get over there before they're all sold out. I've already ordered mine, and I can hardly wait to find Kearns' bat! (Has anyone checked behind his ears yet?)

CINCINNATI, OH -- Amid discussions of the struggling Reds' hitters, starters, and bullpen, the beat writers are often forgotten, but they're scuffling like the rest of the team.

Friday, May 13 was one of those tough days for the Reds' writers. Cincinnati Enquirer reporter John Fay was the first victim of the slump. In his piece, Changes Coming? today, he committed an error when he incorrectly referred to Sean Casey as the team captain. Fay again faltered when he described Felipe Lopez and being “on his way” twice in the span of three paragraphs in his article Lopez Finally Coming Into Own. According to the official scorer the repeat was not an error, but it was a play that a veteran like Fay should have made.

Cincinnati Post reporter, Marc Lancaster, had a respectable showing today when he gave up just a couple hits on misplaced commas and the improper use of the indicative mood when the subjunctive was in order in his piece At Last, Fun for Dunn. However, teammate Joe Santoliquito at Cincinnatireds.com got off to a shaky start with overuse of alliteration in Harang Harasses Hitters. When, later in the same story, he gave up the tautology, “Harang's mechanics might not be any better than they are right now,” the game was as good as over.

It isn't surprising that the Reds' media is struggling to find the inspiration to create fresh copy when its subject matter is so consistently depressing. Reporters are searching for non-game-related content to even out the tone of their writing. Brian at Redleg Nation, for example, posted a long comparison of the 2005 season to the 1986 season in his attempt to brighten the weblog. Some bloggers are even resorting to poking fun at other writers to ward off the sobs brought on by watching and reporting on the actual games.

Blogger JD at Red Reporter summed up the mood among the reporters, “How many different ways can I say that the Reds are terrible?”