JD at Red Reporter interviewed new Reds.com beat writer Mark Sheldon. Check it out here. It's supposed to be the first of a recurring feature, so you won't want to miss a single installment.

Sorry I spaced on the link for so long. It really is a good interview.

CINCINNATI, OH -- When Reds CEO Bob Castellini fired General Manager Dan O'Brien, he announced that he expected to interview “between six and eight candidates.” Now that the Reds have announced seven candidates for the GM position, some fans wish Castellini had just said “seven” to begin with.

“Why does he have to dance around the point?” wonders Matt R. Affact, life-long Reds fan and manager of a local 7-11 store. “If you want to interview seven guys, just say seven. It's dumb to make a math problem out of it. Didn't we get enough of that kind of talk out of [former General Manager Dan] O'Brien?”

Henry Arrest Outdoes Freel Arrest
Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver Chris Henry was charged with possession of a concealed firearm, improper exhibition of a firearm, and aggravated assault with a firearm Saturday. The arrest comes just six weeks after Henry was arrested for marijuana possession on December 15.

Cincinnati Reds' resident bad boy Ryan Freel was unhappy about the arrest. Freel was arrested last month for disorderly intoxication, though the charges were later dropped in exchange for community service.

“How am I supposed to compete with that?” Freel demanded.

Marc says:

Veteran reliever Rick White has agreed to a one-year, $600,000 major league contract with the Reds. He also could earn up to $300,000 more in performance bonuses.

White, 37, is a lifelong resident of Springfield, Ohio. He made 71 appearances for the Pirates last year, going 4-7 with a 3.72 ERA and picking up a couple of saves. He has 520 career big-league appearances for the Pirates, Devil Rays, Mets, Rockies, Cardinals, White Sox, Astros and Indians.

The Reds will have to make a move to free up a slot on the 40-man roster. Could this be the end of the Bubba Nelson era?

I don't know about a 37-year old pitcher, but it's hard to quibble about the price. And with Gabe White gone, Rick White will fill that gaping White-Guy-Out-of-the-Bullpen hole that he left behind.

The story Kearns maintaining focus in the Cincinnati Enquirer today talks a little about how Austin Kearns, everyone's favorite non-liabilty in the outfield, got married this off-season. Austin and his new wife Abby had their first child, Aubrey Ryan, in September. It's nice to know that alliteration in naming children is alive and well with today's young couples.

Congratulations to the whole Kearns family from an only-slightly-disappointed RHM.

No? Great! 'Cause there's yet more to say about them. According to Dunn's hand not a worry in the Cincinnati Post today, the Reds medical staff was shocked to read reports that Mr. Dunn's hand was still causing him pain. They frantically called around to check in on their slugger. He's not in pain, he told them. That medical advice about wearing a splint that he so casually dismissed? It was just his buddy who happens to be an orthopedist. Dunn couldn't be reached for further comment.

It's a lot of crap, so I'm going to cut through the baloney for you and give you my interpretation. Get ready for some truth.

Friday at the Dayton Agonis Club meeting, some guy was being kind of a jerk and ragging on Dunn for being a lazy ox. Jerry Narron knows Dunn's not as much of a slacker as he looks like in those baggy pajama pants he wears, and so uses the broken hand bit to prove a point about what a trooper he is.

Meanwhile, Hal McCoy sniffs a bit of a scandal and gets Dunn on the horn. “Heard you're so tough you can play with a broken hand,” he says, awe in his voice.

“Yeah, it hurts a might,” Dunn says in a cowboy drawl. “Doc told me to take care of it, but splints is for women-folk.”

The story breaks and all of Cincinnati fandom shrieks, “those hands are worth $8 million!” The Reds, in a bit of a panic, say real quick that Dunn's fine, always has been fine, and come off looking just a skosh desperate to cover up a big story.

But it's not a big story. The hand was probably broken and is mostly healed now, and there's not much more you could do about it anyway. It probably aches a little and will cause him fits during thunderstorms when he's 65, but in the short term that tiny little ache will be drowned out by the third day of spring training.

Meanwhile, Narron's keeping his mouth shut and Dunn's turned off his phone because they didn't think they said anything wrong to begin with and they don't want to make it worse.

Sound about right? OK, then let's forget about it already. There's much more important stuff going on anyway. Austin Kearns got married.