Last night, my hubby read aloud from the John Fay blog the interview with Dusty Baker about the signing of Edgar Renteria. He hit the first Baker quote, and a little part of me started to die:

“It gives us a clutch man, a winner,” he said.

Oy, not this crap again, I thought. The Reds sign a guys who’s older than me, declare him a veteran, and relegate Paul Janish to the bench.

But then he got to the second quote, which included such sentiments as:

They’re both going to play. Janish is younger. Edgar is more experienced. Janish deserves a chance to be my shortstop.

Wait! It gets better! Fay goes on to see that Baker is planning to play Renteria at positions other than shortstop. Over the course of six Fay-style-miniature paragraphs, I went from vomiting in my own mouth to totally excited, thinking back to Rich Aurilia backing up the corner positions and how much it rocked to have the agility of an SS able to slip into the other infield positions as needed.

I imagine you’ll continue to hear more about this move from RHM and the rest of the blogsphere (at least until they work out the Votto contract) because there’s really exciting potential here. Especially now that there appears to be hope of the guy being employed in a genuinely useful way.

Yesterday, at about the same time as news came out about the Reds signing veteran shortstop Edgar Renteria, the Cincinnati Reds also announced that they’d signed reliever Jared Burton to a contract and avoided arbitration.

This is the second player that the Reds have signed before the arbitration hearings, with Jay Bruce being the first. His long-term deal insures Bruce will never have to deal with arbitration.

The Reds have 4 remaining players facing arbitration. This includes Bill Bray, Johnny Cueto, Edinson Volquez, and Joey Votto. Considering that the last Reds player to reach the hearing stage was way back in 2004–Chris Reitsma, who the Reds destroyed in the hearing–I have a feeling that Cincinnati will avoid arbitration with everyone.

John Fay reported this afternoon that the Cincinnati Reds are close to signing Edgar Renteria.

A Reds source told me today that the deal was close and they expect to wrap it up. The Reds have had an offer to Renteria for some time. They were waiting to hear back Monday.

According to ESPN, the deal is worth $3 million with incentives.

Seriously, what does Paul Janish have to do to prove he’s a major league player? I feel the most for him, because there’s no way Dusty Baker has a $3 million backup at short. Especially since Renteria had a couple excellent years for the St. Louis Cardinals almost a decade ago.

Maybe this will turn out to be an excellent move like the Scott Rolen trade, but right now, I fail to see how Renteria makes the team better than Janish does.

Yesterday, the increasingly broken voting system for baseball’s Hall of Fame announced its voting results for 2011. Our favorite shortstop, Barry Larkin, did not get voted in. The winners were Roberto Alomar and Bert Blyleven.

I didn’t pay attention to baseball much in the 1990s, so I missed the bulk of Alomar’s career. I knew he was a fantastic defensive second-baseman, but the only other thing I knew of him was the bizarre spitting incident. I didn’t realize he had been good enough to get in in just his second year of being on the ballot.

Blyleven was on the ballot for the 14th time, and finally managed to get in. Him, I knew. He was an outstanding pitcher for some terrible, terrible, undeserving teams. I’m glad that finally he wasn’t penalized for that.

In third place was the greatest shortstop of all-time (not that I’m biased), Barry Larkin. Like Alomar, he was also on the ballot for the second time. Unfortunately he fell short, but just as predicted by Chris Jaffe of the Hardball Times, he jumped from the 50s to the 60s this year, getting 62% of the votes. 75% of votes are required for entry, so things are looking good that another Red will enter the Hall of Fame next year.

The only other player with Reds ties on the ballot was Dave Parker. He had some awesome slugging years with the Reds in the 80s and also was involved in the trade that brought Jose Rijo to Cincinnati. He appeared on the ballot for the last time, and although he wasn’t quite good enough to get into the Hall, he certainly had lots of Hall of Fame moments with the Reds.

The Cincinnati Reds yesterday unveiled their plans for the 2011 Winter Caravan. This year will again feature three legs to the tour, a western, southern, and northern.

Slated for the Western Tour with stops in Indiana, Kentucky and Ohio are Reds second baseman Brandon Phillips, Hall of Fame radio broadcaster Marty Brennaman, top catching prospect Devin Mesoraco, assistant general manager Bob Miller and Gapper the mascot. Pitcher Matt Maloney will be on hand Thursday only for the stop in Louisville.

The Southern Tour will move through West Virginia, Kentucky and Ohio. Outfielder Jay Bruce will be on hand on Saturday and Sunday only. Also part of the entire trip are general manager Walt Jocketty, broadcaster Jim Kelch, chief operating officer Phil Castellini, 2010 first-round Draft pick Yasmani Grandal, former Reds pitcher Tom Browning and mascot Mr. Redlegs.

As part of the Southern Tour is a Saturday, Jan. 29 hometown visit to Great American Ball Park for the annual select-a-seat event for season ticket-holders.

Manager Dusty Baker will be leading the Northern Tour that stops in Ohio and West Virginia and also features broadcaster Jeff Brantley, pitcher Travis Wood (Thursday and Friday), pitcher Homer Bailey (Saturday and Sunday), prospect Todd Frazier and mascot Rosie Red.

The full itinerary is listed below. All stops are free and open to the public.

Western Tour Bus Fan Stops

Southern Tour Bus Fan Stops

Northern Tour Bus Fan Stops