It’s hard to believe it’s already time to start thinking about Redsfest, but the 2-day extravaganza of Cincinnati-Reds-related fun is December 7 and 8: less than a month away.

If you’ve attended Redsfest in recent years, you know there are lots of opportunities to stand in line. And get autographs! Here’s the current list of players who are confirmed to appear this year, and more will be added as the date approaches:

Major League Roster:

• Bronson Arroyo
• Aroldis Chapman
• Tony Cingrani
• Zack Cozart
• Ryan Hanigan
• Chris Heisey
• Mike Leake
• Sam LeCure
• Nick Masset
• Devin Mesoraco
• Xavier Paul
• Brandon Phillips
• Todd Redmond
• Drew Stubbs
• Pedro Villarreal
• Joey Votto (Friday only)

Coaching Staff:

• Manager Dusty Baker
• Mark Berry
• Billy Hatcher
• Brook Jacoby
• Juan Lopez
• Chris Speier
• Mike Stefanski

Minor Leaguers:

• Tucker Barnhart
• Billy Hamilton
• Ryan LaMarre
• Kyle Lotzkar
• El’Hajj Muhammad
• Steve Selsky
• Robert Stephenson

Alumni:

• Todd Benzinger
• Jack Billingham
• Tom Browning
• Leo Cardenas
• Dave Collins
• Eric Davis
• Doug Flynn
• Wayne Granger
• Tommy Helms
• Tracy Jones
• Jim Maloney
• Ron Oester
• Jim O’Toole
• Dave Parker

Broadcasters:

• Jeff Brantley
• Marty Brennaman
• Thom Brennaman (Friday only)
• Jim Day
• Jim Kelch
• Jeff Piecoro
• Chris Welsh

Those lists are pretty good, but the part on the Redsfest page that I found most interesting was this tidbit:

In nearly all cases if players are unable to attend Redsfest because of a scheduling conflict, they will be attending portions of the Reds Caravan in January.

Players & staff members who are unable to attend Redsfest 2012 include Jay Bruce (wedding/honeymoon) & Didi Gregorius (out of the country). Jay will be making an appearance on the Reds Caravan in January 2013, exact details TBD.

Jay Bruce is a ginormous name to have on the Caravan roster. We got Nick Masset last year, and were happy to have him. Whatever mall, restaurant, or auto-dealership is hosting Bruce is going to be jam-packed.

Plus the getting married part. I wonder where they’re registered.

At long last, the Reds have washed their hands of The Trade. The last remaining component, Bill Bray, was outrighted yesterday and chose free agency rather than being non-tendered later.

As you may recall, Bray was supposed to be the bright spot in a deal that sent right-fielder Austin Kearns and shortstop Felipe Lopez to the Washington Nationals in 2006. In addition to Bray, the Reds got Gary Majewski, who was injured (unbeknownst to the Reds) and also just kinda sucky.

It was a deal that was bad for the Reds at the time and bad for both team in the long run. Bray had some brightish points in the last 6 years, but he was injured most of this season and only put in 8.2 innings on the mound. The story on Reds.com says that he made $1.4 million, which comes out to just $170,731.71 per inning. That pretty much sums up the whole situation nicely.

In addition to Bray, Wilson Valdez was also outrighted and elected free agency. Valdez doesn’t have the baggage that Bray did, but I doubt people will be sad to see his .236 OBP be unavailable for lead-off duty with the Reds next year.

Tonight, Reds’ right fielder Jay Bruce was one of three NL outfielders awarded the 2012 Silver Slugger award.

Though Bruce can go through some frustratingly long stretches where it seems like he can’t do anything but strike out (he had 155 Ks this year), those are more than overbalanced by the earth-rending tears he also goes on.

His 34 homers and 99 RBI are all the more impressive when you consider that they were compressed into about two weeks of play.

Well, that’s hyperbole, of course, but those two weeks he go the Player of the Week were nigh on unholy.

Congratulations to Bruce. Let’s make it a gold bat next year!

Brandon Phillips lost out on the Rawlings Gold Glove at second base this year, but he was the recipient of the first ever Wilson Defensive Player of the Year Award, which was given in an awards ceremony on Sunday. It apparently was televised on MLB TV.

On a completely unrelated topic, remember when Phillips had Wilson make him a glove with gold webbing earlier this year? And then Rawlings took legal action against Wilson for infringing on their “gold glove” intellectual property.

Huh.

Surely there isn’t any correlation there. Rawlings Gold Glove winners are selected by a secret ballot, while the Wilson winner is chosen by statistical analysis. With that kind of transparency, there’s no way either company could manipulate the results. And I’m sure it’s just a coincidence that Wilson chose this year to start giving out defensive awards. They’ve probably been planning it for months, which would explain why I never heard a thing about it until 2 days after it was given.

Not that I’m complaining. Congratulations to Brandon Phillips! He really deserved both awards.

It sounds like something we’d host here at RHM, but actually, it’s the Louisville Slugger Museum who is putting together a class of 10 of the hottest baseball players throughout history.

They’ve already selected 7 inductees, and 3 more positions will be filled based on fan votes. Guys already on the list include:

• Lou Gehrig
• Jim Palmer
• Ted Williams
• Red King Kelly
• Jackie Robinson
• Roberto Clemente
• Derek Jeter

Reds or former Reds you can vote for to fill in the remaining 3 spots:
Johnny Bench

Ken Griffey, Jr.

Barry Larkin

Brandon Phillips

Joey Votto

There’s a lot of hot right there, and I don’t know hot pick just 3. Or I could write someone in. There’s no real point thought; there’s no way Jason Romano would win.

Since you’re voting today anyway, why not put a plug in for your favorite Red? They don’t take your name, so even if you’re a dude, voting won’t reveal your man-crush. (Everyone knows already anyway.)