During the last week, I was away for several days on a business trip and lost touch with the Cincinnati Reds a bit. Well, I didn’t lose touch with how they fared–smart phones make sure you can always know the score–but I did lose track of all the injured players. So here’s my rundown with all of them, including an update on their recovery status.

First, the guys who are still with the team.

• Aroldis Chapman – Chapman was taken out of a game early after his fastball was topping out in the low-to-mid 90s. That’s definitely cause for concern, but the team thinks it’s just a combination of being used in 4 out of 5 games and a little bit of shoulder inflammation. Chapman hasn’t appeared in the last 4 games, so it wouldn’t surprise me to see him reappear to face just a batter or two soon.
• Juan Francisco – Francisco left Saturday’s game early after pulling up with a leg cramp after a basehit in the 8th. Well, that’s what it appeared at first. When he still was limping today, the club realized it was more than a cramp. That’s the extent of the information on his injury.
• Brandon Phillips – Phillips missed his third consecutive start on Sunday due to a groin injury. Despite stating he’s unavailable, the Reds and manager Dusty Baker have stated that Phillips won’t be placed on the disabled list. “He’s getting better. We don’t have to rush him back,” Baker said. “We don’t think we have to DL him, either. This (cold) weather isn’t helping.” Baker has always shown a preference for being safer than sorry with day-to-day injuries, and it’s hard to fault him for doing that with Phillips here in April.

So currently there are 3 people on the Reds’ Major League active roster that aren’t able to be used. Nothing like being short-handed. No wonder they’ve struggled so much with the Pittsburgh Pirates. When will reinforcements arrive?

• Jose Arredondo – The reliever was placed on the 15-day disabled list at the end of Spring Training. He’s currently rehabbing in AA and allowed 1 earned run in 1 2/3 innings pitched Sunday.
• Homer Bailey – Bailey started for the Louisville Bats Sunday and was very sharp. It took him 62 pitches to go 5 shutout innings. He struck out 2 and walked one. He’s ahead of fellow injured starter Cueto in his rehab, so Bailey’s likely to return to the Reds’ rotation first, but it probably won’t be until late April.
• Jared Burton – Burton had his first throwing session since being shutdown with shoulder inflammation. The oft-injured reliever will be needing a rehab assignment once he’s healthy enough to throw.
• Johnny Cueto – Cueto started for the Bats Saturday night. He last 3 1/3 innings, allowing 2 hist, 2 runs (1 earned), 2 walks, and 4 strike-outs. But the most important bit from that outing is this quote from Cueto himself, “I feel good, no pain.” Cueto will start at least twice more for the Bats to get his pitch count up before being ready to be activated. Late April is the target time.
• Fred Lewis – Lewis is currently on rehab assignment with the AA team, too. He went 1-4 with a double on Sunday. He’s on track for a late April activation, too.

So there you go. The Reds are fairly banged up, with 3 guys on the 25-man not available the last few games, and 5 guys on the disabled list that could certainly help the team–Bailey and Cueto especially. Late April seems to be the vague projected magic date that these guys will start being activated. I’m confident the Reds will still be in contention by then; I just hope no other injuries will have happened.

I saw this article about Joey Votto linked to earlier this week from Redleg Nation, and it’s the stuff that myths and tall tales are made of.

For starters, there’s the story about him asking for a pair of new batting gloves from the coach of his youth team, the Canadian Thunderbirds, every other day. They were free, but the constant need for new ones was suspicious. But young Votto wasn’t doing anything sly like selling them for cash. No, it wasn’t that. But the coach didn’t believe his answer.

So the two struck a deal. Every time Votto felt he needed a new pair, he had to trade his old ones in to prove it.

Not long after, the kid showed up ready for the first exchange. The pair he’d been given just a day or two before had holes in the palms. And blood stains all over them.

“They were from broken blisters,” Oswald says.

Votto swung the bat. A lot.

Also, don’t miss the story about Votto’s mighty throwing arm and the ball a teammate missed catching, and the time Votto eschewed metal bats and proved how his burgeoning awesomeness to a persistent scout.

I know it’s hard to predict the success of baseball players, but Votto’s intense focus has always been present. And I think all his practice might pay off soon.

Thank you, Milwaukee Brewers for also losing so as to offset the 2011 debut of Badroyo and keep the Reds in a one-game lead for first place in the division. I hope we can do it again sometime.

Of course, we the way we “do it again” is by both teams continuing to lose, we’ll have to start worrying about the Chicago Cubs. And, by extension, the end of the world.

The Cincinnati Reds started out this year with a bang and took an early lead in the division. With some really shoddy bullpen work from time to time, though, the Milwaukee Brewers are now just one game back. It wouldn’t matter if the Reds lost first place: the season is long and you don’t get bonus points for going wire-to-wire.

But it did have me thinking about the last time the Reds were in first place right out of the gate, and how long it lasted.

The most recent time the Reds even won their first game of the season (a requirement for this feat, unless every team in the division starts the season out of division and loses concurrently) was 2007, and the very next game they were knocked down to third in the NLC when they lost to the mighty power of Ted Lilly and the Chicago Cubs.

The next most recent time the Reds started off in first was 2005, that badass year when Joe Randa raked and Cincinnati totally owned the Mets through the whole first series. But it was all for naught, when they were out of first on the very next game, just four into the season.

The time before that was 2002, and we’re getting back into the very early days of my fandom here. I probably didn’t even know that there was a pitching rotation at that point (it seems natural to life-long fans, but the notion of a rotation is not obvious to the rest of the world). Again, the Reds had given up first by the fourth game.

And that’s it: the sum total of the times the Reds have even so much as won the first game of the series in the last ten years, and first place in the division was never held on to for longer than a week. No wonder people are so excited this year; this is uncharted territory, baby, and even if they lose it tomorrow (which, I guess they could only really tie for it) the baseball gods can’t jinx that away.

Now you, too, can add to the fun of baseball by introducing pencil and paper!

Learn how to score a baseball game on April 14 at the Reds HOF

Baseball Perspectives Series: Ron Roth, Reds Official Scorekeeper

CINCINNATI (April 11, 2011) — Have you ever wanted to learn how to score a baseball game?

Ron Roth, the official scorekeeper for the Cincinnati Reds, will teach fans the basics and finer points of scoring a game at the Reds Hall of Fame & Museum on Thursday, April 14 from 5:30 to 7 p.m.

One of the most experienced and respected scorekeepers in the game, Ron will show more than 20 different plays from the 2010 season that MLB reviewed and give you the opportunity to make the call.

This event is free with Museum admission. Admission is $10 for adults, $8 for students/seniors and $6 for active military/veterans. The Reds Hall of Fame & Museum is open seven days a week now through October and is closed on Mondays November-March. To purchase admission tickets or for additional information, visit RedsMuseum.org or call (513) 765-7923.