It’s been a quiet off-season for the Reds, so when I noticed the link to MLB’s new Facebook game, I actually gave it a try. MLB Ballpark Empire puts you into the highly realistic situation of playing baseball in an open lot with your brother, only to have a rich developer walk up and offer you the opportunity to operate a major league team.

You install seats, renew player contracts, and set ticket prices. The money you make from playing games is available to you to upgrade your stuff. The baseball games themselves are not the focus of the game; it’s more of a Roller Coaster Tycoon kind of situation.



I got as far as installing a hot dog stand before I ran into a bug. The initial tutorial basically tells you exactly what to do through a series of pop-up windows. In this case, the pop up window had just told me to put the hot dog stand in this exact little box. The problem was that no matter where I clicked in that box, the hot dog stand wouldn’t appear there. Perhaps it’s Facebook’s way of objecting to all those nitrates.



Besides the UI bug and the overload of pop-ups, my primary complaint about this game would be how often it tries to get me to share stuff to my timeline. If I actually posted that many “accomplishments,” I’d get unfriended faster than that girl from high school who just discovered how to share posts from all the religious zealots she’s friended.

None of that is a show-stopper, though, especially for the baseball-starved fan. You can try it for yourself by going to the MLB Ballpark Empire app on Facebook.

Well, I didn’t even know that Baseball American gave out an Organization of the Year Award. In fact, for a moment, I wondered if it was another first-time-ever-given awards, like that Wilson Defensive Player of the Year Award. But I looked it up, and it’s been given since 1982. It’s an award that’s older than most of the Reds’ team.

And, in all that time, the Reds have never won it, which probably explains why I’ve never heard of it.

But all that changed this year. Baseball America said that Cincinnati deserved it for their ability build a contender from home-grown players. They aren’t wrong. Joey Votto, Johnny Ceuto, Zack Cozart, Ryan Hanigan, Jay Bruce, Homer Bailey, Devin Mesoraco, Mike Leake, and Drew Stubbs–almost all of those are really solid names.

And they’re not done yet. Let’s not forget young Billy Hamilton. But after that? I’m afraid we’re running out of guys that Dan O’Brien picked out. Oh well, we should have a solid 5 more years of Organization of the Year caliber play before we have to worry about that.

I know I just wrote about Jay Bruce yesterday, but this time of year, there are only so many times you can post updates to the Redsfest line-up without going insane. Plus, tomorrow is Thanksgiving, which just makes you want to do a good deed, like pointing out the link to the Bruce wedding registry at Pottery Barn.

Just from looking at this list, my first thought is that the future Mrs. Bruce is maybe a touch more down-to-earth than the future Mrs. Frazier. The Frazier registry, as you may recall, included enough crystal to satisfy the glass-throwing requirements of an entire season of Dallas.

The Bruce registry, on the other hand, has managed to find every single item that Pottery Barn has that’s sold for under $100. It even includes an ironing board cover and pad. How charming: someone not only still irons but actually knows what an ironing board pad is.

Word on the street is that super-streaky right-fielder Jay Bruce is looking to settle his contract situation for the rest of his life. Despite already being guaranteed in Cincinnati through the 2016 season, he’s got his agent talking to the team about tacking on another 6 to keep him in the Queen City for the remainder of his career.

At the end of the 2016 season, Bruce will be 29, which puts him currently under the Reds’ control through what are probably his best years. Not to say that his age 30-35 seasons might not be something special: if he’s worked out how to even out the ups-and-downs by then, he could be slugging well into his 30s.

Like usual, General Manager Walt Jocketty isn’t saying much, but it’s hard to imagine that the Reds are very hot to tie themselves down. A contract that far in the future has so much risks associated with it; anything could happen by then. The team would have to get a ridiculously huge discount to make it worth the risk, and players seem to think the value of their contracts reflects their value as a human being.

On the other hand, it would be a great deal for the Reds if Bruce has figured out how to shorten his cold streaks by then or should hyperinflation strike. With the fiscal cliff right around the corner, maybe they’ll be giving it a second thought.

Todd Frazier, also known as The Toddfather, also known as The Guy Who Somehow Filled in for Votto for Two Months, was among the top 3 names in contention for the Rookie of the Year honors this year. And, in fact, that’s just where he ended up in the competition: third.

The award ultimately went to Bryce Harper (112 pts), the 18 year old who garnered the Nationals so much attention for his youth but whose actual performance was distinctly average. In his honor, they’ll be renaming the award the Youngest Guy to Manage to Be Just Above Mediocre of the Year.

LHP Wadey Miley (105 pts) of the Diamondbacks was the second-place finisher, and probably the guy who actually deserved to win it. Frazier (45 pts) was a distant third, but it should have been closer than that. Sure, he’s already 26 and he’s not a pitcher, but he came out of nowhere to do some awesome things this year.

Meanwhile, manager Dusty Baker was in the running for his own “of the Year” award. Your 2012 NL Manager of the Year Award went to Davey Johnson of the Nationals. I’d say something sarcastic about how managing the youngest guy who managed to be just about mediocre must be the criterion for winning the award, but that is probably too dismissive. Actually, the performance of the Nationals this year was really something.

Baker was a distant second, with 77 points to Johnson’s 131. I’m not prepared to say Baker should have won it (or even comment on the number of votes), but I will say that he actually wasn’t too bad during the result season this year. He could use some post-season managing lessons, though.