Brandon Phillips, who turns 31 today, was a late scratch from the Reds’ line-up tonight against the San Francisco Giants. He’s still not 100% after Aramis Ramirez kneed him in the head while getting caught stealing in the third inning of last night’s game.

Phillips was on the line-up early in the day and went to AT&T Park to take batting practice and fielding practice. He described himself as “OK,” but an infielder needs to be pretty darn sharp or risk getting a line-drive to the skull, so Baker put in Miguel Cairo instead.

According to John Fay’s blog, Phillips did admit that the possibility that he has a mild concussion has been discussed. But in true BP style, he’s not letting it get him down:

To tell the truth, that word came up yesterday. I’m trying to stay positive. I’ve never felt like this before…It’s my birthday and I’m happy.

By now most every knows about Aroldis Chapman’s victorious somersaults after his save last night (if you haven’t seen it yet, there’s video here). It’s been one of the more interesting things to happen this season, and there’s been a consummate amount of discussion about it.

A vocal minority have got their feathers all ruffled, concerned that he could have hurt himself (toddlers manage to do somersaults without hurting themselves), he’s showing up the other team (showing up the Brewers?), or he’s breaking the unwritten rules of baseball (there’s a reason they’re not written down).

But the majority of the commentary I’m seeing is saying things like:

• How is this different than fireworks, fist pumps, or jumping on the plate after a walk-off homer?
• In any other sport, this would be the mildest of celebrations. Maybe baseball should take a deep breath here.
• Why does a double forward roll after a save get Chapman a severe talking to, but a backflip gets Ozzie Smith a Pepsi commercial? (That one was just me, but I thought it was a good enough line to use again.)

Even the Brewers don’t seem to much care, though I wouldn’t be surprised to see a retribution HBP this afternoon. And that’s OK, too: all the guys in the line-up are grown-ass men. They can take a fastball to the haunch and live to tell the tale.

While I’m firmly in the stuff-like-this-makes-baseball-human-and-fun camp, I’ll admit that I was a little embarrassed on Chapman’s behalf when I saw that tumbling run. Not only did it bring to mind a pre-schooler yelling “look at what I can do!” but somersaults just aren’t sexy moves. It’s all butt in the air, ending up in the dirt. Someone needs to teach this guy a good round-off.

On the other hand, if the move was inspired by Carlos Gomez’s somersaults last year, that makes Chapman’s choice of acrobatics at least make a little more sense:

What does seriously concern me is the “talking to” that Chapman received after the game. Different sources have said that at least Bryan Price, Jay Bruce, and Joey Votto gave him an earful, and I don’t know what they said, but it left Chapman crushed and unable to even speak to reporters about it. It completely robbed him of the joy of his excellent performance.

This surprises me. Dusty Baker has many, many, many faults, but he is universally known as a player’s manager. To let Chapman be shamed like this is unnecessary, and it’s terrible management. This didn’t have to be traumatic to be a learning opportunity. If I were Chapman, I might never smile again if my team treated me like that. At least, not till I was traded, and I’d rather not see that happen to Chapman.

If it were me, I’d just tell Chapman, “hey, maybe try something a little more dignified next time” and see about getting this song on the play list for some time during today’s game.

This weekend was the big Reds’ Hall of Fame induction gala when the Reds welcomed three first basement of various eras to the hallowed halls of its HOF:

• Sean Casey played with the Reds 1998 – 2005
• Dan Driessen played with the Reds 1973 – 1984
• John Reilly played with the Reds 1880 – 1891

That last one must be the “museum” part of “Reds Hall of Fame and Museum.” I don’t know the era well enough to know whether his numbers were actually any good, but at 6’3″ in the 1880s it’s little wonder they called him “Long John.” He must have been quite a beast.

Plenty of folks had an up-close view of the gala, and it sounds like it was a zany-fun time. Check out some of these posts to help take your mind off last night’s game:

• Meggie Zahneis has a feature piece on MLB.com about the event.
• Dave at OMG Reds offers a bulleted list of observations from the gala, and a lovely picture of cake.
• The Cincinnati Reds blog on Cincinnati.com put up a list of live-tweets written while it happened.

My personal thought about the induction, though, is a little different than the others. What I notice is that if Casey were on the roster today, he wouldn’t even be the oldest one: Miguel Cairo has his beat by two months.

Five o’clock p.m. and the Reds have already lost today’s game. Tomorrow it’s back to well-reasoned and -researched posts, but tonight I’ve got nothing better to do while the soup simmers than indulge myself in a little bitching.

Complaint #1 – What the hell, Chapman?
Aroldis Chapman made his first appearance today since he handed over the walk-off homer to Asdrubal Cabrera of the Indians on Tuesday. And guess what? Chapman blew it again.

Chapman insists that he’s fine physically, though the years have show that pitchers don’t actually know when they’re fine. I suspect there’s a constant level of pain such that a guy can’t necessarily differentiate injury from normal.

Complaint #2 – What the hell, Baker?
Of course, it was Dusty Baker who stupidly put Chapman in for the ninth inning with a one-run lead. What a moron! Even if you don’t think there’s anything wrong with Chapman…that he’s just going through some bad luck right now…you don’t stick him in in that situation.

There’s something in Baker’s psyche that just loves to keep sending failing players out there. It’s possible that he’s got some river of cruelty deep in the oceans of his subconscious, but it’s probably more benevolent than that: a desire to keep giving guys a chance to bounce back. Either way, it ends up being to no one’s advantage.

Complaint #3 – You know why the Reds’ season-high losing streak is only 4?
Johnny Cueto, that’s why. I wish someone else could pull off a win occasionally.

Complaint #4 – Drew Stubbs is about to come back
Well, now that’s not actually much to complain about. In fact, assuming Willy Harris is the one who makes room for Stubbs, the Reds will actually have a decent bench for the first time all year. But with the way I’m feeling this afternoon, my head will explode when Baker puts Stubbs right back in the lead-off spot and he strikes out on 3 pitches. He’s been 0-for-6 in his rehab stint as of this morning.

Complaint #5 – I just hate umpires
I can’t find a single positive about umpires. If they’re perfect, they’re adequate. If they’re less than perfect (and they ALWAYS are) then they make the game about their own authority and infallibility instead of getting the call right. And now that there’s technology available to actually help them do a better job, they’re taking the coward’s path and pushing harder and harder to try to convince the world that no one should ever question their judgement. It disgusts me.

Complaint #6 – “It couldn’t have gone better”
Did the constant fan ridicule drive the orthopedic place to take down the commercial with the lady apparently wandering into strangers’ houses and injecting stories of her busted-hip surgery into their conversations? Because I think that might have been the bad luck charm.

That’s all my bitching for now. I’d like to say I feel better, but I think I’m more worked up now. Time to have a beer, watch some junk t.v., and get ready to have more rational, reasoned complaining tomorrow.

While some teams have been bitten hard by the injury bug, the Reds (knock on wood) have only had a light nibble so far this year. But there are a few guys to keep up with.

Drew Stubbs, the speedy center fielders who has conscientious objections to ever shortening his swing, has been out longer than anyone expected with that strained left oblique. He became eligible to come off the DL yesterday, but there’s no need to hurry, even considering the way the team played in Cleveland. Instead of rushing straight back to Cincy, he’s taking a rehab assignment in Dayton starting tonight for an unspecified amount of time.

Now that Scott Rolen is back from his injury, Todd Frazier has been displaced at third base. Frazier can play the outfield and his performance at the plate has made him worthy of finding a line-up spot for. However, the outfield is already taken care of and it’s only going to get more crowded when Stubbs comes back.

Bill Bray, the left-handed pitcher you’d like to forget was ever part of The Trade, is on rehab assignment with the Louisville Bats. On Wednesday he pitched a scoreless inning, so that seems like good news. Unlike the Stubbs situation, there is room for a fresh lefty arm, especially with the way Aroldis Chapman’s been getting beat up lately.

It seems funny to bring up now, but early on the two big arguments against Chapman starting were 1) his innings limit would end before the end of the season (implying that maybe they’d move him to a starter role later on in the year) and 2) the bullpen was short of leftys. With Bray due to come back any time now, I wonder if the Chapman-as-starter conversation will start back up.

Nick Masset, the right-handed reliever who’s been watching from the stands since the season began, continues strengthening and getting season-ready. Two weeks ago he was throwing 60-70 throws per day, but getting from that to bullpen isn’t a short trip. Maybe we see him after the all-star break (which is sneaking up on us, btw).

Which is really the end of it. Ryan Madson, the closer who signed a one-year deal then got himself injured Tommy-John’s-surgery-style during spring training, is on the list, but there isn’t much to say about a guy wiho will likely never take the field in a Reds uniform.