According to Marc, Tony Womack is officially no longer a part of the Reds' organization. Eight days after designating him for assignment, the Reds have given him his unconditional release.

Ouch, man. But you know this is a good thing for the team. If O'Brien were still in charge, Womack would be starting every day at second.

Also according to Marc, Cody Ross is going on the DL and Chris Denorfia is taking his place. Apparently Marc thought that Griffey would be reactivated. Apparently he didn't read my fake news.

Hey, the Reds are the proud owners of the best record in baseball, and they did it with Ken Griffey, Jr. biding his time in the clubhouse, putting Ben Gay in people's jocks or whatever the hell he does when he's bored.

Frankly, I'd rather have the Heartthrob spelling Freel. I don't think Griffey's much of a speller.

The Associated Press via ESPN says the Reds have acquired outfielder Cody Ross from the Dodgers for a player to be named Monday. To make room on the roster, they've DFA'd Tony Womack.

So I guess the player to be named won't be Womack himself, then. As you'll recall, I never understood why O'Brien felt the need to sign Womack to begin with, but it's a shame it didn't work out better for him. He seemed like a good enough guy.

In less impressive news, the Reds have officially put Milton on the 15-day disabled list and called up EZ Ramirez from Louisville.

Marc says:

Early word this morning that Eric Milton will have arthroscopic surgery tomorrow to “debride the meniscus in his left knee,” according to the Reds. Doc Kremchek will do the deed, of course. The injury apparently was revealed in an MRI taken last night.

I'm no orthopedist, but based solely on the definition of “debridement” from dictionary.com, it sounds like what Milton is having done is similar to what LaRue had done. In LaRue's case, the cartiledge was torn and they trimmed off the tear so it wouldn't be flapping around and tearing more. In Milton's case, a piece of cartiledge has already torn off and is floating around.

If it is a similar procedure, then I expect the out time will be similar: two weeks more than the original estimate.

Marc goes on to guess that Darrell May will be called up to take his place. Darrell May is someone I have never heard of, so I checked the RLN Organizational Depth Chart and see that he's the first pitcher listed at Louisville who isn't on the 40-man. His ESPN player card isn't at all helpful explaining when he came to the Reds, as the last story about him implies he was sent to the Yankees. Thank you, ESPN.

What crappy timing. We need the Good Eric Milton all season if we are to have any hope for 2006. How amazing to think that I'd be upset that Milton couldn't pitch. Last year I was praying for something like this.

Silver-lining time: maybe May will turn out to be freakin' awesome. Or maybe the continued pitching woes will inspire our front office to make some pitching moves.

UPDATE: In fact, we'll be seeing Elizardo Ramirez starting tomorrow against the Nationals. He came up for a spot start last May against the Indians and it prompted me to post this, but I have higher hope this time around.

This is the stupidest thing I've read all season, though admittedly, I haven't had much time to keep up with Lonnie Wheeler lately.

Kevin Hench of FoxSports.com uses his on-line forum to describe how both the Reds and the Red Sox must be regretting the Peña-Arroyo trade by now, what with Ken Griffey, Jr. and David Wells now injured. Wouldn't it be nice if we could take it all back?

Um, no. Hello?

Number 1, Griffey isn't even going to be out that long. Number 2, his absence has had no bigger impact than to provide playing time for Ryan Freel. Number 3, without Arroyo, Williams would be our number four pitcher, and shudder to think who would be fifth. Number 4, Arroyo in center field would be better than Peña there.

OK, that may be going a little far. But you know what I'm saying.

It would have taken Hench the effort of talking to any one Reds fan to know that none of us would undo this trade, but I doubt that he could find one at FoxSports.com.

He makes up for his lack of research into the Reds' actual response to the trade by instead discussing how certainly Peña wouldn't mind a break from the pressure of Boston. He was a Red once; I guess that's the same as representing the viewpoint of the current team.

Whatever. They can take their stupid coastal bias and stick it up next to Hench's head. Arroyo goes this weekend, and I don't think I'll be longing for Peña.

Marc is reporting that Jason LaRue has finally decided to come off the DL. He's scheduled to catch Aaron Harang tomorrow.

For the momentito, the Reds will carry three catchers while rumors continue to swirl about an impending trade that's great in theory and nonexistant in practice. LaRue takes the roster spot left vacant by Ken Griffey Jr.'s trip to the disabled list.

Griffey plans to be back a week from Friday. Hopefully the team will have done something with Tony Womack by then, but I'm far from confident. After several apparent showcase starts at the end of spring training and the beginning of the season, Womack hasn't seen much playing time lately which tells me interest is low. The team could just release Womack if a deal isn't forthcoming, but more likely they'll just send Quinton McCracken back to Louisville.

Someday, perhaps long in the future, we'll see the Heartthrob again.