Sports Illustrated is going to be running a story this week about how the final four teams in the World Series chase this year do not include a coastal team in their ranks.

I hadn’t thought about that, but I suppose these are a couple very centrally located match-ups. I wonder if it’s affecting viewership. On the one hand, the population density really is quite a bit lighter out here than on the coasts. On the other hand, Wednesday is one of the few nights that football isn’t played, so that’s at least promising for this particular evening.

I must admit that I find it kind of lame to be watching the Cardinals and the Brewers, and not just because it should have been the Reds. I mean, how many times did we see this damn game during the season? There’s no particular excitement to watching this.

That last opinion, of course, could just be because it should have been the Reds.

I suppose we’ll only be seeing more post-season reruns when the second Wild Card team is added. It might be nice if the system were set up to favor the division winners a little bit more. The WC team generally already has momentum on their side; they don’t really need additional advantages.

Of course, considering the make-up of the field this year, I think MLB is more likely to change the rules to make sure a coast team makes it all the way down the line. At least it’s better than basketball.

The rumor flying around the Cincinnati Reds’ part of the internet pertained to one first baseman Joey Votto.

Rival executives getting signals that the Reds won’t shop Joey Votto — but that they are fully prepared to listen to offers.

That was a tweet from Buster Olney from a few days ago. Granted, it’s a grown man going by the name of “Buster,” but he has both hands and presumably no mommy issues. Plus he writes for ESPN the Magazine.

Today, Reds General Manager Walt Jocketty responded to the issue.

“I’m tired of talking about it,” he said. “We’re not shopping him. We’re not entertaining offers. It’s frustrating. He’s one of the best players in the game. Why would we trade him? I wish people would stop writing about it.”

It would take one hell of an offer to trade Joey Votto. Clubs draft and develop and draft and develop and draft and develop and still never find a player with the talent of Votto. Once you get one, it makes no sense to immediately trade it away. That preparing for the future thing? That has to be now for the Reds.

And I would suggest that if Jocketty wants people to stop talking about Votto, maybe he should finally get around to improving the team. Votto’s only under contract for two more years.

The St. Louis Cardinals, as many of you know, made it past the Philadelphia Phillies, despite being an inferior club. My feelings on this are largely frustration at the missed opportunity by the Cincinnati Reds and embarrassment by the General Manager who refused to do anything. The Reds should have done what the Cardinals did, and that sucks.

But this next playoff series is clear. The good guys are the Brewers, and the bad guys are the Cardinals. And the Brewers dislike the Cardinals as much as the Reds do.

Speaking to reporters at Miller Park on Saturday, [Zack] Greinke said some of his Brewers teammates don’t like Cardinals ace Chris Carpenter when he shouts at batters from the mound.

“They think his presence, his attitude out there sometimes is like a phony attitude,” Greinke said. “And then he yells at people. He just stares people down and stuff. And most pitchers just don’t do that. And when guys do, I guess some hitters get mad. Some hitters do it to pitchers. But when you do that some people will get mad.

“There’s other pitchers in the league that do it, but, I don’t know,” Greinke said, “a lot of guys on our team don’t like Carpenter.”

Amen. And for a primer on the dislike between the two clubs and the whining the Brewers have received from the Cardinals, I recommend this primer.

From complaints of scoreboards in the stadium to benches emptying altercations, there’s some similarity between the Brewers-Cardinals this year and the Reds-Cardinals last year. Given that there’s only one constant, it makes it easy to root for the Brewers to knock out the Cardinals.

In what I think is a good move, the Cincinnati Reds today announced that Aroldis Chapman will begin his transition to becoming a starter for next season.

The plan is for him to build up arm strength at the Reds’ facility in Goodyear, AZ before heading to Puerto Rico for winter ball.

“We’re finalizing plans right now,” Reds general manager Walt Jocketty said. “He’ll gradually build up his innings. He’ll pitch two or three innings to start. Eventually, we’ll get him up to five innings.”

Chapman will spend about a month in Winter Ball.

“That will give him time to rest before spring training,” Jocketty said.

Sounds good to me. Chapman has never been given a chance as a starter. He spent half of 2010 in the minors as a starter, and this year was sadly wasted. He might not be suited for it–he has a history of being wild–but it behooves the Reds to find out. As this year showed, their starting pitching depth isn’t nearly as deep as they thought.