With all the problems that Reds fans have to content with, it’s nice that television availability of the games is rarely one of them. FOX has been picking up a bunch of Reds games for national broadcast this year, which in and of itself isn’t necessarily good or bad, but it has led to even more coverage, thanks to the local station selecting replacement day games. Such as this one in September:

FOX has selected the Reds August 20th game for national broadcast, which means FOX Sports Ohio can no longer air the game.

As replacement, FOX Sports Ohio will televise:
  REDS VS ASTROS
  WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 21
  12:30pm

HD coverage begins at noon with Reds Live Pregame Show. We will also replay the game that night at midnight and the following day (Thursday, 9/22) at noon.

It’s funny how you start to run out of titles for these posts.

Today the Crack Technical Staff and I both had the day off work AND had arranged for childcare for the day, so we were already at a local brew pub when the game started. The pub is, unfortunately, owned by a Cubs fan, so all its waiters and bartenders wear Cubs shirts all the time. It would have been all manner of fun to hold a Cubs’ loss over their heads, but alas, they were playing the Reds today, so that wasn’t happening.

I mean, who are the Reds to stand up to the might of Ryan Dempster? Bah.

Swept by the damn Astros (I know they’re a second-half team but c’mon) and now have started the series with the Cubs with a loss. I think I’ve made it clear that I’ve already given up on this season, but I’d still like to enjoy baseball through the month. Maybe it’s time to let BP set the line-ups and see what happens.

Tonight, Dontrelle Willis again put in a better-than-out-to-be-required pitching performance only to have it given away by the bullpen. In his five starts with the team this season, Willis’ leads have been given up by three different bullpen members: Francisco Cordero, Bill Bray, and tonight, Nick Masset.

This time, Willis even contributed a solo shot himself, so intent was he on leaving the game with the lead. But alas, Dusty Baker–the only guy who could make the decision and the only guy who would think it was the right one to make–put the ballgame into the hands of Masset who faced five, retired zero, and eliminated Willis’ chance for the win.

On that topic, something must be wrong with Masset, right? More than just inflammation of the suckage gland. He was reliable in recent memory.

Unfortunately for the team and the fans, the team has now lost two in a row again. One night it’s the starting pitching, the next night it’s the offense, the next it’s the defense, the next it’s the pen, so it’s hard to know where to focus. Of course, it’s too late to do anything anyway. Maybe it’s time to throw in the towel and start planning for next year. Removing the pressure might even result in some more fun baseball to watch. I doubt Willis would be willing to do that, though. He’ll just take to take his 3.41 era and stretch it across a complete game if he wants to score that W.

The Cincinnati Reds announced today that their 3rd baseman Scott Rolen had arthroscopic shoulder surgery and will be out an additional 4-6 weeks. Rolen has been on the disabled list since July 22.

Cincinnati Enquirer beat reporter John Fay writes about the procedure.

The procedure was just to clean it up. Four to six weeks, which is projected to be out, still takes you to early to mid-September. I would not be shocked if he’s done for the year — depending where the Reds are in the standings when he’s ready.

If Rolen doesn’t return this season, he should be all the more healthy for 2012. And now Todd Frazier has a great opportunity to show what he can do, so long as Dusty Baker resists that urge to play veteran Miguel Cairo.

With the team finally avoiding losses in consecutive games, I find myself looking around to see what’s next to keep the winning going. And, though we’re on the wrong side of the non-waiver trade deadline, there’s still going to be some new additions to the roster in the near future as guys some off the DL.

First of all, Scott Rolen is eligible to come off the DL on Friday. Unfortunately, though, he probably won’t because that shoulder is not better yet. It sounds like the guy could undergo another surgery to clean up the shoulder. It sucks being 36.

Meanwhile, Zack Cozart is eligible to come off the DL on Monday after that grotesque hyper-extending of his elbow that still makes me shudder to think about. Reports are, though, that the inflammation isn’t down all the way, so he probably will take a few days longer than that to be back in proper bat-swinging form.

And finally, since the Rule of Three demands that I mention another player, Jared Burton pitched two scoreless rehab innings tonight. You can never have too much pitching.