The Red Letters

Everyone has their team. Their ONE team--you know the one. I love baseball. I've loved it since my father sat me down in front of Game 1 of the 1985 World Series at the ripe old age of 7. For me (although the Reds weren't in the '85 Series), my team has always been the Reds. I love several baseball teams (my friends regularly poke fun at how much baseball apparel I own), but no team has my allegiance like the Cincinnati Reds. Good, bad, worse...I'm here for it all. Frodo had One Ring. Romeo had One Juliet. I may enjoy many sports and many teams, but my One team is in the Queen City. I applied for this position last year and lost out to Michael Carey, who had been doing the updates. This year, I ended up in Montreal and then Anaheim.

However, as of today, the position became vacant again and I was all too ready to jump over and cover the National League as well. Now I'm here. Finally. It feels good, actually. So. . . welcome, and from here, I'll do my part to keep you in the know as far as the Reds fantasy situation is concerned. If, for some reason, you find you can't get enough of my dashing wit, or you want to keep an eye on the action in the Junior Circuit, you'll notice that my name is still posted across the big correspondent board in the American League as well. The Anaheim Angels is my team over there. Don't worry though. It won't cause any conflict of interest--that is, until we see a Reds/Angels World Series. Then I'll just run for cover, I suppose.

Less About Me. . .More About Them

Let's get it started. Everyone either saw, heard, or listened to their UPS guy tell someone (?) about Griff's 500th HR this past Sunday. Great moment. Great player. I wrote a little more about it at your new Cincinnati Reds column archive site (theredletters.blogspot.com). Go check out how Griffey compared timewise between 499 and 500 to the other members the 500 Club. The historical data was quite interesting.

Paul Wilson: Trading Block Material

The Reds are at Shea for three straight starting tonight. Paul Wilson tries for the fourth time to go to 8-0. Let's hope he gets it. Then--you can trade him. Yes, I know he has a 3.17 ERA and I'm happy for Paul as I'm sure many of you are, but we're about winning our fantasy league here, and Paul's peripherals aren't cutting it. 96% owned in mixed leagues is too much for a guy who only has a K/9 of 5.2--especially when there are guys like Kelvim Escobar, Brad Radke, and Nate Robertson who are all owned at a lower percentage and available in my 8-team league. If Paul wins tonight, now would be a great time to explore moving him because he hasn't struck out more than 5.2 batters an inning since 2001.

Got Freel?

It's really hard not to be a fan of Ryan Freel. Unfortunately, because of lack of PT (and production too), Freel was never of any fantasy value. I really believe that's changing rather quickly. He reminds me a lot of Chone Figgins (or vice versa). This year, Freel is seeing plenty of the field, having seen action in all of the Reds games this year but 8. He's hitting leadoff on an offensive-producing team (as of today, 5th in the NL, ahead of both CHC and HOU), and he's drawn 15 walks in his last 12 games. Only hitting .250, his OBP is a remarkable .364. Also, I'd expect a spike that batting average. Having only whiffed 37 times this year, he's now drawn 31 walks. He's got 11 SB already and is only owned 2.8 percent of mixed leagues. Did I mention he's eligible at 2B, 3B, and OF? So. . .got Freel?

When is an All-Star Not an All-Star?

When he's Sean Casey. That's, of course, technically not true, because I'm sure he'll make the team as an sub, but only playing in the same league as ESPN overall #1 fantasy pick Albert Pujols is keeping Casey from being the best first half first baseman in the NL. So can someone tell me why he's over four hundred thousand votes behind Jeff Bagwell for second in the 1B race? My only explanations: 1) The fans who've voted thus far are still voting like it's 1999; 2) There are more people in Houston than in Cincinnati; 3) All-Star voting is a sham. I think it's probably a combination of all of the above. I mean, Adam Everett at SS? Anyone with a broken abacus can see that as unlikely as it was, Jack Wilson is the best NL SS right now. I know it's crazy, but it's the truth.

Odds and Ends

It's a little harder to hit the ground runnin' covering a team I've watched on television and live basically all year than I would have guessed, but I'll be in midseason form in no time. Til then, e-mail me at theredletters@insightbb.com and let me know what info you need. I'll do my best to provide what I can as soon as I can. Remember, be sure to bookmark RLS (theredletters.blogspot.com). Additionally, I'm launching Reds Report (redsreport.blogspot.com) to give you a "once-a-day" brief fantasy report on all things Reds. The first report will be from tonight's game. For now, though, I'm Matt Allen and as Marty Brennaman might say, "This one belongs to the Red. . .Letters."