I'm pretty excited already. If the arms can stay healthy and the bats develop it could be a good year for the Reds. Homer Bailey's form over his last eight starts have him looking like the guy who's been the top pitching prospect over the past three to four years. I just hope we can keep hold of the core of youngsters long enough to get a crack at a title or two.

I'm not sure we'll be that high.


I'm really not sure what to expect this off season. Our GM has basically said he wants to stay away from FA's and focus more on trades. We've already had one trade fall through (NOverbay to the Dbacks for a catcher).

Open season on FAs today. I have absolutely no idea who the Jays are interested in but they have commented several times they would rather go for trades than the FA market. There's been some talk of Doc to the Dodgers, with Billingsley plus others coming the other way. Also saw a rumour of Scutaro to Cinci. Would be a good pick up for them if they can afford to hand over 2 draft picks.

Aye but not sure we'd deal away two picks for him but Janish hasn't produced with the bat. I don't know how good Scutaro is defensively but Janish is excellent in one of the best infields in baseball.

You can say the exact same thing about Scoots. The Jays had the best defence in the AL last season, second best in the Majors. Our infield was the best in the Majors before we traded Rolen.

27 and counting

Jays sign Johnny Mac to a 2 year deal worth $3M. Apparently they're still looking for a SS and Mac will be riding the pine as usual, along with mentoring some of the younger players and occassionally being allowed to got out and show us that stunning defence. We'll struggle to find anyone who will play as well as Scoots did last year so I expect Mac will get a fair bit of playing time. Plus who knows how EE will get on at 3rd base so this signing is certainly insurance in case the errors from Edwin come thick and fast again.

It might not be a spectacular signing but as a huge Johnny Mac fan, it's made my day.

Time to book my Spring Training trip I think.

It's anybody's guess in the Halliday sweepstakes right now. There are rumblings that the BoSox will make a quick play for Doc to snap him up before the winter meeting start. Other candidate are the Yankees (of course), the Angels and the Dodgers. I'd rather he went outside the division of course but it all depends what we get in return.

Heard a rumour of Halladay to LAA for Willie Aybar and then either Ervin Santana, Jarad Weaver or Joe Saunders, out of the 3, would rather have Weaver. If that trade is avaliable, i say take it....

Bite their hand off there. Another rebuilding year for the jays then? What players do you have coming through the farm systems?

Curtis Granderson is now a Yankee, we maybe gave a bit to much up in Austin Jackson, Phil Coke and Ian KENNEDY.....KENNEDY. But he fills a void at CF for many years.

That's the way baseball works. No cap means you can buy success which is why it's funny when the big spending teams don't win it. I feel most sorry for the Blue Jays who IIRC used to be the best supported club in basedball when I first fell in love with the game. Not having the corporate and media centre around them like in New York and Los Angeles really hurts the smaller clubs which is why you should all be supporting the Reds next year!

So it's almost a done deal. The Phillies get Halliday plus some Mariners prospects, The Mariners get Cliff Lee and the Jays get 3 top Phillies prospects. The more I think about this deal, the more I realise that everyone's a winner here. There are some Jays fans not happy whith what we got, but the more I read about the 3 guys coming our way, the more I like the sound of this deal. It really does mean that 2010 is a write off (as if we didn't know that already) but if that means a better team in the future then so be it. 2010 is going to be brutal though. We basically have 3 starters all coming back from TJ surgery and the Rookies of 2009. Our O has actually got a little bit worse (so far) with the loss of Scoots. Like I said, brutal.

Anyway, the Halliday deal should be done by tomorrow. He's going to eat the National League for breakfast. You can also expect to see a marked improvement in the other starters at Phillie. He had a huge impact on AJ Burnett and all of our young arms. He's professionalism and dedication personified.

I consider myself extremely lucky to have been able to watch Roy at work for the past 4 seasons. I hope he gets the success we couldn't give him. I can't think of a more deserving player.

OMG! Is that really how long you've been over there now? Talk about time flying. Crazy stuff.

I know! It was clearly the right move though as after 4 years I'm still loving it. I've usually moved on by now. I guess this place suits me (despite the -14 temperature on the way to work this morning).

So the Doc deal is done. We get 3 very good prospects out of it - might see Wallace towards the end of the 2010 season but I don't expect to see Drabek until 2011 and D'Arnuad maybe not til 2012. As long as we can hang onto Lind & Hill and at least 3 of the other young starters we could have a decent side by 2013 We'll even be finished with the worst contract in baseball by then too.

The Yankees shaping up nicely for 2010.

C- Posada, Cervelli
1B- Texiera, Johnson
2B- Cano, Pena
3B- A-Rod, Pena
SS- Jeter, Pena
LF-Cabrera, Gardner
CF-Granderson, Gardner
RF- Swisher, Johnson

May still bring in another outfielder or 2, and maybe look for an infielder. The most important thing is that were getting younger.