Reds last 13 games = good!

Just caught some interesting stats about the Reds, now that the season is near over. Sure, a couple of teams would have to suffer spontaneously combustion for the team to even make it into a pennant race, but these numbers are pretty solid:

Since August 23:*
Record: 11-2 (best record in baseball)
Team average: .283
Runs per game: 5.2
Team ERA: 3.31

All right then! Well, I'm no coach, but I guess my advice would be whatever's happening now, um... just do that at the beginning of the season. And more often throughout the season. I had to suffer through that awful Jim Breuer/Pizza Hut commercial 100 times to get you this information, so I hope y'all appreciated it. Jackpot.

*According to my friends at MLBnet

Janish on the mound

Things were grim last night, we're not gonna lie. So bad that shortstop Paul Janish was brought in to pitch the 9th. And here are those fun stats:

1 IP, 5 hits, 5 er, 0 bbs, 2 ks.

Sure, it looks rough, but somehow it's still waaaaay better than Arroyo's performance last night:
1 IP, 7 hits, 9 er, 3 bbs, 0 ks

Add him to the rotation! Where's his bobblehead?

We here at omgreds are sensing a hot new trend in blowouts: having a random dude pitch the late innings. It's already happened a couple of times this year. Nick Swisher came into the 9th during a messy game against the Rays (he fared best - a scoreless frame and one strikeout) and Jonathan Van Every took the mound for the Red Sox also after being crushed by the Rays. He, like Janish, did not fare as well. Such trendsetters in Boston. Are the Reds just being copycats? We'll know for sure if Willie Taveres tries to steal home later this month.

Read more about Janish's pitching prowess here.

Mr. Redlegs has some competition...

The new Rosie Red mascot was revealed to the Reds faithful during last night's thrashing by Oswalt and the Houston Astros. Hot! I feel...confused. Is that wrong? Looks like the fans in the stands that night had a similar reaction (check the dude in the yellow shirt...)

Yeeouch.

The omgreds mascot took a spill before yesterday's homerfest. Check it out here. No worries, he's fine. Mr. Redlegs has a head of steel...um, even though it fell off.

omgGriffeyWatch: The Fantasy Report

OK, what's the deal, Griff? I don't know if you've noticed, but you've been homerless for, like, two weeks now. Your hitting's up a little bit (of course, anything is better than that freakin' .238 batting average) but I put you on my team for some power. The rest of my team mostly picks up hits and caught stealings. Oh, and speaking of that - why did you try to steal a base yesterday? That was crazy.

Remember that one week when you hit two home runs? I really liked that. My advice is to do something like that again.

Oh, and what's this crap about being traded? You're the only representative from the Reds I have on my team! I felt the need to represent Cincinnati with the only player I remember from when I last followed baseball (that said, I'm glad I didn't pick my other "veteran" options - Sheffield or Thomas). Maybe I shoulda picked up a fancy new Red like Keppinger or Volquez instead. Hey, I didn't want to say it, but these are dire times...

I know the Reds are already off to a rough start, but maybe now you can focus on the people who pretend to own you on their fake teams. OK, that's my pep talk. Thanks for hearing me out.

This has been omgGriffeyWatch: The Fantasy Report.

Remember, keep repeating to yourself...

It's just a game.