There are only a few more Mondays worth of Cincinnati Reds links. That's a sad-maker.
C. Trent Rosecrans of the Cincinnati Enquirer posted the latest edition of his BAR this morning, with this one's focus on the sad numerical state of the 2014 Cincinnati Reds. Their magic (tragic?) number for being eliminated officially from the NL Central race sits at just 1, and he also notes that only a miraculous 11-1 finish to the season could see the Reds finish above .500. Nothing like a little math to make you grimace at what this season has become just one more time, eh?
Since you enquired (it's Monday, lay off), Rosecrans' colleague John Fay noted that Bryan Priceactually intends to play a few of the September call-ups in the upcoming series against the Chicago Cubs. None of them have played with any regularity in the two weeks in which they've been in the big league dugout, and I'm convinced you need not look beyond that 11-1 needed finish to understand why. Finishing .500 doesn't really mean much to you or me, but I suppose it means more to the manager involved in getting there, I guess. I just wish Price would actually acknowledge that.
CBS Sports' Jon Heyman thinks that New York Mets pitcher Jacob deGrom deserves to be the NL's Rookie of the Year, so he said so with a few awful puns. There's no denying that deGrom has had a good rookie season and that he's very much in contention, and it's quite possible that the last two weeks of the season will have a large bearing on the eventual finish. Neither the Mets nor the Reds have had much to play for for weeks aside from awards and future contracts, and while deGrom has ripped off a lengthy scoreless innings streak, Hamilton has scuffled at just .216/.261/.279 in 225 PA since the All Star break. [Insert bad joke about the speedy Hamilton being caught down the stretch in a race here.] Also discovered while perusing Billy's splits: he's hit quite well on the road this year (.293/.310/.398) and rather terribly at home (.219/.281/.332), though that's possibly in large part due to the BABIP difference (.367 on the road, .252 at home). Rather than look for that mythical LF masher this offseason, I'd prefer if Walt Jocketty targeted a leadoff LF that would allow Billy to hit 2nd or 7th.
Mark Sheldon caught up with Joey Votto for Reds.com, and it seems that Votto still has intentions on playing again before the end of the 2014 season. This perplexes me more than trying to decipher what text message emojis mean. We love you, Joey Votto, but I'm not sure there's anyone who really thinks that you playing again in 2014 is the best idea.
If you're on Twitter doing your tweet thing, you should absolutely follow MLBCathedrals for comprehensive awesomeness regarding the history of baseball and its stadiums. You should also read their collaboration with The Sporting News about the 10 most influential ballparks in baseball history.