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Friday, June 17, 2011

Five tidbits from a road trip

I've been traveling to and from Disney World this past week, which explains my inactivity just about everywhere. I've been able to keep tabs on Reds games (mostly), but that's about it. Even neglected my daily ottoneu team for a few days...

Anyway, this morning I got a USA today at our hotel. Have to say, while I look at online box scores all the time, and I love all the additions that FanGraphs (for example) has added to them, there's nothing like looking through all 15 games' boxscores at a time like you can in a newspaper.

A few things caught my eye today (though none from the boxscores!):

1. Mike Lopresti had a nice column on the end of Dolphins stadium. I hadn't realized that the new Florida stadium will be accompanied by a brand change to the Miami Marlins next year. That's going to screw up my spreadsheets. Also, does it mean the Marlins' abbreviation will be MIA? 'Cause that's funny.

2. I'm thrilled that the Reds' sweep of the Dodgers coincided with losses by the Brewers and Cardinals.

3. It's June 17 and the Pirates are 2 games over .500. I don't believe that they'll contend, but a .500 season seems far more likely for them than I anticipated in the spring.

4. The Chris Snyder story is awful: wife attacked in traffic dispute while he's helpless in car due to back surgery. Sounds like she's fine, but that would suck.

5. Former Red Zach Stewart made his debut last night for Toronto. I think it'd be hard to argue that the Rolen deal wasn't successful already given that the Reds made the playoffs last year with a substantial boost from Rolen. But this is what the Reds gave up in the deal if you assume Eddie Encarnacion was replacement level. Did the Reds give up a middle-of-the-rotation starter? Or just a fringey #5 starter? Stewart had seen his stock rise a lot in the year before the deal, and I've been thinking that the Reds sold high on him. It'll be interesting to see what happens. Too bad the Reds won't face him this weekend with Toronto in town.

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