January means Hall of Fame voting. Barry Larkin has been on the ballot for a couple of years now and it looks like his time might have finally come. Larkin spent 19 years and all of them were with the Reds. His last good year was 2000 but for the 1990s, he was the best shortstop in the National League. In 1995 he won an MVP and he finished with a career OPS of .815. In all, his WAR was 68.9.

While it was 1995 that he won the MVP, 1996 was his best year. He belted 33 home runs and scored a career high 117 runs and he finished with an OPS of .977, his first of three straight years where he’d top the .900 mark. Great hitter, and he was a good fielder. Of course living here in Detroit, I think Trammell deserves to get in too but that’s for someone else to argue.

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The Reds picked up on of the best relief pitchers last year from the Cubs in Sean Marshall but they once again paid a pretty penny to bring him over. The Reds dealt Travis Wood, Dave Sappelt and Ronald Torreyes to the Cubs for the left hander.

Marshall is a stud left hander. Last year he struck out 79 and walked just 17 in 75 2/3 innings. He also gave up just one home run. Over the past two years he has an ERA of 2.45. The Reds are without a closer for now and if they don’t sign someone, then you’re probably looking at him.

Wood was the odd man out when the Reds traded for Mat Latos. Torreyes has some potential and had a nice season for Dayton but it’s always too early to tell with a guy who’s just 19.

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The Reds pulled the trigger on a major trade today when they landed Mat Latos from the San Diego Padres. Latos is still young (he just turned 24) and he’s struck out almost a batter an inning over his two years plus career. This kid also doesn’t walk manner batters and while I’d normally be worried about pulling a pitcher from San Diego because it’s such a pitcher’s park, Latos has the arm to pitch anywhere. His ERA on the road is higher but it’s still just 3.57. He’s death to right handed hitters with just a .208 batting average against in his career.

Of course he came with a steep price tag. Edinson Volquez was the headliner but the Reds also parted ways with Yonder Alonso, Brad Boxberger and Yasmani Grandal. Those were all in the Reds top ten prospects although Alonso and Grandal were both effectively blocked.

Of course time will tell. Most everyone is saying we gave up too much but we landed a legit starting pitcher. Who knows what those prospects will do. It does thin us out a bit though so we have to make sure everyone is healthy throughout the year.

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Francisco Cordero and Ramon Hernandez were Type A free agents. Under the new CBA rules, they’re now Type B. The new rules are both good and bad for the Reds. The bad news is, if we had arbitration, we now would get a lesser pick. The good news is, because we probably weren’t going to offer arbitration to either Hernandez or Cordero, we will now at least get some form of compensation.

The Reds have a few other Type B guys. Matt Capps, Octavio Dotel and Darren Oliver are also Type B’s. So the Reds should get plenty of those sandwich compensation picks in the 2012 draft. Hopefully they can put them to good use.

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It was another nice year for second baseman Brandon Phillips and with that, now the team has to decide what do with him. The Reds have Phillips for 2012 for $12 million but after that all bets are off. Apparently Phillips was talking to the brass at the General Manager’s Meeting but Walt Jocketty said they’re still pretty far from a deal.

Phillips is looking for Dan Uggla money and he’s been firm on not taking a hometown discount. Phillips career was an odd one. He was a blue chip prospect for the Indians where he faltered and was given up for dead. The Reds got him for nothing and he immediately caught fire. Now he’s one of the top second basemen in the game. He won the Silver Slugger this year and while his home runs were down, he was still a very productive player.

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It was a crazy year for Aroldis Chapman. He spent a big chunk of the season with the Bats and while he was still touching 100 mph, at times he was very hittable. Also, the Reds have to decide what they want to do with him. They’ve had him in the pen the last couple of years but I think they’re finally getting with the program and realizing they’ll get more value out of him as a starter. I also think he needs to get his bearings back so that’s why I was glad to hear he’s not going to be playing winter ball this year.

The shoulder problems in the AFL were particular troubling so the next time we hear anything from Chapman, it’ll be in the Cactus League. The plan is for him to go to Florida to work out this winter with some of the team’s trainers. He’ll be close to home and the Reds will be able to monitor his progress. Me likee.

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Te team hasn’t announced anything but Matt Maloney is saying that he’s been traded to the Minnesota Twins. Maloney was solid for the Bats this year but not as good for the Reds in a short stint. Since the trade hasn’t been officially announced, we still don’t have word as to who the Reds got in return.

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2011 is in the books and the Reds made some noise in the first half only to drop out in the second. The Reds had their stars and they also had their duds. Of course leading the way was Joey Votto. On the heels of his MVP season, Votto actually put together an under appreciated 2011. He didn’t drive in as many runs or hit as many home runs but because of his improved defense, he actually had a better WAR in 2011 then he did in 2010. He also drew 100 walks for the first time in his career.

Jay Bruce was his number two and while he hit more home runs then he did in 2010, his OPS was down because he hit closer to .250. He drew thirteen more walks though and while he struck out more, I like the trend. Bruce won’t turn 25 until after opening day and then Votto just turned 28 last month. They should have these guys in the lineup for some time.

For those you who don’t know, I live in the Detroit area. We had our Edgar Renteria episode and while he got it done for the Giants in 2010, he turned around and stunk it up for us just like he did for Detroit. Oh well, overall, the Reds finished second in runs scored in the NL and they were second with 183 home runs. Not too shabby. Now we just need to come up with a new winning combination to get it all done in 2012.

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The Reds are out of it but that doesn’t mean the last couple of weeks can’t be exciting. Bronson Arroyo had his best start of the season with his first complete game of the season and it was a six hit shutout. He needed just 91 pitches to get through all nine innings and he struck out two while not allowing a walk. 64 of his 91 pitches were for strikes.

Brandon Phillips went three for four with a run. Miguel Cairo belted a solo home run in the 2-0 win.

That gave the Reds their 76th win of the season. They still have an outside chance of a winning record but they’d have to win out. Even .500 is going to be tough.

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Bleh, the Reds were in the mix for a while but with their pitching struggles (that was supposed to be a strength, the Reds sit a near insurmountable ten games back of the first place Brewers. In fact if the Cardinals don’t get their stuff together, they could be out of it too because they’re five back. Even this latest four game winning streak hasn’t helped the Reds out too much.

The Reds are 12 out of 16 in ERA. That by itself isn’t horrible, but it’s not the pitching staff of a contender. Johnny Cueto has been good, Mike Leake has been solid and everyone else needs some big time improvement. Homer Bailey is our third best starter. Not that it’s bad, but it kind of puts things into perspective because he’s been the sixth man of sorts. The pen has been good, but not lights out.

You have the one-two punch of Joey Votto and Jay Bruce, but Brandon Phillips power seems to have escaped him and that makes for a lackluster lineup. They do have the third best OPS, but that’s due in part to the two studs at top. In fact things are kind of backwards. The Reds have scored more runs then any other team in the National League but one, yet their pitching let them down.

So while 10 games isn’t an impossible deficit to make up, it’s highly improbable. Time to start thinking about next year if it’s the end of the month and we’re still ten games back.

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