Kuzul

The Cincinnati Reds lost a few players to the World Baseball Classic, but some of the remaining have been on fire while others can't wait for spring to end.Cincinnati came into the spring as the favorites to win the NL Central, and the team doesn't have many available spots left on the 25-man roster. With that said, the few position battles going on have been put under the microscope. The backup catcher spot is starting to work itself out, but the battle for the utility role has only brought out the best in each candidate.The Reds had a couple of games get rained out, but they did get to go up against Canada last week.Less than three weeks remain until Opening Day, so let's check out who is hot and who is not. *All stats are courtesy of Reds.comBegin Slideshow

The Cincinnati Reds won the National League Central in 2012, but the team still has some weaknesses entering the 2013 season.Coming into this offseason, the leadoff and cleanup spots were the biggest issues with this team. General manager Walt Jocketty re-signed left fielder Ryan Ludwick to fill the No. 4 hole and traded for Shin-Soo Choo to insert at the top of the lineup.After dealing with two major issues, the Reds still have minor weaknesses they will need to overcome next season.Moving Aroldis Chapman to the rotation weakens the bullpen and will make it tougher for the team to shut teams down in late innings. Jose Arredondo and Sam LeCure will now face bigger roles, so it may be a struggle at first.However, the team faces bigger weaknesses than middle relief. Production from catchersBehind the plate, Cincinnati had a great defensive combination. Ryan Hanigan is as good as it gets on ...

The Cincinnati Reds are looking to win the National League Central and make a deep playoff run in 2013, so it's time to evaluate the team's offseason moves.For the second straight offseason, the team stayed put at the winter meetings. Just like last year, the Reds made some major moves after the meetings wrapped up.Aroldis Chapman will try to move from closer to the rotation, but that move won't be evaluated because of his impact as closer. However, it could end up being the biggest decision of the offseason.Cincinnati had three glaring needs entering the offseason: leadoff man, center fielder/left fielder and adding to the bench. A reliever was also part of the list, but the team had bigger needs to fill.It's unclear if third baseman Scott Rolen will return or retire, but it would be a good addition if he accepted a bench role. He's a clubhouse leader and ...

During MLB's winter meetings last week (Dec. 3-6), rumors of a three- or four-team trade buzzed throughout the Opryland complex. But no deal was consummated. Since baseball's annual December pow-wow ended, however, we've seen plenty of action on the free-agent and trade markets. That continued with a three-way deal between the Cleveland Indians, Cincinnati Reds and Arizona Diamondbacks featuring outfielder Shin-Soo Choo, pitcher Trevor Bauer and shortstop Didi Gregorius. With the multi-team trade, the Reds now have a leadoff hitter (and possibly a center fielder), the Indians have a potential ace starting pitcher and the D-Backs got the shortstop that has taken nearly five months to find.But which team came out as a winner from this deal and who looks like a loser?The argument could be made that all three teams did well in this trade, but upon a closer look, that may not quite be the case. Also, which team not involved ...

According to Yahoo! Sports, the Cleveland Indians and Arizona Diamondbacks finally finished a three-team deal, but it wasn’t with the Rangers and didn’t involve Justin Upton or Asdrubal Cabrera.  Instead, the two teamed up with the Cincinnati Reds in a deal centered around around Shin-Soo Choo. In all, there are nine players moving. Each team’s haul follows with the sending team in parentheses:  Reds: Shin-Soo Choo (Indians), Jason Donald (Indians) Indians: Trevor Bauer (Diamondbacks), Drew Stubbs (Reds), Bryan Shaw (Diamondbacks), Matt Albers (Diamondbacks) Diamondbacks: Didi Gregorius (Reds), Tony Sipp (Indians), Lars Anderson (Indians) There are two really interesting parts to this. The first is Choo with the Reds. Cincinnati is now without a true center fielder, but the offensive help is probably more than enough to make up for it. Reds leadoff hitters had an abysmal .208/.254/.327 triple slash last year.Choo, entering his age-30 season, had a slash line of ...

The Cincinnati Reds' offense would have been fine next season without any new additions, but it got even better Tuesday night.CBS' Jon Heyman announced the three-way trade that had baseball fans turning their heads: indians receive bauer, albers, shaw and stubbs. reds get choo and donald. dbacks get gregorius, sipp and lars anderson.— Jon Heyman (@JonHeymanCBS) December 12, 2012 Out of all those names, Choo's stands out the most. He's one of the league's most underrated players, but his talents were mostly wasted on an unsuccessful Cleveland squad.Last season, Choo hit .283 with 16 home runs and 67 RBI. He also stole 21 bases.When you look at who he is replacing in Drew Stubbs, it's obvious how much he will upgrade the Reds' offense. Stubbs' .277 on-base percentage is almost 100-points lower than Choo's, which should make everyone hopeful that the Reds will have more runners on base when their power ...

According to Jon Heyman of CBS Sports, the Reds have officially acquired Shin-Soo Choo. The deal looks to have involved the Reds, Diamondbacks and Indians: choo goes to #reds. done deal.— Jon Heyman (@JonHeymanCBS) December 11, 2012 It seems as though the Diamondbacks really liked Reds prospect Didi Gregorius, as opposed to the Indians' Asdrubal Cabrera: #dbacks like didi gregorius, who'd be under their control for 6 yrs (as opposed to 2 for asdrubal). #3way— Jon Heyman (@JonHeymanCBS) December 11, 2012 The trade seems to make complete sense for the Reds, who have been in search of a leadoff hitter since the last pitch of their season was thrown. Leadoff was an obvious issue for the Reds during their 2012 NL Central title run.Despite a team .254 on-base percentage, the Reds were able to produce enough runs to win 97 games. They can thank their team ERA of 3.34 for that. Choo brings a career .289 ...

If the rumors hold any truth to them, the Cincinnati Reds seem to be on the verge of acquiring Shin-Soo Choo from the Cleveland Indians. Such an acquisition would finally fill the major void that has been the leadoff spot in Cincinnati's lineup.Danny Knobler of CBS Sports sent out this tweet earlier today referencing an article that he wrote regarding the trade details:Reds deep in talks on deal to acquire Shin-soo Choo from Indians for Stubbs and Gregorius. cbsprt.co/UfMpzf— DKnobler (@DKnobler) December 11, 2012 The proposition includes Cincinnati sending outfielder Drew Stubbs and shortstop prospect Didi Gregorius to Cleveland in exchange for Choo and a to-be-determined player. Gregorius seems to be a key player in the trade as Knobler references possible trade talks between Cleveland and Arizona that would include the Indians sending a shortstop to the Diamondbacks in exchange for pitching.The Twitter universe has been blowing up around the Reds ...

We all know that 2012 is now a lost season, but it isn't over yet. The Cleveland Indians are two games up on the Minnesota Twins for the worst record in the American League going into Tuesday night's game against the Detroit Tigers. Having now compiled a 20-45 record since losing first place on June 24, the Indians' struggles are enough to make even the biggest, most devoted fans question their relationship with the club. After all, even the oldest Indians fans who were there or remember the 1948 championship are few and far between in the 64 years that they have patiently or angrily waited. So, with the NFL season officially starting Wednesday night and the Cleveland Browns playing their first game on Sunday against the Philadelphia Eagles in Cleveland, what is there that can still make Cleveland Indians fans hang around at Progressive Field, watch eagerly on Sports Time Ohio or ...

The second half of the season has not been kind to the Cleveland Indians. Since the All-Star break, Cleveland is 11-32 with losing streaks of 11 and nine games. They can't hit (27th in MLB in the second half, .231 team average), they can't pitch (28th in MLB, 5.30 team ERA) and if it weren't for the Astros (who are 7-35 since the break), they could be labeled the worst team in baseball since July 13. There does not seem to be much that the Cleveland Indians can do at this point to salvage the 2012 season. Mathematically, there are reasons to think that they can, but realistically, it is not in the cards. Sitting 16.5 games out of the AL Central heading into Tuesday's game against the Oakland Athletics, how can the Cleveland Indians salvage this season?Begin Slideshow